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# Lady Mosley
## Lady Mosley, who died in Paris on Monday aged 93, was a friend of both
Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler, and decidedly more fascinated by the
Fuhrer.
![Lady Mosley][1]
Photo: Paul Cooper
12:01AM BST 13 Aug 2003
[Comments][2]
The third and the most beautiful of the six Mitford sisters (daughters of the
3rd Lord Redesdale), she left her first husband Bryan Guinness to unite her
destiny with Sir Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists. The
uncompromising temperament of the Mitfords, combined with Mosley's rebarbative
politics, involved renouncing the social life of which she had previously been
a leading ornament.
Three of Diana Mosley's sisters would follow her in forswearing England for a
mixture of a man and ideology. Nancy, her eldest sister, found in Gaston
Palewski the personification of her drooling Francophilia. Unity became
enamoured of Hitler and shot herself at the outbreak of the war. Jessica
became a Communist and married an American of that persuasion.
In Diana Mosley's memory, Sir Oswald was a figure of unequalled glamour. "He
had every gift, being handsome, generous, intelligent, and full of wonderful
gaiety and _joie de vivre_. Of course I fell in love with him . . . and I have
never regretted the step I took then."
She left Bryan Guinness in 1932, just as Mosley was forming the British Union
of Fascists. To the horror of her family and friends - her father forbade her
younger sisters to see her again - she set up house with her two small sons in
Eaton Square, and placed herself at the Leader's disposal.
Yet it was for an uncertain future that she had cast herself away. Mosley's
first wife Cimmie, Lord Curzon's daughter, was still alive; and Mosley showed
no disposition to leave her. "I never dreamed of marrying him," Diana
remembered.
It was as though the fairy princess had been carried off by the demon king. As
Diana Guinness, she had been a leader of a set which included Augustus John,
the Sitwells, Henry Yorke, Evelyn Waugh, Roy Harrod and Robert Byron. Lytton
Strachey paid her court.
Her photograph regularly stared from the covers of the society weeklies; her
portrait was painted again and again. The face always seemed to come out the
same - large, calm, and staring vacantly into space. "She was getting like
that in real life too," her sister Jessica acidly observed.
The death of Cimmie Mosley from peritonitis in May 1933 made possible a
lifetime commitment to the Leader of the Blackshirts, which she would honour
through every adversity. At first, it seemed that she might keep him within
the bounds of respectability. "The Leader is so clever and in his way so
civilised and English," she explained to Roy Harrod in 1933, "that [his
Blackshirts] could not be comparable to the German movement. But if everyone
of sensibility, charm and intelligence shuns him, there is definitely a danger
that he will come to regard those virtues as vicious and the possessors of
them as enemies."
But that same year, on the invitation of Hitler's stooge Putzi Hansfstaengl,
Diana Guinness visited Nazi Germany. For her sister Unity, who accompanied
her, the holiday was the beginning of an obsession that would destroy her
life. Diana was also deeply impressed, and ever afterwards disposed to ignore
what she heard of anti-semitism and concentration camps.
Unity Mitford finally succeeded in making Hitler's acquaintance in January
1935, and in March proudly introduced him to her sister. Diana Guinness, in
the full flower of her beauty, made a considerable impression; she herself was
dazzled. "His eyes were dark blue," Diana rhapsodised about Hitler, "his skin
was fair and his brown hair exceptionally fine. In certain moods he could be
very funny. He was extremely polite towards women. He was the most
unselfconscious politician I have ever come across. He never sought to
impress, he never bothered to act a part. If he felt morose, he was morose. If
he was in high spirits he talked brilliantly."
Later in 1935 Irene Ravensdale, sister of Mosley's first wife, found the
picture of Hitler in Diana Guinness's house at Wootton, in Staffordshire,
"particularly painful". Certainly, Diana's partiality for the Fuhrer quite
outran that of Mosley, who later in life would refer to Hitler as "a terrible
little man".
On October 6 1936, two days after the Blackshirts' humiliating withdrawal from
Cable Street, Diana secretly married Mosley in Berlin - a wedding arranged
under the auspices of Dr Goebbels, whose wife Magda was a friend of Diana's.
Hitler came to dinner after the wedding, presenting a picture of himself in an
eagle-topped silver frame. Afterwards, the newly-weds had a fierce quarrel:
"We went to bed in dudgeon."
