Oswald Mosley: Hitler’s Fascist Man in Britain

you guys are probably never going to get tired of World War II subjects and one thing I'm never going to get tired of is my vessie shoes which happen to be the sponsor of today's video and I'll take them off right now and show you look do you like a good sneaker well something we call trainers in the UK do you like a good boot in Winter well obviously this isn't a boot but the incredible thing is it acts like it because it's not just water resistant this is waterproof I shot some footage of me pouring a lot of water on these things and you can see how it just flies off it's pretty incredible also offering unparalleled comfort and dryness regardless of the conditions outside now I hear somebody saying Simon I've had water resistant shoes before but have you had waterproof shoes properly waterproof sneakers tennis troes trainers whatever you want to call these also easy to clean I've been wearing them for a few days see there's a little bit of dirt on the front there you just wipe it off easy it's made from something called diex which is this really comfortable knit that keeps you warm in the winter and cool in the summer ver has an incredible early Black Friday offer right now so click the link below and grab yourself a pair in your size before the upcoming rainy season really gets underway even if you miss the sale you can use the code biography as a checkout and you'll get $25 off your next pair of shoes so let's head over to 20th century Britain for today's [Music] subject if You' been watching British politics in the early 1930s chances are there would have been one name on your lips Oswald Mosley was handsome charismatic known for setting crowds a light with his passionate speeches an aristocrat with a huge workingclass following he was perhaps the only politician able to unite voters of both major parties regularly tipped as a future Prime Minister it was said that he could one day be Britain's greatest leader but that never happened instead Mosley chose to take his career down a much more dangerous path the path marked fascism as Britain's leading fascist Mosley was able to command armies of black shirts he received funding from musolini and was friends with Adolf Hitler had the Nazis conquered Britain he would have almost certainly been made the ruler of a fascist UK State Instead This one-time political Superstar saw his career and reputation destroyed in the far storm of World War I a joke to some a Dar warning from the past to others this is the life of Oswald Mosley Hitler's man in Britain [Music] for a man who' one day style himself a champion of the poor Oswell Mosley's backgrounds couldn't have been more privileged born in London on November the 16th 1896 he came from a family embedded in the aristocracy his grandfather also Oswald Mosley was a baronette while his father also confusingly called Oswald Mosley was a rich Playboy and yes that's way too many oswal Mosley running around for one video luckily the three oswalds were mostly known by their family nicknames Grandpa Mosley was John bull while baby Mosley was known as Tom still despite his privileged status life wasn't easy for Tom Mosley his father was a Serial adulterer and Bully who belittled his son mercilessly the abuse got so bad that Mosley's mom m took the boy and went to live with Grandpa John bull when Tom was only five there the boy was spoiled rotten John bull apparently saw Mosley as an ideal replacement for his own disappointing son while mord regarded him as both a son and a substitute husband calling him her little man child it was men affectionately but the image of conjures of a grown man acting like a spoiled kid would be spooky precedent the rest of Mosley's childhood passed like that of any Aristocrat before turning 10 he was sent away to preparatory school and from there to Winchester he became a competent boxer and a worldclass fencer before heading to Sandhurst at 16 to train for the military by now Mosley had grown into a tall athletic young man with movie star looks he had also grown into something of a colossal at Sandhurst he became notorious for getting drunk and sneaking into town to pick fights with or sometimes just beat up the lower classes after one Rowdy brawl with another student he was even suspended but he wouldn't spend long cooling his heels because the British military was about to need every able-bodied man it could get when World War I broke out in summer 1914 Mosley was immediately recalled volunteering for the Royal flying Corps he trained as a pilot and by Christmas was flying reconnaissance over Enemy Lines with airplane technology and its infancy this was a dangerous drob but it wouldn't be while on some urgent mission that Mosley sustained his lifelong injury in early 1915 Tom was doing training flights at shorum when his mother came to watch wanting to show off a mummy the Manchild tried a difficult maneuver and sent the plane crashing to Earth it took a year of operations to save his broken leg leaving Mosley with a permanent limp after that it was desk Duty still this was no bad thing sent to work for the foreign office Mosley found himself in a London denuded of young men with a limp he could pass off as a sexy woman war wound and so while most men his age were fighting in the trenches Mosley spent his evenings leaping into the beds of society women and he spent his days Charming their rich and Powerful fathers by 1918 he was firmly connected to Britain's political Elite and that was fortunate with the war over it was time for the UK to hold its first election in years the election of 1918 is known as the coupon election because the