Sir Oswald Mosley | |
|---|---|
 Mosley.c. 1934 | |
| Leader of theBritish Union of Fascists[n 1] | |
| In office 1 October 1932 – 10 July 1940 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| 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 | |
| In office 21 December 1926 – 7 October 1931 | |
| Preceded by | John Davison |
| Succeeded by | Roy Wise |
| Constituency | Smethwick |
| In office 14 December 1918 – 9 October 1924 | |
| Preceded by | Harry Mallaby-Deeley |
| Succeeded by | Sir Isidore Salmon |
| Constituency | Harrow |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Oswald Ernald Mosley 16 November 1896 Mayfair, London, England |
| Died | 3 December 1980(1980-12-03) (aged 84) |
| Party | Conservative (1918–1922) Labour (1924–1931) New Party (1931–1932) British Union of Fascists (1932–1940) Union Movement (1948–1973) National Party of Europe (1962–1980) |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 5, includingNicholas andMax |
| Parent | Sir Oswald Mosley, 5th Baronet |
| Relatives | Louis Mosley (grandson) Daniel Mosley (great-grandson) |
| Education | Winchester College |
| Alma mater | Royal Military College, Sandhurst |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  British Empire |
| Branch/service |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1914–1918 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | First World War |
| Awards | |
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980), was a British politician who rose to fame during the 1920s and 1930s when, disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned tofascism. He wasMember of Parliament (MP) forHarrow from 1918 to 1924 and forSmethwick from 1926 to 1931. He founded theBritish Union of Fascists[n 1] (BUF) in 1932 and led it until its forced disbandment in 1940.
After military service during theFirst World War, Mosley became theyoungest sitting member of Parliament, representing Harrow from1918, first as a member of theConservative Party, then anindependent, and finally joining theLabour Party. At the1924 general election he stood inBirmingham Ladywood against the futurePrime MinisterNeville Chamberlain, coming within 100 votes of defeating him. Mosley returned to Parliament as the Labour MP for Smethwick ata by-election in 1926 and served asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in theLabour government of 1929–1931. In 1928 he succeeded his father as the sixthMosley baronet, a title in his family for over a century. Some considered Mosley a rising star and a possible future prime minister. He resigned in 1930 over discord with the government's unemployment policies. He chose not to defend his Smethwick constituency at the1931 general election, instead unsuccessfully standing inStoke-on-Trent.
Mosley'sNew Party became the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932. As its leader he publicly espousedantisemitism and sought alliances withBenito Mussolini andAdolf Hitler. Fascist violence under Mosley's leadership culminated in theBattle of Cable Street in 1936, during whichanti-fascist demonstrators includingtrade unionists,liberals,socialists,communists,anarchists andBritish Jews prevented the BUF from marching through theEast End of London. Mosley subsequently held a series of rallies around London, and the BUF increased its membership there.
In 1939 Mosley was implicated in a fascist conspiracy organised by theRight Club against the British government byArchibald Maule Ramsay,[1] albeit all evidence indicates that he soon distanced himself from them, viewing the group and its aims as too extreme.
In May 1940, after the outbreak of theSecond World War, Mosley was imprisoned and the BUF was made illegal. 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 France and Ireland. He stood for Parliament during the post-war era but received relatively little support. During this period he was an advocate ofpan-European nationalism, developing theEurope a Nation ideology, and was an early proponent ofconspiracy theories concerningHolocaust-denial.
