Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley | |
---|---|
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
In office 7 June 1929 – 19 May 1930 | |
Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
Preceded by | Ronald McNeill |
Succeeded by | Clement Attlee |
Member of Parliament for Smethwick | |
In office 21 December 1926 – 7 October 1931 | |
Preceded by | John Davison |
Succeeded by | Roy Wise |
Member of Parliament for Harrow | |
In office 14 December 1918 – 9 October 1924 | |
Preceded by | Harry Mallaby-Deeley |
Succeeded by | Sir Isidore Salmon |
Personal details | |
Born | Oswald Ernald Mosley 16 November 1896 Independent (1922–1924) Labour (1924–1931) New (1931–1932) Union Movement (1948–1973) National Party of Europe (1962–1980) |
Spouses | |
Children | Vivien Mosley (1921–2002) Nicholas Mosley (1923–2017) Michael Mosley (1932–2012) Alexander Mosley (1938–2005) Max Mosley (1940–2021) |
Parent | Sir Oswald Mosley, 5th Baronet |
Education | Winchester College |
Alma mater | Royal Military College, Sandhurst |
Awards | 1914–15 Star British War Medal Victory Medal |
Military service | |
Allegiance | British Empire |
Branch/service | British Army • 16th The Queen's Lancers • Royal Flying Corps |
Years of service | 1914–1918 |
Rank | Lieutenant |
Battles/wars | First World War • Second Battle of Ypres • Battle of Loos |
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British aristocrat and politician who rose to fame during the 1920s and 1930s when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member of parliament and later founded and led the British Union of Fascists (BUF).[1][2]
After military service during the
Mosley's New Party became the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932. As leader of the BUF, he publicly espoused antisemitism and sought alliances with other fascist leaders such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Fascist violence under Mosley's leadership culminated in the Battle of Cable Street, during which anti-fascist demonstrators including trade unionists, communists, anarchists, and British Jews successfully prevented the BUF from marching through London's East End. Mosley subsequently held a series of rallies around London, and the BUF increased its membership in the capital city.[5]
Mosley was imprisoned in May 1940, after the outbreak of the Second World War, and the BUF was banned. He was released in 1943 and, politically disgraced by his association with fascism, moved abroad in 1951, spending most of the remainder of his life in Paris and two residences in Ireland. He stood for Parliament during the post-war era but received very little support. During this latter period he was an advocate of Pan-European nationalism, developing the Europe a Nation ideology,[6] and was an early proponent of Holocaust denial conspiracy theories.[7][8]
Life and career
Early life and education
Mosley was born on 16 November 1896 at 47 Hill Street, Mayfair, London.[9] He was the eldest of the three sons of Sir Oswald Mosley, 5th Baronet (1873–1928), and Katharine Maud Edwards-Heathcote (1874–1950),[10] daughter of Captain Justinian Edwards-Heathcote, of Apedale Hall, Staffordshire. He had two younger brothers: Edward Heathcote Mosley (1899–1980) and John Arthur Noel Mosley (1901–1973).[11] His father was a third cousin to the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, father of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
The progenitor, and earliest attested ancestor, of the Mosley family was Ernald de Mosley (fl. 12th century), Lord of the Manor of Moseley, Staffordshire, during the reign of
After Mosley's parents separated, he was raised by his mother, who went to live at Betton Hall near Market Drayton, and his paternal grandfather, Sir Oswald Mosley, 4th Baronet. Within the family and among intimate friends, he was always called "Tom". He lived for many years at his grandparents' stately home, Apedale Hall, and was educated at West Downs School and Winchester College.[11]
Mosley was a fencing champion in his school days; he won titles in both foil and sabre, and retained an enthusiasm for the sport throughout his life.[11]
Military service
In January 1914, Mosley entered the
Marriage to Lady Cynthia Curzon
On 11 May 1920, he married
Lord Curzon had to be persuaded that Mosley was a suitable husband, as he suspected Mosley was largely motivated by social advancement in
During this marriage, he began an extended affair with his wife's younger sister, Lady Alexandra Metcalfe, and a separate affair with their stepmother, Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston, the American-born second wife and widow of Lord Curzon of Kedleston.[16] He succeeded to the Mosley baronetcy of Ancoats upon his father's death in 1928.
