Oswald Mosley

Oswald Mosley
Born	16 November 1896 Mayfair, London, England
Died	3 December 1980 (aged 84) Orsay, Essonne, France
Nationality	British
Political orientation	Fascism
Political party	British Union of Fascists(1932–1940)

Oswald Ernald Mosley, was a British aristocrat, and politician who became a fascist, and consequently founded, and led the British Union of Fascists (BUF). He was Britain's leading fascist and received support from other fascist leaders such as Hitler, and Mussolini. Ultimately no opportunity to seize power for himself presented itself and he largely faded into irrelevance after the fall of European fascism following the end of the Second World War.

Early Life

Childhood

On 16 November 1896 Mosley was born in London, to the wealthy aristocratic family, of 5th Baronet Oswald Mosley, and Katherine Heathcote. He was the eldest of three brothers, and was raised primarily by his mother and his paternal grandfather due to his father being absent owing to his extravagant lifestyle, with the absence of his father being only strengthened when his parents separated in 1905. From a young age Mosley was spoiled and taught traditional Christian and patriarchal values leading to an obsessive idealisation of the male role.

The Mosley family have a long history of exploiting the poor for their own gain; they gained their fortune in the 16th century from expropriating English common lands for sheep farming, and soon after they were rewarded with a baronetcy from Queen Elizabeth I. When the Industrial Revolution came to England, the Mosley's transitioned from feudal landlords to bourgeois capitalists allowing them to continue their exploitation of the working class. Growing up in this family, Mosley learnt the typical privilege of the upper classes; learning how to oppress the lower classes and pursue wealth above all was his legacy.

In 1906 at nine years old Mosley went to West Downs school, the best English prep school, to be educated before entering Winchester college, yet another institution for the elite, in 1909 aged twelve. In school he was taught traditional values favoured by the bourgeoise such as loyalty, honour, leadership, chivalry, and patriotism, which perpetuated his sense of egocentric privilege, and bigotry and allowed him to be prepared for a future role in the capitalist system. In 1912 Mosley left Winchester and after a short stint in France Mosley entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in January 1914 where he learnt the art of violence among other young members of the upper class, seeing war as a sporting event.

Military service

At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, seventeen year old Mosley signed up to join the military, earning a place in the 16th Queen's Lancers cavalry division through family connections. His regiment was shipped out to France in December 1914 but once there Mosley found that the army had little need of cavalry so he instead transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in January 1915 as an observer. Mosley had a comfortable life in the Air Force, and after attending the second battle of Ypres in April he trained as a pilot in May, only to crash his plane and sustain a serious leg injury, despite this he received his pilot license anyway.

Despite his new pilot training, soon after Mosley decided to return to his regiment, serving at the battle of Loos, and continued in service on the western front until he returned home on 15 February 1916 due to injury. Mosley was promoted to Lieutenant on 16 July but despite this he put off returning to the army for as long as possible, preferring to engage in education and the lavish lifestyle of bourgeois high society. On 22 June 1917 he returned to the army and was sent to occupied Ireland in the aftermath of the Easter Rising, not long afterwards he was sent to the Army Training Centre in Eastbourne where he was declared unfit for service and relegated to desk duty for the remainder of the war, serving at the Ministry of Munitions and other posts gained through nepotism. Mosley when talking about the war would play up his part in it despite seeing little actual fighting, and his romanticisation of the trenches became a significant part of his ideology.

Parliamentary career

Conservative Party

On 23 July 1918 Mosley was selected for the seat of Harrow by the Conservative Party through his connections despite seeing Liberal Party Prime Minister Lloyd George as a personal hero. Following the end of the war an election was called by Lloyd George, and Mosley won his seat on 14 December 1918 by opportunistically appealing to patriotic, and xenophobic sentiments, becoming part of the 484 MP strong Conservative-Liberal coalition government. As an MP, Mosley focussed on improving his oration skills, building advantageous connections with other MPs and attaching himself to underdog causes to gain notoriety. In October 1919 he became President of the League of Youth and Social Progress among other minor positions gaining infamy for his exploitation of his peers.

On 11 May 1920 Mosley married Cynthia Curzon, daughter of George Curzon former Viceroy of India, after being rejected by her multiple times, the wedding was attended by King George V along with numerous other members of high society. Mosley used his wife for money and status, remaining constantly unfaithful to her for the entirety of their marriage whilst taking advantage of her position and wealth to cover his own financial and political shortcomings. Cynthia bore Mosley several children whilst he engaged in his affairs, most notably with her younger sister Alexandra and her stepmother Grace, which when confronted with Mosley manipulated and verbally abused her into believing it was her fault.