Mosley was born on 16 November 1896[2] at 47Hill Street,Mayfair, London.[3] He was the eldest of the three sons ofSir Oswald Mosley, 5th Baronet (1873–1928), and Katharine Maud Edwards-Heathcote (1873–1948),[4][page needed] daughter of CaptainJustinian Edwards-Heathcote, ofApedale Hall,Staffordshire;[5] they had been married the year before.[2] He had two younger brothers: Edward Heathcote Mosley (1899–1980) and John Arthur Noel Mosley (1901–1973).[5] His father was a third cousin toClaude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, making Mosley a fourth cousin toQueen 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 ofKing John.[5][6]Nicholas Mosley was a wealthy salesman in the 16th century, and was important in the development of Manchester, before eventually becomingLord Mayor of London; the family took a violent part in thePeterloo Massacre.[7] Two branches of the Mosley family existed – a significant cotton trading family who lived in Lancashire, and a farming family who lived in Rolleston; Oswald was descended from the former.[8] The family were prominent landholders in Staffordshire and seated atRolleston Hall, nearBurton upon Trent. Threebaronetcies were created, two of which are now extinct (seeMosley baronets for further history of the family); a barony was created forTonman Mosley, brother of the 4th Baronet, but also became extinct.[5][6] By the 19th century, reformers had taken control of the ManchesterCourt leet, which formerly belonged to the family, and the Mosleys had little influence by the latter half of the century.[9] Oswald's grandfatherSir Oswald Mosley, 4th Baronet, was a campaigner againstJewish emancipation.[10] Oswald noted in his autobiographyMy Life that he was glad to have come from an 'old English family'.[11]
His mother wrote in her diary that his birth took 18 hours after he began to arrive at 6:00am, her own mother staying by her side for the whole duration. The family doctor, Sir John Williams, gave herchloroform and the baby was delivered at 11:40pm. Her husband, who was addicted to both gambling and alcohol, wrote a large number of letters to relatives about the event, and celebrated at theEpsom Derby; he was mostly anabsent husband.[11]
In childhood, Mosley moved from what he described as a "wayside house" to Rolleston Hall, which had been inherited in 1879 by the 4th Baronet. The Hall was a large building maintained by gardeners and servants.[10] BiographerStephen Dorril has suggested that the treatment of the workers at the mansion, who laboured with no possibility to become more successful, may have impressed itself on Mosley's worldview and such treatment came to be part of his fascism.[12]
Mosley loved his mother, toward whom he felt protective; in the 1970s, he burned her diaries to avoid investigative authors depicting her negatively, using them as evidence, although he kept the entries for the first four years of his own life, and for his mother's birthday, 2 January.[13] Likewise, she celebrated Mosley and developed his ego. His father – nicknamed "Waldie" – was an amateur boxer, aTory and a womaniser.[12] Mosley's father gained the image of a scoundrel, although Mosley did not find the description to be accurate. Nonetheless, "Waldie" acted aggressively towards his wife and child, which led to Mosley idolising his mother instead. In 1901, when Mosley was aged five and while his mother was pregnant with her third child, the couple split over his womanising – Edwards-Heathcote had discovered letters revealing that her husband was saying and giving the same things to his other lovers as to her.[14]
After Mosley's parents separated, he was raised by his mother, who went to live at Betton Hall nearMarket Drayton, and his paternal grandfather,Sir Oswald Mosley, 4th Baronet.[5] His mother had a smallalimony, and was impoverished by comparison to the rest of the family. Mosley rarely being able to see his father, his mother became more attached to him.[14] His grandfather took the role of a male parental figure in Mosley's life;[15] Likewise, his grandfather disliked his father, and saw Mosley as a substitute son; the 4th Baronet was seen as a masculine figure by Mosley, and developed his own masculine image based on his grandfather, alongside various pop-cultural ideas.[16]
Mosley studied atWest Downs School in Winchester from 1906 onward, eventually joined by Edward, where Oswald developed a reputation as a debater.[17] He then joinedWinchester College in 1909 at the age of 12, a year early, and found school both hard and boring;[n 2] he did not socialise. During this period he hunted extensively, shooting 50 partridges, 18 pheasants, 11 rabbits and 10 hares over the winter from 1909 to 1910, as well as fishing at Rolleston.[18] He also became a boxer by age 15, winning a light-weight championship, and attempted to enter the Public Schools' boxing championship, but was forbidden to do so by his headmaster; Mosley then took up fencing instead.[19] He was afencing champion in his school days, winning titles in bothfoil andsabre,[5] and becoming the first boy to win both and the youngest to win either at the Public Schools' championship.[20] He retained an enthusiasm for the sport throughout his life.[5]
Mosley left college in 1912, briefly staying inBrest, France in summer 1913, where he competed in fencing. After returning to England,[21] he became keen on entering the army, entering theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst in January 1914. He considered his period at the military college to be ‘one of the happiest times of [his] entire life”,[22] but was expelled in June for a "riotous act of retaliation" against a fellow student.[23][page needed]John Masters made a claim that Mosley was thrown out of a window by other cadets; according to Dorril, he had actually slipped and fallen while recruiting for the retaliation against a group of cadets who had attacked him. He was sent away from the college that weekend.[22]
During theFirst World War, he was commissioned into the British cavalry unit the16th The Queen's Lancers and fought in France on theWestern Front. He transferred to theRoyal Flying Corps as apilot and anair observer,[24] but while demonstrating in front of his mother and sister he crashed, which left him with a permanent limp, as well as a reputation for being brave and somewhat reckless.[25] He returned to the Lancers, but was invalided out with an injured leg.[23][page needed] He spent the remainder of the war at desk jobs in theMinistry of Munitions and in theForeign Office.[23][page needed]
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On 11 May 1920, Mosley marriedLady Cynthia "Cimmie" Curzon, the second daughter ofGeorge Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, theForeign Secretary and formerViceroy of India, and Lord Curzon's first wife, the American mercantile heiressMary Leiter. It was later alleged byArnold Leese, a political rival of Mosley's in the early 1930s who founded theImperial Fascist League and considered the BUF to be insufficiently antisemitic, that Cynthia had been "of Jewish descent",[26] and falsely claimed that she "had had a Jewish grandfather."[27] In March 1920, Mosley met Lord Curzon to inform him about the marriage and request his approval; ironically, in a letter written afterwards to his American-born second wife,Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston, his future father-in-law made the casually antisemitic remark that Mosley possessed a "rather a Jewish appearance."[28]
Lord Curzon had to be persuaded that Mosley was a suitable husband, as he suspected Mosley was largely motivated by social advancement inConservative Party politics and Cynthia's inheritance. The wedding took place in the Chapel Royal inSt James's Palace in London. The hundreds of guests includedKing George V andQueen Mary, as well as foreign royalty such as the Duke and Duchess of Brabant (laterKing Leopold III andQueen Astrid of Belgium).[25][29]
During his marriage to Cynthia, Mosley engaged in an extended affair with his wife's younger sister,Lady Alexandra Metcalfe, while also carrying on a separate affair with their stepmother Grace, who had been a widow since her husband's death in 1925.[30] He succeeded to theMosley baronetcy of Ancoats upon his father's death in 1928.
