Nesta Webster
Encyclopedia
Nesta Helen Webster (24 August 1876 – 16 May 1960) was a controversial historian
, occultist, and author who revived conspiracy theories about the Illuminati
. She argued that the secret society's members were occultists, plotting communist world domination
, using the idea of a Jewish cabal, the Masons and Jesuits as a smokescreen. According to her, their international subversion included the French Revolution, 1848 Revolution, the First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
In 1920, Webster was one of the contributing authors who wrote The Jewish Peril
, a series of articles in the London Morning Post
, centered on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. These articles were subsequently compiled and published in the same year, in book form under the title of The Cause of World Unrest. She was cited respectfully by Winston Churchill, "This movement among the Jews ... as Mrs. Webster, has so ably shown, [played] a definitely recognisable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution"
Webster claimed that the authenticity of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was an open question. Her position on that, in 1924, "Contrary to the assertions of certain writers, I never affirmed my belief in the authenticity of the Protocols, but have always treated it as an entirely open question." (See Secret Societies and Subversive Movements (1924), p. 408).
In "World Revolution", Webster compares the Protocols to writings attributed to the Illuminati
, asserting that they hold most similarity to the activities of Illuminized Freemasonry. (See World Revolution' p. 306)
At one time she was a member of the British Union of Fascists
.
. She was the youngest daughter of Robert Cooper Lee Bevan, a close friend of Cardinal Manning. Her mother was the daughter of Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth
, Anglican
bishop of Chichester
. She was educated at Westfield College
(now part of Queen Mary, University of London
). On coming of age, she travelled around the world, visiting India
, Burma, Singapore
, and Japan
. In India, in 1914, she married Captain Arthur Webster, the Superintendent of the English Police.
and Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Her first serious book on this subject was The Chevalier de Boufflers, which drew a lengthy review in The Spectator
. While doing research for the book, she experienced deja vu
which led her to believe she may have been reincarnated
.
at Woolwich
. By special request she repeated the lecture to the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Brigade of Guards
in Whitehall
, and then she was asked to repeat it a third time to the officers of the Secret Service. It was at their special request that she wrote the World Revolution: The Plot Against Civilisation, based on these lectures. Her charisma
helped her to captivate some the leading literary, political and military minds of her day. Lord Kitchener
in India described her as the "foremost opponent of subversion
".
In 1919 Webster published The French Revolution: a Study in Democracy where she claimed that a secret conspiracy had prepared and carried out the French Revolution
. As she said in her book, "The lodges of the German Freemasons and Illuminati were thus the source whence emanated all those anarchic schemes which culminated in the Terror
, and it was at a great meeting of the Freemasons in Frankfurt-am-Main, three years before the French Revolution began, that the deaths of Louis XVI and Gustavus III of Sweden were first planned."
Winston Churchill
was convinced by this theory and in 1920 wrote: "This conspiracy against civilization dates from the days of Weishaupt
... as a modern historian Mrs. Webster has so ably shown, it played a recognizable role on the French Revolution." In her autobiography, Spacious Days, she argued that there was an "attempt to boycott my books in those quarters where the plan of world revolution was secretly entertained."
Webster also published Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, The Need for Fascism in Great Britain, the Menace of Communism (with Mrs. Katherine Atkinson) and The Origin and Progress of the World Revolution. In the latter book, published in 1921, she wrote: "What mysteries of iniquity would be revealed if the Jew, like the mole, did not make a point of working in the dark! Jews have never been more Jews than when we tried to make them men and citizens." In her books, Webster argued that Bolshevism was part of a much older and more secret, self-perpetuating conspiracy. She described three possible sources for this conspiracy: Zionism, Pan-Germanism, or "the occult power." She stated that she leaned towards Zionism as the most likely culprit of the three. She also claimed that even if the Protocols were fake, they still describe how Jews behave."
