Cynthia Mosley

Lady Cynthia Blanche ("Cimmie") Mosley (23 August 1898 – 16 May 1933) was a British politician of Anglo-American parentage and the first wife of the British fascist New Party politician Sir Oswald Mosley who was formerly an MP in the Conservative and Labour parties.

Childhood

Born Cynthia Blanche Curzon at Kedleston Hall, she was the second daughter of Hon. George Curzon (created Marquess Curzon of Kedleston for his earlier work as Viceroy and then-current work as Foreign Secretary in 1921) and his first wife, Mary Victoria Leiter, an American department-store heiress. As the daughter of a Marquess, she was styled Lady Cynthia.

Marriage, Family and Politics

On 11 May 1920, Cynthia married the then-Conservative politician, Oswald Mosley. He was her first and only lover.

Children

They had three children:

• Vivien Elizabeth Mosley (25 February 1921 – 26 August 2002) - married 15 January 1949 Desmond Francis Forbes Adam (1926 - 1958) (car crash), educated at Eton College, and at King's College, Cambridg
  • and had issue
• Nicholas Mosley, 3rd Baron Ravensdale (Lord Ravensdale) (born 25 June 1923), a successful novelist who wrote a biography of his father and edited his memoirs for publication;
  • and had issue
• Michael Mosley (born 25 April 1932), unmarried and without issue.

Political Life

After both joined the Labour Party in 1924, she was elected Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent in 1929 and her husband was elected for Smethwick at the same time. After finding the Labour Party unsuitable, Oswald formed the New Party on 1 March 1931 which Lady Cynthia also joined.

The party soon adopted fascist policies and became less popular by the time of the sudden general election later that year.

Husband's Adultery

During their marriage her younger sister Lady Alexandra was a mistress of Mosley, as was, briefly, their stepmother, Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston. In 1932 he began an affair with Diana Mitford, whom he married in 1936, and had further issue. Diana was one of Britain's noted Mitford sisters, known for her friendship with Adolf Hitler.

Electoral Defeat and Death

All the party's candidates in the 1931 election (including Lady Cynthia) lost their seat or failed to win in constituencies, instead seeing a unified coalition government which involved all main three parties' politicians amid the Great Depression. After their defeat, Lady Cynthia continued to support her husband in his fascist studies until her death in 1933 at age 34 after an operation for peritonitis following acute appendicitis, in London.