Mosley was first encouraged to enter politics byF. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead.[31] By the end of the First World War Mosley, aged 21, had decided to go into politics as a member of Parliament, as he had no university education or practical experience because of the war. He was driven by, and in Parliament spoke of, a passionate conviction to avoid any future war, and this seemingly motivated his career. Uninterested in party labels, Mosley primarily identified himself as a representative of the "war generation" who would aim to create a "land fit for heroes".[32] Largely because of his family background and war service, local Conservative andLiberal associations made appeals to Mosley in several constituencies.
Mosley considered contesting the constituency ofStone in his home county of Staffordshire, but ultimately chose the Conservative stronghold ofHarrow, for it was closer to London and, as Mosley claimed, a seat that he sought to win on his own merits, free from family connections.[33] On 23 July 1918 Mosley competed with three other candidates for the Conservative nomination at theupcoming general election. Though his 15-minute speech "fell flat," Mosley won over the 43 delegates with the "lucid and trenchant manner" in which he answered their questions.[33] Mosley's opponent in the parliamentary election was an independent, A. R. Chamberlayne, an elderlysolicitor who complained that the well-connected, wealthy Mosley was "a creature of the party machine" and too young to serve as a member of Parliament.[33] Mosley retorted that many of Britain's greatest politicians entered Parliament between the ages of 19 to 25, such asCharles James Fox,William Pitt the Younger,William Ewart Gladstone,Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston andRobert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury.[34] Mosley chosered as his campaign colour rather than the traditionalblue associated with conservatism.[35] Mosley easily defeated Chamberlayne with a majority of nearly 11,000.[36]
He was the youngest member of theHouse of Commons to take his seat, althoughJoseph Sweeney, aSinn Féin member, and therefore anabstentionist, was seven months younger. He soon distinguished himself as anorator and political player, one marked by confidence, and made a point of speaking in the Commons without notes.[37][independent source needed]
Mosley was an early supporter of the economistJohn Maynard Keynes.[38][39] Mosley's economic programme, which he coined "socialistic imperialism," advocated for improved industrial wages and hours, thenationalisation of electricity and transportation,slum-clearance, the protection of "essential industries" from "unfair competition," and higher government investment in education, child-welfare, and health services.[40][41]
Mosley was at this time falling out with the Conservatives over their Irish policy, and condemned the operations of theBlack and Tans against civilians during theIrish War of Independence.[42] He was secretary of the Peace with Ireland Council.[43][44][45][page needed] As secretary of the council, he proposed sending a commission to Ireland to examine on-the-spot reprisals by the Black and Tans.[46]T. P. O'Connor, a prominent MP of theIrish Parliamentary Party, later wrote to Mosley's wife Cynthia, "I regard him as the man who really began the break-up of the Black and Tan savagery."[47] Mosley's initial speeches in parliament about the issue were moderate, and "he betrayed no sympathy for theIRA";[48] he even declared that "in the present state of Ireland one certainly cannot deny the right to shoot a man who, when challenged, refuses to hold up his hands. Anything of that sort is perfectly legitimate."[48] However, as the conflict worsened and reports of atrocities committed by British forces increased, Mosley became more radical in his denunciations.
