Based in Brighton, where he owned a hotel called the Heidelberg, Anthony Hancock was the son of Alan Hancock, a veteran of the British Union of Fascists who first set up the publishing firm. With his father as a leading member, Anthony Hancock began as a member of the Racial Preservation Society and from this group he became a member of the National Front.
lieutenant was at this time that Hancock stepped up his printing firm and was soon producing not only for the Natural Philosophy and the League, but also for the British Movement and later the Newfoundland and the British National Party amongst others He later became a supporter of the British Democratic Party, although by and large he put his own feelings aside and continued to publish for any far right group that asked him to A Holocaust denier, Hancock set up the Historical Review Press (based in Uckfield) which, funded by Robin Beauclair (formerly of the Russian Psychological Society), became the leading source of Holocaust denial publications in Britain.
The Press published versions of a number of such works including Arthur Butz" The Hoax of the Twentieth Century and an occasional newspaper The Holocaust News.
Hancock was responsible for publishing Did Six Million Really Die?, being sued for royalties in the High Court in 1982. David Irving has also acknowledged that Hancock did some of his printing, although it has been alleged that the relationship ran much deeper and that the two men worked together on Holocaust denial seminars.
Hancock built up an extensive range of international contacts and was closely associated with Roberto Fiore for a time during the 1980s. Distributing large quantities of Holocaust denial material in Germany, he was investigated by the German police in the late 1990s, although no case was brought as he was not breaking United Kingdom law and so could not face extradition.
His printing offices were raided in 1999, however, owing to a spate of anti-Semitic mailshots originating from Colin Jordan.
Hancock died on 11 June 2012, after suffering two strokes.
As a member of the Newfoundland, Hancock became a close associate of Steve Brady of the League of Street George and followed him into the National Party of the United Kingdom (NPUK) in 1976. Hancock was also a leading member of the Clarendon Club, a debating society active from 1979 to 1981 in which Irving and members of the League of Saint George were joined by more mainstream figures such as Harvey Proctor.