coalition government sent out lists of candidates it felt it supported the war effort for Republic still flush with Victory seeing a candidate's name on these coupon lists was a sign that they were a patriot most coupon candidates won their seats want to guess who managed to finagle his name onto that list well that December aged just 22 Tom Mosley was elected a conservative Member of Parliament it was the beginning of one of the wildest political rise and Falls that Great Britain has ever [Music] seen if the previous decade had seen Mosley farting around enjoying life the 192 20s would see him laser focused on advancing in May 1920 he strategically married upward seducing the daughter of Lord keron the king and queen attended their wedding but Mosley felt little love for poor lady Cynthia although she bore him three children he was serially unfaithful seducing both her sister and stepmother still treating his wife like trash didn't stop Mosley star from rising in the comments he began attaching himself to highly visible Underdog causes when one of those causes was Irish Independence his own party became so hostile St that Mosley quit sitting as an independent but it soon find a new political home in December of 1923 Britain's second election in 13 months produced a shock outcome the conservatives lost their healthy majority and second place finisher Ramsey McDonald was able to form the first labor government in UK history although it was a minority government momentum suddenly seemed to be with labor in March Mosley joined the party and it felt like a shrewd career move but then came the snap election of October 1924 and Mosley watched in horror as the labor vote collapsed not only did the conservatives win a landslide but Mosley lost his seat to Neville Chamberlain it's easy to imagine Mosley now Crawling Back to the Tories his tail between his legs but unexpectedly Tom stuck with his new party over the next few years he underwent a rapid transformation from layout Toof to outspoken friend of the people he Ted British slums where he deplored the condition of working class housing during the general strike of 1926 he paid the wages of striking miners from his own pocket even traveled to the US and spent time with Franklin D Roosevelt although rumors he followed this with a trip to Birmingham to meet a family of flat cap wearing gangsters remain unsubstantiated before long Mosley was convinced he had identified Britain's problems to his mind international finance was the driving force to the misery he saw all around him as he polished his speaking style becoming a master at whipping up listeners emotions mosy began to preach that a command's economy was the only way forward and labor was the only party that could deliver it on this front it'd be sorely disappointed appointed in the spring of 1929 Britain's election returns another near win for labor once again the party formed a minority government by now AA starart Mosley entered the new government assuming he'd get a plum post like foreign secretary when he was instead placed in an advisory role outside cabinet he threw what could only be described as the Manchild tantrum to end all Tantrums but Mosley soon realized his new job designing schemes to stimulate employment was the perfect inroad for his theories as the Great Depression bit that winter Mosley drafted proposals for investment in public works for a protectionist market unfortunately the Prime Minister was less than enthused in January 1930 Ramsey McDonald got tired of all of Mosley's proposals and basically told him dude your ideas suck you suck and your suckiness is making me look bad just please stop it it was the end of the line for Mosley and the government shortly after Mosley resigned with a passionate hourong speech in the Commons that electrified the press in the after people began openly saying that Mosley was right that he was the fresh face who should be leading the labor party not stuffy old Ramsey McDonald Mosley was even tipped as a future Prime Minister his ideas being just the thing the country needed but Mosley's ideas were about to get a whole lot crazier in politics they say that timing is everything and in 1930 Oswald Mosley was convinced his time had come across the year he sounded out labor MPS about a brand new party one far closer to the working people than McDonald's stuffy ass labor at the same time he quoted conservatives with economic proposals grounded in exploiting the Empire's colonies when he published his Mosley Manifesto people as varied as HG Wells John mayard ke and future conservative prime minister Harold McMillan all expressed interest finally in Spring of 1931 Mosley decided to strike taking a donation of £50,000 from a Motorcar magnate he used it to found a new populist party imaginatively called the new party consisting of Mosley five Rebel labor MPS and one Rebel conservative it was a humble beginning but great things can grow from small seeds and Mosley's stock was Rising especially among those already feeling the depression's pinch it's not too hard to imagine how Mosley could have really seized this moment turned himself into the charismatic leader he had always felt himself to be instead the young Aristocrat watched in shock as that moment slipped through his fingers just as the new party launched Mosley was hospitalized for six weeks with pneumonia by the time that it had recovered the party's moment in the spotlight had already come and gone the only ones still paying attention were the Communists who were seriously pissed about the new party stepping on their Turf when Mosley tried to regain his momentum by holding Mass meetings in workingclass