In his memoir,My Life, published in 1968, Mosley recalled that the war in Ireland had ‘evoked intense moral feeling’. With each atrocity committed by the Black and Tans he felt ‘that the name of Britain was being disgraced, every rule of good soldierly conduct disregarded, and every decent instinct of humanity outraged’.[48]
Mosley became "one of a small handful of MPs who pursued"[48] then Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George and theChief Secretary for Ireland,Sir Hamar Greenwood, "over the unacknowledged policy of reprisals."[48] However, "[t]he root of Mosley’s case against the Black and Tans was that their behaviour undermined the superiority of British imperial rule."[48]
In mid-1920, Mosley issued a memorandum proposing that Britain's governance over Ireland should mirror the policy of the United States towardsCuba, in effect granting Ireland internal autonomy while retaining British oversight regarding defence and foreign policy matters.[49] In November 1920, he questioned Greenwood directly in Parliament on the case ofEileen Quinn, a young pregnant mother who was shot and killed inCounty Galway by the Black and Tans.[50]
In late 1920, Mosleycrossed the floor to sit as an independent MP on theopposition side of the House of Commons. Having built up a following in his constituency, he retained it against a Conservative challenge in the1922 and1923 general elections.
TheLiberalWestminster 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."[51][page needed]
"We have made the acquaintance of the most brilliant man in the House of Commons - Oswald Mosley. 'Here is the perfect politician who is also a perfect gentleman,' said I to myself as he entered the room....He is also an accomplished orator in the old grand style, and an assiduous worker in the modern manner - keeps two secretaries at work supplying himself with information but realizes that he himself has to do the thinking! So much perfection argues rottenness somewhere...he seems to combine great personal charm with solid qualities of character, aristocratic refinement with democratic opinions."
By now Mosley was drifting to thepolitical left and gaining the attention of both theLiberals andLabour for his foreign policy polemics, which advocated for a strongLeague of Nations andisolationism (i.e. Britain should only go to war if it or theBritish Empire were attacked).[53] Mosley was growing increasingly attracted to the Labour Party, which had recently formed its first government (underRamsay MacDonald) after the1923 general election. On 27 March 1924 Mosley applied for party membership.[54] Shortly thereafter he joined theIndependent Labour Party (ILP). MacDonald, who believed that aristocratic members gave Labour an air of respectability, was congratulated byThe Manchester Guardian on "the fine new recruit he has secured."[55]
When thegovernment 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 opposeNeville Chamberlain inBirmingham Ladywood. Mosley campaigned aggressively in Ladywood, and accused Chamberlain of being a "landlords' hireling" in reference to Chamberlain's controversialRent Act of 1923.[56][57] Chamberlain, outraged, demanded Mosley to retract the claim "as a gentleman".[56] Mosley, whomStanley Baldwin described as "a cad and a wrong 'un", refused to withdraw the allegation.[56] Mosley was noted for bringing excitement and energy to the campaign.Leslie Hore-Belisha, then a Liberal politician who later became a senior Conservative, recorded his impressions of Mosley as a platform orator at this time:
"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 historianMartin Pugh described, "a link with powerful, wealthy and glamorous men and women appealed strongly to those who endured humdrum and deprived lives".[57] It took several re-counts before Chamberlain was declared the winner by 77 votes. Mosley blamed poor weather for the result.[58] 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 ofSir Winston Churchill's policy asChancellor of the Exchequer. After Churchill returned Britain to thegold 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."[59]
Among his many travels, Mosley, accompanied by Lady Cynthia, travelled in the winter of 1924 toBritish India, which he would later characterise as "a land of contrast, of ineffable beauty and of darkest sorrow, a jewel of the world, which challenges mankind to save it".[60] His father-in-law's past asViceroy of India allowed for the acquaintance of various personalities along the journey. They travelled by ship and stopped briefly inCairo in theKingdom of Egypt.
Having initially arrived inCeylon (present-daySri Lanka), the journey then continued through mainland India. They spent these initial days in the government house of Ceylon, followed byMadras and thenCalcutta, where the governor at the time wasVictor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton.[61] During this journey Mosley came in contact with many prominent activists, includingMuhammad Ali Jinnah,Chittaranjan Das andMotilal Nehru.[62]
Mosley metMahatma Gandhi throughCharles Freer Andrews, a clergyman and an intimate friend of the "Indian Saint", as Mosley described him. They met inKadda, where Gandhi was quick to invite him to a private conference in which Gandhi was chairman. Mosley later called Gandhi a "sympathetic personality of subtle intelligence".[63]
On 22 November 1926 the Labour-held seat of Smethwick fell vacant upon the resignation ofJohn Davison, and Mosley was confident that this seat would return him to Westminster (having lost against Chamberlain in 1924). In his autobiography Mosley felt that the campaign was dominated by Conservative attacks on him for being too rich, including claims that he was covering up his wealth.[64] In fact, during this campaign, theDaily Mail frequently attacked "Mr.Silver Spoon Mosley" for preaching socialism "in a twenty guineasSavile Row suit" while Lady Cynthia wore a "charming dress glittering withdiamonds."[65] As the historianRobert Skidelsky writes, "The papers were full of gossipy items about the wealthy socialist couple frolicking on the Riviera, spending thousands of pounds in renovating their 'mansion' and generally living a debauched aristocratic life."[65] The recurring accusation against Mosley was that he was a "champagne socialist" who "never did a day's work in his life." Mosley, in response, told his Smethwick supporters, "While I am being abused by theCapitalist Press I know I am doing effective work for the Labour cause."[66] At theby-election's polling day (21 December), Mosley was victorious with a majority of 6,582 over the Conservative candidate, M. J. Pike.
