Jorian Jenks

Infobox Person
name = Jorian Edward Forwood Jenks


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birth_date = 1889
birth_place = Oxford, United Kingdom
death_date = Date of death|1963|8|20
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nationality = British
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citizenship = British
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known_for = Environmentalism pioneer and fascist
education = Harper Adams Agricultural College
alma_mater = Balliol College, Oxford
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home_town = Oxford, United Kingdom
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party = British Union of Fascists
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Jorian Edward Forwood Jenks (born 1899 in Oxford - died 20 August, 1963) was an English farmer, environmentalism pioneer and fascist.

Early life

A farmer, Jenks was educated at the Harper Adams Agricultural College and Balliol College, Oxford [S. Dorril, "Blackshirt – Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism", London: Penguin, 2007, p. 417] , whilst he also served in the First World War. [http://www.oswaldmosley.com/jorian-jenks.htm Profile on Freinds of Oswald Mosley site] ] After lecturing for a spell Jenks took over his own farm in Angmering, West Sussex.J. Phillips, [http://www.angmeringvillage.co.uk/history/Articles/Jenks.htm Jorian Jenks - Angmering's Blackshirt farmer] ] However he was forced to give up his farm due to the slump in agricultural prices and his own chronic asthma.G. Macklin, "Very Deeply Dyed in Black", New York: IB Tauris, 2007, p. 64] He briefly emigrated to New Zealand during the slump. [Dorril, op cit, p. 417]

Pre-war fascism

A member of the British Union of Fascists, he was the agricultural advisor to the party. He organised garden parties to raise funds for the BUF, a fairly common technique amongst the party's more affluent and rural supporters. [Dorril, op cit, p. 278] A self-styled 'critic of modern economy', he wrote for the BUF journal "Action" under the pseudonym 'Vergillius'. He also wrote articles on animal husbandry for the non-BUF journal "New Pioneer", an anti-Semitic work founded in late 1938 by John Beckett and Lord Lymington. [Dorril, op cit, p. 445] Jenks was picked as candidate for the forthcoming general election for Horsham and Worthing in 1937. Although an important member of the BUF Jenks was something of a maverick who disagreed with leader Oswald Mosley on a number of issues. Unlike Mosley, who felt that British society was in rapid decline, Jenks felt that the country was in a slow Spenglerian decay. He also disagreed with the BUF leader in his hatred of modern science, Mosley believing that science could be used to heal the country's ills. Despite these disagreements he remained a BUF member and in common with most of the leading figures in the group was detained under Defence Regulation 18B in 1940.

Post-war activism

After the war he sought to build a 'spiritual ecologism' that would bond man and soil. To this end he joined Lady Eve Balfour's Soil Association, a pro-organic farming group, in 1945.Macklin, op cit, p. 65] He also joined Rolf Gardiner's Kinship in Husbandry and H. J. Massingham's Council for the Church and Countryside, two other traditionalist rural groups It was with the Soil Association that he reached the widest audience as he edited the group's "Mother Earth" journal. Whilst the Association had a wide membership Jenks saw it as a vehicle keeping Mosleyism alive in a time before the formation of the Union Movement.Although Jenks remained associated with the Soil Association until his death the group as a whole had moved to the left under Barry Commoner and Jenks' ideas had been significantly marginalised. He did not ultimately join the Union Movement, although he did assist in preparing its policy statement. He also helped to produce their "None Need Starve" document, which offered a new agricultural plan.

His other main group involvement was in the Rural Reconstruction Association, a group initially founded in 1929 by Quaker Montague Fordham.Macklin, op cit, p. 66] Jenks served as press secretary for the RRA and edited their journal "Rural Economy" whilst building up a coterie of former fascists or fascist sympathisers within the group in the shape of ex-BUF members Derek Stuckey and Robert Sanders as well as some former members of the English Mistery. Jenks used his position as editor of the RRA journal to advocate agricultural autarky.

Jenks' post-war writings were influential on former Nazi Agriculture Minister Richard Walther Darré who continued to write on the themes of blood and soil after the war. His main written works included "The Country Year" (1946), "British Agriculture and International Trade" (1948), "From the Ground Up: An Outline of the Rural Economy" (1950) and "The Stuff Man's Made Of: The Positive Approach to Health through Nutrition" (1959) which was much more ecological and less fascist than his previous works. [J.V. Gottlieb & T.P. Linehan, "The Culture of Fascism", I.B.Tauris, 2004, p. 246]

ee also

*Ecofascism

References

Persondata
NAME= Jenks, Jorian Edward Forwood
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Farmer, environmentalism pioneer, fascist
DATE OF BIRTH= 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH= Oxford, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH= 1963-8-20
PLACE OF DEATH=