Diana Mosley continued to visit Germany frequently, being involved in
negotiations to set up an independent radio station to broadcast to Britain
from Heligoland; Mosley hoped that this scheme would finance his movement. She
had several private late-night meetings with Hitler in the Chancellery, and he
invited her to Bayreuth.
Mosley, meanwhile, took the line that Britain should stay out of any conflict
with Germany, in order to preserve the Empire by leaving Hitler a free hand in
Europe. As Hitler swept through France in May 1940 Mosley was arrested and
imprisoned in Brixton under Defence Regulation 18b, which empowered the Home
Secretary to detain in prison "any particular person if satisfied that it is
necessary to do so".
In fact, Mosley had frequently declared he would fight for his country in the
event of an invasion. But there were many politicians, particularly in the
Labour Party, who had scores to pay off. By this time the Mosleys were such
pariahs that when Diana gave birth to their youngest son in April 1940 many
Britons were inspired to write that they were coming to pour vitriol over her
babies.
The Mitfords were cousins of Clementine Churchill, the Prime Minister's wife,
and as a girl Diana Mosley used to stay with the Churchills at Chartwell. This
did not prevent her imprisonment in Holloway at the end of June 1940.
The conditions under which Diana was imprisoned were ghastly, but she was
never one to sue for mercy. Interviewed by a Home Office Advisory Committee
under Lord Birkett in 1940, she put her worst foot forward. She admitted that
she would like to replace the British political system with the German one
"because we think it has done well for that country". Did she approve of the
Nazi policies against Jews? "Up to point," she declared. "I am not fond of
Jews."
When her lawyer asked if she knew anyone in the government who might help, she
gave further hostages to fortune. "Know anyone in the government?" she cried.
"I know all the Tories beginning with Churchill. The whole lot deserve to be
shot." This was reported to Churchill, who was not amused.
Not until December 1941, after the intervention of Diana's brother Tom with
the Prime Minister, was Mosley allowed to join her in married quarters at
Holloway. After two more years, in November 1943, they were both released on
grounds of Mosley's health, and placed under house arrest until the end of the
war.
Evelyn Waugh, who encountered Diana Mosley when she was just out of prison,
told his daughter that he was shocked to observe that his friend was wearing a
swastika diamond brooch. But then the Mitfords had been brought up to pay
scant attention to the opinion of others.
Diana Freeman-Mitford was born on June 17 1910 into a family which her sister
Nancy would immortalise in _Love in a Cold Climate_. Their parents, Lord and
Lady Redesdale, featured as Uncle Matthew and Aunt Sadie. The family first
came to prominence in the 18th century, when John Mitford was Speaker of the
House of Commons and (as Lord Redesdale) Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His son
was raised to an earldom in 1877, but nine years later both titles became
extinct.
The Redesdale title would be revived for a cousin, Bertie (pronounced "Barty")
Mitford, whose great-grandfather was William Mitford, celebrated as the author
of _The History of Greece_. Bertie's second son, David, Diana's father,
married Sydney, daughter of "Tap" Bowles, the founder of _Vanity Fair_ and
_The Lady_. Their only boy, Tom, was killed in Burma in 1944. Of the more
orthodox daughters, the second, Pamela, married Professor Derek Jackson; and
Debo, the sixth, is the present Duchess of Devonshire.
Diana remembered her father with a great deal more affection than Nancy or
Jessica did. "Not only did he make us scream with laughter at his lovely
jokes," she wrote, "but he was very affectionate. Certainly he had a quick
temper, and would often rage, but we were never punished."
In 1919 Lord Redesdale sold the house his father had built at Batsford,
Gloucestershire, and moved to Astall Manor in Oxfordshire. The children loved
it, and Diana, "in a supreme effort to make money", kept chickens, pigs and
calves. A succession of governesses - Diana thought 15 - abandoned the attempt
to instil some education. Nevertheless, Diana read avidly, and though regarded
as soft-hearted by her sisters imbibed her share of the family's tough style.
"Do try to hang on this time, darling," Jessica remembered her saying when
riding. "You know how cross Muv will be if you break your arm again."
