Jonathan Bowden | |
|---|---|
 Jonathan Bowden delivering a speech in 2011 | |
| Born | 12 April 1962 Kent, England |
| Died | 29 March 2012 (aged 49) Berkshire, England |
| Alma mater | Birkbeck College, University of London (B.A.) |
Jonathan David Anthony Bowden (12 April 1962 – 29 March 2012)[1] was an English far-right activist. Initially a Conservative, he later became involved in far-right[2] organisations such as the British National Party. Bowden has been described as a "cult Internet figure" in the far-right, even after his death.[3][4]
Bowden was born in Kent, England, and attended Presentation College in Reading, Berkshire.[5] His mother suffered from severe mental illness,[3] and died when Bowden was 16 years old.
In 1984, he completed one year of a Bachelor of Arts history degree course at Birkbeck College, London University, as a mature student, but left without graduating. He subsequently enrolled at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, in autumn 1988, but left after a few months. He became a personal friend of Bill Hopkins during this time.[6] Bowden was otherwise largely self-educated.[3]
Bowden began his political career as a member of the Conservative Party in the Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency. In 1990, he joined the Conservative Monday Club, and the following year made an unsuccessful bid to be elected onto its Executive Council. In 1991, he was appointed co-chairman with Stuart Millson of the club's media committee,[7] and was also active in the Western Goals Institute.[8] In 1992, Bowden was expelled from the Monday Club.[9]
Bowden and Stuart Millson co-founded the Revolutionary Conservative Caucus in November 1992[10] with the aim of introducing "abstract thought into the nether reaches of the Conservative and Unionist party".[8] The group published a quarterly journal entitled The Revolutionary Conservative Review. By the end of 1994, Millson and Bowden parted company and the group dissolved.
In 1993, Bowden published the book Right through the European Books Society. He was also reported to be a prominent figure in the creative milieu responsible for the emergence of Right Now! magazine.[11]
Bowden then joined the Freedom Party, for which he was treasurer for a short time,[12] and subsequently was a member of the Bloomsbury Forum, in company with Adrian Davies.[13]
In 2003, Bowden joined the British National Party (BNP). He was appointed Cultural Officer, a position its leader Nick Griffin created to give Bowden officer status within the organisation. In July 2007, Bowden resigned and left the BNP. Although he gave speeches at local BNP organised meetings, he never re-joined the party and cut all ties after the May 2010 general election.[14]
Many of his speeches were recorded and have been transcribed. Topics of his lectures included philosophers, politicians,and historical literary figures who were prominent in the far-right. In late 2011 and early 2012, Bowden made 14 appearances on Richard B. Spencer's Vanguard podcast.[14]
 | |
| Formation | 16 January 2005 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Troy Southgate, Jonathan Bowden, and Jonothon Boulter |
| Legal status | defunct |
| Website | new-right.org (archive) |
New Right was a United Kingdom-based pan-European nationalist, far-right think tank founded by Troy Southgate and Bowden. It was part of the French Nouvelle Droite movement, and was otherwise unrelated to the wider British and American usage of the term "New Right". It was launched on 16 January 2005 at a meeting in central London.[15] (archive accessed 27 April 2012)[16]
In March 2005, the group described itself on its Yahoo! Groups page as follows: "We are opposed to liberalism, democracy and egalitarianism and fight to restore the eternal values and principles that have become submerged beneath the corrosive tsunami of the modern world.[17]
In June 2005, New Right announced that it would publish New Imperium, a quarterly magazine it described as an "intellectual journal".[18] Bowden was the organisation's press officer.[19]
In 2012, Bowden died of heart failure at his home in Berkshire at the age of 49,[1] shortly after being released from the psychiatric ward of a hospital, where he was admitted after suffering a mental breakdown.[3]
Bowden believed that some hierarchies are good for society, that "liberalism is moral syphilis" and that native Europeans are justified in asserting their cultural, ethnic, psychological and spiritual hegemony over Europe.[3]
