Mosley: The Man, The Myth, The Mass Movement
The most misunderstood man in British politics, he could've had everything, but gave it up.
“Mosley was spurned by Whitehall, Fleet Street and every party leader at Westminster simply and solely because he was right.” - Richard Crossman, a socialist politician of the Labour Party.
“Mosley is the only man I have ever known who could have been the leader of either the Conservative or Labour party...he might have been a very great Prime Minister.” - Robert Boothby, a Conservative politician.
“Genuinely eager to champion the unemployed and other underdogs... dynamic and handsome, popular... gifted and a natural leader.” - The Guardian, a centre-left newspaper, in a 1980 obituary.
“When he got up on top of a speaker van he was like someone possessed. He was in the grip of a kind of addiction and it didn’t do him any good. […] I think he realised he was some sort of junkie, a rhetoric junkie. It wasn’t about power. If it had been power he was interested in, all he needed to do was stay in politics, tell a few lies and he’d have become leader.” - Nicholas Mosley, Sir Oswald Mosley’s son.
“Mosley is a cad and a wrong 'un and they will find it out.” - Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in 1929.
In 2005, the BBC did a poll on who was the worst Briton, Number 1. was Sir Oswald Mosley. 25 years prior, Sir Oswald Mosley passed away at the age of 84 in luxury self-exile in France, his death was mourned by all the parties, politicians, and press. Nowadays, the name of Mosley conjures resentment, violence, and hate. Why? Who was Sir Oswald Mosley?
Baronet Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley was born on the 16th November 1896 in London, scion of a wealthy and prominent aristocratic family in Staffordshire. In 1902, Mosley’s parents divorced due to his father’s abusive and drunken nature which was often aimed at the 5-year-old, Mosley then moved to his ancestral Apedale Hall with his mother, Katharine, and his paternal grandfather, also Oswald Mosley.
Mosley’s childhood was secluded and estranged, he had a passion for fencing and boxing and was considered violent and of an arrogant intelligence. In 1914, the 17-year-old Mosley joined the Royal Military College, and was soon after expelled for fighting and violence. He had another chance at military life when the First World War broke out, Mosley eagerly threw himself into the frontlines at the Western Front, and returned a convinced pacifist.
In 1915, the reckless Mosley crashed his rudimentary early aeroplane at an air show while demonstrating to his family. Mosley was sent back too soon from hospital and passed out in the trenches from the pain. Mosley fought for another year before retiring (aerial warfare was so dangerous that was required), Mosley himself claimed he saw all his friends die in front of him during the hit-and-miss danger of early military aviation.
In 1918, Mosley began his political career, standing as a Conservative for Harrow, Mosley won as a “veterans’ candidate” and became the Baby of the House (youngest MP) at 21 years of age. However, as Mosley developed his political ideology and identity, he drifted to the left and found himself at odds with the old aristocratic Tories and much more in line with Labour. In 1922, Mosley - infuriated by the atrocities committed by the Black and Tans in Ireland - chose not to stand for re-election as a Conservative, instead returning to Harrow as an independent and joining Labour - as well as its left-wing organisation, the Independent Labour Party - in 1924. This political transformation marked him as a maverick and earned him the alluring respect of MPs and the hatred of the whips, but the middle-class suburban Harrow found the new firebrand socialist an overwhelming “bolshevist” figure, and Mosley lost re-election later that year.
Mosley’s personal life was the opposite of fiery socialism. In 1920, he married Cynthia Curzon, the daughter of the statesman Earl George Curzon. Mosley spent his time doing sports, fencing, and travelling around Europe with other aristocrats. Mosley became increasingly debauched as his love of his wife waned, Mosley was secretly an adulterer and engaged in an affair with Cynthia’s sisters and even her stepmother, the Lady Curzon. Adultery was considered normal among aristocratic circles in the 1920s, but Cynthia was dismayed and saddened, but never angry with Oswald. In 1925, Mosley visited India, which his father-in-law ruled over as Viceroy, during which he met Mahatma Gandhi, “a sympathetic personality of subtle intelligence” recounted Mosley.
In 1926, Mosley returned to politics and stood in the election for Birmingham Ladywood, facing off against incumbent Conservative MP and future Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. The race was close, and Mosley used a grassroots campaign to allegorically set Ladywood ablaze, with him and Cynthia appearing as flashy aristocratic links between them and the upper class and as their crusaders. The race was controversial as well, Mosley slandered Chamberlain as a “landlord’s hireling”, Chamberlain - in a move that reminds one of weak appeasement - asked Mosley to retract his statement, but Mosley refused. After several recounts and allegations of electoral fraud by the Conservatives, Chamberlain won by a microscopic 77 vote margin. Mosley was able to get a seat two months later in a by-election in the Labour stronghold of Smethwick.
