Trudy Gold
The Strange Case of Diana Mitford and Oswald Mosley

Trudy Gold -The Strange Case of Diana Mitford and Oswald Mosley

- Good evening, everyone. And of course today I’m going back to the extraordinary Mitford sisters. And you will remember that last week I was talking about the family. And if you remember, there were six daughters and one son. They came from an incredibly privileged background. They were wealthy, you can see from these pictures, they were blessed with good luck and beauty. And above all, I think, they had a totally cushioned life. Yes, for the psychologist amongst you, their family was completely eccentric. The father was a bit of a tartar. The mother was quite a distant sort of woman. But the girls had their own language. Now girls in those days, in that kind of class, were seldom allowed to have a formal education. They had 15 governesses, but they both became both, in fact, all of the girls became incredibly interested in ideas, and they all in their own way became writers. So I’m going to start with Jessica because as I was saying to Wendy, take those two girls who come from the same background. Diana is older than Jessica. She is the fourth child. Jessica is the second to last. The baby of the Mitfords was Deborah, who in fact married the Duke of Devonshire, who was a huge supporter of the state of Israel. But you can just imagine, they’re bought up in these steep stately homes. They’re very close to the Churchill family. The seven Mitford children mixed a lot with the five Churchill children. They were at home in all sorts of circles, and they did play around with ideas. They even had almost their own language. And when they were close, when they were young, Diana and Jessica were incredibly close.

But we’re going to see that politically and emotionally, they’re going to totally part company and they will not be reunited until a very brief meeting at the bedside of their sister Nancy, who I talked about last week, who of course died in Paris. So that’s just to show you a picture of the two beautiful Mitford sisters. I’m going to begin by giving you a bit of background to Jessica. So can we go on, please? So Jessica is born in 1917. She’s the 6th of the seven children. Later on, she herself described her father. She said, he was an appeaser, this is what she said, her father was a real appeaser and she talked about Nazism. Hitler had crushed the trade unions, he crushed the Communist Party, he had crushed the Jews. And don’t forget, there is a huge strain of anti-Semitism in the English upper classes now. So from quite a young age, she was the rebel of the family. She was called the red sheep of the family. She actually became very left wing as a teenager. You’ve got to see this as a background to the politics of the time. And next month, in September, William will beginning to address the ‘20s and '30s in England as will I. And basically, it’s important that you remember the horror of the First World War, the response to that amongst a certain class, the wealthy in England, the gay young things as it were against the backdrop, particularly after 1929, in the Wall Street Crash, of the misery of the people, and then the abdication crisis, a huge change in politics and polarisation of politics because, of course, communism, the Communist Revolution, Stalin in power.

Now the majority of the left had no idea what was really going on in Stalin’s Russia so those of them who hated fascism turned red. And the other point to make is the aristocracy were terrified of communism. Anyone who had a vested interest, the same as those of you who live in the states, the same was absolutely true of the states, it crushed an old order. And there was this fear, this is Trotsky’s communism, that once you bring one down, all the countries will follow, the Communist International. So the big fear was communism. And as a response, many upper class English, many ordinary English, actually welcomed Hitler as someone who could control the trade unions and keep Germany strong. So, and there was also a natural sympathy between certain elements of the British upper classes and the Germans, because don’t forget there had been so much intermarriage, particularly with the royal family and the aristocracy and the German aristocracy. Even though the Kaiser had fallen, you still had the German aristocrats. And when young Englishmen went on their grand tours, many of them finished up in Germany. And the other point to make, of course, is that you have Mussolini in Italy. So the polarisation of politics is going to be fought out in the Mitford home, because obviously, Jessica, who was very politically aware quite early on, turned to the left. And did she do it to spite her parents? Did she do it to spite her sisters? But the point was she was very much of the left. And one of her heroes, can we see the next slide, please?

One of our heroes was a man called Esmond Romilly. He was Churchill’s nephew. He was a very interesting young man. He refused to go to Eton. He went, can we see the next slide, please? He instead went to Wellington College. He himself had fought in Spain in the Civil War. So even before she met her second cousin, he was a bit of a hero. She met him when she was 19 years old, when he was in England, recuperating from wounds he had received in Spain. Can we have a look at the next slide, please, Karina? There you see the Spanish Civil War, that terrible war. Of course, the extraordinary painting of Guernica, the war between the left and the right, and of course, Franco in the end took power in Spain and made it into a totalitarian country. But many young people, young idealists from all over Europe and America, went to fight in the Spanish Civil War. In fact, I had a great uncle who only recently died who did the same thing. And he talked about the highlight of his life, I think, was those days in Spain. But he was a communist when he went. And when he came back, he was totally disillusioned. But important to remember, a whole generation were infused with these ideas. Those who believed in a better world, a more equal world, don’t, I can’t reiterate enough, the economic crisis of the '20s and '30s. You know, by 1932, there were 2 million unemployed in England alone, and England had been victorious in the war.

So you can imagine also what was happening in Germany. Now, she has fallen madly in love with the idea of Esmond Romilly and also with the idea of the Spanish Civil War. And they eloped. They eloped, and of course this produces a huge scandal. They remember our important aristocrats. There’s even a headline in one of the newspapers about the elopement of the Peer’s Daughter. And he managed to, Lord Redesdale, through his connections, family connections as well, managed to try and persuade Anthony Eden to send a gunboat. In the end, the mother reaches Lady Redesdale who of course later on becomes such a fascist. She meets them in Bayonne and she brings with her a silk dress and she persuades them to marry, and they finally marry and they refuse to go home. And they come to London. Romilly wants no help from his family, and he becomes a writer with the News Chronicle. They lived quite a poor life and they had a daughter who unfortunately died in a measles epidemic. And it’s interesting because when the daughter was born, Diana, who by this time, and we’ll be talking about that later, had thrown in her lot with Oswald Mosley, who was the leader of the British Union of Fascists. What she actually sent a present to the baby and it was sent back. Basically she sent, she wrote to her sister and said, never send presents.

