On November 16th, 1896, Sir Oswald Mosley was born. The title was inherited, not awarded, via a baronetcy. He saw service in the First World War, and was elected as MP for Harrow in his early 20s, serving there from 1918-24, initially as a Conservative, then as an Independent. He subsequently joined the Labour Party and became MP at a Smethwick by-election in 1926.
He served in the Labour Government of 1929-31, and was regarded as a possible future prime minister. He was described as “strikingly handsome,” “probably the best orator in England,” and “with great personal magnetism.”
However, he resigned from the government because he didn’t think it was doing enough on unemployment. He founded ‘The New Party,’ admiring what was being achieved in Europe by Mussolini and Hitler. The party became the British Union of Fascists, and aped its continental counterparts by having black-shirted thugs to commit street violence against opponents.
This largely and rightly discredited him, although it was the outbreak of the Second World War that saw his support evaporate, since the fascists were now the enemy. Mosely himself was interned in 1940 on the orders of Winston Churchill under regulation 18B, and was not released until 1943, and even then placed under house arrest.
After the war he attempted to return to politics several times, but was by now a marginal and discredited figure who had no impact on events. He went to live in Paris, and finally died just outside it at Orsay, at the age of 84, having achieved nothing of consequence since he was 35.
He is an example of an immense talent, fatally flawed by poor judgement. Looking at history’s ‘what ifs,’ had he not resigned he would almost certainly have held high office, perhaps even rising to become Prime Minister. As it turned out, though, he provides an example of those who, had they known where the road would lead, would never have set their first foot upon it. In wanting efficiency to address social problems, he ended up embracing evil.
In a more sinister ‘what if,’ had Hitler succeeded with his Operation Sea-Lion and conquered Britain, Sir Oswald Mosley might well have emerged as his puppet Prime Minister, as Vidkun Quisling did in Norway. Like Quisling, he might have engaged in, or acquiesced in, war crimes, including the murder of Jews and political opponents. Had Nazi Germany been ultimately defeated by the combined might of the USA and the USSR, Mosley might, like Quisling, have met his day of reckoning by facing a firing squad.
It never happened. And we fortunately never found out the consequences of his opinions in practice.