Pod Insights Short History Of... The Mitford Sisters About this episode Rarely out of the papers during their lifetimes, and still figures of fascination in modern media, the six Mitford sisters have become notorious. From a shared, if eccentric childhood, the sisters grew into very different women. As adults, they inhabited diverse worlds, from the literary to the agricultural, and rubbed shoulders with both the aristocratic leaders of English society and Europe's fascist elite.
But how did one family produce such a disparate group of women? What role did they play in the political and cultural life of interwar Britain? And why do they continue to fascinate us?
This is a Short History Of The Mitford Sisters.
A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Mary Lovell, bestselling author of The Mitford Girls: The Biography of an Extraordinary Family.
Written by Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow | Produced by Kate Simants | Assistant Producer: Nicole Edmunds | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay, Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check by Sean Coleman
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1:01 Speaker 02 It is a cool spring day in April 1925.
1:06 Speaker 02 In Astal Manor, an imposing Jacobean house in the south of England, a young man named Robert Byron stands before a mirror, carefully smoothing down his unruly hair.
1:20 Speaker 02 Satisfied with the result, he opens the bedroom door and hurries downstairs, the violet scent of his luxurious hair cream wafting after him.
1:30 Speaker 02 As he nears the drawing room, snatches of conversation drift out into the corridor, overlaid with the sound of a jazz record playing on the gramophone.
1:40 Speaker 02 Stepping into the room, he is greeted by a hail of voices. Several of his closest friends from Oxford University lounge on the chairs and sofas dotted around. Like him, they are dressed in brightly patterned Fair Isle jumpers and clashing silk ties. A far cry from the stuffy suits favored by their parents.
2:01 Speaker 02 Holding court in their midst is Nancy Mitford, to whose family this house belongs. A young woman with striking green eyes. Her dark hair is cropped fashionably short, and she is dressed daringly in a knitted sweater and trousers.
2:21 Speaker 02 Wandering over to the gramophone, Robert notes with amusement that though her sisters Pam and Diana are also present, it is Nancy who holds the men's complete attention. They sit enraptured by her constant stream of witty chatter and biting remarks.
2:37 Speaker 02 Suddenly, the door crashes open and two younger girls rush in. Nancy beckons them over and holds up a book of poetry. She calls for quiet and nods at Robert to turn off the music. An expectant hush falls over the room.
2:55 Speaker 02 Nancy hands the book to the younger of the two, her sister Jessica, and encourages her to read. Jessica clears her throat and begins to speak absolute gibberish. Robert frowns. Is this a joke? He turns his attention to Nancy, who looks round at these surprised faces of her guests before bursting out laughing.
3:21 Speaker 02 Jessica, she explains, is translating the poem into Baudelich, an entirely made-up language that her younger sisters invented.
3:31 Speaker 02 Soon, everyone is laughing and congratulating Jessica on her remarkable linguistic abilities.
3:40 Speaker 02 The gaiety is cut short when the door bangs open yet again to reveal Nancy's father.
3:47 Speaker 02 He is middle-aged, dressed somberly in a charcoal suit and white shirt. Every inch the Edwardian gentleman, but with a legendary temper. He casts a disapproving eye over his daughter's friends before his gaze lands squarely on Robert, who shrinks against the wall.
4:06 Speaker 02 The older man's brow furrows, and all at once he is advancing towards him, shouting, gesturing wildly at his breast pocket.
4:14 Speaker 02 Looking down, Robert sees only his comb.
4:19 Speaker 02 Before he knows what is happening, David grabs his shoulder and marches him towards the door, bellowing that no man with a comb in his pocket will ever be welcome in his house.
4:32 Speaker 02 Glancing over his shoulder as he is towed roughly out of the room, Robert catches a glimpse of Nancy's face. She looks half appalled, half amused.
4:43 Speaker 02 It is just another eventful day in the mad Mitford household.
4:56 Speaker 02 Rarely out of the papers during their lifetimes, and still figures of fascination in modern media, the six Mitford sisters have become notorious. From a shared, if eccentric, childhood, the sisters grew into very different women. As adults, they inhabited diverse worlds, from the literary to the agricultural, and rubbed shoulders with both the aristocratic leaders of English society and Europe's fascist elite.
5:24 Speaker 02 But their lives are more than tabloid fodder. Offering a window into the tumultuous middle decades of the 20th century, the sisters seem to know everyone, from writers and intellectuals like Evelyn Waugh and Maya Angelou, to political heavyweights including Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, and Hitler. And they were witnesses, and at times, active participants in events that have left an indelible impression on modern history.
5:52 Speaker 02 So how did one family produce such a disparate group of women? What role did they play in the political and cultural life of interwar Britain? And why do they continue to fascinate us?
