Diana Mosley
Lady Mosley | |
---|---|
Born | Diana Freeman-Mitford 17 June 1910 London, England |
Died | 11 August 2003 Paris, France | (aged 93)
Occupation(s) | Author, reviewer |
Spouses | |
Children | Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne Hon. Desmond Guinness Alexander Mosley Max Mosley |
Parents |
|
Relatives | See Mitford family |
Diana, Lady Mosley (née Mitford; 17 June 1910 – 11 August 2003), known as Diana Guinness between 1929 and 1936, was a British aristocrat,
Initially married to
Mosley's 1989 appearance on
Early life
Diana Mitford was the fourth child and third daughter of
She was educated at home by a series of governesses, except for a six-month period in 1926, when she was sent to a day school in Paris.
Marriages
Guinness, an Irish aristocrat, writer and brewing heir, would inherit the
In February 1932, Diana met Sir
Mitford's parents did not approve of her decision to leave Guinness for Mosley, and she was briefly estranged from most of her family. Her affair and eventual marriage to Mosley also strained relationships with her sisters. Jessica and Deborah were initially not permitted to see Diana, for she was "living in sin" with Mosley in London. Deborah eventually came to know Mosley and ended up liking him very much. Jessica despised Mosley's beliefs and became permanently estranged from Diana in the later 1930s. Pam and her husband
The couple rented Wootton Lodge, a country house in Staffordshire that Diana had intended to buy. She furnished much of her new home with much of the Swinbrook furniture that her father was selling.[20] The Mosleys lived at Wootton Lodge along with their children from 1936 to 1939.
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The Mitford family in 1928; Front row, from left to right, the mother Sydney Bowles, the daughters Unity, Jessica and Deborah, the father David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd baron Redesdale; second row, Diana and Pamela; back row, Nancy and Tom.
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Diana Mitford and Bryan Guinness on their honeymoon in Taormina, Italy, 1929.
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Diana on 27 January 1932
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Nancy, Diana, Unity and Jessica Mitford.
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Rear view of Asthall Manor, the Mitford family home in Oxfordshire.
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Oswald Mosley, Diana's second husband.
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Diana's grave at far right, next to those of her sisters, Unity and Nancy, at St Mary's Church, Swinbrook in Oxfordshire.
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Temple de la Gloire, Orsay, Paris: Diana's long-term home after the war.
Nazi Germany
In 1934, Diana visited Germany with her then 19-year-old sister Unity. While there, they attended the first
Diana and Oswald secretly married on 6 October 1936 in the drawing room of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. Adolf Hitler, Robert Gordon-Canning and Bill Allen were in attendance.[21] The marriage was kept secret until the birth of their first child in 1938. In August 1939, Hitler told Diana over lunch that war was inevitable.
Mosley and Diana had two sons: (Oswald) Alexander Mosley (born 1938) and Max Rufus Mosley (1940–2021). Hitler presented the couple with a silver framed picture of himself. The Mosleys were interned during much of the Second World War, under Defence Regulation 18B, along with other British fascists including Norah Elam.[22]
Lady Mosley's prison time failed to disturb her approach to life; she remarked in her later years that she felt better treated than earlier prisoners.[25]
According to an anecdote in her The Daily Telegraph obituary, Evelyn Waugh saw Lady Mosley wear a diamond swastika brooch among her jewels as she left prison.[14]
Post-war
After the war ended, the couple kept homes in
Once again they became known for entertaining, but were barred from all functions at the British Embassy.[26] During their time in France, the Mosleys quietly went through another marriage ceremony; Hitler had safeguarded their original marriage licence, and it was never found after the war. During this period, Mosley was unfaithful to Diana, but she found for the most part that she was able to learn to keep herself from getting too upset regarding his adulterous habits. She told an interviewer: "I think if you're going to mind infidelity, you better call it a day as far as marriage goes. Because who has ever remained faithful? I mean, they don't. There's passion and that's it."[26] Diana was also a lifelong supporter of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), and its postwar successor the Union Movement.
