In the September 1984 issue of Searchlight, Gerry Gable published an unsigned hagiographic obituary for the man who inspired him to a lifetime of hatemongering, former 43 Group thug Harry Bidney.
“Harry was a man who had no time for party politics, who had friends amongst all races”, Gable eulogised. It would be more accurate to say that Harry had friends amongst the men of all races. Well, males anyway, because as well as a lifelong “anti-fascist” Harry Bidney was homosexual with a preference for young men. And the younger the better.
Information on Harry Bidney is scarce, although some can be found in Public Record Office files relating to the 1960s synagogue arsons, which Gable claimed in the above obituary that Bidney had solved, although later he took the credit for bringing these perpetrators to book himself, (and for solving a murder that never happened!)
According to documentation in DPP 2/4078, Harry Bidney was born September 20, 1922. DPP 2/4079 gives details of Bidney’s criminal record, which in all honesty was fairly trivial. By the mid-sixties the most serious crime for which he had been convicted was receiving stolen alcohol. His other offences were victimless crimes, such as being found in a common gaming house (his first conviction).
There was though a darker side to Jewish “anti-fascist” Harry Bidney. When the current writer interviewed the keepers of the Mosley Archive in the 1990s he was informed that Bidney’s homosexuality was well known, but that in those days (1) people were very discreet, even where their political enemies were concerned, and it was hardly if ever alluded to.
In the late seventies though, Bidney fell foul of the law again. According to reports in the London Evening Standard and the Daily Telegraph, Bidney’s employer was fined £4,500 and gaoled for eighteen months. He had attempted to procure a sixteen year old youth for him, (2) while Bidney himself, who was described as a company secretary, was fined £1,600 after being found guilty of eight charges concerning female prostitutes between January 1973 and October 1976. He was said to have lived off their earnings. (3)
Again, this like most of Bidney’s previous convictions was a victimless crime, although it is interesting to compare what Gable said about Bidney’s 1977 court appearance in the correspondence columns of Private Eye with what the Central Criminal Court said about him. As ever, Gable can’t get it right; even when there is no need to lie, he just can’t resist the temptation.
For an informed view of Harry Bidney by someone who knew him (a Gentile) see under his Brief Biography
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