6:06 Speaker 02 I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Network, this is A Short History of the Mitford Sisters.
6:24 Speaker 02 The story of the Mitford sisters begins in 1894, when their parents first meet.
6:31 Speaker 02 Sidney Bowles is the eldest daughter of Thomas Bowles, an MP and founder of the magazines Vanity Fair and The Lady. David Mitford, three-year Sydney senior, is the second son of Lord Ridgedale. He is a sportsman rather than a scholar, and even as a teenager is famous for his temper. But the pair are well-matched, both of them known to friends and family for their lively sense of humour. For Sidney, it is love at first sight.
7:00 Speaker 02 It will be another decade before they tie the knot. In the intervening years, David serves in the Boer War and his invalided home after losing most of one lung.
7:10 Speaker 02 Married at last in 1904, as newlyweds they live relatively modestly by the standards of their peers, although still able to employ five servants.
7:22 Speaker 02 For the time being, David is untitled and is given a job at one of his father-in-law's magazines. Their first child, Nancy, is born in November 1904.
7:34 Speaker 02 Over the next sixteen years, the couple, called Mav and Fav by their children, will go on to have six more: Pamela, Tom, Diana, Unity, Jessica, known as Decca, and finally, Deborah.
7:53 Speaker 02 The family's fortunes change when David's older brother dies in the First World War, followed shortly by his father. This double tragedy means that David inherits the Reeddale title and estate.
8:10 Speaker 02 Mary Lovell is the bestselling author of The Mitford Girls: The Biography of an Extraordinary Family.
8:16 Speaker 03 They lived in a series of very grand country houses in Oxfordshire. The first one was Batford, a beautiful house, and then they moved to Assel Manor, which they all loved, absolutely all loved, despite the fact that it was haunted and it was right next to a churchyard. And then, while they were living there, Fav was rebuilding a new big house which was called Swinbrook, which, when they moved to it from Assel, they all hated because they thought it was modern, comfortless, cold, and it used a lot of green wood which warped, so that the doors all rattled and things, you know, so they used to call that Swinbrook.
8:55 Speaker 02 The children are brought up by a series of nannies and nurses. Although Sidney is outgoing and sociable, several of her children will later remember her as a remote and unaffectionate mother. The strict Lord Reeddale, on the other hand, can be persuaded to play games, chasing them round the house and its impressive grounds, but he is still prone to terrible rages.
9:21 Speaker 02 While not actively political, he has conservative and xenophobic tendencies. And his speeches in the House of Lords give some indication of his views.
9:31 Speaker 02 On one of the few occasions he gets up to speak, it is to oppose the idea of female peers being able to sit in the House.
9:43 Speaker 02 This attitude towards women is reflected in the Mitford Girls' upbringing. The majority of the sisters will become published authors, yet they receive no formal education.
9:55 Speaker 03 Tom went away to school, he was a boy, so he was sent to Eton. The girls were all educated at home, largely by their mother until they were about eight or nine, and then by governesses. So they received a good education, but it was very basic. They had no tertiary education, which embittered several of the girls. Their education was really geared towards them being wives and mothers and marrying within their social set. The parents didn't feel that they had any need for education beyond that.
10:27 Speaker 02 Even so, the Mitford sisters' childhoods are mostly a happy one. As well as enjoying outdoor sports like riding and hunting, they keep a number of pets, including a sheep and a snake.
10:39 Speaker 02 Staging plays is also a favourite hobby, as is reading whatever they like from the vast library inherited from their grandfather.
10:48 Speaker 02 Most notably, they form secret societies.
10:52 Speaker 03 So one of the things these girls did when they got together was they had secret societies, like the Ons Society, and they had a secret language called Bowditch, which they spoke to each other. When I met Debo many years later, she was in her 80s, she could still speak in Bowditch. She did do a few sentences for me, didn't understand any of it, of course, but that was intentional so the grown-ups couldn't know what they were talking about.
11:16 Speaker 02 Two of the younger sisters, Decca and Unity, are so fluent in their invented language that Nancy will sometimes convince them to translate poems aloud, to the astonishment of her clever friends.
11:28 Speaker 02 But this is not the only intra-sibling alliance that forms. Decca teams up with the youngest Mitford, Debra, to form a secret society, complete with badges, to wreak havoc on their other siblings, primarily their good-natured older brother, Tom.
11:45 Speaker 02 But amongst these normal rivalries, the sisters' distinct personalities are starting to take root.
11:52 Speaker 03 One of the really weird things about the story of these girls is that they were all educated in the same way, same parents, same place, and yet they turned out to be diametrically opposed in their ideologies.
12:05 Speaker 02 As the eldest, Nancy is witty, often verging on cruel. But from a young age, she also seems destined to be a writer.
