Noel Billing's Witch Hunt

 by Hamish Critchley

In the Autumn term issue of the Portsmouth Point magazine, entitled ‘Colour’, I wrote my article on the undiscussed Lavender Scare in 1960s America. The general fear was that as a homosexual working in federal employment, you could blackmailed into revealing ‘state secrets’ by Soviet-Russian spies. Spearheaded by Senator McCarthy, Cold War anti-Soviet anxiety ruined the lives of thousands of homosexuals across the country of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’. A testament to hypocrisy. However, this was not the first example of homophobic hysteria. There was a very similar situation that existed under the palpable atmosphere of First World War Britain.

By Spring 1918, a new German offensive had begun on the western front. Supported by an influx of Stormtroopers who had returned from the dissolved Russian-front, it nearly broke the British and French armies. After 4 years of the brutal War of Attrition, the British public back home were in a state of panic over the possibility that after everything the country had gone through, they still might lose. This panic began to centre around German spies and saboteurs who had infiltrated the English government and were causing this turn in the tide and a June 1918 trial at the Old Bailey Court House threatened to ignite the hysteria.

The Hertford 1916 by-election saw an eccentric, right wing, independent politician rise to MP. After trying almost every career under the sun from Law to boat selling, Noel Pemberton Billing decided to turn his hand at politics. Billing was obsessed with the idea of what he dubbed ‘The Hidden Hand’: the thought that the British establishment was essentially being puppetered by German spies. He is most famous for his ‘German Black Book’ which, he said, consisted of 47,000 ‘sexually depraved’ (secret code for homosexual) men and women that were being blackmailed by Germany - Its very hard not to mention McCarthy at this point as he shared almost the exact same fear tactics - and all Billing needed now was an arena for him to test his hysterical theory.

A private performance of the banned play ‘Salome’ was on show. The play was written by a homosexual playwrite Oscar Wilde and had been subsequently banned from stages nationwide. This private show seemed to be the perfect opportunity. Maud Allan, a Canadian dancer, was to star as the titular character. Billing implied she was a lesbian spy and accused the audience of being apart of the 47,000 traitors. Allan fell for the bait and sued Billing for libel.

The case had the intended effect on the starved, desperate nation who gripped onto it with both hands, transfixed. Britain had become a bed of hysteria and paranoia: perfect for a witch hunt. There were huge daily queues for the public gallery, whilst the atmosphere in court was described as “pantomime”, “circus”, and the gallery cheered like “spectators at a football match”. Billings witnesses claimed Prime Minister Asquith and his wife Margot were in the ‘Black Book’ and Billing himself accused Justice Charles Darling (“Little Darling'' if you're nasty), who happened to be overlooking the trial to be among the 47,000. The British public fell for all the finger pointing and began to fear Pro-German, homosexuals in high places and fears of a peoples revolt began to shake the grounds of parliament. After a 5-day trial, the jury decided their verdict, to acquit Billing of libelling Allan. The Public Gallery erupted in joy and as Billing came out he was mobbed by thousands of people. 

Although his train of homophic hysteria did not pick up again - as war began to decisively turn against the Germans and was over by November - it remains a frightening example of hysteria and homophobic paranoia. Furthermore there is no evidence Billings ‘German Black Book’ even existed which I'm sure some of you would have picked up on. The book was seemingly a fevered figment of one man's imagination that was seized upon by a people half driven mad by four years of loss and fear and hating.