Webster became involved in several right-wing groups including the British Fascists
, the Anti-Socialist Union
, The Link
, and the British Union of Fascists
. She was also the leading writer of the "The Patriot", an anti-Semitic paper, where she supported the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. She later published Germany and England in which she suggested that Adolf Hitler had successfully halted the Jewish attempt to control the world.
. In the 1920s, "her views on women had become more conservative", and she made them secondary to her work on threats to British civilization.
"[S]he wrote a substantial number of articles for the British far-right periodical, The Patriot, and two conspiracy-related articles for the more mainstream journal, The Nineteenth Century and After."
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, occultist, and author who revived conspiracy theories about the Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
. She argued that the secret society's members were occultists, plotting communist world domination
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
, using the idea of a Jewish cabal, the Masons and Jesuits as a smokescreen. According to her, their international subversion included the French Revolution, 1848 Revolution, the First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
In 1920, Webster was one of the contributing authors who wrote The Jewish Peril
The Jewish Peril
The Jewish Peril is the first edition of the text commonly referred to as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It is also the lead titles of one of the many different imprints or editions of the Protocols of Zion - The Jewish Peril...
, a series of articles in the London Morning Post
Morning Post
The Morning Post, as the paper was named on its masthead, was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by The Daily Telegraph.- History :...
, centered on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. These articles were subsequently compiled and published in the same year, in book form under the title of The Cause of World Unrest. She was cited respectfully by Winston Churchill, "This movement among the Jews ... as Mrs. Webster, has so ably shown, [played] a definitely recognisable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution"
Webster claimed that the authenticity of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was an open question. Her position on that, in 1924, "Contrary to the assertions of certain writers, I never affirmed my belief in the authenticity of the Protocols, but have always treated it as an entirely open question." (See Secret Societies and Subversive Movements (1924), p. 408).
In "World Revolution", Webster compares the Protocols to writings attributed to the Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
, asserting that they hold most similarity to the activities of Illuminized Freemasonry. (See World Revolution' p. 306)
At one time she was a member of the British Union of Fascists
British 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...
.
Early years
She was born Nesta Bevan in the stately home Trent ParkTrent Park
Trent Park is a country park, formerly the grounds of a mansion house which currently forms the Trent Park campus of Middlesex University in the north of London, United Kingdom...
. She was the youngest daughter of Robert Cooper Lee Bevan, a close friend of Cardinal Manning. Her mother was the daughter of Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth
Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth
Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth was an English churchman and academic, Warden of New College, Oxford from 1822 and Bishop of Chichester.-Life:...
, Anglican
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
bishop of Chichester
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Counties of East and West Sussex. The see is in the City of Chichester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity...
. She was educated at Westfield College
Westfield College
Westfield College was a small college situated in Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead, London, and was a constituent college of the University of London from 1882 to 1989. The college originally admitted only women as students and became coeducational in 1964. In 1989, Westfield College merged with Queen...
(now part of Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
). On coming of age, she travelled around the world, visiting India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Burma, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. In India, in 1914, she married Captain Arthur Webster, the Superintendent of the English Police.
Fascination with the French Revolution
Returning to England she began her historical studies and literary career with a critical re-assessment of the French Revolution, especially exploring the theory of the monarchy's subversion by a Judeo-Masonic conspiracy. For more than three years she immersed herself in historical research, primarily in the archives of the British MuseumBritish Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
and Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Her first serious book on this subject was The Chevalier de Boufflers, which drew a lengthy review in The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
. While doing research for the book, she experienced deja vu
Déjà vu
Déjà vu is the experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the prior encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined...
which led her to believe she may have been reincarnated
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
.
Political views
Following the First World War she gave a lecture on the Origin and Progress of World Revolution to the officers of the Royal ArtilleryRoyal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
at Woolwich
Woolwich
Woolwich is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...