India and Gandhi
Among his many travels, Mosley travelled to British India accompanied by Lady Cynthia in 1924. His father-in-law's past as Viceroy of India allowed for the acquaintance of various personalities along the journey. They travelled by ship and stopped briefly in Cairo.[17]
Having initially arrived in
Mosley met
Marriage to Diana Mitford
Cynthia died of
Mosley spent large amounts of his private fortune on the
Member of Parliament
By the end of the First World War, Mosley had decided to go into politics as a Conservative Member of Parliament, as he had no university education or practical experience because of the war. He was 21 years old. He was driven by, and in Parliament spoke of, a passionate conviction to avoid any future war, and this seemingly motivated his career. Largely because of his family background and war service, local Conservative and Labour associations preferred Mosley in several constituencies – a vacancy near the family estates seemed to be the best prospect. He was unexpectedly selected for Harrow first. In the general election of 1918 he faced no serious opposition and was elected easily.[20]
He was the youngest member of the
Mosley was an early supporter of the economist John Maynard Keynes.[21][22] The economic historian Robert Skidelsky described Mosley as "a disciple of Keynes in the 1920s".[22]
Crossing the floor
Mosley was at this time falling out with the Conservatives over their Irish policy, and condemned the operations of the Black and Tans against civilians during the Irish War of Independence.[23] He was secretary of the Peace with Ireland Council.[24] As secretary of the council, he proposed sending a commission to Ireland to examine on-the-spot reprisals by the Black and Tans.[25]
In late 1920, he crossed the floor to sit as an independent MP on the opposition side of the House of Commons. Having built up a following in his constituency, he retained it against a Conservative challenge in the 1922 and 1923 general elections.
According to Lady Diana Mosley's autobiography,
The
Westminster Gazette wrote that Mosley was "the most polished literary speaker in the Commons, words flow from him in graceful epigrammatic phrases that have a sting in them for the government and the Conservatives. To listen to him is an education in the English language, also in the art of delicate but deadly repartee. He has human sympathies, courage and brains."[26]
By 1924, he was growing increasingly attracted to the Labour Party, which had just formed a government, and in March he joined it. He immediately joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) as well and allied himself with the left.
When the government fell in October, Mosley had to choose a new seat, as he believed that Harrow would not re-elect him as a Labour candidate. He therefore decided to oppose Neville Chamberlain in Birmingham Ladywood. Mosley campaigned aggressively in Ladywood, and accused Chamberlain of being a "landlords' hireling".[27] The outraged Chamberlain demanded that Mosley retract the claim "as a gentleman".[27] Mosley, whom Stanley Baldwin described as "a cad and a wrong 'un", refused to retract the allegation.[27] Mosley was noted for bringing excitement and energy to the campaign. Leslie Hore-Belisha, then a Liberal Party politician who later became a senior Conservative, recorded his impressions of Mosley as a platform orator at this time, claiming that his "dark, aquiline, flashing: tall, thin, assured; defiance in his eye, contempt in his forward chin". Together, Oswald and Cynthia Mosley proved an alluring couple, and many members of the working class in Birmingham succumbed to their charm for, as the historian Martin Pugh described, "a link with powerful, wealthy and glamorous men and women appealed strongly to those who endured humdrum and deprived lives".[28] It took several re-counts before Chamberlain was declared the winner by 77 votes and Mosley blamed poor weather for the result.[29] His period outside Parliament was used to develop a new economic policy for the ILP, which eventually became known as the Birmingham Proposals; they continued to form the basis of Mosley's economics until the end of his political career.
Mosley was critical of Winston Churchill's policy as Chancellor of the Exchequer. After Churchill returned Britain to the Gold Standard, Mosley claimed that "faced with the alternative of saying goodbye to the gold standard, and therefore to his own employment, and goodbye to other people's employment, Mr. Churchill characteristically selected the latter course".[30]
In 1926, the Labour-held seat of Smethwick fell vacant, and Mosley returned to Parliament after winning the resulting by-election on 21 December. Mosley felt the campaign was dominated by Conservative attacks on him for being too rich, including claims that he was covering up his wealth.[17]: 190
In 1927, he mocked the British Fascists as "black-shirted buffoons, making a cheap imitation of ice-cream sellers". The ILP elected him to Labour's National Executive Committee.[31]
Mosley and Cynthia were committed Fabians in the 1920s and at the start of the 1930s. Mosley appears in a list of names of Fabians from Fabian News and the Fabian Society Annual Report 1929–31. He was Kingsway Hall lecturer in 1924 and Livingstone Hall lecturer in 1931.
Office
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Mosley then made a bold bid for political advancement within the Labour Party. He was close to
Mosley Memorandum
Realising the economic uncertainty that was facing the nation because of the death of its domestic industry, Mosley put forward a scheme in the "Mosley Memorandum" that called for high
Mosley published this memorandum because of his dissatisfaction with the laissez-faire attitudes held by both Labour and the Conservative party, and their passivity towards the ever-increasing globalisation of the world, and thus looked to a modern solution to fix a modern problem. But it was rejected by the Cabinet and by the Parliamentary Labour Party, and in May 1930 Mosley resigned from his ministerial position. At the time, according to Lady Mosley's autobiography, the weekly Liberal-leaning paper The Nation and Athenaeum wrote: "The resignation of Sir Oswald Mosley is an event of capital importance in domestic politics... We feel that Sir Oswald has acted rightly – as he has certainly acted courageously – in declining to share any longer in the responsibility for inertia."[26] In October he attempted to persuade the Labour Party Conference to accept the Memorandum, but was defeated again.
