Diana Mitford

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Diana Mitford

Diana, Lady Mosley (b. 17 June 1910 in Belgravia, London, Britain; d. 11 August 2003 in Paris, France), born The Honourable Diana Freeman-Mitford, she famously became the second wife of Sir Oswald Mosley.

Life

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Bryan Walter Guinness and his bride Diana on their wedding day in 1929

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Diana Guinness with her sons and her sister Unity (left) in 1935

Early life

Diana was the fourth child and third daughter of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale (1878–1958) and his wife, Sydney (1880–1963), daughter of Thomas Gibson Bowles, a Member of Parliament. She was born in their London house at 1 Graham Street (now Graham Terrace) near Eaton Square in Belgravia then raised at their country estate of Batsford Park, Gloucestershire until it was sold in 1918; then from the age of 10 at another family home, Asthall Manor in Oxfordshire (1919-1926), and then at Swinbrook House, a new home her father had built in 1926, 1.5 miles north of the village of Swinbrook, also in Oxfordshire. 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

Diana was first married, aged 18, in January 1929, to Bryan Walter Guinness, later 2nd Lord Moyne (his father, the 1st Baron, was brutally murdered by the jewish terrorist group the Stern Gang in Cairo in Nov 1944). It was a major 'society' event and appeared in most of the national newspapers. However, they divorced in 1932. Their eldest son Jonathan Guinness was sometime controversial Chairman of the Conservative Monday Club in the 1970s; he is today 3rd Lord Moyne. Their second son, Desmond Walter, was born in the Guinneses London house in Buckingham Street, Westminster, on 8 September 1931 and died on 20th August 2020.

Diana's second husband was Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1929-1930), and Member of Parliament (Dec 1918-Oct 1924 and Dec 1926-Oct 1931). She married Mosley in the drawing room of the Berlin home of Dr. Joseph Goebbels on 6th October 1936, with Adolf Hitler as guest-of-honour (some reports say Best Man) and the interpreter, Dr.Schmidt. Goebbels spoke English, and Diana said this was a relief. His wife Magda presented Diana with an inscribed complete works of Goethe in twenty small volumes bound in bright red leather as a wedding present, which Diana treasured until the end of her life. The marriage was kept secret until the birth of their first child.

Mosley and Diana had two sons: (Oswald) Alexander Mosley (born 26 November 1938 - d.2005) and Max Rufus Mosley (13 April 1940 – 23 May 2021), President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for 16 years.

National Socialist Germany

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Diana and Sir Oswald Mosley while under House Arrest in WWII

Diana went to Germany with her younger sister Unity. While there they attended the first Nuremberg rally after the National Socialist victory. They returned again for the second rally the next year during which Unity struck up a friendship with Hitler. She introduced Diana to Hitler in March 1935. They were his guests at the 1935 rally and, in 1936, he provided a Mercedes-Benz to chauffeur Diana to the Berlin Olympic games. Diana also became well-acquainted with Winifred Wagner and Magda Goebbels.

WWII

On 29 June 1940 Diana was arrested and taken to a cell in F Block in London's Holloway Prison for women. She and her husband were held without charge or trial under Defence Regulation 18B. The couple were initially held separately but, after personal intervention by Winston Churchill, in December 1941, Mosley were permitted to join his wife at Holloway. After more than three years' imprisonment, they were both released in November 1943 on the grounds of Mosley's ill health; they were placed under house arrest Nov 1943 to June 1945 and were denied passports until 1949.

Post-WWII

Ostracized by the British media, Diana and Mosley moved to Paris in 1951, where she edited the pan-European fascist magazine The European. Diana was described as "unrepentant" about her previous political associations by obituary writers such as the English liberal historian Andrew Roberts.

Death

Diana Mosley died in Paris in August 2003, aged 93. She was buried in the Swinbrook Churchyard in Oxfordshire with her sisters, Nancy (1904-1973), Unity (1914-1948) and Jessica (1917-1996). Their parents are buried in the same churchyard.

Other

Diana Mitford's grandfather, Algernon Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale (of the second creation), was a famous diplomat and academic, who edited and wrote extensive and effusive introductions for two of Houston Stewart Chamberlain's books, Foundations of the Nineteenth Century and Immanuel Kant: A Study and Comparison with Goethe, Leonardo da Vinci, Bruno, Plato, and Descartes, both books two volumes each, translated into English by John Lees, M.A., D.Litt., and published in London, in 1910 (& 1911, 1912, 1913) and 1914 respectively.

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)

Gallery

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  Diana in 1929

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  Diana on 27 January 1932

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  Diana and Unity in the 1930s (with Roman salute)

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  Diana and her sister Unity.

Further reading

• Loved Ones pen portraits by Diana Mosley, London, 1985, ISBN 0-283-99155-0.
• Diana Mosley - A Life by Jan Dalley, London, 1999, ISBN 0-571-14448-9.
• A Life of Contrasts by Diana Mosley (autobiography), London, 2003, paperback ISBN 1-903933-20-X

External link

• Lady Diana Mosley Interview
• Sir Oswald’s Remarkable Lady