Diana, Lady Mosley (née Freeman-Mitford; 17 June 1910 – 11 August 2003) was one of Britain's noted Mitford sisters and hailed as one of the great beauties of her generation. She married Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists in 1936, at the home of Joseph Goebbels, with Adolf Hitler as guest of honor. Subsequently her involvement with right-wing political causes resulted in three years' internment during the Second World War. Her obituary in The Daily Telegraph referred to her as an "unrepentant Nazi and effortlessly charming." is the 168th day of the year (169th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Belgravia is a district in the City of Westminster in London, to the south-west of Buckingham Palace. ... is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... Kinship is a biological and/or familial relationship between two organisms. ... Bryan Walter Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne (October 27, 1905 - July 6, 1992), was an heir to the Guinness family brewing fortune, lawyer, poet and novelist. ... Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (November 16, 1896 – December 3, 1980), was a British politician known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists. ... Jonathan Bryan Guinness (born March 16, 1930) succeeded as 3rd Baron Moyne in 1992. ... Desmond Guinness is an Irish author on Georgian art and architecture and a radical conservationist. ... Max Rufus Mosley (born 1940, London, England) is currently serving his fourth term as president of the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile. ... is the 168th day of the year (169th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Mitfords were an aristocratic British family noted for their accomplishments in writing and their notorious lives, particularly of the daughters of the family, known as the Mitford sisters. ... Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (November 16, 1896 – December 3, 1980), was a British politician known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists. ... The flag of the British Union of Fascists showing the Flash and Circle symbolic of action within unity The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom. ... Paul Joseph Goebbels (German pronunciation: IPA: ; English generally IPA: ) (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was a German politician and Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the National Socialist regime from 1933 to 1945. ... Hitler redirects here. ... This article is about the usage and history of the terms concentration camp, internment camp and internment. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article concerns the British newspaper. ... Nazism in history Nazi ideology Nazism and race Outside Germany Related subjects Lists Politics Portal         Nazism or National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), refers primarily to the ideology and practices of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers Party, German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) under Adolf Hitler. ...

Early life

She was the daughter of David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale (1878-1958, son of Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale) and his wife, Sydney (1880–1963), daughter of Thomas Gibson Bowles, MP. Diana was born in Belgravia and raised at the Mitford family home, Asthall Manor, in Oxfordshire. She was educated there by a series of governesses except for a six month period in 1926 when she was sent to a day school in Paris. Baron Redesdale, of Redesdale in the County of Northumberland, is a title that has been created twice, both times in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. ... Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford (1837 - 1916) of Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, and Birdhope Craig, Northumberland, was an English diplomat, collector and writer. ... Thomas Gibson Bowles by Leslie Ward Thomas Gibson Bowles (January 15, 1841 — January 12, 1922), generally known as Tommy Bowles, was the founder of the magazines The Lady and the English Vanity Fair, a sailor and the maternal grandfather of the Mitford sisters. ... Belgravia is a district in the City of Westminster in London, to the south-west of Buckingham Palace. ... Oxfordshire (abbreviated Oxon, from the Latinised form Oxonia) is a county in the South East of England, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire. ... This article is about the capital of France. ...

Shortly after her introduction to society at age 18 she met, and became secretly engaged to Bryan Walter Guinness, an Irish aristocrat, writer and brewing heir who would inherit the barony of Moyne. Her parents were initially opposed to the match but in time were persuaded. The marriage on January 30, 1929, was the society marriage of the year. Bryan Walter Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne (October 27, 1905 - July 6, 1992), was an heir to the Guinness family brewing fortune, lawyer, poet and novelist. ... Baron Moyne, of Bury St Edmund in the County of Suffolk, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. ... is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The couple had an income of £20,000 a year, an estate, Biddesden in Hampshire, and houses in London and Dublin. They were well known for hosting glittering society events involving writers such as Evelyn Waugh, Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington and John Betjeman, or politicians such as Winston Churchill. Waugh dedicated the novel Vile Bodies, a satire of the Roaring Twenties, to the couple. They had two sons, Jonathan (b. 1930), and Desmond (b. 1931). This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see Dublin (disambiguation). ... Evelyn Waugh, as photographed in 1940 by Carl Van Vechten Arthur Evelyn St. ... Giles Lytton Strachey (March 1, 1880–January 21, 1932) was a British writer and critic. ... Dora de Houghton Carrington (March 29, 1893 – March 11, 1932) was a British painter and decorative artist. ... A collection of Betjemans poetry, published by John Murray in January 2006 Sir John Betjeman CBE (28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984) was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Whos Who as a poet and hack. He was born to a middle-class family... Churchill redirects here. ... Vile Bodies is a novel by Evelyn Waugh. ... Jonathan Bryan Guinness (born March 16, 1930) succeeded as 3rd Baron Moyne in 1992. ... Desmond Guinness is an Irish author on Georgian art and architecture and a radical conservationist. ...

