View source for Barry Domvile

{{Short description|Royal Navy Admiral and Nazi sympathiser (1878–1971)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix = [[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]]
| name          = Sir Barry Domvile
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KBE|CB|CMG}}
| image         = Captain_Barry_Domvile_RN.jpg
| image_size    = 150
| caption       = 
| birth_date    = {{birth-date|5 September 1878}}
| death_date    = {{death-date and age|13 August 1971|5 September 1878}}
| birth_place   = [[London]], England, United Kingdom
| death_place   = London, England, United Kingdom
| nickname      = 
| allegiance    = {{UK}}
| branch        = {{navy|United Kingdom}}
| serviceyears  = 1892–1936
| rank          = [[Admiral]]
| unit          = 
| commands      = [[HMS Miranda (1914)|HMS ''Miranda'']]<br />[[HMS Tipperary (1915)|HMS ''Tipperary'']]<br />[[HMS Centaur (1916)|HMS ''Centaur'']]<br />[[HMS Curacoa (D41)|HMS ''Curacoa'']]<br />[[HMS Royal Sovereign (05)|HMS ''Royal Sovereign'']]<br />[[Royal Naval College, Greenwich]]
| battles       = [[World War I]]
| awards        = [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]<br />[[Companion of the Order of the Bath]]<br />[[Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
| relations     = 
| laterwork     = 
}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2012}}
[[Admiral]] '''Sir Barry Edward Domvile''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|commas=on|KBE|CB|CMG}} (5 September 1878 – 13 August 1971) was a high-ranking [[Royal Navy]] officer who was interned during the [[Second World War]] for being a [[Nazism|Nazi]] sympathiser.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dumville.org/photo_pages/bd1878_pho.html|title=Admiral Sir Barry Edward Domvile, K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G. (1878-1971)|website=www.dumville.org|access-date=2018-07-04}}</ref> Throughout the 1930s, he expressed support for Germany's [[Adolf Hitler]] as well as pro-[[Nazi]] and [[anti-Semitic]] sentiments. Domvile was implicated in two fascist plots against the British government in 1940.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/id/eprint/47212/2/Woodbridge-S-47212-AAM.pdf|title=The Admiral who admired Hitler: Sir Barry Domvile, Nazism and early Historical Revisionism|first=Steven|last= Woodbridge|publisher= The British Association for Holocaust Studies|date=5 October 2020|access-date=1 December 2023}}</ref>

==Naval career==
Domvile was the son of Admiral Sir [[Compton Domvile (Royal Navy officer)|Compton Domvile]] and followed his father into the Royal Navy in 1892.<ref name=lh>[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/DOMVILE.shtml Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives]</ref> In 1912, he became Assistant Secretary to the [[Committee of Imperial Defence]], and during the [[World War I|First World War]] he commanded the [[destroyer]] [[HMS Miranda (1914)|HMS ''Miranda'']], the destroyer [[HMS Tipperary (1915)|HMS ''Tipperary'']], the [[cruiser]] [[HMS Centaur (1916)|HMS ''Centaur'']] and then the cruiser [[HMS Curacoa (D41)|HMS ''Curacoa'']].<ref name=lh/> After the war, he became Director of Plans in 1920, and [[Chief of Staff Mediterranean Fleet|Chief of Staff]] to the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean in 1922 before becoming, in 1925, commanding officer of the battleship [[HMS Royal Sovereign (05)|HMS ''Royal Sovereign'']].<ref name=lh/>

He served as [[Naval Intelligence Division (United Kingdom)|Director of Naval Intelligence]] from 1927 to 1930, then commanded the Third [[Cruiser Squadron]] from 1931 to 1932, and served as President of the [[Royal Naval College, Greenwich]] from 1932 to 1934.<ref name=lh/>

== Far-right activism ==
Domvile visited Germany in 1935 and was impressed by many aspects of the [[Nazism|Nazi]] government. He was invited to attend the [[Nuremberg rallies|Nuremberg Rally]] of September 1936 as a guest of German Ambassador [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]]. Domvile became a council member of the [[Anglo-German Fellowship]] and founded the Anglo-German organisation [[The Link (organisation)|The Link]]. He was also a member of the [[Right Club]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343106518|title=Admiral Domvile and the Nazis: New light on 'The Link' at local level|date=1 July 2020|first=Steven |last=Woodbridge|publisher=Kingston University, London|access-date=27 October 2021|page=1}}</ref>

