The Glamour Boys: Chris Bryant (1939)
Chris Bryant (c) Mr Phil Warren
The run-up to the outbreak of the second world war is a familiar story to many of us – from Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler to Winston Churchill’s powerful opposition to the policy. Less well-known, however, is that Churchill was supported by a group of gay MPs who were themselves among the first to warn Britain of the danger the Nazis posed.
As a member of parliament for the last twenty years, Chris Bryant, our guest on this special episode of Travels Through Time, is intimately acquainted with how important the role of an MP can be at a crucial juncture in history like this one.
They were up against a stubborn government and an often shockingly antisemitic press, so making the case against Nazism was not always as obvious as it is today. But these MPs were used to being outsiders, Chris Bryant explains, because of their sexuality.
Despite the common perception that it was easier to be gay in this period if you were upper class, these men were acutely aware of the danger they faced if their sexuality was exposed. Even elite members of society – aristocrats and high-ranking army officers – could find themselves outcast and prosecuted on evidence as slight as a letter addressed to a man and signed off with the word ‘love’.
As such, many of these MPs had spent time in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, with its liberal attitudes towards homosexuality and a thriving nightlife for gay men and women. This also meant that when the Nazis rose to power, many of these British MPs had personal connections and first-hand accounts of the increasingly violent persecution of Jewish and gay people.
Although their contribution to the struggle against appeasement was hugely important, their lives and achievements have not yet been fully appreciated. Chris Bryant’s new book, The Glamour Boys: The Secret Story of the Rebels who Fought for Britain to Defeat Hitler is an important start in correcting the record.
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Click here to order Chris Bryant’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Listen to the podcast here
Show notes
Scene One: 19th July 1939, Ronnie Tree’s house in Queen Anne’s Gate, Westminster. The Glamour Boys gather at Ronnie’s house to plot their opposition to Chamberlain.
Scene Two: The evening of 2nd August 1939, Chamber of the House of Commons. A debate about whether parliament should break for summer recess becomes unexpectedly heated.
Scene Three: Any day in October 1939, Victor Cazalet’s Anti-Aircraft Battalion in Sevenoaks, known as ‘the monstrous regiment of gentlemen’ or ‘the buggers’ battalion’.
Memento: The shield commemorating the death of MP Jack Macnamara that currently resides in the House of Commons Chamber.
People/Social
Presenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Chris Bryant
Producers: Maria Nolan
Titles: Jon O
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Podcast Partner: ColorGraph
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(Some of) The Glamour Boys
Philip Sassoon (1888 - 1939) with King Edward VIII and Winston Churchill (Wiki Commons)
The Houses of Parliament, viewed from Lambeth Bridge
Credit: The Wellcome Trust
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