My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyWiltshire in the late forties. The Canon was of a very different type from the usual runof country parsons in those days.My grandfather was landed in this bit of trouble by his Royal allegiance. KingEdward had asked him to grant the particularly well-endowed living to the RoyalChaplain. All went well until the clerical eye with the wide and sophisticated glanceof a larger world fell on the rope offending both earth and heaven. A peremptorydemand for its removal followed; and was promptly rejected. Then followed aperfectly ridiculous and much publicised lawsuit, costing thousands of pounds, whichthe family rightly lost. It might have been better handled, for my grandfather had thewarmest heart, and any appeal to his neighbourly feelings or religious duty wouldalmost certainly have met with a spontaneous and generous response; but theChristian beatitude - blessed are the meek - had missed the Canon by as wide a markas the grandfather. It was all very childish, and expensive.My grandfather was in every sense a child of nature. Fearless and combative in faceof any challenge, he was immediately and entirely disarmed by any appeal tocompassion and suggestion of friendship. He was completely a man, and I greatlyloved him. His simple and generous nature made him a most likeable person, and heevoked almost universal affection from all who met him in his small world or in widercircles, where he moved with the same unaffected friendship as he did among histenants, work people, country neighbours or the larger agricultural shows andinstitutions in which he played a leading part. His life and being were rooted deep inEnglish soil.We had for each other a strong affection. Some time before he died I had developedintellectual and cultural interests which were strange to him, but this in no wayimpaired our relationship. We had so many interests in common, of the countryside,sport and all the many aspects of traditional English life. As an amateur boxer in hisyouth, he had been runner-up in the middle-weight championship of Britain; he wasalso a runner, swimmer and all-round athlete, a remarkable performer. In addition tosport, my grandfather's knowledge of horses, cattle and every aspect of agriculturallife was exceptional, and was of enduring interest to me. We never lacked things totalk about, for we had many of the basic things of life in common. The same facultiesand tastes later stood me in good stead in the army and enabled the development ofclose companionship with men to whom a whole range of my other interests wereliterally a closed book.The only moment of difficulty in my intimacy with my grandfather was in theexpression of emotion; the English inhibition, perhaps our curse. When I told him inthe latter months of 1914 just after my eighteenth birthday that I had volunteered andbeen accepted temporarily to leave my regiment for service with the Royal FlyingCorps in France, he burst into tears. It was astonishing in such a man; he explainedthat he had been told that this was the most dangerous of all war services, and that Iwas all he had. If we had been classic Greeks we would have fallen into each other'sarms in a transport of mutual emotion; I should have explained in warm andpassionate words all that I felt for him. But I was just a frozen young Englishman; Icould not move, I could say nothing. That has been a regret my whole life long. Hedied soon afterwards, and I survived the experience he feared for me.13 of 424