84 Facts About Oswald Mosley

Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, was a British aristocrat and politician who rose to fame during the 1920s and 1930s when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism.

Oswald Mosley was Member of Parliament for Harrow from 1918 to 1924 and for Smethwick from 1926 to 1931.

Oswald Mosley founded the British Union of Fascists in 1932 and led it until its forced disbandment in 1940.

Some considered Oswald Mosley a rising star and a possible future prime minister.

Oswald Mosley resigned in 1930 over discord with the government's unemployment policies.

Oswald Mosley chose not to defend his Smethwick constituency at the 1931 general election, instead unsuccessfully standing in Stoke-on-Trent.

Fascist violence under Oswald Mosley's leadership culminated in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, during which anti-fascist demonstrators including trade unionists, liberals, socialists, communists, anarchists, and British Jews prevented the BUF from marching through the East End of London.

Oswald Mosley subsequently held a series of rallies around London, and the BUF increased its membership there.

In May 1940, after the outbreak of the Second World War, Oswald Mosley was imprisoned and the BUF was made illegal.

Oswald Mosley 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 Paris and two residences in Ireland.

Oswald Mosley stood for Parliament during the post-war era but received very little support.

Oswald Mosley was born on 16 November 1896 at 47 Hill Street, Mayfair, London.

Oswald Mosley was the eldest of the three sons of Sir Oswald Mosley, 5th Baronet, and Katharine Maud Edwards-Heathcote, daughter of Captain Justinian Edwards-Heathcote, of Apedale Hall, Staffordshire.

Oswald Mosley had two younger brothers: Edward Heathcote Mosley and John Arthur Noel Mosley.

Oswald Mosley's father was a third cousin to Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, the father of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Oswald Mosley lived for many years at his grandparents' stately home, Apedale Hall in Staffordshire, and was educated at West Downs School and Winchester College.

Oswald Mosley was a fencing champion in his school days; he won titles in both foil and sabre, and retained an enthusiasm for the sport throughout his life.

In January 1914 Oswald Mosley entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, but was expelled in June for a "riotous act of retaliation" against a fellow student.

Oswald Mosley transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as a pilot and an air observer, 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.

Oswald Mosley returned to the Lancers, but was invalided out with an injured leg.

Oswald Mosley spent the remainder of the war at desk jobs in the Ministry of Munitions and in the Foreign Office.

Lord Curzon had to be persuaded that Oswald Mosley was a suitable husband, as he suspected Oswald Mosley was largely motivated by social advancement in Conservative Party politics and Cynthia's inheritance.

Oswald Mosley succeeded to the Mosley baronetcy of Ancoats upon his father's death in 1928.

Oswald Mosley later called Gandhi a "sympathetic personality of subtle intelligence".

Cynthia died of peritonitis in 1933, after which Oswald Mosley married his mistress Diana Guinness, nee Mitford.

Oswald Mosley spent large amounts of his private fortune on the British Union of Fascists 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.

Oswald Mosley reportedly made a deal in 1937 with Francis Beaumont, heir to the Seigneurage of Sark, to set up a privately owned radio station on Sark.

Oswald Mosley was driven by, and in Parliament spoke of, a passionate conviction to avoid any future war, and this seemingly motivated his career.

Oswald Mosley considered contesting the constituency of Stone in his home county of Staffordshire, but ultimately chose the Conservative stronghold of Harrow, for it was closer to London and, as Oswald Mosley claimed, a seat that he sought to win on his own merits, free from family connections.

On 23 July, 1918, Oswald Mosley competed with three other candidates for the Conservative Party nomination at the upcoming general election.

Chamberlayne, an elderly solicitor who complained that the well-connected, wealthy Oswald Mosley was "a creature of the party machine" and too young to serve as a member of Parliament.

Oswald Mosley retorted that many of Britain's greatest politicians entered parliament between the ages of 19 to 25, such as Charles James Fox, William Pitt the Younger, William Ewart Gladstone, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, and Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury.

Oswald Mosley chose red as his campaign colour rather than the traditional blue associated with conservatism.

Oswald Mosley was the youngest member of the House of Commons to take his seat, although Joseph Sweeney, an abstentionist Sinn Fein member, was younger.

Oswald Mosley soon distinguished himself as an orator and political player, one marked by confidence, and made a point of speaking in the House of Commons without notes.

Oswald Mosley was at this time falling out with the Conservatives over their Irish policy, and condemned the operations of the Black and Tans against civilians during the Irish War of Independence.

Oswald Mosley was secretary of the Peace with Ireland Council.

Oswald Mosley was growing increasingly attracted to the Labour Party, which had recently formed its first government under Ramsay MacDonald after the 1923 general election.

On 27 March 1924, Oswald Mosley formally applied for party membership.

Oswald Mosley therefore decided to oppose Neville Chamberlain in Birmingham Ladywood.

Oswald Mosley campaigned aggressively in Ladywood, and accused Chamberlain of being a "landlords' hireling".

Chamberlain, outraged, demanded Oswald Mosley to retract the claim "as a gentleman".

