John Tyndall, former chairman of the National Front and founder of the British National Party, was found dead at his home in Sussex. There were no suspicious circumstances. He was 71.
Tyndall operated on the far-right fringe of British politics for five decades, espousing policies based on racial hatred and Aryan superiority.
A Hitler-admirer, he was photographed in front of a portrait of the leader of Nazi Germany.
Tyndall was first politically active in the League of Empire Loyalists, a right-wing pressure group.
In 1957 he and John Bean left to form the National Labour Party.
The Labour Party prevented the use of this name, and in 1960 it merged with the White Defence League of Colin Jordan to form the old British National Party.
Army
Tyndall became deputy national organiser of this party and deputy commander of a private army set up by Colin Jordan called Spearhead, based on the SA of Nazi Germany.
The police prosecuted Jordan, Tyndall and two others for paramilitary organising.
Tyndall left the old British National Party with Colin Jordan in 1962 when he set up the National Socialist Movement, but fell out with him.
He formed the Greater Britain Movement in 1964, taking most of the members of the National Socialist Movement.
When the National Front was formed in 1967 he swiftly rose to the rank of Chairman.
Internal recriminations saw Tyndall removed from all his positions and he opted to depart, setting up first the New National Front, then changing its name to the British National Party in 1982.