And that was their last direct communication, as I said, until they are going to meet over the deathbed of their sister, Nancy. Now, just to continue with the story of Jessica, what happened is that Romilly, when war breaks out, remember, they go to America where they become involved in the avant-garde scene in New York and Romilly enlists in the Royal Canadian Air Force. And, of course, he is unfortunately, he was killed in a bombing raid in November 1941. And when Churchill went to America, of course, as war leader to try and this is before America enters the war, he of course was often in America, he was half-American, he did go and see Jessica because they were family. And as children, as I said to you, they spent a lot of time together. And Diana, who was really the beauty of the family, Randolph Churchill, Winston’s eldest son, had a total crush on her. So what happens is, with Jessica, because the way I’m going to do it, I’m going to take Jessica’s life through and then go back to Diana, so she throws herself into left-wing politics, she throws herself into work. And then in 1943, can we see the next slide? She meets a civil rights lawyer, a man called Robert Treuhaft. Now he is fascinating. Why is he fascinating? Because he is the son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants and he had become obviously a brilliant young man from a relatively poor background, and he had gone to Harvard Law School and he becomes a civil rights lawyer. He is fighting for the poor, for the oppressed, for those who have nothing. And he is really, really an activist. And even though Esmond Romilly appears to have been the love of her life, letters show that she was very close to Treuhaft, and in fact they had a very, very good marriage, and he had a very conventional Jewish mother. And I think for the first time, she began to understand what a family could be. She’d had two children with Romilly.

Tragically, the daughter, Julia, had died in the measles epidemic, but she had another daughter who was born after Romilly was dead. She had two sons by Treuhaft. And unfortunately, one of her sons by Treuhaft actually died in a road accident. Her surviving son described his mother as a matter-of-fact mother and not much of a touchy feely mother. Obviously, she had never really learnt, and this is a very interesting question, does one learn how to be a mother or is it an acquired characteristic? But certainly, from her very strange upbringing, she’d had no parental example from her own mother. So important to remember, when they are in New York, they are really politically active. They become active members of the Communist Party. They, in fact, later on, when after the war, when there is this the red scare, what happens is, they’re both summoned to testify at the McCarthy hearings at HUAC, and they refused to give names. Now Nancy becomes a very, I beg your pardon, Jessica becomes a very famous figure. And after her sister Nancy wrote Noblesse Oblige on the British class system, she was a great wit, Jessica, she wrote Life Itselfmanship or How to Become a Precisely-Because Man. And what she does in this book is actually to mock the cliches used by her comrades in the all out class struggle. She was beyond all of that.

She fought passionately for human rights, for civil rights. But on the other hand, she was very, very clever and she had this fascinating sense of humour. And I’m sure many of you who’ve been involved in left-wing circles will know the careful precision and use of language. And she mocks it in this very, very funny, in this very, very funny book. In fact, later on, she’s going to resign from the party in 1958 because she said it had become rather useless. And in 1960, she wrote Hons and Rebels, which is her memorial to the Mitford family life. Now she continues with, can we see the cover of Hons and Rebels? It’s a very, very interesting book. And honestly, if you have the time, read The Mitfords. I’m not saying they’re great literature, but what they are is they are an incredible record of a certain time in history written by people who were at the centre of things. And it gives the other side of Nancy’s story. And I should mention, there was one sister who tried to keep it all together and that was Deborah. Deborah the youngest who had married the Duke of Devonshire. When she married him, he was not the heir. Tragically, his brother was killed in the war, so he becomes the heir, she becomes the Duchess of Devonshire. She tried to keep peace in the family. In fact, when Lord Redesdale died, he didn’t leave Jessica anything, even though later on we’re going to find out he was furious with Diana and with Unity, and in fact, fascism broke his marriage because Sydney sided with them over Hitler, nevertheless, it was Jessica who he refused to leave any of his property to. So this is the memoir she wrote on the family, which horrified the family. But her real work was in fighting civil rights. And in May 1961, she’s in Montgomery, Alabama. Can we see the next slide?

Yes. She went with the Freedom Riders. She is writing for an American newspaper, she has to earn a living. So like many of these bright young things, she’s already an important writer, and she goes with the freedom rides and she gets caught up in a terrible riot when they are attacked by the Ku Klux Klan. They then went on to, Martin Luther King Jr. rally in Alabama in Montgomery. Again, the Klan attacks, and they’re all boarded up in a church and they are there all night. They’re barricaded in until the Alabama National Guard arrived. She was strong. She was brave. She fought for her cause. And I think we have to say that even about Diana, because Diana, who personally I find absolutely abhorrent, on the other hand, she was a strong woman who did fight for her corner. Now Treuhaft, he spends most of his time fighting for the rights of unions and also for the workers. And he’s very interested in how funeral parlours and how the industry of death as he called it, really exploits the workers. And it led to her writing her next book, can we see it, please? The American Way of Death, which became a best seller and it led to congressional hearings about the funeral industry. She’s becoming a very important voice in America because by this time there’s a complete political change. McCarthyism is dead. And then, of course, you move into the far more liberal era of the Kennedys. And basically, she is a very important voice. She continues with her investigative journalism and she is given a semester at San Jose University. And she taught, this is much later on, she taught a course on McCarthyism. She had huge disagreements over the dean because he wanted her to take the loyalty oath and also submit to fingerprinting, which she refused to do. And she took the university to court and she actually won.

So basically her last novel was A Fine Old Conflict. Can we see the next slide, please? Which, again, is on this particular issue and also the whole issue of right and left and also the whole issue of her family. So, Jessica, and of course we are going to weave her in, in fact, her son is still alive, he lives in England. And my daughter, who’s also an investigative journalist, she actually interviewed him and I’m trying to think of a way of trying to bring him to you because I think that would be, and that would be of interest. So basically, can we now turn to the other sister? But I do advise you, I’m trying to whet your appetite. I really do advise you to read her books just as I’ve advised you to read Nancy, even if you like read Diana. I should mention one more thing. David Pryce-Jones, who’s a brilliant historian, he’s still alive, he wrote a biography of Unity and the family were horrified. I actually think it’s a very good book. But you’ve got to remember she was their sister and Jessica made all sorts of people available to him and that really put the knife into the family. So as I said, the only sister she really had a proper relationship with was Deborah. So can we have a look at Diana, please? I’ve called it the strange case of Diana Mitford and Oswald Mosley. Let’s have a look. Now, Diana was seen very much as the beauty of the family. They were all pretty good looking girls. She was the fourth child and the third daughter of Baron Redesdale. I should mention here, the joy of Lockdown University, I had an amazing note from Lady Aurelia Young, who of course is the daughter of the brilliant sculptor Nemon. And she sent me a picture of her mother with Tom Mitford.