12:13 Speaker 03 She was always a scribbler. I think people who tend to use the written word rather than the spoken word, it's probably something you've had since childhood. And Nancy was always scribbling.
12:27 Speaker 02 The girls are encouraged by their parents to supplement their pocket money by keeping chickens and pigs and selling any produce back to their father's estate. It's something at which Pamela excels. Indeed, she will go on to have a lifelong interest in rural pursuits.
12:44 Speaker 03 She was quite happy with her rural life, and in fact, she's always known as the most rural of the sisters. She knew how to look after animals, animals related to her, and she was into farming.
12:55 Speaker 02 And while the next youngest sister, Diana, is always known as the beauty of the family, it is with Unity and Decca that the girls' individual characters have a more serious political aspect.
13:10 Speaker 02 Globally, this era bears witness to the struggle between fascism and communism. In their teenage years, in the early 1930s, Unity and Decca find themselves on opposite sides of this fight, despite their childhood closeness.
13:27 Speaker 02 The rebellious Decca starts to become aware of her family's privileged position and the inherent inequality in British society. But while she begins to read left-wing pamphlets and turns towards communism, Unity is drawn to the fascist movements gaining traction across Europe.
13:45 Speaker 03 These two girls, Unity and Decca, they shared a sitting room. And what they did was they drew a line down the centre of this sitting room. And on one side was Unity's, where you've got pictures of Hitler and Mussolini and Svoztikas. And on the other side, you've got Communists, the Hammer and Sickles, and the copies of The Daily Worker. And they used a diamond to carve into the windows, these Hammer and Sickles and Svoztikas. And if you go to Swindbrook today, that one of those windows still exists, actually.
14:18 Speaker 02 Deborah, the youngest and most content of the girls, takes no part in her older sister's political arguments. But her childhood still contains a hint of the future that awaits her.
14:30 Speaker 03 Always used to say she would marry a duke, as a child. When others are saying what they wanted to be, you know, Nancy would say, I want to be a bestselling writer, and Deborah would say, I want to marry a duke. And consequently, one of her nicknames, they all had loads of nicknames for each other, one of her nicknames was Duchess.
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15:52 Speaker 02 In the high society circles of the interwar period, the introduction of young people into adulthood is still peculiarly antiquated. Alongside other upper-class girls, when each sister reaches the age of eighteen, they make their debut, which involves being presented at court and taking part in a season of parties, picnics, and balls.
16:15 Speaker 03 I don't think the social scene had changed very much from Victorian days. Don't forget that their parents were Victorian, essentially. They probably would be dressed up in ostrich feathers and white gowns and go to make their curtsy to the king and queen.
16:29 Speaker 03 They had their own debutante party, which the parents would pay for, and then they went to the parties of all the other girls in that set.
16:37 Speaker 02 Just as in previous eras, this "social season", as it was called, has one purpose.
16:43 Speaker 03 During that time, they were expected to meet the right sort of young men, hopefully fall in love, or if not fall in love, at least marry someone suitable. That was the purpose of the season.
16:53 Speaker 02 Nancy, as the eldest, is the first to debut, and she has her first season in 1923.
17:01 Speaker 02 She is part of the generation who have come of age in the aftermath of the First World War, many of whom are determined to change the world, upend the old order, and have fun.
17:15 Speaker 02 Nancy is instantly popular and becomes especially close to a group of intellectual Oxford students, many of whom are gay. Had she been born a boy and sent away to school, these might have been her peers.
17:29 Speaker 02 Though homosexuality remains criminalised in Britain, and will be for several decades, the men are shielded by their privilege, and their identity is tolerated by their like-minded friends. This social set will go on to inspire the writer Evelyn Waugh's famous novel, "Brideshead Revisited". Waugh himself becomes a close friend of Nancy's, drawn to her wit and eccentricity. And the closer she becomes to her friends with their radical socialist outlook, the more she begins to disdain the stuffy balls and hunts she once enjoyed.
18:06 Speaker 02 Regardless of her progressive views, 20-year-old Nancy is still shackled by the upper-class social mores of the 1920s. When in London, she cannot leave the house without a chaperone, and her father flies into a fit of rage when she cuts her hair short without permission.
18:23 Speaker 02 For Mitford girls, marriage still seems the only route to independent adulthood.
18:30 Speaker 02 The first to be successful on this front is the third sister Diana. Her beauty was already legendary in the family. Winston Churchill, married to David Mitford's cousin Clementine, dubbed her Diana Might, after he spent a Christmas with them as a teenager. And shortly after her debut in 1928, she attracts the attention of Brian Guinness, heir to the Irish Stout Company and one of the richest young men in the country. They are soon married, which is good news for her older sister Pamela too.