The Mosley Memorandum won the support of the economist John Maynard Keynes, who stated that "it was a very able document and illuminating".[33] Keynes also wrote,
"I like the spirit which informs the document. A scheme of national economic planning to achieve a right, or at least a better, balance of our industries between the old and the new, between agriculture and manufacture, between home development and foreign investment; and wide executive powers to carry out the details of such a scheme. That is what it amounts to. ... [The] manifesto offers us a starting point for thought and action. ... It will shock—it must do so—the many good citizens of this country...who have laissez-faire in their craniums, their consciences, and their bones ... But how anyone professing and calling himself a socialist can keep away from the manifesto is a more obscure matter."[34]
According to Lady Mosley's autobiography, thirty years later, in 1961, Richard Crossman wrote: "this brilliant memorandum was a whole generation ahead of Labour thinking."[26] As his book, The Greater Britain, focused on the issues of free trade, the criticisms against globalisation that he formulated can be found in critiques of contemporary globalisation. He warns nations that buying cheaper goods from other nations may seem appealing but ultimately ravage domestic industry and lead to large unemployment, as seen in the 1930s. He argues that trying to "challenge the 50-year-old system of free trade ... exposes industry in the home market to the chaos of world conditions, such as price fluctuation, dumping, and the competition of sweated labour, which result in the lowering of wages and industrial decay."[35]
In a newspaper feature, Mosley was described as "a strange blend of J.M. Keynes and Major Douglas of credit fame".[36] From July 1930, he began to demand that government must be turned from a “talk-shop” into a “workshop.”[37]
In 1992, the then UK prime minister, John Major, examined Mosley's ideas in order to find an unorthodox solution to the aftermath of the 1990-91 economic recession.[38]
New Party
Dissatisfied with the Labour Party, Mosley and six other Labour MPs (two of whom resigned after one day) founded the New Party.
Its early parliamentary contests, in the
The New Party increasingly inclined to fascist policies, but Mosley was denied the opportunity to get his party established when during the
When Sir Oswald Mosley sat down after his Free Trade Hall speech in Manchester and the audience, stirred as an audience rarely is, rose and swept a storm of applause towards the platform – who could doubt that here was one of those root-and-branch men who have been thrown up from time to time in the religious, political and business story of England. First that gripping audience is arrested,[n 2] then stirred and finally, as we have said, swept off its feet by a tornado of peroration yelled at the defiant high pitch of a tremendous voice.[26]
Fascism
Part of a series on |
Fascism |
---|
After his election failure in 1931, Mosley went on a study tour of the "new movements" of Italy's
Mosley had found problems with disruption of New Party meetings, and instituted a corps of black-uniformed paramilitary stewards, the Fascist Defence Force, nicknamed "Blackshirts", like the Italian fascist Voluntary Militia for National Security they were emulating. The party was frequently involved in violent confrontations and riots, particularly with communist and Jewish groups and especially in London.[48] At a large Mosley rally at Olympia on 7 June 1934, his bodyguards' violence caused bad publicity.[47] This and the Night of the Long Knives in Germany led to the loss of most of the BUF's mass support. Nevertheless, Mosley continued espousing anti-Semitism.[49] At one of his New Party meetings in Leicester in April 1935, he said, "For the first time I openly and publicly challenge the Jewish interests of this country, commanding commerce, commanding the Press, commanding the cinema, dominating the City of London, killing industry with their sweat-shops. These great interests are not intimidating, and will not intimidate, the Fascist movement of the modern age."[50] The party was unable to fight the 1935 general election.
In October 1936, Mosley and the BUF tried to march through an area with a high proportion of Jewish residents. Violence, now called the Battle of Cable Street, resulted between protesters trying to block the march and police trying to force it through. Sir Philip Game, the Police Commissioner, stopped the march from proceeding and the BUF abandoned it.
Mosley continued to organise marches policed by the Blackshirts, and the government was sufficiently concerned to pass the Public Order Act 1936, which, amongst other things, banned political uniforms and quasi-military style organisations and came into effect on 1 January 1937. In the London County Council elections in 1937, the BUF stood in three wards in East London (some former New Party seats), its strongest areas, polling up to a quarter of the vote. Mosley made most of the Blackshirt employees redundant, some of whom then defected from the party with William Joyce.
In October 1937 in Liverpool, he was knocked unconscious by two stones thrown by crowd members after he delivered a fascist salute to 8,000 people from the top of a van in Walton.[51]
As the European situation moved towards war, the BUF began to nominate Parliamentary by-election candidates and launched campaigns on the theme of "Mind Britain's Business". Mosley remained popular as late as summer 1939. His Britain First rally at the Earls Court Exhibition Hall on 16 July 1939 was the biggest indoor political rally in British history, with a reported 30,000 attendees.