And in fact, I hope she’s online, because Wendy’s already suggested this can go in our online archive if Lady Aurelia is in agreement. So that’s what I think is so special about Lockdown. We have people from different countries, different experiences, and quite often we get this kind of information sent to us, so thank you for that very much. Now, like all the girls, she was educated by governesses except for a six-month period in 1926 when this was between the family moving from one house to another and she was allowed to go to Paris. And in Paris, this beautiful young girl, she’s 16 years old, you can just imagine. And because of who she was, every door is open to her. So you can just kind of imagine the kind of life that she lived in Paris, which completely horrified her parents. And she had so many of admirers, even as a young woman. And we know that at a visit to Chartwell, she met Professor Lindemann, who was the prime advisor on science to Winston and in World War II. And he was a very strange individual. He actually believed that a small circle of intelligent aristocrats should run the world. He supported eugenics. He believed that the working classes should be kept down, but he had a huge influence on the young Diana and he loved beautiful things, so he often took her to lunch where she was chaperoned by her brother Tom. She often, she acquired a lot of her knowledge, because she was so beautiful, brilliant men were drawn to her.

And she would listen, listen, listen. And also to Tom’s friends. And they would recommend books to her. So basically, even though she didn’t have what one would think was of a good education, she had an eclectic education. You see her father disapproved of schools for girls, but as I told you, they had 15 governesses between them. And in Paris, she also expanded her ideas. Now in the season of 1928, she becomes the toast of London. And it’s there that she meets the man who is going to be her future husband. Can we have a look at the next slide, please? This is her at a party, her coming out ball. Now this is later on when she’s married. It’s actually the year she meets Oswald Mosley. She’s only 22 and married when she meets Mosley. And this is where she is dressed by Cecil Beaton. This gives you also think it’s 1932. Look at the ostentation, look at the beauty, and think of the poverty. And think of Jessica’s response. But this is Diana at a party. And can we go on, please? The next slide. She meets Bryan Guinness, who is the son of Walter Guinness, Lord Moyne. Now you will have, those of you who follow Lockdown will remember the name Lord Moyne, because of course he was a very close friend and relative of Churchill’s, and he was minister for the Middle East. And later on, he was assassinated by the Lehi in 1944. Now he of course was the great grandson of the Potter. He was hugely wealthy. He’d been chairman of the Pop Society at Eton. He was incredibly popular. He was an adventurer, he was a travel writer, ridiculously rich. They had homes everywhere. In fact, the home in Hampstead, Iveagh House, was given to the nation. There’s a wonderful art collection there. And she is courted by his son.

So let’s have a look at Bryan Guinness. There you see Diana with Bryan Guinness. Now, Bryan Guinness, the second son, he was not like his father, he was a gentle, rather refined man. He’d been to Eton, he didn’t do so well at Eton, but he wrote an awful lot of poetry to Diana. He falls madly in love with her and he become, he is Lord Moyne’s heir. And although her parents thought that she was too young, in the end, they managed to persuade the parents. And she is married on January the 30th, 1929. His income is 20,000 a year, over one and a quarter million in today’s money. He had an estate in Wiltshire, he had lands in London and in Dublin. They’re very much part of the bright young things of the roaring '20s and '30s. Evelyn Waugh dedicated his book Vile Bodies to the couple. He was a huge admirer of Diana. She was kind of a rarefied goddess. And many young men of ambivalent sexuality absolutely adored her. And also those of sexuality. She was painted by Augustus John. She’s going to have two sons by Bryan, Jonathan and Desmond. And she is the toast of London. Their home, 10 Grosvenor Place, was very much the centre of not just bright young things, but also of intellectual life. A lot of Bryan’s Oxford friends come and it becomes the mecca for the beautiful people, the Oxford coterie, evening war was there all the time. And whilst she was confined to the birth of her third son, he was 10 pounds when he was born, Auberon Waugh spent so much time with her. She was totally spoiled. They bought their own country house.

She becomes close to Lytton Strachey who part of the Bloomsbury crowd. And in fact, next month, David Herman’s going to lecture on them. So she’s at the centre and she’s clever, remember. She’s at the centre, not just of the bright young things, but also of intellectual life. But she becomes rather bored with her husband. And she is going to meet at a party, at a dinner party, at the home of Emerald Cunard, she’s going to meet a man who is going to rock her world and actually rock Britain, and that is Sir Oswald Mosley. Can we see the next slide, please? Now Sir Oswald Mosley, if ever there was an example of a man of unbelievable talent who destroyed himself for hubris and horror, it’s Oswald Mosley. He had every privilege and also he had a brilliant brain. He was born in Mayfair. He was the eldest of three sons of Sir Oswald Mosley. His family traced its origins back to King John. His father was a third cousin to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who of course had married the youngest son of George V, of later George VI of England. His parents had separated. You know, I know Wendy’s always interested in the psychological angle. And just as Diana came from a very fractured background, his parents had separated, he went to live with his mother and paternal grandfather, he was educated at Winchester. He had it all. He was a fencing champion. He was a great sportsman. He then goes on to Sandhurst, the military college.

