Gazette - 4/11/1914 - Appt. - East Africa Veterinary Corps - To be Captain - A.S. Leese

Gazette - 11/8/1915 - Appt. - EA Veterinary Corps - Resignation - Captain Arnold Spencer Leese

Web - Doctor Arnold Spencer-Leese (1877-1956) was a noted veterinarian, anti-Semite and fascist politician, born in 1877 in Lytham, Lancashire, England. He qualified as a veterinarian and moved to British India where he became an expert on the camel. He worked there for six years before becoming Camel Specialist for the East Africa Protectorate of the British Empire. He would remain an animal lover and teetotaler throughout his life.

He published numerous articles on the camel and its maladies, the first appearing in The Journal of Tropical Veterinary Science in 1909. He even had the dubious honor of having a camel parasite named after him: Thelazia Leesei. He joined the British Army at the start of World War I and served on the Western Front. He returned to England where he continued his practice, retiring and publishing a book, The One-Humped Camel in Health and in Disease (1928). A book which would remain a standard work in India for fifty years.

During his practice, he developed racist sentiments about Jews, reportedly caused by his disgust for kashrut, a set of laws dictating the correct form for preparing food and slaughtering animals. He developed conspiracy theories relating to a perceived Jewish threat to the British Empire, and became involved with fascist groups, starting in 1924. As a member of the British Fascists he was elected a councillor in Stamford, Lincolnshire that year, along with fellow Fascist Henry Simpson. In his autobiography, Leese wrote "We were the first constitutionally elected Fascists in England".

By 1928, having become disillusioned with the British Fascists, Leese became a founder member of the Imperial Fascist League. His anti-Semitism was hysterical in its intensity, even accusing rival Fascists of being soft on Jews. By 1933, he found his own Imperial Fascist League being eclipsed and overtaken by Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists. He greatly resented Mosley and dubbed him a "kosher fascist".

Leese's anti-Semitism earned him a spell in prison in 1936 when he was indicted along with fellow IFL member, Walter Whitehead, on six counts relating to two articles published in the July issue of The Fascist (the IFL newspaper). He was convicted and was gaoled for six months in lieu of a fine for causing a public mischief. He was one of the last leaders of the fascist movement to be interned in the United Kingdom at the beginning of World War II under the notorious Defence Regulation 18B.

Reputedly, he found a policeman leaning over a drawer in his bedroom when he returned home. Not being able to resist the temptation, Leese kicked the policeman in the buttocks![citation needed] Released on conditions in December 1943 because of ill health, Leese again returned to prison in 1947 for six months for his part in aiding escaping members of the Waffen SS. In 1951 he published his autobiography Out of Step: Events in the Two Lives of an Anti-Jewish Camel-Doctor.

After the war, Leese also published his own magazine, Gothic Ripples, which was largely concerned with attacking the Jews. A mentor of the young Colin Jordan, Leese left Jordan his Holland Park house (74 Princedale Road, London,W.11) on his death (although his widow retained the usufructuary), which, known for a very short spell as Arnold Leese House, would become Jordan's base of operations. Jordan later sold the house for a pittance while the Notting Hill area was still malfamed but estimations of the property reached well over £1 million in 2003.

Leader14 - Veterinary Officer, Jubaland

Gazette 1/7/1915 - Arrived on 1st Appointment - Veterinary Officer - 14/6/1913 - S. Leese

1939 England and Wales Register living with wife in Guildford