Jorian Jenks
Encyclopedia
Jorian Edward Forwood Jenks (born 1899 in Oxford
- died 20 August 1963) was an English
farmer, environmentalism
pioneer and fascist
. He has been described as "one of the most dominant figures in the development of the organic movement".
, a leading expert on jurisprudence
and his second wife. A farmer, Jenks was educated at the Harper Adams Agricultural College and Balliol College, Oxford
, whilst he also served in the First World War. After some years in New Zealand during the 1920s, Jenks returned to England. After lecturing for a spell Jenks took over his own farm in Angmering
, West Sussex
. However he was forced to give up his farm due to the slump in agricultural prices and his own chronic asthma
. From this point on Jenks was forced to rely on writing as his source of income, penning articles for such journals as Philip Mairet
's New English Weekly and Maurice Reckitt
's Christendom.
, he was the agricultural advisor to the party. He organised garden parties to raise funds for the BUF, a fairly common technique amongst the party's more affluent and rural supporters. A self-styled 'critic of modern economy', he wrote for the BUF journal Action under the pseudonym 'Vergillius'. He also wrote articles on animal husbandry
for the non-BUF journal New Pioneer, an anti-Semitic work founded in late 1938 by John Beckett and Lord Lymington
. In 1936 Jenks was picked as candidate for the forthcoming general election for Horsham and Worthing
.
Jenks took charge of the agricultural policy of the BUF, seeking to lead Britain to agricultural autarky
. He called for import controls and the establishment of an Agricultural Land Bank in order to make farm debt more manageable as well as an Agricultural Corporation to fix prices and fit in with the BUF corporatist
economic policy. Landowners who were seen to be misusing their land would also be subject to compulsory purchase, with a Volunteer Land Army established to restore the reclaimed territory. Whilst Jenks' ideas were never put into practice it has been argued that they did have an impact on government policy, as moves towards agricultural self-sufficiency became the cornerstone of policy in the late 1940s whilst earlier initiatives such as the British Empire Economic Conference
and Import Duties Act 1932
also borrowed from Jenks' protectionist vision. Similarly the Defence Regulations
included DR49 which allowed for compulsory land purchase, whilst the Agriculture Act 1947
allowed for price-fixing as Jenks had suggested.
Although an important member of the BUF Jenks was something of a maverick who disagreed with leader Oswald Mosley
on a number of issues. Unlike Mosley, who felt that British society was in rapid decline, Jenks felt that the country was in a slow Spenglerian
decay. Neither did he share BUF leader's unbounded faith in modern science
, instead taking a more sceptical and ambivalent stance. Despite these disagreements he remained a BUF member and in common with most of the leading figures in the group was detained under Defence Regulation 18B
in 1940. Indeed in the run-up to the detentions Mosley's contingency plans in the event that he was imprisoned named Jenks as temporary leader in his absence, although this did not come to pass due to Jenks' own internment. Jenks was initially detained at Latchmere House in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
for interrogation, before being transferred to Walton Gaol
where he was subject to 23 hour lockdown. He was released in 1941 and became a tenant farmer in Seaford, East Sussex
.
's Soil Association
, a pro-organic farming
group, in 1945. He also joined Rolf Gardiner
's Kinship in Husbandry and H. J. Massingham
's Council for the Church and Countryside, two other traditionalist rural groups He argued in favour of organicism, feeling that the quality of food and the health of a nation were inextricably linked. He felt that the key to health was Bergsonian vitalism, but added to this the belief that the decline in food standards would directly precipitate the fall of Western civilization.
It was with the Soil Association that he reached the widest audience as he edited the group's Mother Earth journal. Although Jenks remained associated with the Soil Association until his death the group later moved to the left and Jenks' role has subsequently been marginalised. His other main group involvement was in the Rural Reconstruction Association
, a group initially founded in 1929 by Quaker Montague Fordham
. Jenks served as press secretary for the RRA and edited their journal Rural Economy whilst building up a coterie of former fascists or fascist sympathisers within the group in the shape of ex-BUF members Derek Stuckey and Robert Saunders as well as some former members of the English Mistery
. Jenks used his position as editor of the RRA journal to advocate agricultural autarky
.
Jenks' post-war writings included The Country Year (1946), British Agriculture and International Trade (1948), From the Ground Up: An Outline of the Rural Economy (1950) and The Stuff Man's Made Of: The Positive Approach to Health through Nutrition (1959) which was much more ecological and less fascist than his previous works. Although the organic movement has in general moved away from the politics espoused by Jenks, his influence has been felt as his themes of sustainability, small farming, opposition to the over-reliance on mechanised farming and mistrust of international food trade over local produce remain central. At the suggestion of Rolf Gardiner he sent his work to the former Nazi Agriculture Minister Richard Walther Darré who continued to write on the themes of blood and soil
after the war.