He’s expelled from Sandhurst from rioter’s behaviour. It was act of retaliation against another boy. World War I breaks out, he’s in the cavalry, he fought in France, he joins the Flying Corps. He was actually injured during a demonstration, a showoff demonstration, he crashed, which gave him a permanent limp. He was wounded in France. He finished the war with a desk job at the Ministry of Munitions. Now, he’s always a womaniser. Evidently, he was extraordinarily attracted to women and he makes a brilliant marriage. Can we go on, please? He marries Lady Cynthia Curzon, who is the daughter, the second daughter of the Viceroy of India. He married her at the Chapel Royal St. James’s Palace, and it was the social event of the year. Can we have a look at it? Can you see the next slide and then go back to that if you don’t mind, Karina, go on. Go on to the great social event of the week. In fact, it was the social event of the year, the Mosley-Curzon wedding. Of course, George V and his wife were there. There were foreign dignitaries there. Foreign royalty were there. They married at the Chapel Royal St. James’s Palace. And the problem was he was a total philander. He’s not going to just have affairs with many, many other women, but he even has an affair with his wife’s sister, Baba Metcalfe, who was married to Fruity Metcalfe, who was equerry to the son of George V later, Edward VIII. So you’re dealing with a man who really believed he was above the law, above everything. He also had an affair with his wife’s father’s second wife.

Okay? And I want to go back briefly to Lord Curzon so you get a picture of the world that he inhabited. Now, Lord Curzon was a fascinating character. He was a statesman. He was formerly, he was Viceroy of India, 1899 to 1905. He himself had been educated at Eton and Oxford. This was the pathway, the aristocracy. Remember, MPs were not paid at this time. They go into politics out of a kind of paternalism. His mother died when he was 16. His father was a very austere character. He himself believed that landowners should remain on their land, not indulge in pleasure. He unfortunately, had a very sadistic governor, governess, but Curzon, when he was in Oxford, he was President of the Union. And a poem was written at Balliol, Balliol College, they used to write doggerels about each other. And this was the doggerel about Lord Curzon which stuck. He said that little doggerel did a lot of harm to his career because he was a very serious guy. He said this, my name is, this is the doggerel. My name is George Nathaniel Curzon. I am a most superior person. My cheek is pink, my hair is sleek. I dine at Blenheim once a week. And of course, Blenheim the home of the Dukes of Marlborough, Churchill family. It’s important you realise how interrelated they all were. He’s going to, he was a huge traveller. After Oxford, he broke all his father’s rules. He went to Russia, he went to Asia, he went to what was then called Persia, Siam, French Indochina, Korea, Afghanistan. He travelled, he was a great travel writer, as was Lord Moyne. He believed Russia was the greatest threat to British India. Remember, this is way before the Russian Revolution. He wrote many political books and he later of course becomes foreign secretary. But before that, he was Viceroy of India. Our American colleagues will be interested in this because he married an American heiress called Mary Leiter, the daughter of the store owner.

And he married her for her money, obviously. These aristocrats with their homes to maintain. But evidently, he fell madly in love with her. And she died in his arms, aged 36, having given him three daughters. And of course, later on, his second wife unfortunately, became a mistress of Oswald Mosley. So let’s go back to Cynthia. Can we have a look at Cynthia, please? Yeah, that’s the sister who unfortunately Mosley had an affair with. So let’s go back to the picture of Cynthia. Thank you, yes, she’s the second daughter of the marriage. She’s born in Surrey, but as a very small child, she went to India where her parents were viceroy and vicereine. Her mother died in 1906. So like many girls of her class, she was sent to school, she was sent to school in Eastbourne, which is a rather sleepy English seaside town. World War I, she did her bit, she felt very strongly for England, she became a land girl working on the land, a War Office clerk. She took courses at the London School of Economics, which had really been established by the Fabian Society. And she was regarded, this is Robert Skidelsky, the very good writer, he said, she was something of a rebel against the dictates of her class. He also said, the gossip columns gushed with conventional phrases about her beauty, but photographs reveal her as a handsome rather a beautiful girl. She met Oswald Mosley while she was her helping Nancy Astor during her by-election campaign of 1919.

She was very interested in rights for women. And in September, I’m going to be lecturing on the Astors because of course they are very, very important. And Lord Curzon describes, in his own memoirs, he says, I was seated at my desk with my boxes, he was foreign secretary at the time, at 11:15, when Cimmie asked for permission to marry Mosley. Cimmie had a few reservations because already he was known as a womaniser. But the next day, but Cimmie was wide-eyed, she’d fallen madly in love with the handsome daredevil, and the next day Curzon meets Mosley. And this is what he said, very tall, this is his memoirs, very tall, young, slim, rather big nose, little black moustache, rather a Jewish appearance. It turns out he is quite financially independent. He didn’t even know Cimmie was an heiress. Was that true? He also asked Robert Cecil, a close friend and also politician who had worked with him, for his opinion. And Cecil said, keen, able and promising, not in the first flight, but with a good future. Cimmie absolutely idealised him even though he was a serial womaniser. And in many ways, I think we can say, even though she later died of appendicitis, I think she’d lost the will to live. And politically, she always followed him. Now, Mosley is going to have a fascinating political career. Can we go on please with the slides? Can we go on the Mosley wedding, Metcalfe, yes, let’s keep it there for a minute. His political career, obviously, I’m rather talking more about the family, so I’m not going to give that much attention to his political career. And perhaps at another time, I think William will do so. But of course he joins Parliament as a conservative.

His main priority, he wants to avoid future war. He becomes MP for Harrow. He’s the youngest MP of the time. He soon distinguishes himself as a brilliant orator, he’s got a commanding personality, he is very proud, he is very arrogant, but he’s politically astute. He condemns the Black and Tans in Ireland and he crosses the floor to sit as an independent. Even though he’s an independent, he manages to retain his seat in the 1922 and '23 elections against the traditional conservative candidate. And this is the liberal Western Gazette. The most polished speaker in the Commons. Words flow from him in graceful epigrammatic phrases that have a sting in them for the government of the conservatives. To listen to him is an education in the English language. In the art of delicate but deadly repertoire. He has human sympathies, career, courage, and brains. By 1924, he has a growing attraction to the Labour Party, which had just formed a government. And he decides to join. He immediately joins the Independent Labour Party and begins to ally himself with the left. And the government falls in October 1924. He believes Harrow will not reelect him as a labour candidate, so he opposes Neville Chamberlain in Ladywood. In Ladywood, he campaigns aggressively. Stanley Baldwin describes him as a cad and a wrong 'un. Chamberlain wins by only 77 seats. He’s out of parliament, but he begins to develop a new economic policy for the Independent Labour Party. In 1926, he returns to parliament for labour in the seat of Smethwick.