. By special request she repeated the lecture to the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Brigade of Guards
Brigade of Guards
The Brigade of Guards is a historical elite unit of the British Army, which has existed sporadically since the 17th century....
in Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
, and then she was asked to repeat it a third time to the officers of the Secret Service. It was at their special request that she wrote the World Revolution: The Plot Against Civilisation, based on these lectures. Her charisma
Charisma
The term charisma has two senses: 1) compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others, 2) a divinely conferred power or talent. For some theological usages the term is rendered charism, with a meaning the same as sense 2...
helped her to captivate some the leading literary, political and military minds of her day. Lord Kitchener
Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC , was an Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway...
in India described her as the "foremost opponent of subversion
Subversion (politics)
Subversion refers to an attempt to transform the established social order, its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy; examples of such structures include the State. In this context, a "subversive" is sometimes called a "traitor" with respect to the government in-power. A subversive is...
".
In 1919 Webster published The French Revolution: a Study in Democracy where she claimed that a secret conspiracy had prepared and carried out the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. As she said in her book, "The lodges of the German Freemasons and Illuminati were thus the source whence emanated all those anarchic schemes which culminated in the Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
, and it was at a great meeting of the Freemasons in Frankfurt-am-Main, three years before the French Revolution began, that the deaths of Louis XVI and Gustavus III of Sweden were first planned."
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
was convinced by this theory and in 1920 wrote: "This conspiracy against civilization dates from the days of Weishaupt
Adam Weishaupt
Johann Adam Weishaupt was a German philosopher and founder of the Order of Illuminati, a secret society with origins in Bavaria.-Early life:...
... as a modern historian Mrs. Webster has so ably shown, it played a recognizable role on the French Revolution." In her autobiography, Spacious Days, she argued that there was an "attempt to boycott my books in those quarters where the plan of world revolution was secretly entertained."
Webster also published Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, The Need for Fascism in Great Britain, the Menace of Communism (with Mrs. Katherine Atkinson) and The Origin and Progress of the World Revolution. In the latter book, published in 1921, she wrote: "What mysteries of iniquity would be revealed if the Jew, like the mole, did not make a point of working in the dark! Jews have never been more Jews than when we tried to make them men and citizens." In her books, Webster argued that Bolshevism was part of a much older and more secret, self-perpetuating conspiracy. She described three possible sources for this conspiracy: Zionism, Pan-Germanism, or "the occult power." She stated that she leaned towards Zionism as the most likely culprit of the three. She also claimed that even if the Protocols were fake, they still describe how Jews behave."
Webster became involved in several right-wing groups including the British Fascists
British Fascists
The British Fascists were the first avowedly fascist organisation in the United Kingdom. William Joyce, Neil Francis Hawkins, Maxwell Knight and Arnold Leese were amongst those to have passed through the movement as members and activists.-Early years:...
, the Anti-Socialist Union
Anti-Socialist Union
The Anti-Socialist Union was a British political pressure group that supported free trade economics and opposed socialism. It was active from 1908 to 1948 with its heyday occurring before the First World War.-Formation:...
, The Link
The Link (organisation)
The Link was established in July 1937 as an 'independent non-party organisation to promote Anglo-German friendship'. It generally operated as a cultural organisation, although its journal, the Anglo-German Review reflected the pro-Nazi views of Admiral Sir Barry Domvile, and particularly in London...
, and the British Union of Fascists
British 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...
. She was also the leading writer of the "The Patriot", an anti-Semitic paper, where she supported the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. She later published Germany and England in which she suggested that Adolf Hitler had successfully halted the Jewish attempt to control the world.
Feminism
She favored "traditional roles for women" and believed women should primarily influence men to be better men, but was frustrated by limits on the careers open to women, because she believed jobs should not just be for the money but should be purposeful professions. She saw marriage as limiting her choices, although her wedding financially allowed her to be a writer. She believed in raising women's education, and that the education they had been receiving was inferior to men's, making women less capable than they could be. She believed that, with better education, women would have substantial political capabilities to a degree considered "non-traditional", but without that education they'd be only as men imagined all women to be, the suppliers of men's and children's "material needs". "[S]he implied ... [that] women and men might well be true equals." She believed there had been "women's supremacy ... [in] pre-revolutionary France, when powerful women never attempted to compete directly with men, but instead drew strength from other areas where they excelled, in particular, 'the power of organisation and the power of inspiration.'" She favored women being allowed to vote and favored keeping the British Parliamentary system for the benefit of both women and men, although doubted that voting would provide everything women needed, and thus did not join the suffrage movementWomen's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
. In the 1920s, "her views on women had become more conservative", and she made them secondary to her work on threats to British civilization.