19:01 Speaker 03 They had a big farm, and actually, they employed Pamela, oddly enough, as their farm manager. Now, that really is quite extraordinary in those days. But she was very good at it. I mean, she ran dairy herds and... I mean, she didn't actually go out and dig the potatoes herself, but she was able to instruct the people who did.
19:20 Speaker 02 Nancy is considerably less lucky in love than her younger sister. For years, she drifts in and out of a relationship with Hamish Sinclair Erskine, son of the Earl of Roslin, but both their fathers are adamantly opposed to any marriage between the two. Moreover, Hamish is gay, and is widely rumored to be in a relationship with Nancy's brother Tom at Eton. In 1933, Hamish calls off their relationship for good.
19:46 Speaker 02 Within weeks, Nancy is engaged to Peter Rodd, a mutual friend. She is the third girl he proposes to that week, and the relationship soon falters.
19:57 Speaker 02 Instead, Nancy will have to wait until the Second World War to find love, in the form of General de Gaulle's right-hand man, Gaston Palavsky.
20:05 Speaker 03 So they had a very warm relationship. I think it was marvelous for Nancy because finally she got what she wanted. She came first with someone in her life. It was only for a short time, because Gaston wasn't in love with Nancy as Nancy was in love with him. For him, it was an affair. For her, it was the love of her life.
20:28 Speaker 02 Nancy's is not the only Mitford relationship threatened by infidelity. Back in the 1930s, Diana and Brian Guinness have two children and live a seemingly idyllic life as leaders of elite society. But in spring 1932, she meets a man who has become infamous in British political history.
20:48 Speaker 02 Oswald Mosley had served as an MP for both the Conservatives and the Labour Party, and had even been a Labour minister. But by the time he meets Diana, he has swung firmly to the right and will soon be one of the biggest names in British fascism.
21:05 Speaker 03 One day, at a dinner party, she met Oswald Mosley. And she wasn't bowled over, it wasn't love at first sight. I think it may have been love at second sight. It was an obsessive love. She absolutely fell for him, you know, a sort of clap of thunder, really. And he was married. I would like to say happily married, but I don't think he was really, he was a terrific womanizer.
21:30 Speaker 02 Shortly afterwards, Diana and Brian divorce, and she moves into a small house in London to continue her relationship with Mosley.
21:38 Speaker 02 He, however, does not leave his wife, and even carries on another affair with his own sister-in-law.
21:46 Speaker 02 In October 1932, Mosley launches the British Union of Fascists, or BUF. It is modeled after European fascist parties, complete with military-style uniforms, violence against counter-protesters, and a totalitarian vision for government.
22:04 Speaker 02 Diana was already becoming more politically engaged in this period, in the aftermath of the 1929 Wall Street crash, where her father lost much of his money. Mosley is a key part of her ongoing political awakening.
22:20 Speaker 02 She is not the only Mitford to fall under his spell.
22:24 Speaker 02 In July 1932, Unity meets Mosley for the first time, and he becomes something of a political mentor to her. Within a year, she joins his fascist organisation, and she and Diana take a trip to Germany. Their brother Tom is already living there and has expressed his admiration for the National Socialists. It is on this fateful holiday that Unity's fanatical commitment to fascism, and especially Nazism, is cemented. After she returns home, she begs her parents to let her move to Germany.
23:01 Speaker 02 Unity relocates to Munich in 1934. She works determinedly on her German with one intention: to meet and speak with Hitler.
23:13 Speaker 03 She was already sort of half besotted by Hitler before she went. When she got to Munich, someone told her that he went every day to a restaurant called the Bavere and had his lunch there. So she went to the restaurant, she booked the same table every single day, and she sat there until he came in. And then, I think, over a period of time, every time he went in there, he saw this girl sitting there, who was actually the archetypal woman of Aryan descent: tall, slim, blonde-haired, blue-eyed. And eventually, he sent over one of his aides to inquire about her, and then they found out that she was actually an English lady. She didn't have the title lady, but her parents were aristocratic.
23:55 Speaker 03 Eventually, and it wasn't too long after she started this stalking, that she was invited to join them. And in her diary, she wrote: "Joined Hitler, the Fuhrer, at his table. It was the most wonderful day of my life."
24:11 Speaker 02 Unity and Hitler become so close that she introduces her family to him when they come to visit. Eventually, Pamela, Diana, Tom, and their parents will all meet Adolf Hitler and come away with a generally favourable impression of him. And there is one particular Nazi party event at which Unity becomes a regular guest.
24:38 Speaker 02 It is the tenth of September, 1935. A sultry, late summer's afternoon on a parade ground in the German city of Nuremberg. But the glorious day stands in stark contrast to the dark event currently unfolding.
