My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyChristianity could not be imparted to him until he was sufficiently developed toappreciate a story which at least is among the most beautiful in the world? The classicmethod was exactly the opposite of the modern, but it gradually dissolved in the ageof reason when philosophy came with continual questions. From my own earlyexperience I could only, with much diffidence, give the church leaders some limitedadvice: not to make religion too dull to the young, but also not to make it too silly byineffective imitations of current crazes and absurdities with which they cannot hope tocompete. Neither in religious practice, nor in royal ceremonial or in politics is anylasting advantage gained by playing the monkey on the barrel-organ of transientfashion. In the end, conversion depends on ability, sympathy, example and conviction.My life was thus divided between school and army. Each afternoon I escaped into theworld where I felt at home, the gymnasium and the company of soldiers. It was notmerely that I was determined to go into the army, and that the gymnasium providedme with the sports for which I had a particular aptitude. I liked the army andeverything about it; the training it gave at Winchester, the gay life it would offer atSandhurst, and finally the companionship of the large and devoted family which is agreat regiment. I did not like the public school, and disliked or disapproved mostthings about it. It seemed to me a trivial existence, 'cribbed, cabined and confined' bymany of the silliest shibboleths of the bourgeois world. Although I had a number offriends at Winchester I had far more at Sandhurst.Apart from games, the dreary waste of public school existence was only relieved bylearning and homosexuality; at that time I had no capacity for the former and I neverhad any taste for the latter. My attitude to homosexuality was then much less tolerantthan now, because I have long taken the view on basic ground of liberty that adultsshould be free to do what they wished in private, provided they do not interfere withothers. However, I would deal much more severely than at present with the corruptionof the young of either sex, and with obvious propaganda designed to that end.Our understanding of these matters in the present period has progressed beyond thecurt summary of the situation I heard in my early days in the House of Commons.Some of us were discussing the matter in the smoking-room with an eminent K.C.who had been singularly successful in the defence of alleged homosexuals in court.We questioned him on the secret of these forensic triumphs. He replied: 'Simple—with the jury system you know that most of them do not believe it exists and the restof them do it themselves'. We should now recognise that we cannot eradicate orsuppress a fact which has existed from the beginning of history, but we can keep itwithin the bounds of strict privacy and prevent it being spread as a fashionable cult tocircles which it would otherwise not attract.Life at school seemed to me not a period to protract, but just a prelude to real life; somy chief desire was to leave as soon as possible. It was probably this attitude whichprompted my Housemaster, Mr. Bell, to agree with my mother's view when she wrotesuggesting I should leave. He replied: 'He seems always rather too old for us'. I wascertainly at that age a bit of a prig. Mr. Bell and I, however, got on well together, ashe was heavy-weight boxing champion at his university. We were both sorry thatbecause of my early departure we missed a long-standing engagement for a boxingmatch on my seventeenth birthday. 'British Bell', as the boys nicknamed him, waskilled in the war of 1914, when he took the earliest opportunity of joining up.32 of 424