Independent

On 3 November 1920 Mosley decided to leave the Conservatives and become an independent in opposition to the governments policy on Ireland, with Mosley supporting Ireland gaining dominion status whilst still being subservient to Britain, believing that fighting the 'terrorists' would undermine Britain's greatness. Mosley constantly advocated for 'world peace', promoting organisations such as the League of Nations, in order to push his conception of 'free trade', the strife in Ireland was in conflict with that ideal so Mosley took advantage of that to further his career and ideals allowing him to gain popularity. When criticized for his position by his local newspaper, Mosley bought its rival to take advantage of the influence of bourgeois media, though he would later sell this new venture in July 1921 to the same newspaper that had criticized him at a loss.

After the Irish conflict was resolved Mosley seemed to grow in confidence, and became even more vocal in parliament, criticizing powerful politicians such as Lloyd George and Churchill, whilst the coalition government collapsed in the background. In the November 1922 election Mosley retained his seat as an independent by a wide margin and declined a post in the new Conservative government. Instead Mosley promoted isolationism and fostered relationships with the Fabian Society and Labour Party politicians such as Ramsay MacDonald. On 6 December 1923 another election was called leading Mosley to once again retain his seat albeit with a reduced margin and as the Conservatives lost their majority Mosley continued to flirt with the rising Labour Party spurred on by MacDonald becoming Prime Minister on 18 January 1924.

Labour Party

On 27 March 1924 Mosley joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP), the means of entry into the Labour Party for the upper classes, having started to delve into the twisted bourgeois version of 'socialism'. Like most of Britain's self declared 'socialists' Mosley was never truly a socialist, in reality Mosley co-opted socialist rhetoric whilst developing his beliefs of corporatism and Keynesianism. In April Mosley joined the Labour Party proper along with his wife who advocated for 'Christian socialism', this move was greeted enthusiastically by Labour with members falling over themselves to put themselves in his good graces whilst his membership was ironically treated by the bourgeois media as a betrayal of his class.

The first Labour government did not last long having achieved little of value, and was ejected from power in October 1924 leading to a general election, Mosley chose to campaign for the seat of Birmingham Ladywood against Neville Chamberlain fearing he would lose his seat if he campaigned for Harrow. The campaign was vicious and the vote was very close with two recounts having to be called before a final result of a victory to Chamberlain by 77 votes was declared, predictably leading to accusations of corruption. Seatless and with his party in opposition Mosley took the opportunity to continue developing his ideas and to travel to India where he met Mahatma Gandhi and formed the opinion that it was better that the British continued to occupy India to save it from bloodshed.

Back in Britain Mosley's ideas continued to develop, moving further towards views of class collaborationism and antisemitism whilst being fiercely anti-communist but not yet a fascist, preferring to model himself after Byron rather than Mussolini. Mosley presented multiple plans to the ILP in 1925 built upon the ideas of his allies such as Strachey and Boothby, all of which were rejected. On 21 September 1925, Mosley's wife was adopted as the Labour candidate for Stoke-on-Trent whilst Mosley himself was later selected for the Forest of Dean constituency before being forced to withdraw due to party protests. When the seat of Smethwick fell vacant Mosley jumped at the opportunity and was adopted for the seat on 4 December 1926 being met once again by many protests at his self interested political moves. The bourgeois media relentlessly attacked Mosley in an attempt to prevent him from winning the seat, the wealthy newspaper owners attacking Mosley's wealth and privilege and whilst not untrue it was certainly hypocritical. Nevertheless Mosley won the by-election by a comfortable margin and returned to Parliament in January 1927 having gained a reputation for extremism.

Mosley was considered a rising star in the Labour Party with many predicting him to be a future leader, meanwhile the fascists regarded him as a 'dangerous socialist' and when they broke up a meeting he derided his future allies as, ‘blackshirted buffoons, making a cheap imitation of ice-cream sellers’. His rhetoric went down well with the ILP leading them in October 1927 to elect him to Labour’s National Executive Committee where he served on a NEC council preparing a programme for the next general election, however, Macdonald rejected the plans as too radical and relations between Labour and the ILP deteriorated, Mosley was not re-elected to the Committee and soon after Mosley broke with the ILP. In October 1928 Mosley's father died leaving Mosley with an increased fortune as well as the title of Baronet, a title he had previously declared he would not accept but when it suited him he accepted it gladly.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

In the general election on 30 May 1929 Mosley and his wife both secured large majorities in their seats, and whilst Labour had failed to achieve a majority they were still the largest party at 287 MPs compared with 260 for the Conservatives and 59 for the Liberals. Due to his close friendship with MacDonald Mosley expected to receive an important position in cabinet and was outraged with the snub of only being appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which was not a Cabinet post. Mosley served under Jimmy Thomas, with responsibility for unemployment, a task which he found frustrating since with no power he found his proposals blocked at every turn and unemployment rose. Mosley grew increasingly disillusioned with the Labour party as they proved a tragedy in government dithering at every turn whilst they religiously served the interests of capitalism.