"This is not a by-election, it is history. The result of this election sends out a message to everyworker in the land. You have met and beaten the Press ofreaction....Tonight all Britain looks to you and thanks you. My wonderful friends of Smethwick, by your heroic battle against a whole world in arms, I believe you have introduced a new era for British democracy."
In 1927, he mocked theBritish Fascists as "black-shirted buffoons, making a cheap imitation of ice-cream sellers". The ILP elected him toLabour's National Executive Committee.[68]
Mosley and Cynthia were committedFabians in the 1920s and at the start of the 1930s. Mosley appears in a list of names of Fabians fromFabian News and theFabian Society Annual Report 1929–31. He wasKingsway Hall lecturer in 1924 and Livingstone Hall lecturer in 1931.
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Mosley then made a bold bid for political advancement within the Labour Party. He was close toRamsay MacDonald and hoped for one of theGreat Offices of State, but when Labour won the1929 general election he was appointed only to the post ofChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a positionwithout portfolio. He was given responsibility for solving the unemployment problem, but found that his radical proposals were blocked either byLord Privy SealJames Henry Thomas or by theCabinet.
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 hightariffs to protect British industries frominternational finance and transform theBritish Empire into anautarkic trading bloc, for statenationalisation of main industries, for higherschool-leaving ages andpensions to reduce the labour surplus, and for a programme ofpublic works to solveinterwar poverty and unemployment. Furthermore, the memorandum laid out the foundations of thecorporate state (not to be confused withcorporatocracy) which intended to combine businesses, workers and the government into one body as a way to "Obliterate class conflict and make theBritish economy healthy again".[69][70]
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 theParliamentary 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 paperThe 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."[51][page needed] In October he attempted to persuade theLabour Party Conference to accept the Memorandum, but was defeated again.
The Mosley Memorandum won the support of the economistJohn Maynard Keynes, who stated that "it was a very able document and illuminating".[71] 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 havelaissez-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."[72]
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."[51][page needed] 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."[73]
In a newspaper feature, Mosley was described as "a strange blend of J.M. Keynes andMajor Douglas of credit fame".[74] From July 1930 he began to demand that government must be turned from a "talk-shop" into a "workshop."[75][page needed]
In 1992, Prime MinisterJohn Major examined Mosley's ideas to find an unorthodox solution to the aftermath of the1990–91 economic recession.[76]
Dissatisfied with the Labour Party, Mosley and six other Labour MPs (two of whom resigned after one day) founded theNew Party.
Its early parliamentary contests, in the1931 Ashton-under-Lyne by-election and subsequent by-elections, arguably had aspoiler effect in splitting the left-wing vote and allowing Conservative candidates to win. Despite this, the organisation gained support among many Labour and Conservative politicians who agreed with hiscorporatist economic policy, and among these wereAneurin Bevan and the future prime ministerHarold Macmillan. Mosley'scorporatism was complemented byKeynesianism, with Robert Skidelsky stating, "Keynesianism was his great contribution to fascism."[77]
The New Party increasingly inclined to fascist policies, but Mosley was denied the opportunity to establish his party when during theGreat Depression the1931 general election was suddenly called. The party's candidates, including Mosley himself running inStoke which had been held by his wife, lost the seats they held and won none. As the New Party gradually became more radical andauthoritarian, many previous supporters defected from it. According to Lady Mosley's autobiography, shortly after the 1931 election Mosley was described byThe Manchester Guardian:
When Sir Oswald Mosley sat down after hisFree Trade Hall speech inManchester 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 3] then stirred and finally, as we have said, swept off its feet by a tornado ofperoration yelled at the defiant high pitch of a tremendous voice.[51][page needed]
Harold Nicolson, editor of the New Party's newspaper,Action, recorded in his diary that Mosley personally decided to pursue fascism and the formation of a "trained and disciplined force" on 21 September 1931, following a recent Communist-organised disturbance at a public meeting attended by 20,000 people inGlasgow Green.[78][79] Approximately four weeks before the general election, Mosley was approached byNeville Chamberlain to ally with the newly-formedNational Government coalition led by Baldwin and MacDonald, with Nicolson writing that "the Tories are anxious to get some of us in and are prepared to do a secret deal."[80] Throughout early 1932David Margesson, thechief whip of the Conservatives, continually attempted to persuade Mosley to rejoin the party.[81] Meanwhile, Mosley was also approached by right-wing "die hards" who opposed the National Government and Baldwin's "centrist" leadership of the Conservative Party. This group includedWinston Churchill, who "[promised] to come out in his support" should Mosley contest a by-election, andHarold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, the owner of theDaily Mail and theDaily Mirror.[82] In addition, Nicolson noted that Mosley was being courted byJoseph Kenworthy to "lead the Labour Party."[83] In the end, however, Mosley refused to return to the "machine" of the "old parties."[84] Convinced that fascism was the necessary path for Britain, the New Party was dissolved in April 1932.[85]
After his election failure in 1931, Mosley went on a study tour of the "new movements" of Italy'sDuceBenito Mussolini and other fascists, and returned convinced, particularly byFascist Italy's economic programme,[86] that it was the way forward for Britain. He was determined to unite the existing fascist movements and created theBritish Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932.