In February 1932 she met Sir Oswald Mosley, soon to become leader of the British Union of Fascists, and became his mistress; he was then married to Lady Cynthia Curzon, a daughter of Lord Curzon, former Viceroy of India and his first wife, American mercantile heiress Mary Victoria Leiter. Diana soon left her husband but Sir Oswald would not leave his wife. Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (November 16, 1896 – December 3, 1980), was a British politician known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists. ... The flag of the British Union of Fascists showing the Flash and Circle symbolic of action within unity The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom. ... Lady Cynthia Blanche Mosley (23 August 1898–16 May 1933) was a British politician, the second eldest of the Curzon sisters and the first wife of fascist Sir Oswald Mosley, Bt. ... George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, British statesman The Most Honourable George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (January 11, 1859 – March 20, 1925), was a conservative British statesman who served as Viceroy of India. ... The Governor-General of India (or Governor-General and Viceroy of India) was the head of the British administration in India. ... // Mary Victoria Leiter, wife of Lord Curzon-Viceroy of India. ...

Connections to the Third Reich

Sir Oswald's wife died of peritonitis in May 1933, and Oswald began an affair with his youngest sister-in-law Baba Metcalfe (his mistresses also included his first wife's stepmother). Diana went to Germany with her then 19 year old sister Unity. While there they attended the first Nuremberg rally after the Nazi seizure of power. They returned again for the second rally the next year during which Unity struck up a friendship with Hitler. She introduced Diana to him in March 1935. They were his guests at the 1935 rally and, in 1936, Hitler provided a Mercedes-Benz to chauffeur Diana to the Berlin Olympic games. The Hon. ... The Nuremberg Rally (officially, Reichsparteitag, meaning national party convention) was the annual rally of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) in the years 1923 to 1938 in Germany. ... This page is about the Mercedes-Benz brand of automobiles and trucks from the DaimlerChrysler automobile manufacturer. ... The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, were held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. ...

On 6 October 1936, in the Berlin drawing room of Joseph Goebbels, she became Sir Oswald's second wife. Other than the witnesses, the only guests were Goebbels, and Hitler. Hitler presented the couple with a silver framed picture of himself. The marriage was kept secret until the birth of their first child, Alexander, in 1938. In August 1939, Hitler told Diana over lunch that war was inevitable. is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Paul Joseph Goebbels (German pronunciation: IPA: ; English generally IPA: ) (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was a German politician and Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the National Socialist regime from 1933 to 1945. ...

The Mosleys were interned throughout much of World War II, under Defence Regulation 18B, for their Fascist sympathies. (MI5 documents released in 2002 gave a harsh view of Lady Mosley and her political leanings. "Diana Mosley, wife of Sir Oswald Mosley, is reported on the 'best authority', that of her family and intimate circle, to be a public danger at the present time. Is said to be far cleverer and more dangerous than her husband and will stick at nothing to achieve her ambitions. She is wildly ambitious.") On June 29, 1940, eleven weeks after the birth of her fourth son Max, Diana was arrested (hastily stuffing Hitler's photograph under Max's cot mattress when the police came to arrest her) and taken to a cell in F Block in London's Holloway Prison for women. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Defence Regulation 18B was the most famous of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during World War II. It allowed for the internment of people suspected of being Nazi sympathisers. ... MI-5 redirects here. ... is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... HM Prison Holloway is a womens prison in the London Borough of Islington, London, United Kingdom. ...

The pair were initially held separately but, after personal intervention by Churchill, in December 1941 Sir Oswald and two other 18B husbands (one of them Mosley's friend Captain H.W. Luttman-Johnson) were permitted to join their wives at Holloway. The couples lived in an old cottage on the prison grounds, had a little garden but were not allowed to mix with any other prisoners. After two years imprisonment, in November 1943, they were both released on grounds of Sir Oswald's health. They were placed under house arrest until the end of the war and were denied passports until 1947.

Lady Mosley's prison time failed to disturb her eccentric approach to life, remarking in her later years that she never grew fraises des bois that tasted as good as those she cultivated in the prison garden. She also survived her time there by basking in her own imperishable self-regard: though prison was not something she would have chosen, she said, "It was still lovely to wake up in the morning and feel that one was lovely one." According to her obituary in the Daily Telegraph, among her jewels was a diamond swastika.[1] This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ...

After the War

After the war ended Diana and her husband moved to the Irish Free State for a few years and then settled in France where they lived in an exquisite house at Orsay, near Paris called Temple de la Gloire. They were neighbours, and soon became close friends of, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. This article is about the prior state. ... Orsay is a commune of Essonne, Île-de-France located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. ... Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; later The Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972) was King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India from the death of his father, George V (1910–36), on 20...

Once again they were well known for entertaining but were barred from all functions at the British Embassy. During their time in France, the Mosleys quietly remarried; Hitler had safeguarded their original marriage license, and it was never found after the war.