And Mosley and Cimmie become committed Fabians. They lecture at both Kingsway Hall and Livingstone Hall. And they are close to people like the Webb family. Beatrice Webb, later of course in charge, her husband was in charge of the Commission in Palestine. So I’ve talked about these people before as they hit Jewish history. There’s a labour victory of 1929, but he doesn’t get what he wants. He is worried. He feels his proposals are all being blocked. He is a brilliant man. He wants to obliterate class consciousness. He wants to solve the unemployment problem. He wants to make the party healthy again. His ideas are rejected by the cabinet. And the nation paper actually says he resigns. The resignation is an event of capital importance in domestic politics. We believe he has acted righteously, even courageously in declining to share any longer in the responsibility for inertia. Even 30 years later, in 1961, Richard Crossman, very important politician, great friend of Israel, described him, describes what he wrote about how he wants to turn the country. This brilliant memo was a whole generation ahead of labour thinking. And it leads him to form the New Party. And the New Party is a new idea. He has 50,000 pounds given to him by Lord Rothermere. But the problem is he takes the New Party. And he, I should mention also that Cimmie had been elected to parliament as well. She had for the Labour Party. But in the end she also is out of it.

They found the New Party, sorry, it’s Nuffield who gives him 50,000 to fund the party. But the problem is, he gradually takes the New Party to the right, which horrifies Cimmie. And then of course, can we go on, by 1932, this man of brilliant promise, who wants to help the people, he becomes spellbound by Mussolini. He and Cimmie actually visit Mussolini. And after the failure, he studies new movements because his New Party doesn’t do very well at the elections, they don’t get any seats, so he studies Mussolini. And in 1932, he creates the British Union of Fascists. It’s completely anti-communist. It’s nationalist. It’s authoritarian. And for a short time, he had the support of both Beaverbrook and Rothermere. In fact, that extraordinary headline of Rothermere’s in the Daily Mail, “Hurrah for the Blackshirts!”. He follows the ideas of Rothermere, he follows the ideas of Mussolini, he puts them all in Blackshirts. And that of course leads to a lot of confrontations with the communists, with the Jews. There is a huge rally at Olympia. This man also becomes, at a rally at the Royal Albert Hall, he becomes violently anti-Semitic. Was that part of his credo beforehand?

There was a certain class in England where you found it all the time, and certainly with Diana, who by this time he’s in love with, but this is from the rally at the Royal Albert Hall. The power of world Jewry is mobilised against fascism. They have thrown down their challenge. The way that the Jews attacked fascism is when there are six Jews to one fascist. The point is, we can prove in the victimisation of the employees of Jewry, men and women who have been dismissed for no better reason than they were Blackshirts. The Jews admit they owe allegiance not to our empire, but to friends, relatives, and kith and kin in other nations. And they know that fascism will not tolerate anyone who owes allegiance to a foreign country. We fought Germany once in a British quarrel, we shall not fight Germany again in a Jewish quarrel. And he and the Blackshirts, can we go on a bit please? The infamous Battle of Cable Street, of course, in the infamous Battle of Cable Street, where the fascist marked through the Jewish East End. And it is stopped by the Public Order Act. The British police tell Mosley not to march against the advice of some of his colleagues like William Joyce, that the extremists have taken over the movement. They choose not to march. And that really was the beginning of the decline of the Blackshirts. But the chant was absolutely horrific.

They would scream, “The Yids, the Yids, were going to get the Yids!”, as they march through the Jewish East End of London. It was a terrible, terrible time. I heard a lot about it on a personal level from my father. It was Sunday, October the 4th, the Battle of Cable Street. A hundred thousand people had petitioned John Simon, the home secretary, to ban the march. He refused to ban it and he did send a police escort. And what happens is the anti-fascist groups, the dockers, and many of the left stood with the Jews in the East End. The confrontation was in Whitechapel. 20,000 anti-fascist demonstrators turned up. There were 7,000 police, including mounted police. They attempted to clear the way to allow the fascists to march. The demonstrators fought back. John Simon said to Mosley, there will be a catastrophe. He agreed to abandon the march. So what you had at the Battle of Cable Street was the communists, the socialists, the anarchists, the Jews, the dockers, the Independent Labour Party. And don’t forget, out of the population of 330,000 in the East End, a hundred thousand were Jews. And this is the time when the Jewish working classes had stood, the British working classes stood with the Jews. And I think it was rather, it was a huge victory. And it really did, to a large extent, show the beginning of the end of Mosley. Now this is what Beatrice Webb said of him before he created the British Union of Fascists. This is after the creation of the New Party. We have made the acquaintance of the most brilliant man, Oswald Mosley. Modest, yet dignified in manner, with a pleasant voice and unegotistical conversation. He will make his way in the world without his advantages. He would’ve made his way anyway in the world without his advantages, which are many, birth wealth, and a beautiful aristocratic wife.

He is also an accomplished orator. He had been mocked by the Tory press, by the way, when he was in the Labour Party, preaching socialism in 20 guineas Savile Row suit. Even his father joined in the criticism. So look, basically, after 1936, as he goes more and more to the right, particularly because of his association with Hitler, that gradually the British Union of Fascists declined. But at its height, he tried to galvanise the working classes. I think the tragedy of Mosley, it’s hubris nemesis. But with him, there was no catharsis. Can we go on with the slides, because I need to get back to, these are the fascist rallies, I need to get back to his relationship with Diana. Now he met, as I said to you, he met Diana Mosley at a, he met Diana, he met Diana Guinness as she was then, at a party of Emerald Cunard’s. He’d seen her before. He had noted her beauty and like she was the next target. And like many of his conquests, she was taken to the Ritz. He had a bachelor flat, which he used for his political work. And she was married to a very kind, gentle a feat man. She had two children by him. She was 22 years old and she was bored. And it has to be said that Mosley actually sexually swept her off her feet. And not only that. She was prepared to go along with him even though he told her he would never divorce Cimmie. And he was carrying on with Cimmie’s sister at the same time. Now meanwhile, Diana was ploughing her own furrow.