The British historianMatthew Worley argues that Mosley's adoption of fascism stemmed from three key factors.[87] First, Mosley interpreted theGreat Slump as proof that Britain's economy, which had historically favouredliberal capitalism, required a fundamental overhaul to survive the rise ofcheap, global competition. Second, as a result of his experience as a Labour minister, Mosley grew to resent the apparentgridlock inherent in parliamentary democracy (seecriticism of democracy). Mosley believed that party politics, parliamentary debate, and the formalities ofbill passage hindered effective action in addressing the pressing economic issues of thepost-war world. Finally, Mosley became convinced that the Labour Party was not an effective vehicle for the promulgation of "the radical measures that he believed were necessary to prevent Britain’s decline."[88] As Worley notes about Mosley, "Cast adrift from the political mainstream, he saw two alternative futures. One was the 'slow and almost imperceptible decline' of Britain to the 'level of a Spain'...[and the other] a deepening sense of crisis opening the way for a 'constructive alternative' to take the place of both liberal capitalism and parliamentary democracy."[89] Mosley believed that Britain was in danger of aCommunist revolution, which only fascism could effectively combat.
The BUF wasprotectionist, stronglyanti-communist andnationalistic to the point of advocating authoritarianism.[90] He claimed that the Labour Party was pursuing policies of "international socialism", while fascism's aim was "national socialism".[91] It claimed membership as high as 50,000, and had theDaily Mail andDaily Mirror among its earliest supporters.[92][93][94] TheMirror piece was a guest article by theDaily Mail ownerViscount Rothermere and an apparent one-off; despite these briefly warm words for the BUF, the paper was so vitriolic in its condemnation ofEuropean fascism thatNazi Germany added the paper's directors to a hit list in the event of a successfulOperation Sea Lion.[95] TheMail continued to support the BUF until theOlympia rally in June 1934.[96]
Mosley's supporters at this time included the novelistHenry Williamson, the military theoristJ. F. C. Fuller, and the future "Lord Haw Haw",William Joyce.
Mosley had found problems with disruption of New Party meetings, and instituted a corps of black-uniformed paramilitary stewards, theFascist Defence Force, nicknamed "Blackshirts", like theItalian fascistVoluntary 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.[97] At a large Mosley rally at Olympia on 7 June 1934, his bodyguards' violence caused bad publicity.[98] This and theNight of the Long Knives in Germany led to the loss of most of the BUF's mass support.[citation needed] Nevertheless, Mosley continued espousingantisemitism.[99] At one of his New Party meetings inLeicester 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."[100] The party was unable to fight the1935 general election.[clarification needed]
In October 1936, Mosley and the BUF tried to march through an East London area with a high proportion of Jewish residents. Violence, now called theBattle of Cable Street, resulted between protesters trying to block the march and police trying to force it through. SirPhilip Game, thepolice 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 thePublic Order Act 1936, which came into effect on 1 January 1937 and, amongst other things, banned political uniforms and quasi-military style organisations. In theLondon 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 withWilliam Joyce.
