A . K . Chesterton " Not to be confused with G . K . Chesterton " Arthur Kenneth Chesterton MC ( 1 May 1899 – 16 August 1973 ) was a politician and journalist who helped found anti - banker organisations in Britain , primarily in opposition to the break - up of the British Empire , and later adopting a broader anti - immigration stance . Early life . Born in England , A . K . Chesterton went with his family to South Africa as a boy and did not return to England until the late 1920s . In 1915 he joined the British Army - posted to East Africa , he almost died of malaria and dysentery . After officer training he served on the Western Front in 1917 with the Durban Light Infantry and won the Military Cross . His war experience was crucial to his repudiation of democracy . The war also left Chesterton broken in health and an alcoholic . After the war , he worked as a journalist for the " Johannesburg Star " . He then secured a job with the " Stratford - on - Avon Herald " in England , where , as theatre critic from 1925 to 1929 , he cultivated his aesthetic sense of societal decadence and cultural decline . For the next four years , according to Chesterton ' s biographer , David Baker : " he tilted at windmills and sharpened his skills as a controversialist while the Great Depression deepened and the bankruptcy of liberal and capitalist democracy became apparent . The corporate state , he came to believe , would rule in the interests of the whole nation , whereas democracy was the plaything of special interests and privilege . " Politics . Moving to London and marrying a Fabian socialist and pacifist , Chesterton lived near the headquarters of Oswald Mosley ' s British Union of Fascists ( BUF ) . He took to dropping by for conversation and argument , and by late 1933 he had joined the movement . He became the director of publicity and propaganda and chief organiser for the Midlands . In 1936 , alcoholism and overwork led to a nervous breakdown . He consulted a German neurologist and during 1936 to 1937 lived in Germany . After returning to Britain he was appointed editor of the " Blackshirt " , the official BUF newspaper . This position provided a pulpit for his increasingly anti - Semitic rhetoric . He left the BUF in 1938 , disillusioned , but continued to be active in far - right politics by joining the Nordic League and serving as editor of Lord Lymington ' s right - wing journal , the " New Pioneer " . Chesterton became a member of The Right Club , a group founded in May 1939 to consolidate existing right - wing British organizations into a unified body . Archibald Ramsay , founder of the virulent anti - Semitic society , explained its ideology and purpose : In 1939 , Chesterton re - enlisted in the British Army after the outbreak of war . He served in East Africa , but returned to Britain in 1944 due to poor health , and launched the short - lived National Front after Victory Group , a coalition that included the British Peoples Party . He became deputy editor of the publication " Truth " . He lived again in Africa for a short time , but soon returned to Britain where he established the League of Empire Loyalists in 1954 . The League was a pressure group against the increasing dissolution of the British Empire , and was known at the time for stunts at Conservative Party meetings and conferences . These included hiding underneath the platform overnight to emerge during the conference to put across points . The League had support from some Conservative Party members , but they were disliked by the leadership . About this time , Chesterton was appointed by Lord Beaverbrook as a literary adviser , contributing to the " Daily Mail " and the " Sunday Express " . He also wrote Beaverbrook ' s autobiography , " Don ' t Trust to Luck " . Chesterton founded and edited the magazine " Candour " , which he issued for the rest of his life , and which is still published today . Chesterton co - founded the National Front . Chesterton was leader for a short time , although he tried to keep the party free from national socialists . Upon stepping down the first of several long , inter - factional disputes took place within the NF which frequently affected its policies in ways of which Chesterton did not approve . Today , the NF describes itself as a " white nationalist organisation founded in 1967 in opposition to multi - racialism and immigration " , although the term " multi - racialism " was not in common use in 1967 . Writings . Amongst Chesterton ' s works are " Portrait of a Leader " ( 1937 ) , a hagiography of Mosley ; " Why I left Mosley " ( 1938 ) , which broke from his earlier work ; " The Tragedy of Anti - Semitism " ( 1948 ) in which he distanced himself from this form of prejudice ; and " The New Unhappy Lords " , a diatribe against international finance . Later life and death . The last 30 years of Chesterton ' s life were spent in a modest flat in South Croydon with his wife , Doris . He died on 16 August 1973 . Popular Culture . The struggle between different factions of the National Front was satirized in the Rumpole of the Bailey episode " Rumpole and the Fascist Beast " , first broadcast in June 1979 . Rumpole defends a thinly - disguised version of Chesterton named " Captain Rex Parkin " . Miscellaneous . Author G . K . Chesterton was his cousin .