Nationalist veteran Ken Kelly dies aged 90 .
One of the most controversial nationalist activists in North West England has died aged 90.
Ken Kelly had been involved in British Movement, the National Front, BNP, and then NF again at various times since the 1970s, living in Bamford, near Rochdale.
Almost forty years ago he was implicated by Searchlight informant Ray Hill for his illegal dealing in guns and ammunition. Now that Mr Kelly is dead, H&D can confirm that on this occasion the ‘anti-fascist’ press was not lying!
Mr Kelly and his late BM comrade Pete Brawley did indeed have access to a surprising range of weapons, including former British Army kit that had been ‘deactivated’ but then ‘reactivated’.
He also played a part in the tragic series of events that eventually led to the death of a British Army veteran, the brave and intelligent nationalist Chris Barker, whose experiences on several tours of active service in Ulster led to what was eventually diagnosed as combat stress (PTSD), with consequent alcohol and drug problems.
Chris got himself into debt with an unscrupulous Manchester gangster who (knowing that he was an ex-serviceman) said he could discharge the debt by obtaining an untraceable firearm. The gun was duly obtained – from Ken Kelly – and was used in an internal gangland feud.
A consequence of all this was that Chris Barker had to flee across the Pennines to Sheffield, where he fell into further bad company and died aged 43 in 2001.
By this time Ken Kelly was active in Rochdale BNP and remained a supporter of Nick Griffin’s leadership for several years, though hated by Chris Barker’s family and friends who were also longstanding nationalists and opposed to Griffin.
Eventually Ken Kelly left the BNP to rejoin the NF alongside his closest friend in the movement, eventual NF chairman Kevin Bryan.
Even in his mid-80s Ken Kelly travelled down to London to march to the Cenotaph with fellow NF members. His record in the movement will always remain controversial, but he was one of the last links to an earlier era in our movement when it was seriously believed that nationalists would need to arm themselves for race war – a far cry from today’s lunatic online posturing and autistic ‘terrorists’.
http://www.heritageanddestiny.com/nationalist-veteran-ken-kelly-dies-aged-90/
NWN: An interesting write up by Heritage & Destiny .
3 comments:
Kelly was as nutty as a fruitcake. He was forever getting banned from Rochdale NF meetings for his behaviour. In the early 1980's, he persuaded a young impressionable 16 year old NF member to go along with him to firebomb a very old chapel, on Moore street Rochdale - they were both jailed at Oldham Crown Court.
He never changed his behaviour even in later years.
He went along with his chum Kevin Bryan to hear David Irving speak in Rossendale . They both disagreed with one of Irvings views, and decided to leave the meeting at the break. But not before availing themselves of the buffet. The buffet was to be paid for by an entrance fee for the meeting. This is usual for Irvings meetings.
Both Kelly and Bryan failed to pay up, and just walked off and left after tucking into the buffet!
In the mid 2000's, Kelly went over to a BNP meeting in West Yorkshire possibly Keighley ?
Whilst there was a break in that meeting, a lady BNP Councillor sat down at the table Kelly was sat at. Kelly said he "needed to go" . But instead of going to the toilets, he did it under the table onto the floor whilst the lady Councillor was sat there !
You could write a book about Kelly and his obnoxious behaviour.
He put off a great many new recruits into nationalism, by his bizarre and crazy behaviour.
It was rather telling that the Police knew all about Kelly supplying the gun in this episode/murder. So why did he never get the knock ?
Kelly was also a member of the League of St George in the late 70's early 80's.
Post a Comment