24:56 Speaker 02 Unity Mitford grips tightly to her brother Tom's arm as they push through the crowds thronging the enormous stands that have been erected for the occasion. On Tom's other side is Diana, dressed like Unity in a white collared blouse and cardigan. As the trio edge along the rows, they are hemmed in by government officials, many dressed in black SS uniforms. Unity notices a number of gleaming swastika badges, matching the one she wears proudly pinned to her own chest. Around her, a dizzying array of Nazi flags flap in the breeze, creating a mesmerizing sea of red, white, and black as far as the eye can see.
25:41 Speaker 02 Eventually, they find their seats. Unity nods in satisfaction to see they have been prominently placed in the front of the main stand, with the most important party members.
25:52 Speaker 02 Looking behind her, she takes a moment to admire the enormous wooden eagle that towers over them. She attended the rally at Nuremberg last year, but the eagle is new, a symbol of Germany's strength under its Fuhrer.
26:07 Speaker 02 Settling down, she smiles at the woman next to her, who introduces herself as Eva Braun. Last night, when Unity and Diana were at the opera with Hitler himself, he told them they would be seated next to this particular friend, a sign of their close relationship.
26:25 Speaker 02 Unity sits up straighter as an open-top car appears at the end of the parade ground and slowly drives towards the stands. A huge roar rises from the assembled crowd as they realize who is in the passenger seat: Adolf Hitler, their Fuhrer.
26:44 Speaker 02 Even from a distance, the slight figure is distinctive, dressed in his customary brown military uniform and shiny black boots.
26:53 Speaker 02 As his car approaches the stands, Unity leaps to her feet, applauding loudly along with her siblings. She flings her hand into a Nazi salute, never once taking her eyes off Hitler's face.
27:05 Speaker 02 The vehicle comes to a halt opposite the main stand, and as Hitler rises and throws up his arm, the parade begins in earnest.
27:14 Speaker 02 Identical rows of SS soldiers, in dark uniforms and helmets, rifles held stiffly over their right shoulders, march past the stands. The sunlight gleams off their highly polished helmets and boots, the points of their bayonets, the buttons of their uniforms.
27:32 Speaker 02 Unable to sit still, Unity alternates between frantically applauding and saluting them. As the last line of soldiers marches past them, Unity hears the faint sound of engines in the distance. She squints up at the clear blue sky just as a squadron of fighter planes thunders overhead. The crowd gasps and cheers at this display of German military might, and Unity cheers along with them. Though her right arm aches and her throat is raw, she cannot stop smiling.
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29:12 Speaker 02 By the end of 1935, Unity and Diana's relationship with Hitler is closer than ever. A little after the Nuremberg Rally, they attend with their brother. Both sisters are invited to the Berlin Olympics as Hitler's personal guests.
29:27 Speaker 02 A little later, Unity writes a letter to Der Stürmer, the Nazi propaganda newspaper, espousing her virulent antisemitism. When she gives a speech with the same hateful message, the English newspapers pick up on it. "Piers Daughter is a Jew Hater," runs one headline. Her parents are appalled by the publicity and summon her home for the summer, where she antagonizes people by throwing Nazi salutes and shouting "Heil Hitler!" at every opportunity.
30:02 Speaker 02 Family relations are tense this summer. Through the communist literature she reads, Decker is increasingly aware of the brutality of Hitler's regime in Germany, even while her parents ignore her warnings. And Nancy, whose writing career is taking off, publishes her third book, "Wigs on the Green: A Satire of Mosley, British Fascism and Unity." Diana is livid.
30:30 Speaker 02 But before long, Unity is back in Germany and united with Hitler. Over the next few years, she will see him on more than 140 occasions.
30:39 Speaker 03 She used to go to his flat and he invited her to the opera. She really was one of the inner circle of Hitler in the end. He gave her gifts, one of which was a little pearl-handled revolver to fit in her handbag for self-protection.
30:53 Speaker 02 Diana often visits Germany too and spends long sociable evenings with Hitler.
30:59 Speaker 02 She grows close to other prominent Nazis, including Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister, and his wife Magda. And she uses these connections to try and gain support and money for Mosley's B U F. Her glamour is an intrinsic part of his fundraising efforts.
31:19 Speaker 02 These Nazi connections eventually play a role in Diana and Mosley formalizing their relationship after the death of his wife in 1933. As the B U F grows increasingly violent, sentiment in Britain turns against fascism and Mosley's social standing plummets. The Battle of Cable Street takes place in October 1936, where police officers protecting a B U F march through a predominantly Jewish area of London clash with anti-fascist protesters. In the aftermath, the wearing of the B U F uniform is banned. If Diana and Mosley marry now, the papers will have a field day. So they decide to tie the knot in a clandestine ceremony in the home of the Nazi propaganda
32:03 Speaker 02 minister, Joseph Goebbels.