While in France, Diana edited the right-wing magazine The European, to which she also contributed. She was also a lifelong supporter of the British Union of Fascists and its postwar successor the Union Movement, to which she made financial contributions until the 1994 death of its organiser Jeffrey Hamm. She often attended its annual dinners. The flag of the British Union of Fascists showing the Flash and Circle symbolic of action within unity The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom. ... The flag of the Union Movement showing the Flash and Circle symbolic of action within unity, carried on from the British Union of Fascists The Union Movement was a political party founded in Britain by Oswald Mosley. ... Edward Jeffrey Hamm (1915-1994) was a leading British Fascist and supporter of Oswald Mosley. ...

Diana Mosley, however, continued to admire Hitler and the tenets of Nazism throughout her life but was open in addressing the Führer's faults. "I'm sure he was to blame for the extermination of the Jews," she told British journalist Andrew Roberts, "he was to blame for everything, and I say that as someone who approved of him." Following her death Roberts severely criticised Lady Mosley in The Daily Telegraph (16 August 2003), and was in turn attacked three days later, in the same newspaper, by her son, Lord Moyne, and granddaughter, Daphne. Nazism in history Nazi ideology Nazism and race Outside Germany Related subjects Lists Politics Portal         Nazism or National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), refers primarily to the ideology and practices of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers Party, German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) under Adolf Hitler. ... This article concerns the British newspaper. ...

A Life of Contrasts: The Autobiography of Diana Mitford Mosley (Hardcover) by Diana Mitford Mosley

Diana Mosley was nothing if not ambiguous when discussing her loyalties to Britain and her strong belief in fascism. In her 1977 autobiography A Life of Contrasts she wrote "I didn't love Hitler any more than I did Winston. I can't regret it, it was so interesting."

Death

Lady Mosley died in Paris in August 2003, aged 93, apparently due to 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 heat wave in mostly non-air-conditioned Paris. Her remains are interred in the Swinbrook Churchyard in Oxfordshire with those of her sisters, Nancy (1904-1973) and Unity (1914-1948). Her death leaves one sister still living: Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. 2003 European heat wave was one of the hottest summers on record in Europe; this heat wave led to a health crisis in certain countries and had a considerable impact on crops. ... Oxfordshire (abbreviated Oxon, from the Latinised form Oxonia) is a county in the South East of England, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire. ... Nancy Mitford, 1957 The Hon. ... The Hon. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

She was survived by her four sons, among whom are the Irish preservationist Desmond Guinness, the writer Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne, and Max Mosley, president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the governing body of world motorsport. Her stepson Nicholas Mosley is a novelist who also wrote a memoir of his father for which Diana never forgave him despite their previously close relationship. One of her great-granddaughters, Jasmine Guinness, and a great-niece, Stella Tennant, are models.^[1] Desmond Guinness is an Irish author on Georgian art and architecture and a radical conservationist. ... Jonathan Bryan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne (born March 16, 1930) succeeded as 3rd Baron Moyne in 1992. ... Max Rufus Mosley (born 1940, London, England) is currently serving his fourth term as president of the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile. ... The Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile, commonly referred to as the FIA, is a non-profit association established on June 20, 1904 to represent the interest of motoring organisations and motor car users. ... The Right Honourable Nicholas Mosley, 3rd Baron Ravensdale (born June 25, 1923) is a British novelist. ... Jasmine Leonora Guinness (born 28 September 1976) in Dublin is a fashion model[1] and an heiress[2] to the Guinness brewing fortune. ...

She wrote two books of memoirs, A Life of Contrasts (1977), and Loved Ones (1985), as well as a biography of the Duchess of Windsor. Wallis, Duchess of Windsor and the Duke of Windsor on their wedding day Bessie Wallis Warfield, more widely known as Wallis Simpson and later The Duchess of Windsor (June 19, 1896–April 24, 1986) was the wife of Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII of the...

–==References==

• Mosley, Diana, A Life of Contrasts, (1st edition, Hamish Hamilton, 1977) reissued in paperback, London, 2003, ISBN 1-903933-20-X

• de Courcy Anne, Diana Mosley : Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler's Angel, Morrow Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0060-56532-2

• de Courcy Anne, Diana Mosley née Mitford, Rocher (Le), (French edition)

• Guinness, Jonathan, with Catherine Guinness, The House of Mitford, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1984, ISBN 0-09-155560-4

• Mosley, Diana, Loved Ones, Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1985, ISBN 0-283-99155-0

• Dalley, Jan, Diana Mosley - A Life, Faber & Faber, London,1999, ISBN 0-571-14448-9

The Hamish Hamilton logo Hamish Hamilton is a British book publisher, founded eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton (Hamish is the Celtic form). ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Faber and Faber is a celebrated publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing the poetry of T. S. Eliot. ... Events of 2008: (EMILY) Me Lesley and MIley are going to China! This article is about the year. ...

Notes

1. ^ Lovell, Mary S., The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family, 2002, ISBN 0-393-01043-0

External links

• Diana Mosley: The MI5 View - new files released from the National Archives shed new light on M15 surveillance of Mosley.