A Very British Sex Scandal

PROJECT
MFA

MODEL
Keith Hennings

ROLE
Director
Designer
Photographer

“Against the law” by Peter Wildeblood, is a powerful account of the author’s trial and imprisonment for his homosexually in 1954. Peter, a well educated journalist, a forced closet gay man, writting and destroying love letters to show his affection in post war London. It had to be secret, be underground. Inspired by his story, I created this piece to retell Peter’s famous trail and his role in the decriminalization of homosexually. A realistic human face to the story of Peter Wildeblood, as the strong and tender character as he was.

“RID ENGLAND OF THIS PLAGUE.”

In the cold war atmosphere of the 1950s, when witch hunts later called the Lavender Scare were ruining the lives of many gay men and lesbian women in the United States, the parallel political atmosphere in Britain was virulently anti-homosexual. The then Home Secretary, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, had promised “a new drive against male vice” that would “rid England of this plague.” As many as 1,000 men were locked up in Britain’s prisons every year amid a widespread police clampdown on homosexual offences. Undercover officers acting as “agents provocateurs” would pose as gay men soliciting in public places. The prevailing mood was one of barely concealed paranoia.

“I regard homosexuality is a cancer, eating to the root of ordinary decent human relations.” Every year, a thousand men were sent to jail for homosexual offenses. The maximal sentence for buggery was life imprisonment. Then, a sensational trial involving a leading “fleet street” journalist and Lord Montagu of Beaulieu electrified the nation. Itʼs out come so shook this establishment. The life, and the laws for homosexuals will never be same again.

“MOST NOTORIOUS PUBLIC FIGURE.”

Despite keeping his homosexual affairs discreet and out of the public eye, in the mid-1950s, Lord Montagu became “one of the most notorious public figures of his generation,” after his conviction and imprisonment for “conspiracy to incite certain male persons to commit serious offense with male persons,” a charge which was also used in the Oscar Wilde trials in 1895, and remained on the books until 1967.

“COMMIT INDECENT ACTS.”

On Saturday, January 9, 1954, Peter Wildeblood was arrested at his home and his house was searched. He was charged with conspiring with Edward Montagu and Michael Pitt-Rivers to incite Eddie McNally and John Reynolds to commit indecent acts. The police tipped off the press and the story was headlined in all the Sunday newspapers the next day. Eddie McNally and John Reynolds became witnesses for the prosecution. The media went on a feeding frenzy and his picture was plastered all over the front pages for weeks. One paper retouched his photos to make it appear that he was wearing lipstick. He was vilified in public.

Yes, I am.

What so troubled the decent people of the day was not that homosexual practices went on — everybody knew they always had and always would — but that anybody would openly declare himself to be “a homosexual.” He was in the news constantly until his conviction and sentencing to 18 months in prison. Because he was (understandably) depressed, he was considered suicidal and was transferred to a dire hospital for the criminally insane where the squalid conditions affected not only his mental health but also his physical health.

“AGAINST THE LAW.”

Peter was released after 12 months and immediately launched a personal crusade to overturn anti-gay sex laws in Britain. He lobbied in Parliament and wrote articles and a book entitled Against the Law which outlined how gay people can be entrapped and harassed in their own homes for consensual activity among adults which does not affect anyone else His three main points were that homosexuality between consenting adults in private ought not to be against the law, that prison only encourages homosexuality, and that in the squalor of prison hospitals there was no attempt at rehabilitation. While writing this he bought a small drinking club in Soho which attracted a mixture of types on the fringes of society. This provided material for his fictional autobiography about the club, A Way Of Life. It was a surprise success and encouraged him to write more novels and plays which were hits on stage in London’s West End in the late 1950s. In the ’60s he became a well-known TV scriptwriter and producer. In the ’70s he was lured by Canadian television with a lucrative contract, and emigrated to Canada, where he adopted Canadian citizenship and was responsible for numerous hit productions over the next 16 years..

Sometimes, when a man is dying, he directs that his body shall be given to the doctors, so that the causes of his suffering and death may be investigated, and the knowledge used to help others. I cannot give my body yet; only my heart and my mind, trusting that by this gift I can give some hope and courage to other men like myself, and to the rest of the world some understanding.