32:06 Speaker 03 Eventually, they married with Hitler as their guest of honour. That was kept absolutely secret until two years later she became pregnant. And then they obviously had to spill the beans because it was obvious that she was pregnant. Again, that caused headlines. Diana was never out of the headlines.
32:26 Speaker 02 But early the next year, with Diana and Mosley's marriage still a secret, the papers have another Mitford scandal to report on.
32:35 Speaker 02 While Unity and Diana are becoming increasingly invested in fascism, nineteen-year-old Decca's commitment to communism is growing, as is her desire to leave home.
32:47 Speaker 03 So Decca was the rebel, and one of the things that she really, really, really wanted to do when she was growing up was go to school. It was like something that she hankered after. And when her parents refused to allow her to go to school, she started a running-away fund. So she had a big jar, it was labelled Running Away Fund, and she saved up until she had enough money to send it to her bank account. She used the family banker who set up a running-away account for her. And any time anyone gave her money, you know, when grown-ups used to visit uncles and aunts, used to give you a little tip and so on, all went into the jar.
33:20 Speaker 02 By 1937, she has saved up around fifty pounds, the equivalent of several thousand today.
33:27 Speaker 02 And when she meets her cousin Esmond Romilly for the first time, she sees an opportunity to escape at last.
33:35 Speaker 03 We have Decca as the representation of the Communist Party at Swinbrook. And she had heard through the family about this terrible cousin that they were not allowed to meet or talk about, called Esmond, who was a communist. He had run away from boarding school, generally thought to be a bad lot in the family. Decca decided that she would try to meet Esmond, or at least write to him, and get some tips from him about how she could become a better communist. Instead of writing back, he got in touch with a mutual aunt, because they were cousins, as I've said, and got the aunt to invite Decca for a few days to her house in Wiltshire. She also invited Esmond.
34:19 Speaker 02 When Decca and Esmond meet, there is an immediate attraction on both sides. She is nineteen, he a year younger. He has been fighting in the Spanish Civil War against General Franco's fascists, and they share a commitment to communist ideology, as well as a desire to break away from the upper-class world into which they were born.
34:40 Speaker 02 Within a few short days, they decide to elope.
34:45 Speaker 03 She told him she had fifty pounds in her running away account. He thought that was great, because he didn't have any money at the time. And he said, you know, we could run away and go and fight in Spain. That was right up Decker's street. Anyway, off they went to Spain. She told her parents that she had been invited to stay with two good friends of hers from her coming out year in Dieppe. So Mother Favre put Decker, put her on the boat train at Waterloo. Favre slipped a tenner in her pocket. And that was the last time Decker ever saw her father. They were estranged after that.
35:16 Speaker 02 After making it safely to France, Esmond and Decker travel onwards to Spain. They settle in Bilbao, reporting on the war for news outlets back home. But though the fact that they're first cousins is, at this time, no barrier to their romantic connection, their age is. As they're both under twenty-one, and as such need parental consent to marry. Meanwhile, their families begin agitating for their return. Esmond is Churchill's nephew. And through him, the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, is persuaded to let Nancy and her husband Peter board a Royal Navy destroyer headed for Spain to try and bring the runaways home.
36:02 Speaker 02 It is the eleventh of March, nineteen thirty-seven.
36:06 Speaker 02 On a naval cruiser just off the southwestern coast of France, a young couple stand arm in arm, looking out over the choppy sea.
36:14 Speaker 02 Decker Mitford hugs herself against the stiff breeze coming off the water and huddles closer to her fiancé Esmond. She watches the churning sea as every beat of the ship's engines carries her further from Spain and closer to the family she has run away from.
36:33 Speaker 02 Esmond tightens his grip on her shoulders. Around them, the deck of the Royal Navy vessel is packed with women and children, refugees from the Spanish Civil War. They are the reason that Decker and Esmond are on board. If they refused to return to her family, the Foreign Secretary had threatened not to transport the refugees away from the fighting.
36:56 Speaker 02 The couple stand and watch as a small fishing town comes into view. Saint-Jean-de-Luce, close to the French border with Spain.
37:06 Speaker 02 As the ship journeys inexorably closer, Decker makes out the picturesque red and white buildings that line the waterfront. But she barely reacts to the idyllic scene, or to the fleet of little fishing vessels heading out from the harbour, painted an array of dazzling colours. Instead, she gazes fixedly at the approaching quayside, and the crowd already gathered there.
37:34 Speaker 02 When they dock, the couple are the first to disembark. Decker walks down the lightly swaying gangclank, gripping tightly to the railing on either side. Her older sister Nancy, tall and elegantly dressed, stands waiting. When she spots them, she waves her gloves, her face breaking into a strained smile. But Decker cannot focus on her sister for long. Almost immediately, she is beset by a horde of reporters.