Oswald Mosley was noted for bringing excitement and energy to the campaign.

Oswald Mosley was critical of Sir Winston Churchill's policy as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

On 22 November 1926, the Labour-held seat of Smethwick fell vacant upon the resignation of John Davison, and Oswald Mosley was confident that this seat would return him to Westminster.

Oswald Mosley was Kingsway Hall lecturer in 1924 and Livingstone Hall lecturer in 1931.

Oswald Mosley then made a bold bid for political advancement within the Labour Party.

Oswald Mosley was close to Ramsay MacDonald and hoped for one of the Great Offices of State, but when Labour won the 1929 general election he was appointed only to the post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a position without portfolio and outside the Cabinet.

Oswald Mosley was given responsibility for solving the unemployment problem, but found that his radical proposals were blocked either by Lord Privy Seal James Henry Thomas or by the cabinet.

Oswald 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.

Oswald Mosley 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.

Harold Nicolson, editor of the New Party's newspaper, Action, recorded in his diary that Oswald Mosley personally decided to pursue fascism and the formation of a "trained and disciplined force" on 21 September, 1931, following a recent Communist-organized disturbance at a public meeting attended by 20,000 people in Glasgow Green.

Meanwhile, Oswald Mosley was approached by right-wing "die hards" who opposed the National Government and Baldwin's "centrist" leadership of the Conservative Party.

Oswald Mosley was determined to unite the existing fascist movements and created the British Union of Fascists in 1932.

Second, as a result of his experience as a Labour minister, Oswald Mosley grew to resent the apparent gridlock inherent in parliamentary democracy.

Oswald Mosley believed that party politics, parliamentary debate, and the formalities of bill passage hindered effective action in addressing the pressing economic issues of the post-war world.

Oswald Mosley claimed that the Labour Party was pursuing policies of "international socialism", while fascism's aim was "national socialism".

Oswald Mosley had found problems with disruption of New Party meetings, and instituted a corps of black-uniformed paramilitary stewards, the Fascist Defence Force, nicknamed "Blackshirts", like the Italian fascist Voluntary Militia for National Security they were emulating.

Oswald Mosley continued to organise marches policed by the Blackshirts, and the government was sufficiently concerned to pass the Public Order Act 1936, which, amongst other things, banned political uniforms and quasi-military style organisations and came into effect on 1 January 1937.

Oswald Mosley made most of the Blackshirt employees redundant, some of whom then defected from the party with William Joyce.

Oswald Mosley's agitation was officially tolerated until the events of the Battle of France in May 1940 made the government consider him too dangerous.

Oswald Mosley was interrogated for 16 hours by Lord Birkett but was never formally charged with a crime, and was instead interned under Defence Regulation 18B.

Oswald Mosley used the time in confinement to read extensively in classics, particularly regarding politics and war, with a focus upon key historical figures.

Oswald Mosley refused visits from most BUF members, but on 18 March 1943, Dudley and Norah Elam accompanied Unity Mitford to see her sister Diana.

Oswald Mosley agreed to be present because he mistakenly believed that it was Lady Redesdale, Diana and Unity's mother, who was accompanying Unity.

The internment, particularly that of Lady Oswald Mosley, resulted in significant public debate in the press, although most of the public supported the government's actions.

Oswald Mosley, who was suffering with phlebitis, spent the rest of the war confined under house arrest and police supervision.

Oswald Mosley then purchased Crux Easton House, near Newbury, with Diana.

The Union Movement's meetings were often physically disrupted, as Oswald Mosley's meetings had been before the war, and largely by the same opponents.

Oswald Mosley was a key pioneer in the emergence of Holocaust-denial.

Oswald Mosley sought to discredit pictures taken in places like Buchenwald and Belsen.

Oswald Mosley claimed that the Holocaust was to be blamed on the Jews and that Adolf Hitler knew nothing about it.

Oswald Mosley criticised the Nuremberg trials as "a zoo and a peep show".

Oswald Mosley led his campaign stridently on an anti-immigration platform, calling for forced repatriation of Caribbean immigrants as well as a prohibition upon mixed marriages.

Shortly after his failed election campaign, Oswald Mosley permanently moved to Orsay, outside Paris.

In 1977, Oswald Mosley was nominated as a candidate for Rector of the University of Glasgow.

Oswald Mosley's political thought is believed to have influence on the organic farming movement in Great Britain.

Oswald Mosley had three children with his first wife Lady Cynthia Curzon.

Oswald Mosley later joined Oswald's New Party and lost the 1931 election in Stoke.

Oswald Mosley died in 1933 at 34 after an operation for peritonitis following acute appendicitis, in London.

Oswald Mosley had two children with his second wife, Diana Mitford :.

Oswald Mosley's body was cremated in a ceremony held at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, and his ashes were scattered on the pond at Orsay.

Immediately following his release in 1943, Oswald Mosley lived with his second wife, Diana, at Crux Easton, Hampshire.

In November 1945, Oswald Mosley was summoned to court for allegedly causing unnecessary suffering to pigs by failing to provide adequate feeding and accommodation for them.