areas the Communists caused massive disruption some mostly hired protection a gang of hoodlums led by the boxer kid Lewis this would be the end of the new party the stewards Lewis recruited were young tough men who were super enthused about beating out commies in that era hardcore anti-com tended to be on the extreme right as more of them joined Mosley's Army it was hard to wave the smell of fascism away but the deadliest blow came that Summer with the country in chaos Ramsey McDonald abandoned his minority Administration instead he embraced the conservative and liberal parties in a national government when he put this new government to the electorate it won the biggest Landslide win in UK history the new party by contrast didn't win a single seat in the aftermath of his humiliating defeat Mosley abandoned regular politics he went abroad looking for inspiration his first stop melini's Italy although the new party had flirted with fascism it wasn't until Mosley saw a genuine fascist state in action that he fully embraced far-right politics shortly after Mosley was at a party when he got chatting to a young woman Mosley's New Passion for fascism blew the girl's mind she fell madly in love with him that young woman was Diana mitford and meeting Mosley would change her life in Autumn 1932 Mosley at last did the inevitable the British Union of fascists or buf was founded on October the 1st surrounded by former new party thugs decked out in black shirts Mosley declared his true colors to the world it was the final end of Oswald Mosley the man who would be prime minister and it was the beginning of Oswald Mosley Britain's most dangerous fascist in the summer of 1933 Diana mitford and her younger sister Unity traveled to nurburg to witness the Nazis Victory rally by now Diana was both Mosley's mistress and a hardcore fascist fan girl but soon she and unity would be something else too in Germany they would become close friends without off Hitler back home Di's lover was already modeling himself on Germany's new leader buf rallies became Nazi tribute acts complete with lightning bolt flags seal salutes and Mosley ranting on stage like a man possessed at the same time the party was deliberately targeting young Violent Men luring them in with sports events and male camaraderie then praying on their grievances to radicalize them yes at this stage no one in the British lishment could see the danger people in 1934 genuinely admired the buf Future King Edward VII wanted Mosley to be prime minister the daily mail ran headlines declaring Harrah for the black shirts membership hit 50,000 people for a while it genuinely looked like Mosley's brand of British Nazism might have Mass Appeal and then came the Olympia rally held on June the 7th 1934 at the Olympia arena the rally was meant to be the biggest buf meeting yet with Mosley holding court before 10,000 Spectators unfortunately planted among those Spectators were 500 anti-fascists who took turns disrupting the meeting until it was almost impossible to speak the idea was to provoke a reaction which they certainly got Mosley's black shirts beat dozens of the protesters unconscious to the Delight of the committed fascists in the crowd but while the beatings played well in the arena the general public was much more queasy in the wake of the Olympia vland newspapers withdrew their support for Mosley the BBC banned him from their Airwaves by 1935 this old timey no platforming had seen the buf shed 90% of its membership All That Remains were the real hardcore Fanatics so Mosley began to Panda to them as hard as he could that year 1935 the buf adopted an avowedly anti-semitic platform we can't give you the worst examples of what Mosley said lest we trigger YouTube's algorithms and see that another of our videos get demonetized but Mosley openly called for the deportation of all Jews declaring Britain for the British well still he back this hateful rhetoric with action on October the 4th 1936 over 3,000 black shirts marched into the Jewish District of stany in East London a show a force designed to intimidate although a vast crowd of Ordinary People blocked their path the March devolved into a riot that saw hundreds injured today the Battle of cable street is seen as a turning point the moment Mosley lost the general public for good but at the time it was a victory for fascism Mosley declared the government had surrendered to Jewish communist violence the UF membership immediately spiked but by then Mosley was already on his way to Berlin back in 1933 poor abused lady Cynthia had died leaving Mosley free to pursue his relationship with an and mitford now they were taking things to the next level on October the 6th 1936 the two married in secret at the home of Joseph girls the guest of honor was Adolf Hitler who presented the couple with a signed photograph as a wedding gift 5 days later 200 youths from buf flooded into Marland in London smashing Jewish shops and attacking anyone they thought to be Jewish it was one of the worst incidents of anti-Semitic vience in modern British history a disgusting high point for most these fascists luckily though his career would be all downhill from [Music] there the biggest hammer blow against Mosley came just months after the battle of cable street that December the national government decided it no longer gave a dam and banned both the wearing of political uniforms and the right to hold political processions at the same time the owners of venues Across the Nation agreed to Bar Mosley and the buuf from renting their properties today of course Mosley could just reach out to his fascist Fanboys on Twitter or parlor but in the 193s loss of