38:04 Speaker 02 They shout over each other, a cacophony of questions and innuendo, asking for a statement, asking if she and Esmond are married, what their plans are, if it's true she's a communist. Camera flashbulbs pop on all sides as Esmond takes her hand and half guides, half drags her through the scrum after Nancy and her husband towards a waiting taxi.
38:26 Speaker 02 With difficulty, they slam the doors shut, and Nancy gives the driver the name of a hotel.
38:32 Speaker 02 The car takes off with speed, and Decker turns to watch the journalists disappearing out of sight through the rear window. She lets loose a sigh of relief. With luck, they'll soon lose interest in her story.
38:51 Speaker 02 Nancy and Peter fail to persuade Decca to return home. Soon, their need to marry becomes urgent.
39:00 Speaker 03 Marv then went down. They were staying in a very sordid hotel. And to try to persuade her to come back and they said, "Well, you know, Decca's pregnant." So the idea was then to get them married as quickly as possible, which they did. They married. They had a civil ceremony. And I think Marv was most upset because Decca wore an old brown dress. And they had the civil ceremony, which was very joyless. Perhaps it was what they wanted.
39:24 Speaker 02 The newspapers, of course, do not give up on reporting about the couple. They dub the events "The Wedding That Even a Destroyer Could Not Stop."
39:33 Speaker 02 Decca remains estranged from her father and his money. Although she corresponds with her mother Nancy and Deborah.
39:41 Speaker 02 The couple move back to London and their daughter is born in December 1937. But their joy is brutally cut short. When she dies of measles at just a few months old.
39:53 Speaker 02 In response, the couple throw themselves into anti-fascist campaigning. Decca raises money for the Spanish cause, attends trade union and labor rallies, and organizes against the B U F. She, Unity, and Diana frequently find themselves on opposing sides at political marches. Around this time, Nancy becomes more politically aligned with Decca. She and her husband spend time working with organizations like the Red Cross. Helping refugees from Franco's regime in Spain. The experience turns her, in her own words, "into a rabid anti-Nazi and anti-fascist."
40:32 Speaker 02 Meanwhile, even as war between Britain and Germany draws inexorably closer. Unity continues her close relationship with Hitler. And tells her family that if war is declared, she will have no choice but to end her life.
40:45 Speaker 03 The other thing you have to remember about Unity. She was conceived in a town called Swastika in Canada. Her middle name is Valkyrie. It's not hard to understand why she thought there was something more in this accident. She somehow came to believe during these years when she was in Germany, meeting Hitler. That she was ordained in a way. It was her cosmic destiny to prevent a war between England and Germany.
41:14 Speaker 02 Whatever Unity may hope, war between her homeland and her adopted nation is inevitable. On the 3rd of September 1939, the British consul in Munich informs her that war has been declared. In response, Unity writes a final letter to her parents and walks to a park by the river.
41:34 Speaker 02 She takes out the pearl-handed revolver that had been a gift from Hitler and attempts to commit suicide.
41:41 Speaker 02 Somehow she survives.
41:44 Speaker 03 She ought to have died. Her doctors never understood how she didn't die because the bullet had passed through her brain. She was unconscious for a long time. She was put in a hospital, all paid for by Hitler. And she was looked after until her parents were able to get permission from Churchill to actually travel. It was actually Mauvin with Debe. They first of all went to Holland and they went to Crossfield, Switzerland, I think. And then met a special train Hitler had, a hospital train that Hitler had specially commissioned. And he sent her back with a nurse, and they met her, brought her back to England.
42:21 Speaker 02 Sidney spends the next nine years nursing Unity. Though she regains much of her mobility, she is doubly incontinent, with a mental age of around 11 or 12. This is not the only storm the Mitfords will have to weather as the clouds of war blow across Europe.
42:40 Speaker 02 The Second World War tears the Mitford family apart. Sidney and David separate due to their political differences. While David is a fervent nationalist, Sidney retains a positive view of Hitler. For the rest of their lives, they spend most of their time in different houses.
42:58 Speaker 02 In May 1940, Oswald Mosley is arrested as a possible threat to national security. There is concern about his role should Germany invade, alongside the worry that he and Diana might leak information to the Nazis. In June, Diana is also detained in Holloway Prison. They're not released until 1943.
43:20 Speaker 02 The family suffers several losses. Dekker and Esmond had moved to America in 1939, and Esmond joins the Canadian Air Force when war breaks out.
43:31 Speaker 02 But he spends only the briefest amount of time with Dekker and their newborn daughter before he is shipped to England. They are due to join him in November 1941, when disaster strikes.
43:43 Speaker 02 Churchill himself delivers the news to Dekker on a visit to Washington.
43:48 Speaker 03 He failed to return on a bombing mission over Germany. He was lost over the North Sea. They never found any trace of the plane. No wreckage, no oil slicks, no lifeboats or anything.