Mosley became a rising star in the opposition Labour, and was appointed by the ILP onto the National Executive Committee in 1927. In 1929, the elections rolled around and it was clear that Labour would win, Mosley was close to the leader Ramsay MacDonald and wished he would be given a Great Office of State. When Labour did win and enter government, the radical Mosley was side-lined by the moderate MacDonald and only made the powerless Chancellor of the the Duchy of Lancaster.
Just weeks after the election victory, the Wall Street Crash caused the economy to plummet, unemployment to soar, and Labour to haemorrhage. MacDonald sought to use this as another means to attack Mosley, by giving him the responsibility with dealing with the rocketing unemployment, hoping he will be blamed for it. This plot backfired, and Mosley wrote a lengthy manifesto - the Mosley Memorandum - in January 1930. The Mosley Memorandum was visionary and ahead of its time, an early disciple of J.M. Keynes, Mosley called for the establishment of an autarkic trade bloc in the British Empire, massive public works, and nationalisation of vital sectors. Mosley presented the Memorandum to the NEC, who were pushed to narrowly reject it by MacDonald, the ILP - which had broken off from Labour - were sympathetic but were experimenting with socialism more in tune with the continent. Mosley resigned in May 1930, a universally popular decision which propelled Mosley to the height of politics.
At that point, if he waited a bit until the next election (scheduled in 1934, although it occurred in 1931), a sure loss for Labour, and used some acumen to remain a stormy opposition leader, he could’ve overthrown MacDonald and become the Labour leader, then surge into being the Prime Minister in the next election (1935) with his oration skills. Mosley instead - having been rejected by the Labour conference in October - left the Labour Party, releasing an expanded public version of the Mosley Memorandum signed by 17 Labour MPs, including Aneurin Bevan, Oliver Baldwin, John Strachey, and leader of the Miners’ Federation A.J. Cook.
In March 1931, Mosley set up a new party, aptly named the New Party. The New Party was neither communist nor fascist, but distinctly Mosleyite. Mosley was drawn to trends and threw himself into campaigns, Mosley never encountered or looked into Communism nor Fascism, but by interacting with those slightly influenced by both, there was crumbs of influence and these scared off people, both those who believed it was communist, and those who believed that Mosley was becoming a Tory again. Mosley’s arrogance scared most other people away except ardent Mosley loyalists, the New Party ran in by-elections, splitting the leftist vote and enabling the Conservatives to win a spree of victories. The New Party began to face attacks from communists, and Mosley grew increasingly militarist, forming the Biff Boys who would violently attack any heckler. The New Party was a burnt wreck by election day on the 27th October 1931, and was utterly thrashed in the polls, winning only 0.2% of the vote (36,377 voters) in the country.
The deseated Mosley was despondent and demoralised. His only hope were in the people who seemed to remain loyal and starstruck by Mosley, and they seemed to speak highly of fascism. Mosley knew almost nothing of fascism, and so visited Italy in January 1932, spurred by the Lord Rothermere - the chief of the extremely anti-New Party and hard-right Daily Mail. Mosley had returned convinced meanwhile the New Party had been taken over by its fascistic youth wing in his absence, Mosley dissolved the New Party but kept the youth wing. Although unimpressed by Mussolini and more drawn by fascism in action, Mosley followed his advice to set up a fascist party, studying incessantly before while preparing to.
As Oswald shifted to the right, Cynthia shifted to the left and became drawn in by Leon Trotsky and his ideology. Mosley became even more adulterous, and entered a relationship with Diana Guinness (née Mitford), who divorced her controlling and sexually inexperienced Bryan Guinness to be with the seductive and experienced Mosley. Diana moved in next door to the Mosleys and stayed with him constantly as his mistress in the presence of his wife and children, Cynthia was distraught and Oswald tried to reassure her by reading his long list of other mistresses. Cynthia and Oswald constantly quarrelled as the issues became apparent to the public.
Nonetheless, the British Union of Fascists was launched on the 1st October 1932, among its founding members was Oswald Mosley, Cynthia Mosley, John Forgan, Diana Mitford, the Lord Rothermere, Norah Elam, and Major General John Fuller. The BUF gained positive publicity, Mosley’s oratory proved convincing to most apolitical audiences and the party’s greatest weapon, meanwhile the blackshirt movement was seen as professional and peaceful, a civic volunteer organisation much like an adult Scouts. British fascism, as it was defined, was a hodgepodge of trends Mosley picked up, including the core tenets of Fascism itself alongside anti-vivisection, women’s rights, and was against the tithe being collected rurally.
