The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters. Charlotte Mosley
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rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_aef21324-02a0-5529-ba50-1efc61594571">2 Liliane (Baba) d’Erlanger (1902–45). A girlfriend of Tom Mitford. Married Prince Jean-Louis de Faucigny-Lucinge in 1923.
3 A Mitford word for spaniel, hence anything very sweet.
4 The Duke of Gloucester (1900–74), third son of King George V, and Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott (1901–2004) were married on 6 November 1935.
1 Ann Farrer.
2 ‘Love forever, Your Boud.’
1 Max Schmeling (1905–2005). German world heavyweight boxing champion 1930–32. In June 1936, he beat Joe Louis in his first fight against the black American heavyweight champion.
2 Eva Baum was a keen Nazi who taught German to Unity. Having been friends, they fell out when Baum reported Unity to the SS, claiming, amongst other things, that she was bloodthirsty and had an ‘hysterical’ passion for Hitler. She also reported that Unity was having ‘a real affair’ with Erich Widmann and that she was not a suitable friend for an SS member. (Unity to Diana, 8 February 1935) The rumour that Unity had in turn denounced Baum for being Jewish is not borne out by this letter.
3 An SS doctor who ran a children’s clinic in Munich.
4 Armida (1917–) and Rosemary (1918–) Macindoe were English sisters studying German in Munich.
1 7th Marquess of Londonderry (1878–1949). Until 1938, the former Air Minister was an admirer of Hitler and worked for rapprochement with Germany. His wife, Edith, was more sceptical and saw that ‘to live in the upper levels of National Socialism may be quite pleasant, but woe to the poor folk who do not belong to the upper orders’. (Quoted in Anne de Courcy, Circe, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1992, p. 270) After their visit to Germany, the Londonderrys and their fourteen-year-old daughter, Mairi, left bearing photographs of the Nazi leaders in silver frames, which may have made Unity jealous.
2 Mary Pollen (1892–1983). Married Colonel J. D. Macindoe in 1915 and K. W. Newall in 1933. Contrary to what Unity believed, the mother of her friends Armida and Rosemary was not an admirer of Hitler.
3 Rudolf Hess (1894–1987). Deputy leader of the Nazi Party since 1933.
4 Mary Wooddisse; an exact contemporary and close friend of Unity who was also studying German in Munich.
5 A small gathering.’
6 Paula Hitler (1896–1960). Hitler’s younger sister was the only one of his five full siblings to survive to adulthood.
1 Lady Redesdale transcribed this letter in her unpublished memoir of Unity. The original has not been found.
2 Lady Redesdale was taking Unity, Jessica and Deborah on a cultural cruise of the Mediterranean.
1 Jessica was on holiday in Brittany with Nancy and Peter.
2 As children, Jessica and Deborah imagined that Anthony Sewell, a neighbour at Rutland Gate, was a white-slave trader – their nanny having warned them that London was the centre of the traffic. Sewell was married, 1930–45, to Mary Lutyens, daughter of the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.
3 ‘Popo is sixty, she is guaranteed for a hundred.’
4 It is more likely that Nancy stayed at home because her husband and Mary Sewell were having an affair.
1 Alexandra Cecilia Hay (1922–91). A friend of Deborah who did lessons with her at Swinbrook.
2 Peter Ramsbotham (1919–). The future distinguished diplomat had made friends with the sisters during their Mediterranean cruise.
3 Unity had cancelled her plan to travel down the Danube and on to Constantinople with Tom and Jessica because the Redesdales had forbidden Jessica to go.
4 Deborah’s dachshund.
5 Ivan Hay (1884–1936). Cecilia’s father.
1 Magda Ritschel-Friedländer (1901–45). The ideal of German motherhood married Dr Joseph Goebbels in 1931 in order to be close to Hitler, whom she idolized. Her first marriage in 1921 to Gunther Quandt, a rich industrialist, ended in 1929.
2 ‘Kitten’; Diana’s nickname for Mosley.
3 Diana’s marriage had been postponed until 6 October while the official paperwork was being arranged.
4 W. E. D. Allen (1901–73). Chairman of an advertising company and Ulster MP for West Belfast who resigned his seat in 1931 to take up a senior post in Mosley’s New Party. He may also have been reporting back on the Mosleys to British intelligence services.
5 Lillian Harvey (1907–68). The English-born actress spent her youth in Germany before moving to Hollywood in 1933. She released two films in 1936, Glückskinder and Schwarze Rosen.
6 ‘It has given me such pleasure that you came to the Party Rally and that you have attended every day.’
7 ‘The lackey of the Jews has almost become a National Socialist.’
8 ‘Your brother is a splendid young man.’
9 Count Janos von Almasy (1893–1968). An Hungarian friend of Tom who lived at Bernstein Castle in the Austrian province of Burgenland. Tom introduced him to Unity who often stayed