My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyoutstanding in political life; exceptions were the father-in-law of my first marriage,Lord Curzon, and one or two others, while the list of those found stupid at school butbrilliant in later life was long. I got an intelligent answer from Mr. Roxburgh, theremarkable first headmaster of Stowe, a school I used to visit frequently at one timefor a fencing match in the afternoon and a debate in the evening. He retorted that itwas not the fault of the schools but of nature, because such men are usually slow todevelop and the schoolmasters were probably right when they thought them stupid atan early age; another reason it seems to me for devising a system of progressive testsin education rather than to stake all on some arbitrary and abrupt line for the divisionof talents.At West Downs my most unpleasant memory is of the intense cold; it was before thedays of central heating and the long stone and wooden corridors were as bitter as thedraughty dormitories where the sponges became rigid in the basin at any touch offrost. My brother, Ted, joined me there and seemed in danger of being frozen alive,despite the robust constitution of his adult life. My representations led to his removalto a less arctic spot. Chalk downs remain an aversion of mine; they surrounded WestDowns and the neighbouring Winchester and were the scene of our compulsory walks.They always seemed to me hideous. Another of my dislikes at West Downs wasswimming, which became one of the favourite pastimes and exercises of my later life.We all had to jump into the bath at the deep end whether we could swim or not. It wassupposed to hasten the process of learning, but I always splashed somehow to thenearest side without much further effort. I had at that time a certain phobia aboutgetting my head under water; due no doubt to arrival a fortnight late in the world,smothered and under painful necessity of being slapped until I filled my lungs with airfor the first of those bellows which later resounded from so many platforms. Thisapprehension of smothering lasted for many years, and I did not learn to swim until Iwas grown up and persuaded by my first wife, Cimmie, on our honeymoon to join herin one of her chief delights. Otherwise I recognise no neurosis in myself except thedislike of an accumulation of papers, but that may be due to causes easily explicable;the ever present prospect of tedious work.Life at West Downs was not too bad, but it was depressingly dull compared to life athome. I had none of that sense apparent in many modern children of moving into awider life at school; home and school were just freedom and prison, it was as simpleas that. Sport and games recompensed to some degree. Instinct and tradition of familytook me at once to the gymnasium where boxing was well taught, and I won the lightweightchampionship soon after my arrival. In my opening fight I experienced for thefirst time incredulity that I could be winning. Later I won many elections, but couldnever believe in victory until the last ballot-paper was counted. Lloyd George wasreputed to be the same in a larger sphere; he could not believe he was winning hislandslide election of 1918, and in his unnecessary efforts to snatch victory made somespeeches which were a subsequent liability he need not have incurred. Churchill onthe other hand was usually confident of victory and was reputed not to haveanticipated his defeat in 1945.My tendency to be doubtful of success until it was proven carried me to remarkablelengths in this first athletic encounter of childhood at nine years old. After the openingclash the other boy took to his heels and ran as fast as his legs could carry him roundthe spacious gym—there were no ropes— hotly pursued as fast as my equally short24 of 424