Even though she’s having an affair with Mosley, he tells her he is not going to leave his wife, she decides her marriage with Bryan is over. And even though Lord Redesdale and Lord Curzon went absolutely crazy, she decides to divorce Guinness, which is quite extraordinary when you think about it. She was a very strong-minded woman. She thinks her lover will not marry her. Guinness was absolutely decent. He agreed to give her grounds for divorce. Well, not really. The Duchess of Windsor had exactly the same issue. The husband pays an actress to spend a night in a hotel in another room. And that’s how, so the wives are allowed to divorce the men for infidelity, which really is quite a bizarre. That was English law at the time. But that’s what Bryan Guinness was prepared to give her a divorce. You’ll be pleased to know that later on he did happily marry and have lots of children. But anyway, Diana continues her affair with him. But because Mosley is still married and she becomes more and more interested in Germany. And she goes to Germany where she’s very close to Putzi Hanfstaengl, remember we’ve talked about him, her sister Unity becomes absolutely enraptured by the Nazis. And Diana becomes a very welcomed guest, not just in Munich with Unity, but also in Berlin. Diana was one of the few women in the world who was intimately connected to Hitler, who adored her, by the way, this beautiful English woman. And also with Winston Churchill.

Churchill wanted to meet her, meet up with her even at this stage because of her relationship with Hitler. Remember, he knew her as a child. Can we go on, please? And here you see Diana and Unity with a group of Nazis. Here you see that’s a picture of unity with Hitler. And can we go on to the next slide, please? She becomes very close to the Goebbels. Diana creates a very close friendship with Magda Goebbels, another extraordinary woman. And I’m going to pass judgement , to me one of the great monsters of all time. She, by the way, had an affair with Haim Arlosoroff. Another story which I’ve told, you’ll get the tape on Lockdown, but she is the monstrous creature who the day after Hitler committed suicide killed her children, and then she and her husband committed suicide. But she becomes very close to Diana. And later on, it was said of Hitler that he loved three, he admired three women, Magda Goebbels, the Mitford girls, and also Frau Wagner. So I should say, in fact, it was four women that he really was interested in. But they go to Bayreuth, they go to the Nuremberg Games, they are part of the inner circle of the Nazi Party. And Hitler was spell-bound by Diana with her cool beauty. She had a lot to say about his sexuality because she was used to men falling over themselves, over her. But anyway, it is because of this relationship that later on she is going to bring her future husband, Mosley, into the orbit of Adolf Hitler. So can we go on? Meanwhile, what is, there’s one more picture I hope, can we go back? No, go back. Sorry, go back to that picture. I’ve missed a picture out, I meant to bring into, go back to the last one of Magda Goebbels if you don’t mind.

Thank you. What happens is this. Cimmie, the affair with Diana is the talk of London, and Cimmie gets more and more depressed. She has a very bad pregnancy and birth of her third child by Mosley. And then quite soon after, she contracts peritonitis, a burst appendix, and she dies in the hospital. Now, believe it or not, Mosley was absolutely heartbroken, although he behaved like to quote the English, to use the English phrase like an absolute cad, he demanded that they all loved him and he was heartbroken, and he’s spending far more time with her sister, who is also her mistress. And it’s only by 1934 that Diana becomes really mistress. But she’s still having to fend off Baba Metcalfe. Nevertheless, in the end, the wily beautiful Diana Mosley, and she decide they are going to marry. And they marry in secret in Germany, and they marry at the home of Magda and Joseph Goebbels. And Hitler is there and they have very few witnesses. Of course, Unity is there, and Hitler gives a beautiful silver frame. Now, one of the reasons Diana spent a lot of time in Germany is that she was trying to obtain money for Oswald and the British Union of Fascists. He got a lot of money from Mussolini, by the way. But Mussolini becomes more and more disenchanted. And she wants to set up a radio station and that’s one of the reasons that she spends a lot of time in Germany. And of course she becomes a very, very loyal fascist. Now what happens, of course, in the end, war breaks out. Unity shoots herself, but doesn’t kill herself. Diana, of course, is in London. And Mosley tells the British Union of Fascists, they have to fight for England. But then Mosley is imprisoned and so is Diana. And she’s imprisoned, and she talks about it, she writes her an autobiography what a terrible, terrible time she had in prison.

Churchill, by the way, Lord Moyne was very adamant that she be imprisoned because she was much clever. He said, she’s much clever than Mosley and much more dangerous. And in fact, it wasn’t until 1943 that they’re going to be allowed out, mainly because Churchill felt that they’re going to be a rallying, they’re going to be a rallying point. Now after the war, fascism, really, he does try, let’s have a look at the last slide, the next slide, Mosley, go back to that one, Mosley does try to recreate fascism, post-war. He becomes quite dangerous, particularly in his attitude to immigrants from the Old Commonwealth coming over to Britain, and stirring up racial trouble. But they live for a while in Ireland, but in the end they relocate to Paris where they are at the centre of expats and they become very close to, let’s have a look at the next couple, they become very close to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. And Diana, of course, writes her autobiography. She writes for newspapers. Mosley writes, creates a newspaper, the European, she writes for the European. And she never recants, she never recants. She loves Mosley right up until the end. She is a fascist to the end. In fact, she was interviewed on BBC on Desert Island Discs. And there was a huge furore over it, because not only did they first, believe it or not, schedule it for Rosh Hashanah, then they scheduled it for Yom Kippur. In the end it went ahead, but there was a huge furore over it. But she went her own way. She never recanted. And let’s have a look at the last slide. This is Diana with Mosley. She loved him till the end. He contracted Parkinson’s and she lived into her 90s, receiving many press people who wanted to know the story of the Mitfords.

So I’ve given you an overview of the Mitfords. I hope I’ve whetted your appetite. What a family. Let’s have a look at the questions.

Q&A and Comments:

Stunning.

Q: When would the website be up?

A: It will have a soft, it will have a soft launch at the beginning of September. It’s definite now.

And this is Sharon. I can’t get recordings anymore. Yes, it’s all going to happen. A lot of people are so glad and it’s more than a pleasure to stick with you all.

And Lillian, thank you to Wendy in all the lectures. Yes, I mean, it all started by accident and what a wonderful accident. And we’ve made friends all over the world and it’s very, very special to Wendy, myself, all my team, all our lecturers. It’s been a special experience for all of us. And I hope it can continue who knows for how long.