Works
- The Chevalier De Boufflers. A Romance of the French Revolution, London, John Murray, 1910. Reprints: 1916; 1920; 1924; 1925; E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1926.
- Britain's Call to Arms: an appeal to our women, London, Hugh Rees, 1914.
- The Sheep Track. An aspect of London society, London, John Murray, 1914.
- The French Revolution: A Study in Democracy, New York, E.P. Dutton & Co., 1919. ISBN 0766179966.
- The French terror and Russian bolshevism, London, Boswell Printing & Publishing Co., 1920 [?]. OCLC: 22692582.
- World revolution. The plot against civilization, London, Constable & Co., 1921. Reprints: Constable, 1922; Chawleigh, The BritonsThe BritonsThe Britons was an anti-Semitic and anti-immigration organization founded in July 1919 by Henry Hamilton Beamish. The organization published pamphlets and propaganda under the imprint names of the Judaic Publishing Co. and subsequently the Britons Publishing Society...
Publishing Co., 1971; Sudbury, Bloomfield Books (1990?). - The Past History of the World Revolution. A lecture, Woolwich, Royal Artillery Institution, 1921.
- with Kurt Kerlen, Boche and Bolshevik, being a series of articles from the Morning Post of London, reprinted for distribution in the United States, New York, Beckwith, 1923. Reprint: Sudbury, Bloomfield Books [1990?]. ISBN 1-4179-7949-6.
- Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, London, Boswell Printing & Publishing Co. London, 1924. Reprints: Boswell, 1928 and 1936; London, The BritonsThe BritonsThe Britons was an anti-Semitic and anti-immigration organization founded in July 1919 by Henry Hamilton Beamish. The organization published pamphlets and propaganda under the imprint names of the Judaic Publishing Co. and subsequently the Britons Publishing Society...
Publishing Co., London, 1955 and 1964; Palmdale, Christian Book Club of America and Sudbury and Sudbury, Bloomfield Books, 198[?]; Kessinger Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7661-3066-5. Project Gutenberg e-text - The Socialist network, London, Boswell Printing & Publishing Co., 1926. Reprint: Boswell, 1933; Sudbury, Bloomfield (1989?); Noontide Press, 2000. ISBN 0-913022-06-3.
- The Need for Fascism in Britain, London, British Fascists, Pamphlet No. 17, 1926.
- The Surrender of an Empire, London, Boswell Printing & Publishing Co., 1931. Reprint: Sudbury, Bloomfield Books (1990?).
- The Origin and Progress of the World Revolution, London, Boswell Printing & Publishing Co. (1932).
- (with the pseudonymPseudonymA pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Julian Sterne), The Secret of the Zodiac, London, Boswell Printing & Publishing Co., 1933. - Germany and England (reprinted from The Patriot and revised), London, Boswell Publishing Co. (1938).
- Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette before the Revolution, London, Constable & Co., 1936. Reprint: Constable, 1937; G.P. Putnam's sons, 1937.
- Spacious days: an autobiography, London, Hutchinson, 1949 and 1950.
- Crowded Hours: part two of her autobiography; manuscript "disappeared from her publisher's office". It remains unpublished.
- Marie-Antoinette intime, Paris, La Table ronde, 1981 (French translation). ISBN 2-7103-0061-3.
- The Revolution of 1848 (ed. and date unknown). ISBN 1-4253-7315-1.
"[S]he wrote a substantial number of articles for the British far-right periodical, The Patriot, and two conspiracy-related articles for the more mainstream journal, The Nineteenth Century and After."