Diana Mitford (later Lady Mosley)

Diana Mosley (née Freeman-Mitford, later Guinness), Lady Mosley

Sitter in 14 portraits
The third of six daughters of Baron Redesdale, Mosley's controversial political beliefs would lead to her eventual exile from England. Married at 18 to the poet and playwright Bryan Guinness, the couple played host to the Bright Young Things gatherings of the 1920s. In 1932 she left Guinness for the leader of the British Union of Fascists Oswald Mosley. She attended the first Nuremberg rally with her sister, the Nazi sympathiser Unity Mitford in 1934 and two years later Adolph Hitler would attend her secret marriage to Mosley. Considered a danger to national security, she was imprisoned at Holloway prison for 3 years and placed under house arrest till 1949. While living in France, Mosley edited the fascist cultural magazine The European and wrote regularly for Tatler and The Times. In 1977 she published her memoirs A Life of Contrasts.

Tell us More