Oswald Mosley

Oswald Mosley
Mosley in 1922
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office
7 June 1929 – 19 May 1930
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Preceded byRonald McNeill
Succeeded byClement Attlee
Member of Parliament
for Smethwick
In office
21 December 1926 – 7 October 1931
Preceded byJohn Davison
Succeeded byRoy Wise
Member of Parliament
for Harrow
In office
14 December 1918 – 9 October 1924
Preceded byHarry Mallaby-Deeley
Succeeded bySir Isidore Salmon
Personal details
Born
Oswald Ernald Mosley

16 November 1896
Mayfair, London, England
Died3 December 1980(1980-12-03) (aged 84)
Orsay, Essonne, France
Political partyBritish Union of Fascists
(1932–1940)
Other political
affiliations
Conservative (1918–1922)
Independent (1922–1924)
Labour (1924–1931)
New (1931–1932)
Union Movement
(1948–1973)
National Party of Europe
(1962–1980)
Spouses
(m. 1920; died 1933)
(m. 1936)
ChildrenVivien Mosley
(1921–2002)
Nicholas Mosley
(1923–2017)
Michael Mosley
(1932–2012)
Alexander Mosley
(1938–2005)
Max Mosley
(1940–2021)
ParentSir Oswald Mosley, 5th Baronet
EducationWinchester College
Alma materRoyal Military College, Sandhurst
Awards 1914–15 Star
British War Medal
Victory Medal
Military service
Allegiance British Empire
Branch/service British Army
16th The Queen's Lancers
Royal Flying Corps
Years of service1914–1918
RankLieutenant
Battles/warsFirst World War
Second Battle of Ypres
Battle of Loos
Portrait of Oswald Mosley by Glyn Philpot, 1925

Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) 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. He was a member of parliament and later founded and led the British Union of Fascists (BUF).[1][2]

After military service during the First World War, Mosley was one of the youngest members of parliament, representing Harrow from 1918 to 1924, first as a Conservative, then an independent, before joining the Labour Party. At the 1924 general election he stood in Birmingham Ladywood against the future prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, coming within 100 votes of defeating him. Mosley returned to Parliament as Labour MP for Smethwick at a by-election in 1926 and served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Labour Government of 1929–31. In 1928, he succeeded his father as the sixth Mosley baronet, a title that had been in his family for more than a century.[3] Some considered Mosley a rising star and possible future Prime Minister.[4] Mosley resigned in 1930 because of discord with the government's unemployment policies. He chose not to defend his Smethwick constituency at the 1931 general election, instead unsuccessfully standing in Stoke-on-Trent.

Mosley's New Party became the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932. As leader of the BUF, he publicly espoused antisemitism and sought alliances with other fascist leaders such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Fascist violence under Mosley's leadership culminated in the Battle of Cable Street, during which anti-fascist demonstrators including trade unionists, communists, anarchists, and British Jews successfully prevented the BUF from marching through London's East End. Mosley subsequently held a series of rallies around London, and the BUF increased its membership in the capital city.[5]

Mosley was imprisoned in May 1940, after the outbreak of the Second World War, and the BUF was banned. 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 Paris and two residences in Ireland. He stood for Parliament during the post-war era but received very little support. During this latter period he was an advocate of Pan-European nationalism, developing the Europe a Nation ideology,[6] and was an early proponent of Holocaust denial conspiracy theories.[7][8]

  1. ^ "Sir Oswald Mosley – Meteoric rise and fall of a controversial politician". The Times. 4 December 1980. p. 19.
  2. ^ "'Worst' historical Britons list". BBC News. Archived from the original on 27 May 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
    - Dorril, Stephen (6 October 2017). Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism. Thistle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-910670-71-2.
  3. ^ "Life and Times of Sir Oswald Mosley & the British Union of Fascists". Holocaust Research Project. Archived from the original on 8 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  4. ^ Worley, Matthew (January 2011) [22 December 2010]. "Why Fascism? Sir Oswald Mosley and the Conception of the British Union of Fascists". History. 96 (1 (321)): 72. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2010.00507.x. ISSN 0018-2648. JSTOR 24429007 – via JSTOR.
  5. ^ Barling, Kurt (4 October 2011). "Why remember Battle of Cable Street?". BBC News. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
    - Philpot, Robert. "The true history behind London's much-lauded anti-fascist Battle of Cable Street". Times of Israel. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  6. ^ Edgerton, David (28 June 2018). The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth-Century History. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-197596-2.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Hobbs, Mark (2017). "The men who rewrite history: Holocaust denial and the British far right from 1967". In Copsey, Nigel; Worley, Matthew (eds.). Tomorrow Belongs to Us: The British Far Right Since 1967. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317190882.

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