My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyThis attitude to the public schools may in part have induced me to give our twoyoungest sons an altogether different education. My two eldest sons went to Eton;after a long discussion, it seemed to Cimmie and me the best plan at that time. Theywent to Eton rather than Winchester, as except for myself and my Heathcotegrandfather, all our relations on both sides had gone there. It turned out well, asNicholas was head of his house and Michael captain of the Oppidans, and the effectsin later life have been good. Nicholas, after a distinguished military career in theSecond World War, during which he won the Military Cross, has become a widelyappreciatednovelist. He also wrote a book on a 'Father'; Rains, not Sunshine. Michaelwas soon an assiduous and accomplished social worker. Vivien, my only daughter andeldest of the family, after going to a boarding school where she was very happy andmade lifelong friends, married Desmond Forbes-Adam. Like their mother, my granddaughtersseem to like their schools; on the other hand, the Mitfords tended not to lastlong at English girls' schools, and with Diana the risk was never taken.Diana and I were not inhibited in sending the younger pair to Eton by our warunpopularity, as the elder two had been at Eton either during the war or soon after,and it says much for its remarkable quality of tolerance that they suffered neitherdisability nor unpopularity. We decided to give Alexander and Max another educationbecause we hoped to make them good Europeans, and thought that a command oflanguages is a most desirable gift of parents to children. For some time they remainedat home in Ireland where they were well taught and had the advantages of country lifewith horses and sport. Then they went to school in France and Germany, returning toEngland in time to take their A-levels. Max afterwards went to Oxford, where he tooka physics degree and was Secretary of the Union, before being called to the Bar.Alexander took a degree in philosophy at the State University of Ohio. I think on thewhole it was a good education, and that our choice was right; so do our sons.I would not send boys to a public school today, because I feel they should belong to alarger world. Winchester certainly deserved better than the run of bad luck it had inmy time and in the preceding period; its best-known products were Stafford Cripps, D.N. Pritt, K.C., and myself. However, many of the leading figures of the Civil Service,combined with the sedate memory of Hugh Gaitskell and the erudite ebullience of R.H. S. Crossman, may now assist it to sustain the burden.A rather dull interval followed between my departure from Winchester at the end of1912 and my arrival at Sandhurst in the beginning of 1914. The frustration of theEuropean fencing tour resulted in a dreary sojourn at Westgate-on-Sea and BuxtonSpa, selected as health resorts which had adequate teaching available for the armyexam. I strenuously resisted the only available game, which was golf, in discontent atthe absence of fencing; it seemed to me a tedious substitute. Six weeks in the latesummer of 1913 were well spent, as I was sent to France to learn the language. Brestwas selected as a town remote from Paris and unlikely to be too lively. However, itturned out to be very agreeable. My host was the local depute; he and his wife mademe much at home in the good old French bourgeois style, which included anintroduction to the best cooking. Something of eternal France was present in thisremote provincial city; I still hear in that land of enduring enchantment the same tunesbeing played at country fairs which at sixteen first introduced me to the free life of theContinent.33 of 424