After the outbreak of war, Mosley led the campaign for a negotiated peace, but after the
Internment
Unbeknown to Mosley,
Mosley used the time in confinement to read extensively in classics, particularly regarding politics and war, with a focus upon key historical figures. He refused visits from most BUF members, but on 18 March 1943, Dudley and Norah Elam (who had been released by then) accompanied Unity Mitford to see her sister Diana. Mosley agreed to be present because he mistakenly believed that it was Lady Redesdale, Diana and Unity's mother, who was accompanying Unity.[55] The internment, particularly that of Lady Mosley, resulted in significant public debate in the press, although most of the public supported the Government's actions. Others demanded a trial, either in the hope it would end the detention or in the hope of a conviction.[1] During his internment he developed what would become a lifelong friendship with fellow prisoner Cahir Healy, a Catholic Irish nationalist MP for the Northern Irish parliament.[56]
In November 1943, the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, ordered the release of the Mosleys. After a fierce debate in the House of Commons, Morrison's action was upheld by a vote of 327–26.[1] Mosley, who was suffering with phlebitis, spent the rest of the war confined under house arrest and police supervision. On his release from prison, he first stayed with his sister-in-law Pamela Mitford, followed shortly by a stay at the Shaven Crown Hotel in Shipton-under-Wychwood. He then purchased Crux Easton House, near Newbury, with Diana.[57] He and his wife remained the subject of much press attention.[58]
Post-war politics
After the
Mosley was a key pioneer in the emergence of Holocaust denial. While not denying the existence of Nazi concentration camps, he claimed that they were a necessity to hold "a considerable disaffected population", where problems were caused by lack of supplies due to "incessant bombing" by the Allies, with bodies burned in gas chambers due to typhus outbreaks, rather than being created by the Nazis to exterminate people. He sought to discredit pictures taken in places like Buchenwald and Belsen. He also claimed that the Holocaust was to be blamed on the Jews and that Adolf Hitler knew nothing about it. He criticised the Nuremberg trials as "a zoo and a peep show".[7]
In the wake of the
In 1961, he took part in a debate at
In 1977, by which time he was suffering from Parkinson's disease, Mosley was nominated as a candidate for Rector of the University of Glasgow in which election he polled over 100 votes but finished bottom of the poll.[citation needed]
Mosley's political thought is believed to have influence on the organic farming movement in Great Britain. Henry Williamson, the agricultural writer and ruralist, put the theories of "blood and soil" into practice, which, in effect, acted as a demonstration farm for Mosley's ideas for the BUF. In The Story of a Norfolk Farm (1941) Williamson recounts the physical and philosophical journey he undertook in turning the farm's worn-out soil back into fertile land. The tone contained in this text is more politically overt than in his nature works. Throughout the book, Williamson makes references to regular meetings he had held with his "Leader" (Mosley) and a group of like-minded agrarian thinkers. Lady Eve Balfour, a founder of the Soil Association, supported Mosley's proposals to abolish Church of England tithes on agricultural land (Mosley's blackshirts "protected" a number of East Anglian farms in the 1930s from the bailiffs authorised to extract payments to the Church).[68] Jorian Jenks, another early member of the Soil Association, was active within the Blackshirts and served as Mosley's agricultural adviser.[69][70]
Personal life
Mosley had three children with his first wife Lady Cynthia Curzon.[11]
- Vivien Elisabeth Mosley (1921–2002); she married Desmond Francis Forbes Adam (1926–58) on 15 January 1949. Adam had been educated at Eton College and at King's College, Cambridge. The couple had two daughters, Cynthia and Arabella, and a son, Rupert.
- Nicholas Mosley (1923–2017) (later 3rd Baron Ravensdale a title inherited from his mother's family), and 7th Baronet of Ancoats; he was a novelist and wrote a biography of his father and edited his memoirs for publication.
- Michael Mosley (1932–2012), unmarried and without issue.
In 1924, Lady Cynthia joined the Labour Party, and was elected as the Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent in 1929. She later joined Oswald's New Party and lost the 1931 election in Stoke.[71] She died in 1933 at 34 after an operation for peritonitis following acute appendicitis, in London.
