Fascist leader lived locally

Following our story earlier in the week about William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw), Ian jones contacted AudlemOnline to tell us that the leader of the British Fascists in the 1930s, Oswald Mosley, lived as a youngster at Betton Hall, just a few miles away from Audlem, between Norton in Hales and Market Drayton.

A little research soon confirmed this, not that we would ever doubt information supplied by Ian!

Oswald Mosley was the eldest of the three sons of Sir Oswald Mosley, 5th Baronet (1873-1928). His branch of the Mosley family was the Anglo-Irish family at its most prosperous, landowners in Staffordshire seated at Rolleston Hall near Burton-upon-Trent.

Mosley was born on 16 November 1896 at 47, Hill Street, Mayfair, Westminster.78 After his parents separated he was brought up by his mother, who went to live at Betton Hall, and his paternal grandfather, Sir Oswald Mosley, 4th Baronet. Within the family and among intimate friends, he was always called "Tom". He lived for many years at Apedale Hall in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

On 11 May 1920, he married Lady Cynthia Curzon second daughter of Lord Curzon, previously Viceroy of India, and then Foreign Secretary from 1919-1924. Lord Curzon had to be persuaded that Mosley was a suitable husband, a fear later confirmed by his affairs.

During the marriage he had an extended affair with his wife's younger sister and with their stepmother, the second wife and widow of Lord Curzon.

Cynthia died of peritonitis in 1933, after which Mosley married his mistress Diana Guinness, née Mitford, one of the famous Mitford sisters. They married in secret in Germany in 1936 in the Berlin home of Germany's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Adolf Hitler was one of the guests.

What with William Joyce and Oswald Mosley having local links, we wonder what will be unearthed next. It's amazing how a story about the Flying Scotsman on Sunday led to Joyce's Clocks on railway stations, to Lord Haw-Haw and now to Oswald Mosley.

Can we extend the chain any further, we wonder? Did any local shops sell black shirts at the time? In the meantime, we hope you have enjoyed these diverting excursions from day to day local news.

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