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
- died 20 August 1963) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
farmer, environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
pioneer and fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. He has been described as "one of the most dominant figures in the development of the organic movement".
Early life
Jenks was the son of Edward JenksEdward Jenks
Edward Jenks was a jurist and noted writer on law and its place in history.He was a brilliant law student at King's College, Cambridge and was placed first in the law tripos of 1886...
, a leading expert on jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
and his second wife. A farmer, Jenks was educated at the Harper Adams Agricultural College and Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, whilst he also served in the First World War. After some years in New Zealand during the 1920s, Jenks returned to England. After lecturing for a spell Jenks took over his own farm in Angmering
Angmering
Angmering is a large village and civil parish between Littlehampton and Worthing in West Sussex, England. It is located approximately two miles north of the English Channel; Worthing and Littlehampton are about four miles to the east and west respectively.Angmering railway station is miles away...
, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
. However he was forced to give up his farm due to the slump in agricultural prices and his own chronic asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
. From this point on Jenks was forced to rely on writing as his source of income, penning articles for such journals as Philip Mairet
Philip Mairet
Philip Mairet was a designer, writer and journalist. He had a wide range of interest: crafts, Alfred Adler and psychiatry, and Social Credit. He was also a translator of major figures including Sartre. He wrote biographies of Sir Patrick Geddes and A. R...
's New English Weekly and Maurice Reckitt
Maurice Reckitt
Maurice Benington Reckitt was a leading British Anglo-Catholic and Christian Socialist writer. He edited Christendom, A Journal of Christian Sociology from 1931 to 1950....
's Christendom.
Pre-war fascism
A member of the British Union of FascistsBritish Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
, he was the agricultural advisor to the party. He organised garden parties to raise funds for the BUF, a fairly common technique amongst the party's more affluent and rural supporters. A self-styled 'critic of modern economy', he wrote for the BUF journal Action under the pseudonym 'Vergillius'. He also wrote articles on animal husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
for the non-BUF journal New Pioneer, an anti-Semitic work founded in late 1938 by John Beckett and Lord Lymington
Gerard Wallop, 9th Earl of Portsmouth
Gerard Vernon Wallop, 9th Earl of Portsmouth , styled Viscount Lymington from 1925 until 1943, was a British landowner, writer on agricultural topics, and politician.-Early life:...
. In 1936 Jenks was picked as candidate for the forthcoming general election for Horsham and Worthing
Horsham and Worthing (UK Parliament constituency)
Horsham and Worthing was a county constituency in West Sussex, centred on the towns of Horsham and Worthing in West Sussex. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.-History:The constituency was...
.
Jenks took charge of the agricultural policy of the BUF, seeking to lead Britain to agricultural autarky
Autarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
. He called for import controls and the establishment of an Agricultural Land Bank in order to make farm debt more manageable as well as an Agricultural Corporation to fix prices and fit in with the BUF corporatist
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
economic policy. Landowners who were seen to be misusing their land would also be subject to compulsory purchase, with a Volunteer Land Army established to restore the reclaimed territory. Whilst Jenks' ideas were never put into practice it has been argued that they did have an impact on government policy, as moves towards agricultural self-sufficiency became the cornerstone of policy in the late 1940s whilst earlier initiatives such as the British Empire Economic Conference
British Empire Economic Conference
The British Empire Economic Conference was a 1932 conference of British colonies and the autonomous dominions held to discuss the Great Depression. It was held between 21 July and 20 August in Ottawa.The conference saw the group admit the failure of the gold standard and abandon attempts to...
and Import Duties Act 1932
Import Duties Act 1932
The Import Duties Act 1932 was an Act of United Kingdom Parliament. The Act introduced a general tariff of 10% on all imports except foodstuffs and raw materials...
also borrowed from Jenks' protectionist vision. Similarly the Defence Regulations
Defence Regulations
During the Second World War Defence Regulations were a fundamental aspect of everyday life in the United Kingdom.They were emergency regulations passed on the outbreak of war and during it to give the government emergency powers to prosecute the war. Two Acts of Parliament were passed as enabling...
included DR49 which allowed for compulsory land purchase, whilst the Agriculture Act 1947
Agriculture Act 1947
The Agriculture Act 1947 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom passed by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government.The government wanted a positive balance of payments, to lower the amount of food imported into Britain from dollar countries and to promote the maximum agricultural...
allowed for price-fixing as Jenks had suggested.