Mosley had two children with his second wife, Diana Mitford (1910–2003):[11]
- (Oswald) Alexander Mosley (1938–2005); father of Louis Mosley (born 1983)
- Max Mosley (1940–2021), who was president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for 16 years
Death and funeral
Oswald Mosley died on 3 December 1980 at Orsay. His body was cremated in a ceremony held at the Père Lachaise Cemetery, and his ashes were scattered on the pond at Orsay. His son Alexander stated that they had received many messages of condolence but no abusive words. "All that was a very long time ago," he said.[72]
Electoral record
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Ida Copeland | 19,918 | 45.56 | ||
Labour | Ellis Smith | 13,264 | 30.34 | ||
New Party | Oswald Mosley | 10,534 | 24.10 | New | |
Majority | 6,654 | 15.22 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 43,716 | 75.88 | |||
Conservative gain from Labour | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Oswald Mosley | 19,550 | 54.8 | −2.3 | |
Unionist
|
Roy Wise | 12,210 | 34.2 | +0.5 | |
Liberal | Maude Egerton Marshall | 3,909 | 11.0 | +1.8 | |
Majority | 7,340 | 20.6 | −2.8 | ||
Turnout | 35,669 | 78.9 | +0.3 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | -1.4 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Oswald Mosley | 16,077 | 57.1 | +4.8 | |
Unionist
|
Marshall James Pike | 9,495 | 33.7 | −14.0 | |
Liberal | Edwin Bayliss | 2,600 | 9.2 | New | |
Majority | 6,582 | 23.4 | +18.8 | ||
Turnout | 35,862 | 78.6 | +0.4 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | −9.4 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unionist
|
Neville Chamberlain | 13,374 | 49.1 | –4.1 | |
Labour | Oswald Mosley | 13,297 | 48.9 | +2.1 | |
Liberal | Alfred William Bowkett | 539 | 2.0 | New | |
Majority | 77 | 0.2 | –3.8 | ||
Turnout | 27,200 | 80.5 | +8.5 | ||
Unionist hold
|
Swing | –2.0 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Independent
|
Oswald Mosley | 14,079 | 59.9 | −6.1 | |
Unionist
|
Edward Hugh Frederick Morris | 9,433 | 40.1 | +6.1 | |
Majority | 4,646 | 19.8 | −12.2 | ||
Turnout | 23,512 | 64.5 | −0.6 | ||
Registered electors | 36,475 | ||||
Independent hold
|
Swing | −6.1 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Independent
|
Oswald Mosley | 15,290 | 66.0 | N/A | |
Unionist
|
Charles Ward-Jackson | 7,868 | 34.0 | −48.3 | |
Majority | 7,422 | 32.0 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 23,158 | 65.1 | +14.7 | ||
Registered electors | 35,592 | ||||
Unionist
|
Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
C | Unionist
|
Oswald Mosley | 13,959 | 82.3 | N/A |
Independent
|
Arthur Robert Chamberlayne | 3,007 | 17.7 | New | |
Majority | 10,934 | 64.6 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 16,957 | 50.4 | N/A | ||
Registered electors | 33,651 | ||||
Unionist hold
|
Swing | N/A | |||
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government. |
Chamberlayne was nominated by the non-party Harrow Electors League
Archive and residences
Mosley's personal papers are held at the University of Birmingham's Special Collections Archive.
Mosley's ancestral family residence,
Mosley's residence in Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland, known as Ileclash House, was put up for sale in 2011, and again in 2016, 2018 and 2020. A Georgian style house, it was built in the 18th century and by 2011 was accompanied by 12 acres. It had fallen into a state of disrepair until it was purchased and restored by Mosley in the 1950s.[78] In the same decade, he bought and restored Clonfert Palace, also in Ireland.[79]
In popular culture
Alternative history fiction
Comics
- In the Martianinvasion of 1938.
Literature
- In Terrance Dicks' Doctor Who New Adventures novel Timewyrm: Exodus, Prime Minister Mosley is shown addressing Britain's first National Socialist parliament.
- In Kim Newman's The Bloody Red Baron, Mosley is shot down and killed in 1918 by Erich von Stalhein (from the Biggles series by W. E. Johns) and a character later comments that "a career has been ended before it was begun".
- In Munich Conference Accord and Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
- In Lord Beaverbrook, who leads a coalition government consisting of the pro-treaty factions of the Conservatives and Labour as well as the BUF. The government works closely and sympathises with the Nazi regime in Germany. Under Mosley's leadership, the police have become a feared force and an "Auxiliary Police" consisting mainly of British Union of Fascists thugs that has been set up to deal with political crime.
- In Lavie Tidhar's A Man Lies Dreaming (2014), Mosley is running for (and eventually becomes) prime minister, in a world where the Communist Party of Germany, rather than the Nazis, successfully overthrew the Weimar Republic in 1933.
- Mosley appears more than once in the works of Harry Turtledove.
- The Colonization trilogy sees Mosley, still an MP in 1963, spearheading an effort to pass legislation revoking the citizenship of all Jews; the plan fails in the short term.
- In the Presence of Mine Enemies(2003) empowers Mosley as British leader in a scenario in which Nazi Germany won the Second World War.
- In the Second Great Warfrom 1941 to 1944 with disastrous results.
- In Guy Walters' The Leader, Mosley has taken power as "The Leader" of Great Britain in 1937. King Edward VIII is still on the throne after his marriage, Winston Churchill is a prisoner on the Isle of Man, and prime minister Mosley is conspiring with Adolf Hitler about the fate of Britain's Jewish population.
- In the sixth book in Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, Among the Mad, Maisie's investigation takes her to a meeting of Oswald Mosley followers where violence ensues.