The idyll at Astall did not last; after six years Lord Redesdale decided to
build a new house on the hill above Swinbrook. It turned out to be a
monstrosity, but for the children there was the compensation that he also
bought a large house in London, at 26 Rutland Gate. In 1926 Diana was sent to
stay in Paris, where she attended a day school and in six months learnt more
than she had during six years in England.
Evelyn Waugh thought that her beauty "ran through the room like a peal of
bells". Jim Lees-Milne, who was a friend of Tom Mitford's at Eton, remembered
her as "the most divine adolescent I ever beheld: a goddess, more immaculate,
more perfect, more celestial than Botticelli's sea-borne Venus". In 1928 this
vision came to the attention of Bryan Guinness, and within weeks they were
engaged.
Lady Redesdale objected strenuously to her prospective son-in-law on the
grounds that he was "so frightfully rich". Nancy Mitford thought he was
perfectly all right, but could not imagine why her sister should want to marry
him. Eventually, though, consent was granted, and the wedding took place on
January 30 1929.
Apart from her two sons, the most notable achievement of Diana Guinness's
first marriage was a spoof exhibition of the works of a mythical artist called
Bruno Hat. Brian Howard produced most of the paintings; Evelyn Waugh wrote the
catalogue and Tom Mitford impersonated Hat.
At Biddesdon, their country house near Andover, Diana was able for the first
time to employ her talent for interior decoration. At the end of her life she
expressed gratitude for having lived in three beautiful houses: Biddesdon,
Wootton and, from 1950, the pretentiously entitled (though not by the Mosleys)
Temple de la Gloire on the outskirts of Paris; the house was known to their
foes as "The Concentration of Camp".
After the Second World War, the Mosleys lived on a farm at Crowood, near
Ramsbury in Wiltshire. Though largely ignored by the local residents, they
appeared content in their self-sufficiency; whatever else might be said about
them, no one could deny the success of their marriage.
In 1951 Mosley, now obsessed with the ideal of creating a united Europe,
decided to leave England and divide his time between the Temple de la Gloire
and a house he had bought in Galway. "You don't clear up a dungheap from
underneath it," he commented of his decision to leave England.
In France, Diana Mosley edited _The European_, a magazine that boasted
contributions from Ezra Pound, Henry Williamson and Roy Campbell. She herself
contributed reviews and comment, showing a sharpness that would not have
shamed her sister Nancy.
Her loyalty to Mosley remained absolute, though she did venture to suggest,
when he stood for North Kensington in 1959, that the use by his supporters of
such terms as "fuzzy wuzzies" was not likely to bolster his credentials as a
serious politician. In Paris, the Mosleys discovered that they had much in
common with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and in 1980 Diana published a
book on the Duchess.
If Diana Mosley never enjoyed the literary success of her sister Nancy, she
was undoubtedly happier. Thrusting aside all remembrance of Nancy's betrayal
of her during the war, Diana proved the main consolation in her sister's
painful and protracted final illness, which ended in 1973. But she never made
her peace with Jessica, who had declared at the end of the war that the
Mosleys should be thrown back into prison. "She's a rather boring person
really," Diana concluded.
Sir Oswald Mosley died in 1980, and a year later Diana Mosley suffered from a
brain tumour. It turned out to be benign and was operated upon successfully.
While convalescing she was visited by Lord Longford. "Of course, he thinks I'm
Myra Hindley," Diana remarked.
Although her book of memoirs, _A Life of Contrasts_ (1977), was deliberately
provocative, most of those who met her found her a delightful companion, while
to her sisters' children she was Aunt Honks. On one subject, however, she
remained incorrigible.
"They will go on persecuting me until I say Hitler was ghastly," she
acknowledged. "Well, what's the point in saying that? We all know he was a
monster, that he was very cruel and did terrible things. But that doesn't
alter the fact that he was obviously an interesting figure. It was fascinating
for me, at 24, to sit and talk with him, to ask him questions and get answers,
even if they weren't true ones. No torture on earth would get me to say
anything different."
"I was very fond of him," she admitted in an interview in 2000. "Very, very
fond."
Of her sons from her first marriage, the elder, Jonathan, is the 3rd Lord
Moyne, while the younger, Desmond, founded the Irish Georgian Society. There
were two sons from her second marriage; the younger, Max, is President of the
Federation Internationale de l'Automobile.
_Published August 13 2003_
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