Barry Domvile

Admiral Sir Barry Edward Domvile KBE CB CMG (1878-1971) was a distinguished Royal Navy officer who turned into a leading British fascist.

Domvile was the son of Admiral Sir Compton Domvile and followed his father into the Royal Navy as soon as he was old enough. Before World War I he was Assistant Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence, and during the war he commanded destroyers and cruisers in the Harwich fleet. After the war he became Director of Plans, and Chief of Staff to the Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet before becoming, in 1925, Commander of the "Royal Sovereign" battleship.

He became director of the Department of Naval Intelligence from 1927 to 1930, then commanded the Third Cruiser Squadron until 1932 when he was made President of the Royal Naval College. Domvile was considered for posts further up in the Royal Navy but lost out and he retired in 1936.

Domvile had already visited Germany in 1935, being impressed by many aspects of the Nazi government, and was invited to attend the Nuremberg Rally of September 1936 as a guest of the German Ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop. He became a council member of the Anglo-German Fellowship, and founded the Anglo-German organisation The Link. He supported St. John Philby, the anti-semitic British Peoples Party candidate in the Hythe by-election of 1939 and visited Salzburg that summer, attracting some criticism.

Due to his pro-Nazi views, Domvile was interned during World War II under Defence Regulation 18B from July 7, 1940 to July 29, 1943. His experience in internment increased his anti-semitism and led him to develop a conspiracy theory about an organisation he called 'Judmas' ("the Judaeo-Masonic combination, which has wielded such a baneful influence in world history").

Domvile was a prolific diarist. When internment was imminent he hid the latest (56th) volume of his diaries in his garden where it was not discovered by the authorities. After his death the diaries were deposited in the Royal Naval College where they are an important source for the activities of British nazi sympathizers in the period between the outbreak of war and the mass internment in May 1940.

Books

*"From Admiral to Cabin Boy" (1947; the cabin referred to is his cell at Brixton prison during internment) ISBN 0-89562-099-5
*"Look to Your Moat" (A history of British naval and merchant seamen)
*"The Great Taboo: Freemasonry"
*"Straight from the Jew's Mouth"
*"Truth about Anti-Semitism"