Although an important member of the BUF Jenks was something of a maverick who disagreed with leader Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
on a number of issues. Unlike Mosley, who felt that British society was in rapid decline, Jenks felt that the country was in a slow Spenglerian
Oswald Spengler
Oswald Manuel Arnold Gottfried Spengler was a German historian and philosopher whose interests also included mathematics, science, and art. He is best known for his book The Decline of the West , published in 1918, which puts forth a cyclical theory of the rise and decline of civilizations...
decay. Neither did he share BUF leader's unbounded faith in modern science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, instead taking a more sceptical and ambivalent stance. Despite these disagreements he remained a BUF member and in common with most of the leading figures in the group was detained under Defence Regulation 18B
Defence Regulation 18B
Defence Regulation 18B, often referred to as simply 18B, was the most famous of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during World War II. The complete technical reference name for this rule was: Regulation 18B of the Defence Regulations 1939. It allowed for the internment of...
in 1940. Indeed in the run-up to the detentions Mosley's contingency plans in the event that he was imprisoned named Jenks as temporary leader in his absence, although this did not come to pass due to Jenks' own internment. Jenks was initially detained at Latchmere House in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is a London borough in South West London, UK, which forms part of Outer London. It is unique because it is the only London borough situated both north and south of the River Thames.-Settlement:...
for interrogation, before being transferred to Walton Gaol
Liverpool (HM Prison)
HM Prison Liverpool is a categoryB/C local men's prison, located in the Walton area of Liverpool in England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
where he was subject to 23 hour lockdown. He was released in 1941 and became a tenant farmer in Seaford, East Sussex
Seaford, East Sussex
Seaford is a coastal town in the county of East Sussex, on the south coast of England. Lying east of Newhaven and Brighton and west of Eastbourne, it is the largest town in Lewes district, with a population of about 23,000....
.
Post-war activism
After the war he did not join the Union Movement, although he did assist in preparing its policy statement None Need Starve, which offered a new agricultural plan. He sought to build a 'spiritual ecologism' that would bond man and soil. To this end he joined Lady Eve BalfourLady Eve Balfour
Lady Evelyn Barbara "Eve" Balfour was an English farmer, educator, organic farming pioneer, and a founding figure in the organic movement. She was one of the first women to study agriculture at an English university, graduating from the University of Reading.The daughter of the second Earl of...
's Soil Association
Soil Association
The Soil Association is a charity based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1946, it has over 27,000 members today. Its activities include campaign work on issues including opposition to intensive farming, support for local purchasing and public education on nutrition; as well the certification of...
, a pro-organic farming
Organic farming
Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm...
group, in 1945. He also joined Rolf Gardiner
Rolf Gardiner
Henry Rolf Gardiner was an English rural revivalist and sympathizer with Nazism. He was founder of groups significant in the British history of organic farming, as well being a participant in inter-war far right politics.-Early life:...
's Kinship in Husbandry and H. J. Massingham
H. J. Massingham
Harold John Massingham was a prolific British writer on matters to do with the countryside and agriculture. He was also a published poet.-Life:...
's Council for the Church and Countryside, two other traditionalist rural groups He argued in favour of organicism, feeling that the quality of food and the health of a nation were inextricably linked. He felt that the key to health was Bergsonian vitalism, but added to this the belief that the decline in food standards would directly precipitate the fall of Western civilization.
It was with the Soil Association that he reached the widest audience as he edited the group's Mother Earth journal. Although Jenks remained associated with the Soil Association until his death the group later moved to the left and Jenks' role has subsequently been marginalised. His other main group involvement was in the Rural Reconstruction Association
Rural Reconstruction Association
The Rural Reconstruction Association was a British agricultural reform movement established in 1926 with Montague Fordham as its Council Secretary, a post he held for 20 years....
, a group initially founded in 1929 by Quaker Montague Fordham
Montague Fordham
Montague Edward Fordham was an English agriculturalist and advocate of rural reform. He belonged to the Religious Society of Friends....
. Jenks served as press secretary for the RRA and edited their journal Rural Economy whilst building up a coterie of former fascists or fascist sympathisers within the group in the shape of ex-BUF members Derek Stuckey and Robert Saunders as well as some former members of the English Mistery
English Mistery
The English Mistery was a political and esoteric group active in the United Kingdom of the 1930s. A "Conservative fringe group" in favour of bringing back the feudal system, its views have been characterised as "reactionary ultra-royalist, anti-democratic"...
. Jenks used his position as editor of the RRA journal to advocate agricultural autarky
Autarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
.
Jenks' post-war writings included The Country Year (1946), British Agriculture and International Trade (1948), From the Ground Up: An Outline of the Rural Economy (1950) and The Stuff Man's Made Of: The Positive Approach to Health through Nutrition (1959) which was much more ecological and less fascist than his previous works. Although the organic movement has in general moved away from the politics espoused by Jenks, his influence has been felt as his themes of sustainability, small farming, opposition to the over-reliance on mechanised farming and mistrust of international food trade over local produce remain central. At the suggestion of Rolf Gardiner he sent his work to the former Nazi Agriculture Minister Richard Walther Darré who continued to write on the themes of blood and soil
Blood and soil
Blood and Soil refers to an ideology that focuses on ethnicity based on two factors, descent and homeland/Heimat...
after the war.