In October 1937 inLiverpool, he was knocked unconscious by two stones thrown by crowd members after he made a fascist salute to 8,000 people from the top of a van inWalton.[101]
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 theEarls 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 theFall of France and the start ofaerial bombardment during theBattle of Britain overall public opinion of him became hostile. In mid-May 1940, he was nearly wounded by an assault.[102]
Cynthia died ofperitonitis in 1933, after which Mosley married his mistressDiana Guinness,néeMitford (1910–2003). They married in secret inNazi Germany on 6 October 1936 in the Berlin home of Germany's Minister of Public Enlightenment and PropagandaJoseph Goebbels.Adolf Hitler was their guest of honour.[103]
Mosley spent large amounts of his private fortune on theBritish Union of Fascists (BUF) and tried to establish it on a firm financial footing by various means including an attempt to negotiate, through Diana, with Hitler for permission to broadcast commercial radio to Britain from Germany. Mosley reportedly made a deal in 1937 withFrancis Beaumont, heir to theSeigneurage of Sark, to set up a privately owned radio station onSark.[n 4][104][page needed]
In 1939,MI5 uncovered Mosley's ties to a fascist conspiracy initiated byArchibald Maule Ramsay and theRight Club, known as the Kensington Conspiracy. The coup would have taken place after the German invasion of Britain.[1] Evidence indicates that he soon distanced himself from them, viewing the group and its aims as too extreme.[citation needed]
Mosley did not know thatMI5 andSpecial Branch had deeply penetrated the BUF and were also monitoring him throughlistening devices. Beginning in 1934, they were increasingly worried that Mosley's noted oratory skills would convince the public to provide financial support to the BUF, enabling it to challenge the political establishment.[105] American journalist and writerJohn Gunther described Mosley in 1940 as "strikingly handsome. He is probably the best orator in England. His personal magnetism is very great".[98] Mosley's agitation was officially tolerated until the events of theBattle of France in May 1940 made the government consider him too dangerous. Mosley, who at that time was focused on pleading for the British to accept Hitler's peace offer of October 1939, was detained on 23 May 1940, less than a fortnight afterWinston Churchill became prime minister.[25] Mosley was interrogated for 16 hours byLord Birkett[105] but was never formally charged with a crime, and was insteadinterned underDefence Regulation 18B. Most other active fascists in Britain met the same fate, resulting in the BUF's practical removal at an organised level from the United Kingdom's political stage.[25] Mosley's wife, Diana, was also interned in June,[106] shortly after the birth of their sonMax Mosley; the Mosleys lived together for most of the war in a house in the grounds ofHolloway prison. The BUF wasproscribed by the British government later that year.
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 andNorah Elam (who had been released by then) accompaniedUnity 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.[107] 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.[25] During his internment he developed what would become a lifelong friendship with his fellow-prisonerCahir Healy, a CatholicIrish nationalist MP for theNorthern Irish Parliament.[108]
In November 1943, theHome 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.[25] Mosley, who was suffering withphlebitis, spent the rest of the war confined underhouse arrest and police supervision. On his release from prison, he first stayed with his sister-in-lawPamela Mitford, followed shortly by a stay at the Shaven Crown Hotel inShipton-under-Wychwood. He then purchasedCrux Easton House, nearNewbury, with Diana.[109] He and his wife remained the subject of much press attention.[110]
After theSecond World War, Mosley was contacted by former supporters and persuaded to return to participation in politics. In 1948 he formed theUnion Movement, which called for a singlenation-state to cover the continent of Europe (known asEurope a Nation) and in 1962 attempted to launch aNational Party of Europe to this end. He had connections with the Italianneo-fascist political party,Movimento Sociale Italiano, and contributed to a weekly Roman magazine,Asso di bastoni (Ace of Clubs, published from 1948 to 1957), which was supported by his Europe a Nation.[111]The New European has described Mosley as an "avowed Europhile".[112] The Union Movement's meetings were often physically disrupted, as Mosley's meetings had been before the war, and largely by the same opponents. This may have contributed to his decision, in 1951, to leave Britain and live in Ireland.[n 5] He responded to criticism of his abandoning his supporters in a hostile Britain for a life abroad by saying, "You don't clear up a dungheap from underneath it."[113] In the 1950s, Mosley advocated that Africa be divided into black and white areas,[n 6] but thedecolonisation of the 1960s put an end to this proposal.[23][page needed]
Mosley was a pioneer in the emergence ofHolocaust-denial. While not denying the existence ofNazi 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 ingas chambers due totyphus outbreaks, rather than being created by the Nazis to exterminate people. He sought to discredit pictures taken in places likeBuchenwald andBelsen. He also claimed thatthe Holocaust was to be blamed on the Jews and thatAdolf Hitler knew nothing about it. He criticised theNuremberg trials as "a zoo and a peep show".[114]
In the wake of the1958 Notting Hill race riots, Mosley briefly returned to Britain to stand in the1959 general election atKensington North. He led his campaign stridently on ananti-immigration platform, calling for forcedrepatriation of Caribbean immigrants as well as aprohibition upon mixed marriages. Mosley's final share of the vote, within the Kensington North constituency, was just 8.1%.[115] Shortly after his failed election campaign, Mosley permanently moved toOrsay, outside Paris.