Despite being the head of a mass movement, Mosley’s attention was forced inside. Cynthia was pregnant with their child and the effects of Diana’s presence and fascism made her extremely ill. After a near miscarriage, both she and the son - Michael - survived, but Cynthia never recovered, dying of peritonitis in May 1933. Following her death, Diana moved in with Oswald.
In politics, the British Union of Fascists entered 1933 and performed well. The party had an estimated 35,000 members and 250,000 sympathisers. Mosley visited Italy in April, appearing next to Benito Mussolini on a balcony saluting the Italian army as they passed (see below). Mosley - according to his friend Harold Nicolson - had fantasies about ruling Britain as a dictator and gaoling Ramsay MacDonald and Lord Privy Seal J.H. Thomas on a concentration camp in the Isle of Wight.
The BUF developed high-ranking connections across the political field by late-1933, when the victory of fascism in Germany galvanised popular opinion in Britain. Mosley tried courting aristocrats all over society in the hope of forming a fascist presence in the House of Lords, although a handful of peers were converted to sympathisers, they gained no active members, Mosley even tried courting members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
In October 1933, the BUF gained a major victory by gaining a blackshirt-clad councillor, Charles Bentinck Budd in Worthing (which became nicknamed “The Munich of the South”, as it became a BUF stronghold). With the waters tested, the Daily Mail openly endorsed fascism, with Lord Rothermere openly joining the party and urging its readers to in columns titled “Hurrah for the Blackshirts”.
Entering 1934, the BUF seemed stronger and had more support than ever before. Mosley, having noted a campaign in Leeds seemed successful at converting much of the town (including a visiting Randolph Churchill) to his beliefs, tried replicating the same feat to the entire nation. A meeting at the Royal Albert Hall ended in success, and Mosley planned another one at Olympia for the 7th June 1934. The Daily Mail was in overdrive in enthusiasm for the BUF and Mosley, giving out seats to the 500 people who could produce the best answers to the question “Why do you like the blackshirts?” and even a blackshirt beauty contest which ended when not enough attractive women joined.
The communists pounced on the Olympia meeting, with many of them having sent letters to the Daily Mail for a free seat, and began a mass disruption, rendering Mosley inaudible. The blackshirt stewards responded by violently attacking the disruptors and beating them, many had to be hospitalised and the meeting ended in failure. The Daily Mail swiftly withdrew support and became anti-fascist, all the parties condemned Mosley and the BUF, and BUF membership dropped from around 50,000 to 7,500. Most venues banned the BUF from holding meetings while the BBC banned Mosley from being interviewed and kept mentions of him to a minimum, and nearly all future BUF meetings were met by disruption in the hopes of agitating a repeat. By the end of 1934, the BUF had declined into a deep hibernation, once again centralising in a cultish adoration for Sir Oswald Mosley.
Like the New Party in 1931-2, the British Union of Fascists in 1934-5 saw a defeated Mosley try to experiment with new ideas to widen his approach. Mosley became influenced by William Joyce, Mosley at this point had little care for political power and only liked having a mass movement. Joyce convinced Mosley to abandon Italian fascism - as Mussolini drastically cut funding after the Olympia meeting - and instead embrace German National Socialism, endorsing anti-Semitism. This forever cut ties between the BUF and the middle class, but gained Mosley a loyal following of working-class gentiles in the Jewish East End.
The BUF would continue to fester in hibernation until January 1936, when George V died and Edward VIII became King. Edward VIII was popular, but faced opposition from the clergy and most politicians due to his desire to marry the American twice-divorcee Wallis Simpson, the anti-tithe Mosley threw his lot in with the King in a distant and bizarre hope that Edward would dissolve Parliament and appoint Mosley as the Prime Minister, who would become the dictator in a period of national emergency. Mosley - influenced by Joyce - renamed the party to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists as a stunt to attract German funding and appeal to Joyce. Mosley gained a personal victory from this, he secretly married Diana Mitford at Joseph Goebbels’ house in Berlin, Adolf Hitler was a guest. The marriage would not be publicly known until Mosley’s arrest in 1940.
