Mitford family facts for kids

The Mitford family in 1928

Coat of arms of Barons Redesdale

The Mitford family is an aristocratic English family, whose principal line had its seats at Mitford, Northumberland. Several heads of the family served as High Sheriff of Northumberland. A junior line, with seats at Newton Park, Northumberland, and Exbury House, Hampshire, descends via the historian William Mitford (1744–1827) and were twice elevated to the British peerage, in 1802 and 1902, under the title Baron Redesdale.

The family became particularly known in the 1930s and later for the six Mitford sisters, great-great-great-granddaughters of William Mitford, and the daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife Sydney Bowles. They were celebrated and at times scandalous figures, who were described by The Times journalist Ben Macintyre as "Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-lover; Nancy the Novelist; Deborah the Duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur".

Background
Mitford siblings
Mitford sisters
Ancestry
Gallery
See also

Background

The family traces its origins in Northumberland back to the time of the Norman Conquest. In the Middle Ages they had been Border Reivers based in Redesdale. The main line had its family seat first at Mitford Castle, then Mitford Old Manor House, prior to building Mitford Hall in 1828; all three are near Mitford, Northumberland.

Mitford siblings

Nancy Mitford (28 November 1904 – 30 June 1973) married Peter Rodd, whom she subsequently divorced, and had a longstanding relationship with French politician and statesman Gaston Palewski. She lived in France for much of her adult life. She wrote many novels, including the semi-autobiographical The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. She was also a biographer of historical figures, including the Sun King.
Pamela "Pam" Mitford (25 November 1907 – 12 April 1994) was called "Woman" by her siblings. John Betjeman, who for a time was in love with her, referred to her as the "Rural Mitford". She married and later divorced millionaire physicist Derek Jackson, and spent much of the 1960s living with Giuditta Tommasi (died 1993), an Italian horsewoman.
Thomas David "Tom" Mitford (2 January 1909 – 30 March 1945), the only son, was educated at Eton. According to Jessica's letters, Thomas supported British fascism and was posted to the Burma campaign after he had refused to fight in Europe. He died in action.
Diana Mitford (17 June 1910 – 11 August 2003) married aristocrat and writer Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne in 1929. She left him in 1933 for British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, Bt., with whom she had two sons, Alexander and Max Mosley. The couple were interned in Holloway Prison from May 1940 until November 1943.
Unity Valkyrie Mitford (8 August 1914 – 28 May 1948) was known as "Bobo" or "Boud" to her siblings. Her adulation of, and friendship with, Adolf Hitler was widely publicised. She attempted to take her own life just hours after Britain declared war on Germany. Her attempt failed but left her with brain damage for the rest of her life. In 1944 her family sent her to the Scottish islet of Inch Kenneth, where she lived out the war. She died of pneumococcal meningitis at West Highland Cottage Hospital, Oban.
Jessica Lucy "Decca" Mitford (11 September 1917 – 22 July 1996), unlike the rest of her family, was a communist. She eloped with Esmond Romilly to Spain to participate in the Civil War; they subsequently moved to the United States, and Esmond died in action in the Second World War. She remained in the U.S. most of her adult life, where she married Robert Treuhaft and was a member of the American Communist Party until 1958. She wrote several volumes of memoirs and several volumes of polemical investigation, including the best-selling The American Way of Death (1963) about the funeral industry. She was the grandmother of James Forman Jr. and Chaka Forman, sons of the African-American civil rights leader James Forman by her daughter Constancia Romilly.
Deborah Vivien "Debo" Mitford (31 March 1920 – 24 September 2014) married Andrew Cavendish, who later became the Duke of Devonshire, and with him turned his ancestral home Chatsworth House into one of Britain's most successful stately homes. She wrote several books.

Mitford sisters

Jessica, Nancy, Diana, Unity, and Pamela Mitford in 1935. Of the six sisters, the youngest, Deborah, is absent.

The sisters gained widespread attention for their stylish and controversial lives as young people, and for their public political divisions between communism and fascism. Nancy and Jessica became well-known writers: Nancy wrote The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, and Jessica The American Way of Death (1963). Deborah managed Chatsworth, one of the most successful stately homes in England.

Jessica and Deborah married nephews of prime ministers Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan, respectively. Deborah and Diana both married wealthy aristocrats. Unity and Diana were well known during the 1930s for being close to Adolf Hitler. Jessica turned her back on her inherited privileges and eloped with her cousin, Esmond Romilly, who was hoping to report on the Spanish Civil War for the News Chronicle, having briefly fought with the International Brigade. Jessica's memoir, Hons and Rebels, describes their upbringing, and Nancy drew upon her family members for characters in her novels. In 1981, Deborah became politically active when she and her husband Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire, joined the new Social Democratic Party.

The sisters and their brother Thomas were the children of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife Sydney, the daughter of Thomas Bowles. To their children, they were known as "Farve" and "Muv", respectively. David and Sydney married in 1904. The family homes changed from Batsford House to Asthall Manor beside the River Windrush in Oxfordshire, and then Swinbrook Cottage nearby, with a house at Rutland Gate in London. They also lived in a cottage in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, which they used as a summer residence. The siblings grew up in an aristocratic country house with emotionally distant parents and a large household with numerous servants; this family dynamic was not unusual for upper-class families of the time. The parents disregarded formal education of women of the family, and they were expected to marry at a young age to a financially well-off husband. The children had a private language called "Boudledidge", and each had a different nickname for the others.

On the outbreak of the Second World War, their political views came into sharper relief. "Farve" remained a conservative who had long favoured the Neville Chamberlain's approach of appeasing Germany, but once Britain declared war on Germany, he returned to being an anti-German British patriot, while "Muv" continued her fascist sympathies and usually supported her fascist children. The couple separated in 1943 as a result of this conflict. Nancy, a moderate socialist, worked in London during the Blitz and informed on her fascist siblings to the British authorities. Pamela remained seemingly non-political, although according to her sister Nancy, Pamela and Derek Jackson were virulent anti-Semites verbally during World War II who had called for all Jews in England to be killed, and also wanted an early end to the war with Germany before England lost any more money.

Tom, a fascist, refused to fight Germany but volunteered to fight against Imperial Japan; he was killed in action in Burma in 1945. Diana, also a fascist, married to Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, was imprisoned in London from May 1940 until November 1943 under Defence Regulation 18B. Unity, fanatically devoted to Hitler and Nazism, was distraught over Britain's war declaration against Germany on 3 September 1939, and tried to take ger own life. She failed, but suffered brain damage that eventually led to her early death in 1948. Jessica, a communist, had moved to the US, but her husband Esmond Romilly, a Republican veteran from the Spanish Civil War who volunteered for the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II, died in 1941 when his bomber developed mechanical problems over the North Sea and went down. In numerous letters Jessica said that her daughter Constancia received a pension from the Canadian government after Esmond's death until she turned 18. The strong political rift between Jessica and Diana left them estranged from 1936 until their deaths, although they did speak to each other in 1973, as their eldest sister Nancy was on her deathbed. Aside from Jessica and Diana's estrangement, the sisters kept in frequent contact with each other in the decades after World War II. The sisters were prolific letter-writers, and a substantial body of correspondence still exists, principally letters between them.