- In the 1944 World War II novel Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte, Mosley appears in an important dream sequence. This happens in chapter IV of the book that is based on the writer's experiences in Moldavia, just before he recounts his first hand experiences of the Iași pogrom.
- In Roy Carter's alternative history novel, The Man Who Prevented WW2, Mosley wins the Axis Powers, abolishes the monarchy and declares war on Ireland and France.
Film
- In the mockumentary It Happened Here (1964), showing a Nazi-occupied Britain in the mid-1940s, Mosley is never mentioned by name. A British fascist leader resembling him is, however, shown in "documentary" footage from the 1930s. Mosley's portrait can be seen alongside Hitler's in government offices. The film's fictional Immediate Action Organisation seems to be inspired by Mosley's British Union of Fascists, with members referred to as "blackshirts" and the symbol of the BUF appearing on their uniforms.[80]
Video games
- In the grand strategy games, Oswald Mosley is usually the leader of the United Kingdom if the fascists seize power.
Historical and modern day fiction
Film
- In Darkest Hour (2017), Churchill, played by Gary Oldman, discusses with his Outer Cabinet the possibility of Britain becoming a slave state of Nazi Germany under Mosley if the decision is made to pursue peace talks right before his "We Shall Never Surrender" speech.[81]
- In the film In the Flesh" segment, the character Pink (at this stage in the story, a modern Fascist leader) is dressed in a fashion similar to that of Mosley's.[82]
- In the film The Remains of the Day (1993), the character Sir Geoffrey Wren is based loosely on Sir Oswald Mosley.
Literature
- Amanda K. Hale's novel Mad Hatter (2019) features Mosley as her father James Larratt Battersby's leader in the BUF.
- Aldous Huxley's novel Point Counter Point (1928) features Everard Webley, a character who is similar to Mosley in the 1920s, before Mosley left the Labour Party.
- In H. G. Wells's novel The Holy Terror (1939), the Mosley-like character Lord Horatio Bohun is the leader of an organisation called the Popular Socialist Party. The character is principally motivated by vanity, and is removed from leadership and sent packing to Argentina.
- P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves short-story and novel series includes the character Sir Roderick Spode from 1938 to 1971, who is a parody of Mosley.[83]
Music
- Originally, Elvis Costello's song "Less Than Zero" (1977) was an attack on Mosley and his politics. Listeners in the United States had assumed that the "Mr. Oswald" in the lyrics was Lee Harvey Oswald, so Costello wrote an alternative lyric to refer to Kennedy's assassin.[84]: 74, 84
- On Mosley's release from prison in 1943, Ewan MacColl wrote the song "The Leader's a Bleeder", set to the tune of the Irish song "The Old Orange Flute". The song suggests that Mosley had been treated relatively well in prison owing to his aristocratic background.[85]
Periodicals
- In 2006, BBC History magazine selected Mosley as the 20th century's worst Briton.[86]
Television
- The Channel 4 biographical miniseries Mosley (1997) starred Jonathan Cake.
- The satirical television programme Not the Nine O'Clock News lampooned the British media's favourable 1980 obituaries of Mosley in a comedic music video, "Baronet Oswald Ernald Mosley". The actors, dressed as Nazi punks, performed a punk rock eulogy to Mosley, interweaving some of the positive remarks by newspapers from all sides of the political spectrum, including The Times and The Guardian.[87]
- The BBC Wales-produced 2010 revival of Upstairs Downstairs, set in 1936, included a storyline involving Mosley, the BUF and the Battle of Cable Street.
- Mosley, played by crime drama Peaky Blinders.[88]
- Mosley was played by Jonathan McGuinness in the first series of the BBC war drama World on Fire.
See also
References
Notes
- ^ Amato 2002, pp. 278–279, quotes national archive document HO 283/11, which states that among the property seized following Mosley's arrest by the British government in 1940 was correspondence between Mosley and Beaumont dating from 1937.
- ^ Arrested in the sense of stunned or gripped.
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g "Sir Oswald Mosley – Meteoric rise and fall of a controversial politician". The Times. 4 December 1980. p. 19.
- ISBN 978-1-910670-71-2.
- ^ "Life and Times of Sir Oswald Mosley & the British Union of Fascists". Holocaust Research Project. Archived from the original on 8 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
- JSTOR 24429007– via JSTOR.
- ^ Barling, Kurt (4 October 2011). "Why remember Battle of Cable Street?". BBC News. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
- Philpot, Robert. "The true history behind London's much-lauded anti-fascist Battle of Cable Street". Times of Israel. Retrieved 4 February 2021. - ISBN 978-0-14-197596-2.
- ^ a b Philpot, Robert (20 March 2021). "Holocaust denial was already taking root in Britain during WWII, says UK author". Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 10 July 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ISBN 9781317190882.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31477. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- General Register Office Index of Births in England and Wales for October, November and December 1896 (Registration district: St George, Hanover Square, Middlesex), p. 399 - ISBN 9780203465455.