In 1961, he took part in a debate atUniversity College London aboutCommonwealth immigration, seconded by a youngDavid Irving.[116] He returned to politics one last time, contesting the1966 general election atShoreditch and Finsbury, and received 4.6% of the vote.[115] After this, he retired and moved back to France,[115] where he wrote his autobiography,My Life (1968). In 1968, he remarked in a letter toThe Times, "I am not, and never have been, a man of the right. My position was on the left and is now in the centre of politics."[117]
In 1977, Mosley was nominated as a candidate forRector of the University of Glasgow.[118] He polled over 100 votes and finished last.[citation needed]
Mosley's political thought is believed to have influenced some early proponents of the organic farming movement in Great Britain. The agricultural writer and ruralistHenry Williamson put the theories of "blood and soil" into practice, which, in effect, acted as a demonstration farm for Mosley's ideas for the BUF. InThe 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 Englandtithes 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).[119]Jorian Jenks, another early member of the Soil Association, was active within the Blackshirts and served as Mosley's agricultural adviser.[120][121][122][page needed]
Mosley had three children with his first wifeLady Cynthia Curzon.[5]
In 1924, Lady Cynthia joined the Labour Party, and was elected as the LabourMP forStoke-on-Trent in the1929 United Kingdom general election.[123][page needed] She later joined Oswald's New Party and lost the 1931 election in Stoke.[124][page needed] She died in London in 1933 at 34 after an operation forperitonitis following acuteappendicitis.
Habitually unfaithful,[125] Mosley would have affairs with friends of his wife as well asAlexandra[126] andIrene Curzon, two of Cynthia's sisters,[127][128] and with their step-mother Grace Duggan. Others included the actressesMaxine Elliott,Catherine d'Erlanger, Margaret Montagu,Paula Gellibrand,[126]Mary Taviner, Georgia Sitwell, the wife of the writerSacheverell Sitwell,[125][123][page needed] and the socialiteSylvia Ashley.[123][page needed]
Mosley had two children with his second wife,Diana Mitford (1910–2003):[5]
Since 2022 Mosley's grandson, Louis Mosley, has been head of the UK division of US tech firmPalantir Technologies.[131]
Mosley died on 3 December 1980 at Orsay. His body was cremated in a ceremony held at thePère 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.[132]
 |
|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Ronald Brown | 17,456 | 71.1 | +2.7 | |
| Conservative | Roger Sims | 5,957 | 24.3 | −7.3 | |
| Union Movement | Oswald Mosley | 1,126 | 4.6 | New | |
| Majority | 11,499 | 46.9 | +10.1 | ||
| Turnout | 24,519 | 53.5 | −2.2 | ||
| Labourhold | Swing | +5.0 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | George Rogers | 14,925 | 42.8 | −11.2 | |
| Conservative | Robert Bulbrook | 14,048 | 40.2 | −5.8 | |
| Liberal | Michael Louis Hydleman | 3,118 | 8.9 | New | |
| Union Movement | Oswald Mosley | 2,821 | 8.1 | New | |
| Majority | 877 | 2.51 | −5.3 | ||
| Turnout | 34,912 | 67.8 | −1.9 | ||
| Labourhold | Swing | −2.7 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Ida Copeland | 19,918 | 45.6 | ||
| Labour | Ellis Smith | 13,264 | 30.3 | ||
| New Party | Oswald Mosley | 10,534 | 24.1 | New | |
| Majority | 6,654 | 15.2 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 43,716 | 75.9 | |||
| Conservativegain fromLabour | 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 | ||
| Labourhold | 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 | ||
| Labourhold | 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 | ||
| Unionisthold | 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 | ||||
| Independenthold | 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 | ||||
| Independentgain fromUnionist | 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 | ||||
| Unionisthold | Swing | N/A | |||
| Cindicatescandidate endorsed by the coalition government. | |||||
Chamberlayne was nominated by the non-party Harrow Electors League.
Mosley's personal papers are held at theUniversity of Birmingham's Special Collections Archive.
Mosley's ancestral family residence,Rolleston Hall inStaffordshire, was demolished in 1928.[136] Mosley and his first wife, Cynthia, also lived atSavay Farm,Denham.[137][138][139][page needed] Immediately following his release in 1943, Mosley lived with his second wife, Diana, at Crux Easton, Hampshire. In 1945 he moved to Crowood Farm, located near Marlborough, Wiltshire, which he ran. In November 1945, Mosley was summoned to court for allegedly causing unnecessary suffering to pigs by failing to provide adequate feeding and accommodation for them. When the decision of the court was announced, Mosley, who had pleaded not guilty, and summoned his own defence, was responsible for an outburst. The hearing lasted for five hours and the charge was dismissed.[140][141][123][page needed]
Mosley's residence inFermoy,County Cork, Ireland, was Ileclash House, aGeorgian property that had fallen into a state of disrepair until restored by Mosley in the 1950s.[142] In the same decade, he bought and restored Clonfert Palace, also in Ireland.[48][143]
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Notes
Citations
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.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link){{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forHarrow 1918–1924 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSmethwick 1926–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1929–1930 | Succeeded by |
| Baronetage of Great Britain | ||
| Preceded by | Baronet of Ancoats 1928–1980 | Succeeded by |
