Leigh Henry

Leigh Vaughan-Henry (full name: Leigh Francis Howell Wynne Sackville de Montmorency Vaughan-Henry, born 23 September 1889 – 8 March 1958) was a British musicologist, composer, antisemite and far-right activist who was interned during World War II after plotting a pro-Nazi coup.

Biography Vaughan-Henry received his earliest training from his Welsh father, John Henry, a singer and composer. He then studied with Granville Bantock in London, Ricardo Viñes in France, and Giuseppe Buonamici in Italy, where he became musical director at Edward Gordon Craig’s Theatrical School in Florence (1912). While living in Liverpool in 1911, he met and befriended Margaret Glyn from Ewell in Surrey, an enthusiastic musician who would later leave a bequest to Vaughan-Henry in her will.

World War I While on a visit to Germany in 1914, he was interned during World War I at the Ruhleben internment camp near Spandau. He was active in creating a series of Shakespeare plays (including The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Twelfth Night) and musical performances in the camp Before the war he had married a woman named Nancy, an Oxford University Press editor and a friend of author D. H. Lawrence. which Nancy hoped would find a publisher via Lawrence. He wrote stories, poems and music based on Welsh culture and performed at various eisteddfodau and was in 1923 received into the Gorsedd as a Bard at the Mold Eisteddfod. He was invited by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge to give a series of lectures during the Chicago Chamber of Music Festival.

Vaughan-Henry had firm far-right views, was pro-German and antisemitic. During the inter-war period he was until 1935 a member of the British Union of Fascists and a leading light in the National Citizens Union. He spoke out against Jews at public meetings, and wrote on culture topics for the BUF's The Blackshirt, the party's official newspaper. He was a frequent visitor to Berlin, corresponded with and was entertained by Nazi Party officials, and made a radio broadcast for Hitler's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

World War II and the 'Notting Hill Conspiracy' In April 1940, Vaughan-Henry was fined and bound over to keep the peace for six months for an antisemitic rant - "disgusting and unbridled language against the Jews" Magistrates at Old Street police court gave him the choice between a £250 fine and three months in prison; he paid the fine. For this plot he established a secret network of 18 cells each with 25 members and planned a coup – installing General Edmund Ironside as leader – once the Nazis had captured the Channel ports. (While at Brixton prison in December 1941, Vaughan-Henry applied for a 48-hour parole to meet Margaret Glyn, shortly before the death of her husband Sir Arthur Glyn, to discuss a possible bequest.)

Post-war life

Vaughan-Henry was released after the end of war and continued to be active in the British music community. As well as The Moon Robber opera, his compositions included Llyn-y-Fan, a symphonic poem, and various pieces on Welsh themes.

In 1951, Hedwig filed for divorce, accusing Vaughan-Henry of cruelty and adultery. However, the case was dismissed due to their bigamous marriage (Hedwig had obtained a mail-order 'quickie' divorce from Mexico, which was not recognised in England). Resident at Three Cups, Heathfield, Sussex, Vaughan-Henry died in a London hospital in March 1958; short obituaries (for example, in the Evening News and The Times) covered only his music career, including how The Moon Robber was smuggled out of the internment camp hidden in a bundle of washing.