- ^ ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
- ISBN 978-1-78925-794-6– via Google Books.
- ^ ISBN 9780710810199.
- ^ Oswald Mosley: Hitler's Man in Britain Biographics.org. Retrieved September 7, 2023.
- ISBN 1-904341-09-8.
- ^ Dowd, Maureen (11 June 2000). "Tea With Hitler". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 March 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-908476-69-2.
- ^ Robinson, Abby (27 August 2019). "Peaky Blinders' Oswald Mosley – the real story behind Tommy Shelby's new foe". Digital Spy. Hearst UK Entertainment. Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-84519-053-8. Archivedfrom the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 9 February 2014 – via Google Books.
- ^ "No. 31147". The London Gazette. 28 January 1919. p. 1361.
- ^ "Ten things you didn't know about Mr Keynes". The Standard. 13 April 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-333-48374-9.
- ^ Alter, Peter (2017). "Das britische Schwarzhemd". Damals (in German). Vol. 49, no. 4. pp. 58–63.
- ISBN 978-1-137-27419-9.
- ISBN 978-1-107-05268-0, retrieved 24 February 2022
- ^ a b c d Mosley, Diana (1977). A Life of Contrasts. Hamish Hamilton.
- ^ a b c Macklin 2006, p. 24.
- ^ Reekes, Andrew. "The 1924 Ladywood Election" (PDF). History West Midlands.
- ^ Macklin 2006, p. 25.
- ISBN 978-0-333-48374-9.
- ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-333-56081-5.(PDF) from the original on 3 February 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- Sihvonen, Maija (2008). "Modern and Anti-Modern Elements in the Discourse of the British Union of Fascists" (PDF). p. 14. Archived - ^ Skidelsky, Robert (1994). Politicians and the Slump: The Labour Government of 1929–1931. Macmillan. p. 170.
- ^ Keynes, J.M (1971). The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes: Activities, 1929–1931, Rethinking Employment and Unemployment Policies. Royal Economic Society. pp. 473–475.
- ^ Rubin, Bret (Autumn 2010). "The Rise and Fall of British Fascism: Sir Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists" (PDF). Intersections Online. 11: 17. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ Rees, Philip (1979). Fascism in Britain. Harvester Press. p. 186.
- ISBN 978-0-230-27652-9.
- ^ "John Major looked to fascist Oswald Mosley for ideas on economy". Financial Times. 23 July 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-333-48374-9.
- ^ a b "Daily Mail". British Newspapers Online. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
- S2CID 159457081.
- ISBN 9783030179977.
- ^ "What 1930s political ideologies can teach us about the 2020s". Aeon. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
- ^ Cameron, James (1979). Yesterday's Witness. BBC, p. 52.
- Horrie, Chris (11 November 2003). "Revealed: the fascist past of the Daily Mirror". The Independent. Archived from the original on 5 April 2008. - ^ Barker, Revel (20 July 2010). "Darkness in the mirror". The Express Tribune. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-57607-940-9. Archivedfrom the original on 28 February 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2015 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Gunther, John (1940). Inside Europe. New York: Harper & Brothers. pp. 362–364.
- ^ Gould, Mark (22 February 2009). "Last reunion for war heroes who came home to fight the fascists". The Independent. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^ "Who was Sir Oswald Mosley?". BBC News. 26 August 2019. Archived from the original on 4 September 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ "Sir Oswald Mosley and the Jews – Communist Scuffle With Police". The Times. 15 April 1935. p. 8.
- ^ Bona, Emilia (13 September 2020). "How Liverpool ran a fascist leader out of town and showed what our city stands for". Liverpool Echo. Archived from the original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
- ^ "Disturbances at Fascist Meeting". The Times. 20 May 1940. p. 3.
- ^ a b "The Mosley Files". The Times. 14 November 1983. p. 11.
- ^ "Lady Mosley detained". The Times. 1 July 1940. p. 2.
- ISBN 978-1-4466-9967-6. Archived from the originalon 13 January 2012.
- ^ "Healy, Cahir". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
- ^ Amato 2002, p. 390.
- ^ Mosley, Nicholas. Rules of the Game, Beyond the Pale. p. 503.
- S2CID 145290608.
- ^ Meleady, Sean (4 November 2021). "Britain's post-war fascist pro-Europeans". The New European. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
- ^ "Mosley in Ireland". The Dublin Review. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
In 1946, through his solicitor, Mosley told officials in Dublin that he was interested in settling in Ireland. De Valera was consulted and Mosley's solicitor was summoned to the Department of Justice to be told that 'the time was perhaps not opportune for him to take up permanent residence and that he might delay his decision for some time until international tempers were quieter'. Five years later with the hostility he encountered in Britain showing no sign of abating, Mosley moved to Ireland.
- ^ Jonathan Guinness, Catherine Guinness, The House of Mitford (1985), p. 540.