Oh, thank you, Dennis.

Maxine, the Mitford girls schoolhood looks like a privileged version of the Bronte girls. Homeschooling seems to lead to strong personality. No, the Brontes weren’t homeschooled, Maxine. Unfortunately, they went to a terrible school in terms. Jane Eyre writes about it. The father did. They did have a certain amount of schooling at home. They certainly had an incredibly clever mother, who by the way, came from Cornwall. And a clever father. But on the other hand, they lived in a very dank parsonage that’s why the younger girls died. Whereas, the Mitfords were so rarefied.

Yes, the launch date, soft launch, first week in September. We got to iron out, obviously, all the glitches, which are all going to help us with. You know, there are, let me try, Karina, can you remember how many lectures there are? It’s hundreds, isn’t it?

• [Karina] I think it’s thousands. I think it’s at least 2,000 lectures.

• I was told I myself have given over 287 lectures. I can’t believe it. I really cannot believe it.

Q: Do you think the Mitfords threw their passion into politics at the cost of an ability for human warmth? Did political propaganda hijack their humanity?

A: Look, Jessica, it’s a fascinating concept. I really, I take Wendy’s point, we have to take the history and turn it over to psychology. They were all case studies. They really were. They had very, very strange parents, that’s for sure. They were totally privileged. They lived a rarefied life. But Jessica, she finished up marrying a New York Jew from a very warm Hungarian background.

Oh, this is Faye. Yes, a way of understanding, look at The Mitfords: Letters Between the Six Sisters. Yes, that is an excellent book.

And this is Robert saying what Wikipedia says, Unity Valkyrie Freeman Mitford was a British socialite known for her relationship. Yes, yes. Wikipedia. I talked about Unity last week. She was quite a character. Unity. I personally think she did have some sort of mental issues, I think we would call them today. She always was putting her foot in it. Maybe some kind of autism, I don’t know. I’m not a psychologist. But she had this child-like adoration of the Adolf Hitler, and she shot herself. She didn’t want war between Britain and Germany. Well, a lot of the aristocrats didn’t. There was also the Friday Club, you know, the Duke of Wellington was a member. You know, Jews make too much trouble. I think it’s about inverted commas. I think it’s the association of Jews with communism in so many people’s heads. Jews are communists, Jews are fascists. Jews, Jews are capitalists, beg your pardon, Jews are communists, Jews are capitalists. And don’t forget The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was such common currency. And Lord Redesdale, they believed it. That’s the tragedy of it all. Valkyrie. She was named Valkyrie because of a suggestion of her grandfather, Lord Redesdale. And Lord Redesdale, don’t forget, the grandfather, wrote an introduction to the work of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, which becomes the Bible of national socialism.

Oh, this is from Mel. We read the book letters between the Mitford sisters in our book group, and visited the church where several of the Mitfords are buried in the village of the family known near Burford, yeah.

Q: Is Valkyrie is part of the Ring by Wagner?

A: Yes, her grandfather was a huge Wagnerian. I lectured on this last time. Lord Redesdale, the grandfather, was a very close friend of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, he was often in Bayreuth. He was close to the Wagners. And don’t forget to, not to Richard, he was dead, but he was close to Cosima, and Houston Stewart Chamberlain married Cosima’s daughter. And through in his lot with a national socialist. He died in 1927. I wonder if Lord Curzon would’ve been happy if he’d known the chain of cinemas was going to be known.

Q: Was it named for him?

A: I know that the people who created it were actually, I believe the Curzon cinema chain was created by a Jewish family. Perhaps someone could help me on that.

Q: What made him change his views so much? What about, Sharon?

A: I’m not quite with you.

Q: Who is the man in grey on the left?

A: I think it’s just one of the fascist supporters. There was an upswing of fascism in the early '60s in Britain. The British Union. It was quite a horrific time. Against the backdrop of the swinging '60s, there was a fascist backlash. People like Colin Jordan. I remember, in 1964, going to a rally in Trafalgar Square, but they never really took hold in Britain. Oswald Mosley was finished. He was a finished force. You can just imagine the tea parties that Diana and Oswald had with the Windsors. What a horrible foursome in my view.

Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley, an Oxford decreed accomplishment in working with Lord Rutherford. Yeah, I’m going to check that for you. I’m not sure.

Rhonda, the website beginning of September.

I recall that a number of British Jews joined the British Union of Fascists when it was in the early days. When they were supporters of Mussolini. It’s interesting. He didn’t start out officially as an anti-Semite. Mosley. He turns to it when he realises it was, he becomes a populist demagogue. You know, it went to his head. He was a brilliant orator. He was spoiled. He tried so hard in parliament. And in the end he had a completely empty life imprisoned by the way, both he and Diana, they coped with prison very well, evidently became a mecca for the other prisoners. You know, Churchill was a bit worried about imprisoning and habeas corpus and they were family. Marilyn’s come up with something fascinating. Mosley’s reluctance to fight a Jewish war stuck so popular understanding, hence the decision not to bomb the camps.

Oh, this is such a complicated one, Marilyn, I don’t want to give you a trivial trite answer. Read Auschwitz and the Allies by Martin Gilbert. Have a look at Rubenstein on this. It’s a very, very contentious issue, this one. I have lectured on it, so has Rex Bloomstein. You’ll have it all at your disposal, but even today is very contentious.

Q: Why didn’t they bomb the camps?

A: One of the reasons the lefty assassinated Lord Moyne was they thought he, well, he certainly had been against Jewish immigration into Palestine, and they thought he was colluding in the failure to rescue Hungarian Jewry. But in fact, it wasn’t him. And Churchill had spoken to him and he changed his mind. He had come to the conclusion that there should be partition in Palestine. But it’s such a huge subject, Marilyn. I don’t want to give you a trivial answer. Yes, Mosley did tell and teach his followers to fight for Britain when war broke out. Yes, of course, he did.

Q: Why did Nuffield give money to Mosley for the New Party?

