Mitford, Diana (1910–2003)

English socialite. Name variations: Lady Diana Mosley. Born June 17, 1910; died Aug 11, 2003, in Paris, France; dau. of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and Sydney Bowles; sister of Nancy Mitford (1904–1973), Jessica Mitford (1917–1996), Deborah Mitford (b. 1920), and Unity Mitford (1914–1948); m. Bryan Guinness (later Lord Moyne), Jan 1929 (div. 1934); m. Sir Oswald Mosley (politician and founder of British Union of Fascists), 1936 (died 1980); children: (1st m.) Jonathan Guinness; Desmond Guinness; (2nd marriage) Alexander Mosley; Max Mosley.

Married an heir to the Guinness brewing fortune before she was 20; at 23, met Oswald Mosley, a Labour politician who had settled on Fascism to save England from its economic woes; became a staunch believer and fell in love with Mosley; left family to become his mistress; became friendly with Adolf Hitler, whom she greatly admired, and had no difficulty in accepting the Nazi attitude towards Jews; following death of Oswald's 1st wife Cynthia Mosley, was married secretly in Berlin at house of Josef and Magda Goebbels; at start of WWII, returned to England with husband as national pariahs; was arrested as a "dangerous woman" and spent over 3 years (1940–43) in Holloway prison without trial.

See also autobiography A Life of Contrasts (1977); Jonathan and Catherine Guinness, The House of Mitford (Hutchinson, 1984); Jan Dalley, Diana Mosley (Knopf, 2000); and Women in World History.