Wishing for more support, Mosley marched through the Jewish East End in October 1936, the 3,000 Mosleyites were met by around 15,000 communists and Jews, who broke police lines to attack the meeting and rampaged across London. The Battle of Cable Street is seen by many as a heroic battle, commemorated by a mural, many sources including Wikipedia estimate a ridiculous 100,000 (and in some more extreme cases, over 250,000) counterdemonstrators, who physically could not have all fit in the East End, and displayed it as a sign of solidarity rather than a violent communist riot. It should also be noted that the blackshirts marched nearby just days later to no opposition, and continued to until they were banned. Furthermore, it should be noted that in some wards in London, the BUFNS gained 25% of the vote in 1936, and considering only “heads of the household” could vote when Mosley’s biggest support base were young people and women, it can be estimated support for fascism was as high as 50% in these areas. The rioting was followed by the Public Order Act of 1936, prohibiting political uniforms (the blackshirt) and making police permission mandatory for any political marches, with the police and government vested with the powers to break up any meeting or march for no reason at all.
That month, Edward abdicated and the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists declined again moving into 1937, when it renamed itself simply to British Union. That year, Mosley made most blackshirts redundant, rather than party members paying small annual fees to the party, British Union did the opposite and gave the members a blackshirt (pre-POA) as well as food, most redundant Mosleyites left to form the National Socialist League led by John Beckett and William Joyce. By the end of 1937, Mosley had found another way to get support, by opposing the brewing war.
British Union held the majority opinion against the war in 1938, but the Munich Conference placated fears and held down support for British Union. In 1939, the party experienced another wave as tensions flared again, Mosley gave up openly advocating fascism and presented his party as a united front against the war, but found no new support. Mosley did get an audience among anti-war holdouts, to which the British Union courted with a mass meeting at Earl’s Court in July 1939 (see below).
The largest indoor political meeting in the world, few who attended the Earl’s Court Peace Rally would know, after Mosley spoke for three exciting hours, that war would come just seven weeks later. Hitler was convinced a war was necessary and was beyond negotiating. Hitler invaded Poland on the 1st September 1939, and Britain entered the war.
British Union dropped in support as fears of a ban mounted and its members left as it was now unpatriotic, Mosley panicked and ran British Union in by-elections (British Union had engaged in a previous policy of non-participation in Parliament, likely because Mosley knew his party would face embarrassing defeats) to no avail, British Union never polled more than 5%.
Mosley restlessly advocated that the British government accept Hitler’s peace proposals until May 1940, when Winston Churchill - Mosley’s old rival - came to power and issued Defence Regulation 18b. The regulation suspended habeas corpus and Mosley, along with 750 members of British Union were gaoled, British Union itself was banned soon after.
Mosley was kept in Holloway Prison until November 1943, when he was released due to poor health. Mosley exercised often and had a low heart rate, the lack of exercise as well as poor conditions badly affected Mosley’s health, and he nearly died as a result of weight loss (see below), pneumonia, and phlebitis. Mosley’s release was opposed by Jews and communists who demonstrated outside the gaol
Mosley retired from politics, retreating to his stately home in the Staffordshire countryside with his wife and children away from the street battles, aristocratic balls, and mass movements of his past. Nevertheless, the Mosleyites reassembled after the war, and having taken over the British League of Ex-Servicemen And Women (BLESMAW) they began holding meetings in London urging Mosley to return. He did in December 1947 and launched the Union Movement in February 1948.
The Union Movement did not attract much of an audience outside ardent Mosleyites, the party had descended down another one of Mosley’s trends - pan-Europeanism - which didn’t strike a chord among nationalists or fascists except those loyal to Mosley. The Union Movement campaigned mainly against immigration from the subcontinent and Caribbean (only about 15,000 ethnics lived in Britain at that time).
Mosley generally disliked his exile from the aristocracy and as he aged, he lost the will and excitement of street battles. Jews and communists disrupted his meetings and marches, and with declining momentum, Mosley left Britain for Ireland in 1951, and the Union Movement declined in his absence.
Mosley spent more time abroad, regularly visiting Rome (he contributed a column to the neo-fascist magazine Asso di Bastoni), Bonn, and even met Juan Peron on a secret visit to Buenos Aires. Mosley mingled and visited neo-fascist circles, contributing to neo-fascist and Third Position thought in the 1950s. It is thought that Peron’s theories of continental blocs was heavily influenced by Mosley, who was in correspondence with the exiled President from 1955. With other pan-European fascists, Mosley found the European Social Movement in 1951 which faded out of existence soon after.
Mosley would return various times: in 1954, 1958, and 1959. The latter of these he stood in Kensington East, exploiting fears of immigration from the Caribbean, for the first time since 1931 he had stood in a general election, and gained a decent 8% in the polls, only 200 votes behind the Liberal candidate.