- ISBN 9780030865800. Retrieved 18 February 2023 – via Google Books., a former South African cabinet minister and founder in 1940 of a pro-Nazi New Order, for dividing Africa into black and white areas.
In April 1948 he endorsed a plan by Oswald Pirow
- ISBN 9780710810199. Retrieved 18 February 2023 – via Google Books.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8264-5814-8. Archivedfrom the original on 26 May 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2013 – via Google Books.
- Pi Newspaper, 2 February 1961.
- ^ "Letters". The Times. 26 April 1968. p. 11.
- ^ Richard Negus (27 July 2022). "Blood and soil: the Greens' fascist roots". The Critic Magazine. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
- ^ "On the Dark Side of the Land". Resurgence. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
- Andrew, Steve (15 March 2017). "Green fascism? Bio shows surprising roots of organic farming movement". People's World. Retrieved 13 September 2022. - ISBN 978-1-317-30021-2.
- ISBN 978-1-85743-228-2. Archivedfrom the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 26 August 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Sir Oswald Mosley cremated in Paris". The Times. 9 December 1980. p. 6.
- ^ ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
- ^ a b c British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
- ^ "Rolleston Hall – General History". The local history of Burton on Trent. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-7524-8014-5.
- ISBN 978-1-78497-088-8.
- ^ Bill Browne (5 May 2011). "Fascist Oswald Mosley's house in Fermoy up for sale". The Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
- Scanlon, Eoin (21 April 2016). "€3.5 million Ileclash House for sale along River Blackwater". The Avondhu. Archived from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
- Rose Martin (28 April 2018). "House of the week: Perfectly restored, pristine period house in Fermoy". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
- Amy Nolan (30 January 2020). "Take a look at this incredible Cork mansion on the market for €2.75m". Echo Live. Archived from the original on 21 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021. - ^ Maurice Walsh (Spring 2007). "Mosley in Ireland". The Dublin Review (26). Archived from the original on 31 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
- Emily Hourican (18 July 2021). "How the Mitford sisters' flight from fascism took them to Ireland". The Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021. - ISBN 978-0-415-05671-7. Archivedfrom the original on 1 May 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2014 – via Google Books.
- YouTube
- ^ Ebert, Roger (24 February 2010). "Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
I don't believe this dictator is intended as a parallel to any obvious model like Hitler or Stalin; he seems more a fantasy of Britain's own National Socialists led by Oswald Mosley.
- ISBN 978-0-415-39145-0. Archived from the original on 1 May 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2015 – via Google Books.from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
- Jones, Charlotte (20 December 2013). "The Code of Woosters, by PG Wodehouse: Splendid, Jeeves!". The Guardian. London. Archived - ISBN 978-1-84195-796-8.
- ISBN 978-1-935243-12-0. Archivedfrom the original on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
- ^ "'Worst' historical Britons list". BBC News. 27 December 2005. Archived from the original on 15 January 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
- ^ Not The Nine O'Clock News: "Baronet Oswald Ernald Mosley", Some of the Corpses are Amusing. Archived 22 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Adebowale, Temi (12 October 2019). "The True Story of 'Peaky Blinders' Character Oswald Mosley". Men's Health. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
Bibliography
- Amato, Joseph Anthony (2002). Rethinking Home: A Case for Writing Local History. ISBN 978-0-520-23293-8. Archivedfrom the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 9 February 2014 – via Google Books.
- Macklin, Graham (2006). Chamberlain. Haus Books. ISBN 978-1-904950-62-2.
- ISBN 978-0-436-28849-4.
- ISBN 978-0-436-28852-4.
- Mosley, Oswald (1968). ISBN 978-0-87000-160-4.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-670-86999-6.
- ISBN 978-0-333-98992-0.
- Gottlieb, Julie V. (2000). Feminine Fascism: Women in Britain's Fascist Movement 1923-1945. London: I.B. Tauris.
- Pugh, Martin (2005). Hurrah for the Blackshirts!: Fascists and Fascism in Britain between the Wars. ISBN 0-224-06439-8.
- ISBN 978-0-03-086580-0.
- Skidelsky, Robert (1969). "The Problem of Mosley: Why a Fascist Failed". Encounter. Vol. 33, no. 192. pp. 77–88.
- Worley, Matthew (2010). Oswald Mosley and the New Party. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-20697-7.
External links
- Friends of Oswald Mosley at oswaldmosley.com, containing archives of his speeches and books
- Oswald Mosley at IMDb
- Newspaper clippings about Oswald Mosley in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
- "Mosley and the BUF". Exploring 20th Century London. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Oswald Mosley
- "Hull Race Riot". Hull Daily Mail. 1936. (last accessible, 23 October 2017)
- "Metropolitan Police records of the BUF incident at Olympia, 1934". British National Archives.
- "MI5 surveillance of Mosley". BBC News.
- Oswald Mosley on the Frost Programme, 1967 on YouTube
- Sir Oswald Mosley Interview on Thames Television, 1975 on YouTube