On this day in 1962, former fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley was assaulted at a rally in London's east end. He and members of his anti-Semitic Blackshirt group were punched to the ground as soon as his meeting opened at Ridley Road, Dalston. Police were forced to close the meeting within three minutes and made 54 arrests - including Sir Oswald's son Max.A crowd of several thousand had gathered in the area, where Sir Oswald, leader of the Union Movement formerly known as the British Union Of Fascists, planned to speak from the back of a lorry.
As soon as he appeared from between two police buses the crowd surged forward and knocked Sir Oswald to the ground. He tried to fight back from the cobbles, before police helped him to climb on the lorry prepared for his address. He was met by a hail of missiles including rotten fruit, pennies and stones and people tried to storm the platform
Trouble started long before the meeting began as over 200 police -including ten on horseback -attempted to clear an area around the lorry-platform.
Four years later Sir Oswald Mosley failed to get elected to parliament once more and he retired from politics.
Sir Oswald Mosley died in France in 1980. In November 2002 the Public Records Office in the UK released documents revealing details of the British intelligence services' surveillance of Sir Oswald and his wife and the threat they posed. According to the evidence his wife, Diana Mitford, was regarded as more dangerous than her husband, because she had much closer ties with the Nazis in Germany.
To watch a video clip showing Oswald Mosley being surged by angry crowds during the rally, click on the link below:
