Who was Oswald Mosley?
BORN in London in 1896 to a rich landed family, Oswald Ernald Mosley succeeding to the title of the 6th Baronet of Ancoats following his father’s death in 1928.
Having served on the Western Front during World War 1 he entered the world of politics, serving as a British MP from 1918 to 1924 and from 1926 to 1930.
After failing in his bid to get re-elected to the House of Commons, Mosley went on to form the British Union of Fascists, known as ‘ The Blackshirts’ due to the colour of their uniforms, in 1932.
The party initially reflected his admiration for the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, but became heavily influenced by Nazism.
The group was known for distributing anti-Semitic propaganda, conducting hostile demonstrations in the Jewish sections of east London and wearing Nazi-style uniforms and insignia.
In 1936 Mosley married Diana Mitford, his second wife, in the Berlin home of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels with Adolf Hitler as one of the guests.
The ‘It Girls’ of their day, Diana and her sisters Nancy, Pam, Unity and Decca and Deborah were revered and reviled in equal proportion, in much the same way that the Kardashians are today.
Much of this was down to their often scandalous antics, some of which would not have looked out of place in the plot of an episode of Downton Abbey.
As a result of the Mosleys’ endorsement of Hitler’s policies following the outbreak of World War II the couple were interred, living with their son Max in a house on the grounds of London’s Holloway Prison.
They were released in 1943 due to Mosley’s ill-health but remained under house arrest until 1945.
After the war Mosley formed the Union Movement and after a failed attempt to launch a National Party of Europe moved to Ireland in 1951.
He subsequently returned to Britain running under the banner of the Union Movement in 1959 and 1966 general elections, but was widely ridiculed and subsequently disappeared from British politics.
The couple moved to France and Mosley died at his home at Orsay in December 1980. His wife died in Paris in 2003.