Page 104 - They Also Served

Following the war, Seton Hutchison became involved with the welfare of ex-servicemen and formed, firstly, the Old Contemptibles Association, then later was one of the founders of the British Legion. He also dabbled in politics, standing unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate for Uxbridge in the 1923 general election. By the 1930s, he was, like many former officers, attracted to the militarism associated with fascism and, in November 1933, formed his own party, The British Empire Fascist Party. A vocal supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement, Seton Hutchison attended several of the Nuremberg rallies and was paid by Joseph Goebbels to write glowing reports of the events for the British press. In 1936, he narrowly
avoided legal action after calling future Prime Minister Clement Attlee ‘a Jew who was engineering a world war’. However, his movement soon lost support to the more populist BUF led by Oswald Mosley, and he began to criticise Germany after the occupation of Czechoslovakia. By 1939 he was strongly opposing Hitler and supporting Poland in her fight against the Nazis – this U-turn saved him from internment during the war alongside other notable British fascists.
Seton Hutchison was also an ardent Scottish nationalist and a prolific author of espionage novels, one of which, The W Plan, was made into a film in 1930. He also wrote the history of the MGC, and his final novel, The Red Colonel, reflected his disillusionment with the fascist movement. Lieutenant-Colonel Graham Seton Hutchison DSO MC died in 1946.
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