Robert Cecil Gordon-Canning MC (24 June 1888 – 4 January 1967)[1] was a notable British fascist, anti-Semite[2][3][4] and supporter of Arab nationalist causes.
[19] From March to May 1930 the British police kept Margaret Milne Farquharson of the National Political League and Canning under observation to monitor their interactions with a delegation sent to London by the executive committee of the Palestine Arab Congress (ECPAC).
In October 1936 he was best man at the wedding of Sir Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford in Germany,[21] becoming the movement's expert on foreign affairs and given the role of 'Director of Overseas Policy'.
He wrote regularly for fascist publications and developed the BUF slogan "Mind Britain's Business", which was also the title of one of his pamphlets.
At a sale of former German embassy property in 1945, Gordon-Canning attracted significant publicity when he purchased a large marble bust of Hitler for £500 (equivalent to £27,000 today).
[30][31][32] Journalist John Roy Carlson—a pseudonym of Avedis "Arthur" Boghos Derounian—claims Gordon-Canning told him he purchased the bust "to challenge the Jews.
To prevent purchase by them..."[33] Carlson also exposed Gordon-Canning's ongoing anti-Semitism in his 1951 book on subversive politics, Cairo to Damascus.
Living after the war between his apartment in London and his farm in Sandwich, Kent, the book indicates Gordon-Canning was still in touch with other former internees and fascist sympathisers.
Carlson also writes of dining twice at Gordon-Canning's apartment in Cadogan Square in London with Barry Domvile and Archibald Ramsay.
He states Gordon-Canning allowed his apartment to be used as a meeting place for Arab nationalists and claimed to be a close friend of Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam.