During WW2, more than 70 British men and women were convicted in mainly secret trials of attempting to aid the enemy, and hundreds of Nazi sympathisers were interned. Although two of the traitors were executed during the war, most were treated with remarkable leniency, many seemed to escape justice because of their social and political connections, also there was a desire to strike a balance between national security and civil liberties. Some crimes were petty acts of resistance to the war effort, others were far more serious, such as conspiracies to overthrow the government, assist a German invasion, and then to set up a regime of collaboration.
Pre-war Britain had a small and often feuding network of pro-German groups such as the Imperial Fascist League led by Arnold Leese a rabid anti-Semite and Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. The German invasion of Denmark, Norway, Holland Belgium and France in the Spring of 1940 created media and public concern about the need for effective protection against perceived Fifth Column activities, in response to this the government rushed through a new Treachery Act , which introduced the death penalty for a wide range of offences which might aid the enemy or impede the war effort, internment regulations were strengthened to allow anyone showing sympathy to enemy powers to be locked up, this resulted in the BUF being banned and Mosley and most of his associates were detained.
In 1940 there were a number of strong pro-Nazi sympathisers, the ringleader of the first was Captain Archibald Maule Ramsay, a Tory MP with violently anti-Semitic beliefs. In May 1939 Ramsay founded the Right Club, which aimed to “coordinate the activities of all patriotic bodies which are striving to free this country from Jewish domination” Ramsay had long been on the security service's radar, its undercover agents penetrated his organisation, reporting discussions about the need for a military coup which would occur as German forces arrived in Britain, although very fanciful the group's activities posed a real security threat, and then there was Lt General John Fuller who had acted as a unofficial adviser to the Wehrmacht during Germany's rearmament, he was also actively involved with Oswald Mosley's BUF, In the House of Lords there was Lord Tavistock [ later the Duke of Bedford], a very wealthy man who financially supported a range of pro-Nazi causes and in early 1940 sought to make contact with the Nazis in order to negotiate peace terms, the security services lobbied to have him interned, but his wealth and connection enabled him to remain a free man.
A Welsh musician and conductor who frequently appeared on the BBC was Dr Leigh Vaughan-Henry, he was communicating with Abwehr through his wife living in Germany, also an ardent Nazi and vicious anti-Semite, he was arrested in June 1940, at which time he was attempting to negotiate a deal to purchase weaponry, he was interned on the Isle of Man, but never prosecuted. John Beckett a former Labour MP who had joined Mosley's BUF, he then left to form a more extreme group, after the outbreak of war, he with others established the British Council for Christian settlement in Europe to publicly lobby for a negotiated peace with Germany.
Victor Rothschild of the banking family who had become the head of MI5's counter-sabotage section which involved the establishment of a fake Gestapo cell in London, this was led by Eric Roberts a former fascist sympathiser who had turned and become an undercover agent infiltrating the BUF [British Union of Fascists], Roberts was provided with a fake Gestapo identity card and adopted the alias of Jack King, an agent who the story goes recruited in Britain in early 1939 to compile information on those loyal to the Fatherland. Over a period of 3 years he built up a network of hundreds of Nazi sympathisers. Agents provided Roberts with maps on the location of British petrol and aviation fuel stocks, also top secret research on a new type of engine [Jet] for fighter planes, plus information on military bases and civil defence, some agents wandered around their home towns noting possible targets for German bombers., most importantly one agent's efforts to pass on to Germany crucial military secrets, including details of the new Mosquito fighter bomber and the highly effective chaff technology deployed to confuse German radar were thwarted.
As the end of the war approached, MI5 became aware that some of Robert's agents were planning post-war espionage and for a time close attention was given regarding fascist activities. After the war in January 1946 Victor Rothschild head of MI5 continued the charade by having Robert, secretly award two of the Nazi sympathisers with specially minted imitations of Nazi medals for their services to the fatherland. Talk of assassinating British politicians and murdering Eat End Jews to avenge the Nuremberg trials were monitored, as were efforts to help German POW's in UK prison camps to escape.
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