venues basically meant losing all of your publicity and so Mosley vanished for a bit across 1937 he was so far out of public view that he might have well have just ceased to exist but Mosley was nothing if not determined in 1938 he hadit on a brain wave a way to resurrect the bf's reputation among the Gentile classes the black shirts would become a pacifists by now it was obvious to everybody in Britain that another major war was coming one very few people wanted to be a part of it was an ERA when the chamberling government was pursuing appeasement when the Prime Minister could dismiss the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia as a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing in such circumstances it's perhaps no surprise that Mosley saw his popularity rebound over the next 18 months Mosley cultivated a dove-like image with the British public Mass rallies were held where he implored people to stay out of any future War these rallies were a moderate success by mid 1939 there were even Whispers that Mosley might be in the process of a political comeback but then the war arrived and the bf's popularity again collapsed although Mosley told his followers not to work as agents for Germany nobody believed he meant it indeed his former deputy leader William Joyce had already fled to Berlin and began making Nazi propaganda under the nickname Lord whor there was no way the government was going to leave Mosley and his potential fifth column running around free during wartime on May the 23rd 1940 just after Churchill became prime minister the buf was banned and 800 of its members were arrested as security risks Mosley was imprisoned two months later Dan mitford was also arrested the couple signed photograph of Hitler was found in their baby's crib that same year they were interned together at Holloway prison and that was it for Tom Mosley's public career although the pair were released on compassionate grounds in November 1943 it was to a general public that now considered the them about as trustworthy as the love child of Judas and Benedict Arnold the two stayed under house arrest until the war's end in 1945 the moment they could they abandoned England after an unhappy stop in Ireland the couple eventually wound up setting up a fancy house outside Paris from where Mosley incessantly plotted a comeback he reinvented himself as a passionate European calling for a United Europe to end the incessant cycles of Bloodshed but while his pro- Europe speeches were full of appeals to peace he only had to scratch the surface to see the poison still lurking in his veins Mosley's Declaration of Venice for example suggested forcibly dividing subsaharan Africa into black and white Nations and then essentially using the Black Nation as both cheap labor and a captive market for European products at the same time mostly continued to rabble RS on hot button issues on one occasion while back in London he demanded the immediate deportation of all non-whites from Britain and a ban on interracial marriages as his son Nicholas wrote afterwards I see clearly the while the right hand dealt with grandiose ideas and Glory the left hands let the rat out of the sewer still it no longer really mattered what Tom Mosley said in 1959 and again in 1966 the former political Superstar stood for election as an MP both times he got so few votes that calling him an irrelevance would overstate his importance after his 1966 failure Mosley officially retired from political life although he edited a farri magazine and kept in touch with a vast number of important figures that was essentially it for his influence on public life well at least until he turned up as the bad guy in pey blinders oswal Mosley died on December the 3rd 1980 at his home in France crated his ashes were interred in paris's Pier Lee Cemetery far away from the islands Nation he had once imagined he could lead for her part di mitford lived on until 2003 in all that time she never once expressed regret for befriending Hitler or sporting Germany in World War II today Oswell Mosley is little more than an interesting what if a historical footnotes of whom you can hang all sort of alternate history ideas for example maybe he really could have been a prime minister maybe the new party could have really fulfilled its potential or maybe he could have stayed within the labor party and somehow deposed and replaced Ramsey McDonald equally it's easy to imagine a version of History where the Nazis succeeded in conquering Britain a version of History where Hitler anointed Mosley as leader of a fascist UK but while it's easy to imagine a version of Oswell Mosley's life where he amounted to something that wasn't the life he led instead the historic Mosley will always remain a man who gambled big and lost everything a man who started out sympathetic but eventually drifted away into a fog of conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism that put him Beyond The Pale of all but the craziest of British Nazis in the end perhaps that's a fitting aitar for a man so full of self-importance to be remembered not with awe not with fear but with mild curiosity an interesting failure at best it's comforting to know that were Mosley alive today this reputation is probably exactly what he wouldn't have wanted so I really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that Thumbs Up Button below don't forget to check out fantastic sponsor vessie link below and thank you for watching

Channel: Biographics

Views: 1,383,456

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: VVrX1g3-5eM

Length: 21min 17sec (1277 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 21 2020