At times, she was vague when discussing her loyalties to Britain, her strong belief in fascism, and her attitude to Jews. In her 1977 autobiography A Life of Contrasts, she wrote, "I didn't love Hitler any more than I did Winston [Churchill]. I can't regret it, it was so interesting." In her final interviews with Duncan Fallowell in 2002, she responded that her reaction to the newsreels of death camps was "Well, of course, horror. Utter horror. Exactly the same probably as your reactions." However, when asked about having revulsion against Hitler for this, she said that "I had a complete revulsion against the people who did it but I could never efface from my memory the man I had actually experienced before the war. A very complicated feeling. I can't really relate those two things to each other. I know I'm not supposed to say that but I just have to."[26] At other times, however, she behaved so as to suggest intense anti-semitic attitudes; the journalist Paul Callan remembered mentioning that he was Jewish while interviewing her husband in Diana's presence. According to Callan, "I mentioned, just in the course of conversation, that I was Jewish—at which Lady Mosley went ashen, snapped a crimson nail and left the room ... No explanation was given but she would later write to a friend: 'A nice, polite reporter came to interview Tom [as Mosley was known] but he turned out to be Jewish and was sitting there at our table. They are a very clever race and come in all shapes and sizes.'"[7] Diana offered to entertain her teenage half-Jewish nephew, Benjamin Treuhaft, on a trip to France. The offer was refused by Benjamin's mother, Jessica, who remained estranged from Diana over the latter's political past.[27] In a 2000 interview with The Guardian, Diana said that "Maybe instead they [European Jews] could have gone somewhere like Uganda: very empty and a lovely climate"[28] (a reference to the Uganda Scheme proposed by Zionists in 1903).
Her appearance on the
After their early twenties, Diana and her sister Jessica only saw each other once, when they met for half an hour as their elder sister, Nancy, lay dying in
In 1998, due to her advancing age, she moved out of the Temple de la Gloire and into an apartment in the
Mosley attended the funeral of René de Chambrun, the son-in-law of Vichy France Prime Minister Pierre Laval, in 2002.[35]
Writer
Mosley was shunned in the British media for a period after the war, and the couple established their own publishing company, Euphorion Books, named after a character in
While in France, Mosley edited the fascist cultural magazine
Mosley wrote the foreword and introduction of Nancy Mitford: A Memoir by Harold Acton. She produced her own two books of memoirs: A Life of Contrasts (1977, Hamish Hamilton), and Loved Ones (1985). The latter is a collection of pen portraits of close relatives and friends such as the writer Evelyn Waugh among others. In 1980, she released The Duchess of Windsor, a biography.
In 2007, letters between the Mitford sisters, including communications to and from Diana, were published in the compilation The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, edited by Charlotte Mosley. The Sunday Times journalist India Knight described her (and Unity) as "both chilling and gruesomely fascinating".[39] A following collection consisting of her letters, articles, diaries and reviews was released as The Pursuit of Laughter in December 2008.
Death
Diana died in Paris in August 2003, aged 93. Her cause of death was given as complications related to a stroke she had suffered a week earlier, but reports later surfaced that she had been one of the many elderly fatalities of the
She was survived by her four sons: Jonathan and Desmond Guinness, and Alexander and Max Mosley. Her stepson Nicholas Mosley was a novelist who also wrote a critical memoir of his father for which Diana reportedly never forgave him, despite their previously close relationship. A great-granddaughter, Jasmine Guinness, a great-niece, Stella Tennant and a granddaughter, Daphne Guinness are models.[42]
British journalist
A sarcastic commentary by Canadian human-rights activist and Telegraph columnist Mark Steyn appeared in the same issue. He described her unwavering allegiance to Hitler and fascism as that of "a silly kid".[44] An equally "indulgently dismissive attitude" of her opinions was seconded in the Sunday edition in an interview with her stepson Nicholas Mosley, with whom she had refused to speak for over two decades after the publication of Beyond the Pale, his unfavorable memoir of her husband.[45]
In literature and film
Mosley inspired the protagonist of the 2018 novel After the Party by Cressida Connolly.[46] She is portrayed extensively in the sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders.[47]
Bibliography
- A Life of Contrasts (1977)
- Loved Ones (1985)
- The Duchess of Windsor (1980)
- The Pursuit of Laughter (2008)
- Provided introduction and foreword to Nancy Mitford: A Memoir by Harold Acton (1975)
- Collection of letters between the six Mitford sisters: The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters (2007)
Sources
- Dalley, Jan (1999). Diana Mosley: a life. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-14448-9.
- ISBN 9780062381675.
- de Courcy, Anne. Diana Mosley née Mitford. Le Rocher. (French edition)
- ISBN 0-09-155560-4.
- Lovell, Mary S (2001). The Mitford Girls (paperback ed.). London. ISBN 978-0-349-11505-4.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Mosley, Charlotte (2007). The Mitfords: letters between six sisters. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-1-84115-790-0.
- Mosley, Diana (2003) [1977]. ISBN 1-903933-20-X.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Mosley, Diana (1985). Loved Ones. London: ISBN 0-283-99155-0.