On 23 January 1930 he sent his memorandum on unemployment to the Prime Minister which was a synthesis of all available plans grounded in Keynesianism, Labour rejected the proposal but the memo being leaked to the media caused dramatics. After some back and forth Mosley resigned from his ministerial position on 20 May leading to agitation in the party, Macdonald attempted to get him to stay and stand with the government, offering him the position of Minister of Agriculture but Mosley refused. For the next few months Mosley continued to fight with the Labour leadership whilst flirting with the Tories as the unemployment problem only continued to grow as Labour dithered on what to do about it. Constantly defeated in votes against his plans Mosley lost faith in bourgeois democracy and started to lean towards dictatorship with himself at the top naturally, Mosley drifted ever farther away from his previous socialist rhetoric as time went on with him already being compared to Hitler and Mussolini.

Fascism

New Party

In February 1931 Mosley and his followers created the New Party (NP), but in the end only 9 MPs defected and most of these were temporary recruits, whilst Mosley himself came down with influenza on 25 February. On 10 March Mosley was officially expelled from the Labour Party and many politicians and media outlets denounced the New Party as fascist and compared Mosley to Hitler. Despite this the NP received plenty of funding from the bourgeoisie but failed to win an April bi-election at Ashton-under-Lyme, gaining 4,472 votes which split the Labour vote and helped allow a Conservative win. Labour supporters were outraged by Mosley's perceived betrayal and he and his supporters were practically chased out of town, Mosley, however, appeared almost cheerful about the confrontation.

On 14 May a secret meeting was held to discuss the violence at meetings carried out by ‘dedicated agents and warriors of communism’, in response it was decided to create a Nazi-style defence force which resulting in the 'biff boys' enforcing order at meetings. The NP and its increasing fascination with the youth continued to trend towards fascism as the bourgeois socialist faction battled with the fascist faction, whilst the party declined to less than 1,000 members by June, Mosley however, was more concerned with pursuing his fencing hobby. Economic crisis was worsening and talk of a national government between Labour and the Conservatives was circulating, on July 21 Mosley secretly met with a group of opposition politicians including Lloyd George and Churchill to discuss the possibility of a national government between them but no conclusion was reached. Mosley soon started declaring the NP as the British Nazi Party and proposed a Corporatist state with no similarities to socialism whatsoever, dismayed by Mosley's direction his former allies Strachey and Young resigned on 24 July followed soon after by Joad, and Mosley subsequently purged the party of 'all associations with Socialism'.

The creation of a National government was declared on 24 August and Mosley toyed with the idea of throwing in his lot with the coalition but eventually refused the offer made to him by Chamberlain. In the general election campaign Mosley purposely played down his corporatism and denied any interest in fascism to the media but NP meetings were plagued by violence with vicious fights breaking out multiple times during the campaign and in Glasgow Mosley was stoned by the crowd. The 24 October election was a disaster for the NP, and all but 2 of the 24 candidates fielded lost their deposits with the Party only gaining 36,377 votes, 10,500 of which being from Mosley in Stoke where he finished last on the poll.

After the election Mosley abandoned bourgeois politics and began creating Hitler style elite corps of 'shock troops' whilst the New Party youth movement (NUPA) policy started to flirt more with ideas of British racial supremacy such as eugenics. Mosley declared the NP a failure and struggled for money with the industrialists appeased by the ruling National government, however, Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail, pledged his support accelerating Mosley's drift to fascism and arranged a meeting with Mussolini. On January 2 1932 Mosley arrived in Rome, Italy with some of his compatriots where he mingled with royals, and on January 7 he met with Italy's fascist dictator Mussolini at the Palazzo Venezia who convinced him to embrace the label of fascist. Mosley was impressed by fascism and came away from the meeting with nothing but praise for the dictator to the dismay of ally Harold Nicolson, and after attending a fascist parade with Mussolini he continued on to Munich, Germany where he studied Nazism.

On his return to Britain Mosley set about transforming the NUPA into a 'Union of Fascists' and sent ally Robert Forgan to approach the Imperial Fascist League (IFL) and the British Fascists (BF) with a proposal that they accept Mosley as leader and merge with the NP. On 28 February Mosley met his mistress and future wife Diana Mitford who was at the time married herself to Bryan Guinness, nevertheless he began yet another affair with her and she became one of many mistresses he had whilst his wife was ill and carrying his third child. Mosley continued to prepare his move to fascism and on 5 April the NP was dissolved whilst keeping the youth movement leading to former allies Howard and Nicolson abandoning him as a lost cause. The NUPA continued to hold rallies and opportunistically adopted antisemitism and racism where it suited them to consolidate support in order to promote Mosley's vision of a corporate fascist state.