1962 was a breakthrough year for Sir Oswald Mosley. His visits to Europe (Italy in particularly) led to the formation of the National Party of Europe, including the Italian Social Movement and the movements of Adolf von Thadden in West Germany. Mosley returned to Britain with the intention of sparking a revival of the Union Movement into a major party like the ISM was in Italy, and decided to hold a meeting at Trafalgar Square. Mosley had held previous meetings at Trafalgar Square (as late as 1959) with success and little to no opposition. The National Socialist Movement, an unrelated neo-Nazi party led by Colin Jordan, tried undermining the Union Movement by attracting Mosleyites by holding a meeting there the day before. Although Jordan’s meeting saw little opposition as it was announced quickly, the Jews and communists were enraged in the aftermath and targeted the Mosleyites. Sir Oswald Mosley was unable to reach the square, his car blocked by police and protestors as the Mosleyite organisers were besieged on the plinth, the police were caught off-guard and their one-man line broke. Thousands of communists charged, wrecking the meeting and beating the organisers, they then marched to the Union Movement’s headquarters, where they were fended off by a higher police presence.
With Mosley and the Union Movement now banned from holding meetings at Trafalgar Square, undeterred - Mosley sought to make an unspoilt great political return, this time in his old stronghold of Manchester. The meeting was surrounded by protestors, who broke police lines to tackle and pummel Mosley (see below), but the 65-year-old former boxer fended them off, making his way to the speaker van where he spoke for an inaudible two minutes before the police swiftly banned the meeting. Fighting broke out across the city and Mosley’s son, Max Mosley (future President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) was among the arrested.
Mosley’s plans had failed. He placed a semi-retirement on politics and moved with Diana to a manor in Orsay, on the outskirts of Paris. He did return in 1963 and 1966, the former where he spoke without interruption at Kensington Town Hall, and the latter where he stood again on an anti-immigration line in Shoreditch and Finsbury, gaining a mere 4.3% which marked the end of active politics for Mosley.
He became increasingly secluded, only appearing rarely in Britain or elsewhere in Europe for television appearances where he defended himself and extolled the BUF. The Union Movement faded away without its Leader.
It is known that Diana Mosley aged into being essentially liberal - although still totally defensive of her friendship with Adolf Hitler, Sir Oswald Mosley did try to appear moderate and condemned Enoch Powell for his anti-immigration speech at Wolverhampton in 1968. It could be suggested Sir Oswald Mosley did become more liberal as he aged, his last interview in 1975 (he would die in December 1980) shows him as a moderate centrist with some tinges of fascism (i.e. a national union of capability, and corporatism), he remained however staunchly defensive and spoke of how he wished the Second World War to have been avoided.
In 1977, Mosley developed Parkinson’s disease, the elderly and lonely Mosley lived at Orsay, declining political involvement and retreating among the circle of his few aristocratic and neo-fascist European friends. Sir Oswald Mosley died at the age of 84 on the 16th November 1980.
All mentions of Sir Oswald Mosley by others were about politics, he had all the political skill and ability, he easily could’ve been Prime Minister if he simply tried. He instead chose purity and a mass movement, he couldn’t take orders and he couldn’t compromise, and if he did he could’ve become Prime Minister and then really could’ve been a dictator with Ramsay MacDonald interned in a concentration camp.
Mosley was above politics, and above parties. His parties (particularly British Union) have a certain higher spiritual qualities lacking in the modern parties. He gave up on politics and power and instead sought to make an example out of himself to an enlightened movement of a greater, future spiritual age. I do believe when he became older, he regretted not compromising and entering politics when it was so close for him. The young Mosley was highly reckless, violent, and flashy, even the BUF logo was the “flash-in-the-pan” as Mosley’s critics saw him.
Mosley’s critics constantly criticising him for anti-Semitism (Mosley was not an anti-Semite, only following it as a trend in the late-1930s to draw German funding) and his supposed friendship with Adolf Hitler. These are nothing but lies and distraction, Mosley’s relation with Hitler was merely for funding, Mosley wanted peace and cultural preservation for Wales and Scotland while Hitler wiped out various nations in a suicidal war of 60,000,000 deaths that killed the Old Europe.
Mosley did have the intellectual skill to have been likely the greatest Prime Minister of the modern age. “He was a whole generation ahead of Labour thinking” admitted Richard Crossman on his visionary Mosley Memorandum. His party propaganda appears far more modern and stylist than the other party posters of the 1930s and the language of The Greater Britain (written in 1932) or Tomorrow We Live (1938) is very modern even for 2023. Mosley was a 22nd century politician in an early 20th century world.
Now in our crisis, economic stagnation by finance mixed with a social collapse into slouch and degeneracy. As the decisive hour is here and England stares down at its own death, Mosley’s ideas light the way forwards.
Very well written, and very well researched. Well done.
Happy Mosley Monday!