David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale

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File:Lord (2nd) Lord Redesdale.png
David Freeman-Mitford in 1915.
File:Lord (2nd) and Lady Redesdale.png
Lord and Lady Redesdale.

David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale (13 March 1878 – 17 March 1958) was a British aristocrat, soldier, and landowner. He was the father of the Mitford sisters, in whose various novels and memoirs he is depicted.[1][2] The Mitfords are said to have come to England with William the Conqueror, and held considerable estates in Northumberland, notably Newton Park in Redesdale, the ancient family seat being Mitford Castle (now a ruin), as well as in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.

Family

David, 2nd Baron Redesdale, was the second but eldest surviving son of Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale (1837-1916), the famous diplomat and author, and his wife Clementina Gertrude Helen Ogilvy, who was an aunt of Clementine Ogilvy, wife of Sir Winston Churchill. Born in his father's London town house in St.Luke's parish, Chelsea, he had an illustrious pedigree: his father and grandfather were renowned scholars, and his paternal grandmother's father was George, 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, K.G. (1760-1839). David's maternal grandfather was David Graham Drummond Ogilvy, 5th Earl of Airlie (1826-1881). In 1886 David's father inherited the Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, estates of his distant cousin John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Earl of Redesdale, who died unmarried when his titles became extinct. A condition of the inheritance was that he adopt the surname "Freeman-Mitford". Algernon Mitford assumed the additional surname of Freeman by Royal License in 1886. David appears with his father's family in the 1881 England and Wales Census at their London house in Chelsea, aged 3[3], and again in the 1891 Census when they are at their country seat in Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, aged 14[4]. In 1916 David and his family moved to the family's smaller country house at Asthall Manor, in Oxfordshire. That was sold in Autumn 1926, and Lord Redesdale moved to a smaller estate at Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, where he had a new country house built. At the same time he bought a large London house at 26 Rutland Gate in Knightsbridge.

David inherited his father's title (the second Redesdale creation) in 1916 which automatically gave him a seat in the House of Lords.

Military service

David Freeman-Mitford served in the South African War 1899-1902 and was a Lieutenant in the Northumberland Fusiliers 1901-1902. David rejoined this regiment on the outbreak of The Great War and served as a logistics officer in Flanders, gaining a mention in despatches for his bravery at the Second Battle of Ypres 22 Apr to 25 May 1915. His elder brother Clement was killed in the Battle of Loos between 24 Sep and 14 Oct of the same year.

Political position

Like his wife, Lord Redesdale endorsed National Socialist Germany during the 1930s. During this period almost all the Mitfords were regularly in Germany and met Hitler.[5] Redesdale was, however, a British patriot, and after Britain again declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, he renounced the National Socialists, which his wife refused to do leading to their estrangement.[6]

Marriage and children

File:Lord and Lady Redesdale and children.png
Lord & Lady Redesdale and their children at Swinbrooke House, Oxfordshire, 1930.

Lord Redesdale married his wife, Sydney, nee Bowles, on 6 February, 1904, in St George's Hanover Square, London, to become the parents of the famous "Mitford Sisters", with one son, Major Thomas David Freeman-Mitford, who was killed in action in Burma in WWII.

The children of Lord Redesdale and Sydney née Bowles:

  1. Nancy Freeman-Mitford (28 Nov 1904 - 1973)
  2. Pamela Freeman-Mitford (25 Nov 1907 - 1994)
  3. Major Thomas David Freeman-Mitford (2 Jan 1909 - 30 Mar 1945)
  4. Hon. Diana Freeman-Mitford, Lady Mosley, (17 Jun 1910 - 11 Aug 2003)
  5. Hon. Unity Valkyrie Freeman-Mitford (8 Aug 1914 - 28 May 1948)
  6. Hon. Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford (11 Sep 1917 - 1996)
  7. Hon. Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire (31 Mar 1920 - 24 Sep 2014)

Following his separation from his wife during WWII when she moved to Inch Kenneth, an island the family owned in Scotland's Western Isles, Lord Redesdale died in Redesdale Cottage on his Northumberland estate in 1958. He was buried in St Mary's Churchyard, Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, England, where his wife would finally join him upon her death in 1963.

Sources

  1. ↑ Guinness, Jonathan, 3rd Baron Moyne, and Catherine Guinness: The House of Mitford: Portrait of a Family, Hutchinson & Co., publishers, 1984, ISBN: 0-09-155560-4
  2. ↑ Mitford, Nancy, Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1980, ISBN: 0-241-10510-2.
  3. ↑ 1881 Census: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q273-4C41
  4. ↑ 1891 Census: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WG1R-HPZ
  5. ↑ Dalley,1999, p.177-9.
  6. ↑ Dalley, 1999, p.240.


  • Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed, and Official Classes, 29th annual edition, London, 1903, p.1048.
  • Dalley, Jan, Diana Mosley: A Life, Fabe & Faber, London, 1999, ISBN: 0-571-14448-9.
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