A: It was going to be a breath of fresh air. It only moves to the right within a year. Remember, Mosley, he played, he starts out as a Tory, then labour, then independent labour. He did it seem, he becomes very arrogant. In fact, if I can make a political comment, but don’t take it any further, you know, how that charisma that Boris Johnson appeared to have, I think Mosley had that kind of charisma, maybe more so. And he, you know, he looks rather silly today with his black moustache, but that was the Clark Gable image. Women evidently fell for him. He married the most beautiful in woman in England, quote unquote. She worshipped him. You know, that’s a tragedy told. That’s a tragedy, a tragic story. People are very, being very nice about Lockdown.

Q: Wasn’t Nancy the best known as the sisters?

A: As a writer, yes. But Jessica was also a good writer. So what I’m saying to you, Lorna, read, I’m not suggesting you read Diana. I really, there’s a very, very good biography of Unity by David Pryce-Jones. A very good, there’s loads of biographies on the Mitfords. I suggest you have a look at them if you are interested.

Thank you, Peter. Yes, this is the point. James Patterson, Diana and her husband, Oswald Mosley, were held in prison for three years without charge. They had horrendous political views, but it’s reminder that we lose many of our basic legal and democratic rights during war time.

Yes, James, I totally agree with you. And that was one of the reasons to get them out of prison. You know, this is the issue today that I think is so important. I don’t believe in what you say, but I would defend to the death your right to say it. Where is the line? Where is the line? You know, I’m going to say something that many of you might find controversial. I don’t like platforming. What do we do though with people whose views would take away our right to freedoms? It’s such a deep, dark statement, and I don’t know. And one of the things that Wendy’s been talking about once the website is up is to engage more in debate. But, of course, these debates would have to be held in an incredibly respectful way, because we are talking about such important issues here. And James, I totally agree with you. It’s dangerous. It is habeas corpus. You know, it’s a deep principle of a democratic society that no one should be imprisoned without trial. And yes, on one level, their views were horrendous. But on the other level, what do you do about it? I had a friend who unfortunately dead now, one of the most brilliant people I’d ever known, a Holocaust survivor, and you know what he said? Liberalism must become more militant. How on earth can you create militant liberalism? Lots of questions.

Thank you, 50 years ago, I was a, this is from Ruth, I was a PhD student working on a thesis that included Mosley and the Mitfords. You were able to eliminate so many aspects of their personal lives that were not available at the time. Oh, thank you so much. Yes, it’s because they wrote, they themselves wrote in the letters. Can you just imagine those seven siblings? Now, Tom, the only boy, he refused to fight the Germans, but he fought in the war, so they sent him off to, he finished up in Burma where of course he was killed. But he was a fascist. They say that he wasn’t an anti-Semite. You know, he spent a lot of time with Hitler and he often chaperoned his sisters, Unity and Diana.

And thank you, Aurelia, for that incredible picture. You see, look, the hindsight of history, it’s so difficult. I haven’t read the Jessica Fellows books, Shirley, so I can’t comment. Thank you, Cynthia. Thank you.

Q: Why was Deborah’s husband, the Duke of Devonshire, a supporter of Israel?

A: Because he obviously believed in the Jewish state. And his wife Deborah, she was an extraordinary woman because when they married, and because the father, he had terrible debt duties to deal with. And they had to actually turn the estate Chatsworth around. And she was quite a fighter, an extraordinary lady. And she was the one who tried to go for peace in the family, as we would say, shalom babayit. But what do you do when you’ve got one sister like Jessica, another sister like Diana, and of course, Unity, her beloved sister who shot herself because of Hitler, but she still went to visit her. She died in 48, Unity. But Deborah lived way into, she died, I can’t remember the actual year, but certainly in the 21st century.

Ah, Francois, the first Curzon cinema was in Mayfair, Curzon Street. That’s why it was called the Curzon cinemas. But I know, I’m pretty sure the person who owned the chains were Jewish, just as Oscar Deutsch created the Odeon chain. Never forget how Jews were up to their neck in the film business in England as well as in America. And again, this is one of the reasons people think Jews have so much power. It’s not power, it’s visible employment patterns. And I will say that until I’m purple in the face.

Q: What made him change?

A: I think that he was disenchanted with the Labour Party, Sharon, because they didn’t give him the high office he wanted. And also he was very populist and he realised with creating the New Party, they didn’t get seats in parliament, some of the characters around him were pushing him more and more to the right. He admired Mussolini. He and Cimmie went to meet Mussolini. There’s a picture of them giving the fascist salute and I think that’s how it started. Lawrence thanking us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Q: What do I mean by platforming?

A: Janice, refusing to give people a voice at university or anywhere else, because you don’t agree with their political views. It’s a very contentious argument. Do you allow people whose views are absolutely appalling to speak? I don’t know the answer to that. I really don’t know. I’d love to live in a world where we could respect other people’s views. But on the other hand, if those views, okay, certainly you cannot promote racial hatred or scream fire in a crowded cinema. That’s punishable by, you know, that’s punishable. Promotion to race hatred is also punishable. But it’s a very difficult line.

And on that note, I think I better leave you. There’s lots and lots of lovely things. Please, Karina, would you tell Wendy, I don’t think she’s back online, but everyone’s saying wonderful things. And Karina, thank you very, very much. And God bless you all. And I’ll see you next week. And who have we got on next, Karina? We’ve got some more good lecturers, haven’t we? We’re having fun. It’s August, so we’re giving the lectures we like a lot, so. Oh, I think, oh god. I think tomorrow is Thursday isn’t though, what’s tomorrow?

• [Karina] Oh, tomorrow’s Phil.

• Oh my god, my son-in-law, Phil Rubenstein. Oh, it’s not really a family business, it’s just that Phil happens to be a brilliant lecturer. He’s lecturing on Spartacus.

• [Karina] And then Helen on Thursday.

• And then it’s Helen, the wonderful Helen Fry is on Thursday. And yeah, we’ve got some good lecturers coming up. We’ve asked our best lecturers all to give their favourite subjects this month. And we will go back to a serious seriousness in September. And Wendy’s putting together an incredible, incredible series of lectures for October on South Africa. It’s finally there. Anyway, Karina, thanks a million. Lots of love. Bye everyone.