44:02 Speaker 02 Dekker blames Diana and Mosley's fascist politics for her young husband's tragic death, and the sisters never reconcile.
44:12 Speaker 02 There are bright spots in an otherwise bleak six years. Deborah, the baby of the family, who is now in her early twenties, spent the war working in a canteen at a Canadian military hospital, and now becomes engaged to Andrew Cavendish, second son of the Duke of Devonshire. They marry in April 1941, and when his older brother dies in the war, he becomes heir to the dukedom. Dekker also finds happiness again with a young American lawyer and left-wing activist, Robert Truhaft. But the war ultimately ends in tragedy, as it does for so many families.
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45:56 Speaker 02 On the 30th of March 1945, Tom Mitford is killed in what is then Burma, just months before the end of the conflict.
46:05 Speaker 02 In the aftermath of the devastating war, the Mitford sisters' lives take them in very different directions. Unity dies in 1948. Arthur and Deborah become the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, fulfilling her childhood dream. They pour their energy into their estate at Chatsworth in the English East Midlands.
46:26 Speaker 02 Diana and Mosley try and fail to revive his political career, and she courts controversy when she refuses to renounce his politics, even in the memoir she later publishes. Pamela and her husband divorce, and she moves in with an Italian woman named Giudita Tomasi, with whom she shares a love of horses. According to the letters between other family members that discuss Pamela, their relationship may have been romantic. The rural Mitford sister also spends her time cultivating her talents as a poultry breeder.
46:59 Speaker 02 Nancy's literary career flourishes with the publication of the semi-autobiographical The Pursuit of Love in 1945 and Love in a Cold Climate in 1949. She moves to Paris, where she uses the income from her books to decorate her elegant apartment and dress lavishly in designer clothes. Her flat becomes something of a literary salon for the cultural elites of the city.
47:25 Speaker 02 She is not the only sister to take up the pen. Decker and Bob moved to Oakland, California in 1947, where she starts to work for the Civil Rights Congress, campaigning for civil liberties for African-Americans. She publishes a memoir in 1955, before turning to more political topics.
47:43 Speaker 03 She wrote books such as The American Way of Death, which was a phenomenal success in the United States. It was read by everybody, from JFK down. In fact, Bobby Kennedy told Bob Truhaft that they had chosen a very cheap coffin for JFK, purely because of what they read in Decker's book. It was actually a book investigative journalism, it was really, going into the high prices that undertakers were charging for funerals. So, you know, it was a phenomenal success. After that, she went on to other subjects, like the situation of people in long-term prison, etc. She was an investigative journalist, and she made her living out of writing, and earned a very good living, I think.
48:30 Speaker 02 Though the sisters are successful on their own terms, they are never again close in the way they were as children. The war and their diametrically opposed political views created a rift that was never bridged, especially between Diana and Decker. Nancy dies in 1973, followed by Pamela in 1994, Decker in 1996, and Diana in 2003. It is not until 2014 that the youngest Mitford sister, Deborah, passes away at the age of 94. Between them, they have been in the public consciousness for over eight decades by this point, with varying levels of notoriety.
49:10 Speaker 02 So why has the intrigue that surrounds their lives outlived them?
49:16 Speaker 02 The Mitford sisters were undoubtedly a precursor to the celebrities and reality television stars with whom many are obsessed today. They live their lives in the public eye, and their distinct personalities mean that there is a Mitford sister for everyone to love and hate.
49:32 Speaker 02 The glamour and drama of their lives are as fascinating as the ideological conflicts at the heart of their story.
49:40 Speaker 02 But maybe our interest is also down to the uncomfortable echoes we see with the world today.
49:46 Speaker 03 When you think about that time in the 30s, running up to the Second World War, I can't tell you how many people have said to me recently how relevant it seems for today. We've got a very, very disturbed world, with a lot of voters across Europe swinging to the right. So I think there is a relevance in following their story. It's just interesting, as well as glamorous.
50:18 Speaker 02 Next time on Short History of, we'll bring you a short history of the doomsday book.
50:25 Speaker 05 So comprehensive and has so many facts about different aspects of life, uniquely in Europe for the time, that it allows us to picture ourselves at the moment at which this takeover is happening. We're just at the end of the first generation, after the Battle of Hastings. You can start to see the implications of what's happened. And it's a baseline, historically, both for looking forwards into what happens next, but also for looking backwards. It's had a pivotal moment in English history.
51:00 Speaker 02 That's next time.
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52:03 Speaker 04 So get peace of mind knowing your loved ones are protected with Progressive's Accident Response. Learn more at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Limited availability in California. Driver is responsible for emergency and towing charges not covered by the policy. Coverage subject to policy terms and conditions.
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