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File ref KV 2/2309-2313
Budd has a position of some prominence in the history of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) as its first elected county councillor, for Worthing in West Sussex. An associate of Oswald Mosley and friend of William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw"), Budd was watched closely by the authorities, as can be seen from these files.
KV 2/2309 runs from 1933, when the local police began to report Budd's connections to the BUF in some detail, to 1940. There is correspondence relating to his arrest for riot and assault with Mosley in 1934 in Worthing, where Budd had his base. The file includes reports of his activities and some intercepted correspondence. It also contains references to his unstable mental state on account of the injuries received in the First World War. Budd was detained in June 1940 under section 18B of the defence regulations, and correspondence relating to this and to his appeal against internment are in KV 2/2310 (1940). This file also includes the original postcards sent to Budd from Germany in 1938 by his secretary, Miss Baker. One of these includes her brief first-hand account of her visit to a rally addressed by Hitler.
Budd was released from internment in May 1941, after a judge ruled that the original detention had been mishandled by the Home Office following Budd's application for a writ of Habeus Corpus. The case concerned staff at the Home Office, and one account on the file (KV 2/2311) states: "The Bentinck-Budd case has caused a serious commotion in the Home Office. They are shaken to the core about it..." Budd was re-interned on a new order in July 1941, and this new order stood up to legal scrutiny (as detailed in this and in KV 2/2312, covering 1942-1943). Budd was eventually released from internment due to ill-health, and the file shows how the Security Service intervened to prevent him re-enlisting in the Army.
As Budd grew less active, the file on his activity gradually thins, but there is one last item of interest in KV 2/2313 (1944-1954), an original file taken from the Italian archives in Rome in 1946 of correspondence relating to Budd, including his appeals for copies of signed photographs of Mussolini. Budd himself wrote in June 1937: "It is unnecessary for me to say how proud I would be to be able to meet the Duce, before returning to England, to take up my Fascistic duties."