References
- ^ Mitford, Diana (2008). The Pursuit of Laughter. Gibson Square books.
- ^ Dalley, Jan. "Diana Mosley". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 September 2010.
- ^ "Diana Mitford". The Independent. 13 August 2003.[dead link]
- ^ a b Sawer, Patrick (12 February 2022). "BBC fails to put content warning on Holocaust denial Desert Island Discs episode". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ Hastings, Selina (20 December 2008). "Friends and Enemies". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 8 May 2010.
- ^ a b Lyall, Sarah (14 August 2003). "Lady Diana Mosley, Fascist Who Dazzled, Is Dead at 93". World. The New York Times.
- ^ a b Callan, Paul (12 September 2009). "Hitler's aristocratic admirers". Daily Express.
- ^ a b Diana Mosley, unrepentantly Nazi and effortlessly charming The Telegraph. 13 August 2003
- ^ Diana Mosley, Hitler's angel, dies unrepentant in Paris The Guardian. 13 August 2003
- ^ Peek, Laura (13 August 2003). "Diana Mosley's death ends link to 1930s Fascism". The Times. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
- ^ Dalley 1999, p. 49.
- ^ de Courcy 2003, p. 3.
- ^ "From Chatsworth to Temple de la Gloire, the grandest houses that were once home to the Mitford sisters". Tatler. 6 May 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
- ^ a b "Lady Mosley". The Daily Telegraph. London. 13 August 2003.
- ^ "The Hon Lady Mosley". The Times. London. 13 August 2003.
Evelyn Waugh dedicated Vile Bodies to her.
- ^ "Obituary: Lady Diana Mosley". BBC News. 13 August 2003.
- ^ "Madame Yevonde's Goddesses – in pictures". The Observer. 8 May 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "Hitler was her 'Uncle Wolf'". 17 November 2003 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
- ^ a b de Courcy 2003.
- ^ de Courcy, Anne (4 January 2004). "Hand in hand with Hitler". The Age. Melbourne.
- ISBN 978-0-06-137364-0.
- ISBN 978-1-4466-9967-6.
- ^ a b "Oswald Mosley's widow dies". BBC News. 13 August 2003.
- ISBN 0-06-056532-2
- ^ Mosley, Oswald (1968). My Life (PDF). pp. 342–343. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2006.
- ^ a b c d e "Focus: Diana Mosley – The last bright young thing". The Independent, 17 August 2003.
- ^ "Obituary: Jessica Mitford". The Independent, 25 July 1996.
- ^ "'Maybe the Jews could have gone somewhere like Uganda: empty and a lovely climate'." The Guardian. London. 23 November 2000.
- ^ Desert Island Discs - Castaway: Lady Mosley. BBC. 26 November 1989. Event occurs between 16:30 and 17:25.
- ^ Roberts, Laura (2 March 2011). "Desert Island Discs' most controversial castaways". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ Desert Island Discs: 7 of the most shocking episodes BBC. 1 August 2016
- ^ Desert Island Discs - Castaway: Lady Mosley. BBC. 26 November 1989. Event occurs between 01:00 and 05:20.
- ^ "No unity for the Mitfords - even beyond the grave." The Independent, 17 February 1997.
- ^ a b Wilson, A.N. (13 August 2003). "A lifetime staying loyal to her mistakes". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- .
- ^ Friends and enemies The Spectator. 12 December 2008
- ^ What a lot of parties London Review of Books. 30 September 1999
- ^ a b The Pursuit of Laughter by Diana Mosley London Evening Standard. 5 January 2009
- ^ Knight, India (2 September 2007). "The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters". The Sunday Times. London. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011.
- ^ "Mitford sister who befriended Hitler dies, aged 93". The Age. Melbourne. 14 August 2003.
- ^ Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 32826). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
- ISBN 0-393-01043-0.
- ^ [1] The Telegraph. 16 August 2003
- ^ "Aside from the Hitler thing, Diana was the best kind of girl", The Telegraph, 16 August 2003
- ^ [2] Bearn, Emily, "My 'Fiendish' Stepmother", The Sunday Telegraph, 17 August 2003
- ^ Mundow, Anna: "‘After the Party’ Review: The Wrong Sort of People", The Wall Street Journal, 17 May 2019
- ^ "The True Story Behind the Final Season of Peaky Blinders: Who Was the Real Diana Mitford?". Town & Country. 11 June 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
External links
Media related to Diana Mitford at Wikimedia Commons
- Diana Mosley: The MI5 View – new files released from the National Archives shed new light on M15 surveillance of Mosley
- The Official Nancy Mitford Website