British Union of Fascists

On 1 October 1932 Mosley launched the British Union of Fascists (BUF) at 12 Great George Street with thirty-two founder members officially adopting a black shirt uniform. At first the BUF struggled to take off lacking a crisis to exploit to take power, with little interest being paid to the party other than as a curiosity but Mosley was still considered a respectable member of high society and continued to be invited to events for the upper classes where he gathered support. Mosley's paramilitary forces frequently clashed with protestors, particularly communists and were almost always favoured by the ruling class as an alternative force of government, seeing the fascists as a perfect counter to the communists in Britain.

In April 1933 Mosley attended the International Fascist Exhibition in Rome, celebrating Fascism’s founding, which hosted officials from various fascist parties throughout Europe such as Hermann Goering and Mussolini himself. Following the meeting Mussolini was convinced that the BUF was worth supporting despite his initial misgivings and Italian agents were allowed to be placed in the BUF as well as subsidies provided with an estimated £60,000 being sent per year from Italy. At first the BUF's relations with the Nazi's were restrained due to the BUF opportunistically toning down their antisemitism to secure funding from Mussolini who pretended not to be antisemitic himself, but this would not last when the BUF became more openly antisemitic.

On 15 May 1933 Mosley's first wife Cynthia died from peritonitis, not long after a stressful fight with Mosley about his many affairs, Cynthia had served Mosley loyally for the entirety of her marriage despite not being a fascist herself and her reward from her husband was abuse. The funeral was attended by Lloyd George, MacDonald and Churchill, whilst condolences were sent from the royal family, Mosley in response dedicated himself further to Diana who had since divorced her husband whilst simultaneously restarting his affair with Cynthia's sister. Even after her death Mosley continued to use his wife to his advantage using her wealth and standing to advance his march to fascism and paid little attention to the three children she had gifted him.

Mosley wanted the BUF to become a cult of personality around himself ,and continued to gather supporters, particularly among the upper classes, and was subsequently joined by allies such as Wilfred Risdon, John Beckett, Alexander Raven Thomson and William Joyce. The BUF did everything it could to build up a following, attaching itself to ongoing squabbles such as the Tithe Wars in rural England where it occupied a farm which the church was attempting to rob, but ultimately they failed to gain much traction. In November 1933 relations began to improve with the Nazis, and the BUF opened up two branches in Germany but due to Mosley's opportunistic back and forth on whether the BUF was antisemitic or not as well as its ongoing battle with other fascist groups such as the IFL for supremacy, the Nazis were still hesitant to support the BUF. MI5 grew increasingly more interested in the activities of the BUF as time went on and infiltrated the organisation with agents but didn't see it as much as a threat as the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and rather as a potential ally against a potential communist revolution.

On 8 January 1934 Mosley again travelled to Italy to meet with Mussolini, one of half a dozen meetings that took place over a period of three years. Mosley pledged his allegiance to universal Fascism by enrolling in the Fascist CAUR international although his support was ambivalent so he could continue playing both sides. The BUF's operation was entirely reliant on secret Italian funds, millionaire donations and the support of Rothermere's Daily Mail and Daily Mirror who started calling them Blackshirts rather than Fascists to make them more palatable. Rothermere saw the BUF as a method of opportunistically putting pressure on the National government to push his own agenda, Mosley meanwhile concerned himself with building up his cult of personality relying on reactionary idealist philosophers such as Oswald Spengler to portray himself as the new Caesar.

Battle of Cable Street

On 4 October 1936 Mosley's attempted march through London was interrupted by the people of East London, who along with anti-fascists and communists, fought back against, and defeated, the fascists in an event that came to be known as the Battle of Cable Street.

Mosley married his mistress Diana Mitford on 6 October 1936 in Nazi Germany in the home of Germany's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels with Hitler also attending the wedding and presenting an autographed picture of himself as a wedding gift.

Second World War

On 13 May 1940 Mosley was arrested along with some of his compatriots by the government due to fear of their cooperation with the Nazis, Mosley would remain imprisoned for the majority of the Second World War.

Post-war Politics

On 8 February 1948 the Union Movement was officially launched at Wilfred Street School, Victoria in an attempt for Mosley to re-enter politics.

Death

Mosley died aged 84 on 3 December 1980 in France, with his wife Diana continuing to support her husband long after his death, whilst his son Nicholas wrote Rules of the Game, and Beyond the Pale, two scathing biographies of his father.

See also

• Adolf Hitler
• Benito Mussolini
• Francisco Franco