Mosley, Oswald, 1896-1980

Oswald Ernald Mosley, eldest son of Oswald Mosley and Katherine Maud Heathcote, was born on 16 November 1896. He attended Winchester school and Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the 16th Lancers cavalry regiment at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, but later transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. He injured his leg in a flying accident while in England, shortly after gaining his pilot's certificate and was recalled to his former regiment, spending the winter of 1915-1916 in the trenches. He was invalided out of the war due to his damaged leg in 1916, and spent the last two years of the war working in London in the Ministry of Munitions and in the Foreign Office.

He was elected Unionist MP for Harrow in 1918 and was a member of the National party coalition led by Lloyd George. He rapidly became disillusioned with the government and in November 1920 he left the government over the Black and Tan atrocities in Ireland, which he condemned in the House of Commons. His political outlook at the time, informed by his experiences during the war, his sympathy for ordinary working people, and his concern to improve social conditions, was thought to be more suited to the Liberal party, and he was involved in discussions with Robert Cecil during the early 1920s to form a Centre Party, but he was re-elected as an Independent MP for Harrow in the General Elections of 1922 and 1923. He joined the Labour party in 1924, and stood for election in Ladywood, Birmingham that year, being narrowly defeated by Neville Chamberlain. He was supported in his political career by his first wife, Cynthia Curzon, whom he married in 1920. Cynthia also joined the Labour party, and accompanied Mosley on visits to India in 1925 and the USA in 1926 to study labour conditions. The couple had three children, Vivien (b. 1921), Nicholas (b. 1923), and Michael (b. 1932). Cynthia Mosley died of peritonitis in 1933.

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