Domvile supported [[St. John Philby]], the [[Antisemitism|anti-Semitic]] [[British People's Party (1939)|British People's Party]] candidate in the [[Hythe (UK Parliament constituency)|Hythe]] [[by-election]] of 1939, and visited [[Salzburg]] that summer, which attracted some criticism.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sP4PKj_icmMC&pg=PA124|page=124|title=December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World|first= Craig |last=Shirley|year=2013|publisher=Thomas Nelson|isbn=978-1595554581}}</ref> Domvile was prominent in British far-right circles as the prospect of war seemed imminent in the late 1930s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-men-and-women-who-plotted-to-stab-britain-in-the-back-during-wwii/ |title=The men and women who plotted to stab Britain in the back during WWII|publisher=Times of Israel|access-date= 30 June 2020}}</ref> His pro-Nazi and anti-war sympathies were expressed in an endorsement to the 1939 book ''The Case For Germany''.<ref name="case">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/TheCaseForGermany |title=The Case for Germany: A Study of Modern Germany |year=1939|first= Arthur Pillans |last=Laurie|publisher=Internationaler Verlag|page=7}}</ref>

==Second World War==
In 1940, Domvile was implicated as a participant in a fascist plot, organized by Leigh Vaughan-Henry, against the British government. Vaughan-Henry was reported to have already organized 18 cells of 25 members each for the coup, which was intended to take place when Germany landed in Britain. He was also implicated in another plot organized by [[Archibald Maule Ramsay]], the founder of the Right Club.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tate |first=Tim |date=2019-04-25 |title=Treason, Treachery and Pro-Nazi Activities by the British Ruling Classes During World War Two |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/99w0p17j |journal=CRWS Working Papers |language=en |pages=19-25}}</ref>

In June 1940, Domvile's mistress, Olive Baker, was arrested for distributing leaflets promoting [[Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk#Reichssender Hamburg|Reichssender Hamburg]]. She tried to commit suicide in prison and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.<ref>Gottlieb, Julie V. (2000) Feminine Fascism, Bloomsbury, p.281 {{ISBN|1-86064-918-1}}</ref> Domvile himself was [[internment|interned]] during [[Second World War]] under [[Defence Regulation 18B]] from 7 July 1940 to 29 July 1943.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1943/feb/10/civil-defence-detainees|title=Civil Defence (detainees)|date=10 February 1943|publisher=Hansard|access-date=26 October 2021}}</ref> During his wartime captivity, he wrote an autobiographical memoir, ''From Admiral to Cabin Boy''. It was first published in 1947 and republished in 2008.<ref>{{Cite book|title=From Admiral to Cabin Boy|last=Domvile|first=Admiral Barry|date=2008-05-15|publisher=Historical Review Press|isbn=9780906879771|location=Uckfield, Sussex}}</ref>

==Later life==
Domvile largely faded from public life in the postwar period. He denied the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] and continued to defend Germany, describing the war as a "punitive expedition" against a "nation which had rebelled against the financial system." Domvile decried the [[Nuremberg executions]] in October 1946, stating that, "The Nuremberg victims died bravely, and are more likely to survive in history as martyrs, than criminals." He later became a supporter of the [[League of Empire Loyalists]] but was never more than a peripheral figure in that group. Domvile was a member of the [[National Front (UK)|National Front]]'s National Council from its formation in 1967 to his death in 1971.<ref>Martin Walker, ''The National Front'', Fontana/Collins, 1977, p. 30</ref>

== Books ==
*''By and Large'', pub Hutchinson, 1936 (His autobiography)
*''From Admiral to Cabin Boy'' (1947; the cabin referred to is his cell at [[Brixton prison]] during internment) {{ISBN|0-89562-099-5}}; [https://archive.org/details/Domvile-FromAdmiralToCabinBoy1947/ online]
*''Look to Your Moat'' (A history of British naval and merchant seamen)
*''The Great Taboo: [[Freemasonry]]''
*''Straight from the Jew's Mouth''
*''Truth about [[Anti-Semitism]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
{{s-bef|before=[[William Wordsworth Fisher|William Fisher]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Naval Intelligence Division (United Kingdom)|Director of Naval Intelligence]]|years=1927–1930}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Cecil Vivian Usborne|Cecil Usborne]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[William Boyle, 12th Earl of Cork|Sir William Boyle]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Royal Naval College, Greenwich|President, Royal Naval College, Greenwich]]|years=1932–1934}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Ragnar Colvin|Sir Ragnar Colvin]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Directors of Naval Intelligence}}
{{UK far right}}
{{Fascism}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Domvile, Barry}}
[[Category:1878 births]]
[[Category:1971 deaths]]
[[Category:Anti-Masonry in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Royal Navy admirals]]
[[Category:British Holocaust deniers]]
[[Category:British neo-Nazis]]
[[Category:People detained under Defence Regulation 18B]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Royal Navy officers of World War I]]
[[Category:Directors of Naval Intelligence]]
[[Category:Admiral presidents of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich]]
[[Category:19th-century Royal Navy personnel]]
[[Category:Right Club members]]