My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyWhat was the purpose of it all, the object of going into society? Apart from fun, whichis always worthwhile so long as you have the time, meeting people is clearly valuable,particularly people with influence in diverse spheres. It is better to meet them yourself,ask your own questions and form your own judgments. It can, of course, be done tosome extent vicariously, in the manner of Sir William (later Lord) Tyrrell, a greatambassador in Paris and also a chief of the Foreign Office, who used Charles Mendlfor this purpose. He did not go out much in Paris, and Mendl was his intermediarybetween the British Embassy and French life. I had the warmest regard for Tyrrell,whom I used often to see alone for long conversations and from whom I learned much.He was a masterpiece of diplomacy; after him Nature broke the mould, as Macaulaywould have put it. Yet if you have the energy and the time, it is better to do it allyourself, to meet those who are most interesting and get to know them well personally.This was by no means all that the society of those days could give to a young man.There too was the 'open sesame' to the world of culture, literature, music and art. True,you could buy an opera ticket, go to a gallery, and read great literature for yourself.The moment I was back from the war I did all these things in an almost frenzieddesire to swallow all beauty in one gulp—it took years to establish a naturalequilibrium of steadily and continuously extending knowledge and experience—butin society you could also hear the talk of the critics and meet creative people. Whilesociety is still what Spengler calls 'in form', it can give a great deal; it points in everydirection of knowledge and beauty.Naturally, just to live that life would have been entirely futile. If I had not had all theother experiences—war in air and trenches, my childhood among the people of theland, life in that very heart of manhood the regular army, and something almost theequivalent of a return to the Hellenic gymnasium in European athletics, theexperience of administration in civil service, government and political organisation,intimate knowledge of the people's day to day bread and butter politics in the massmovement of the Labour Party, and later still the greatest experience of all in creatinga new grass roots movement from the whole people—then my relatively trivialexperience of society in the chief capitals of Europe would have deformed andisolated me as it did so many others. Added to this wide range of human experience, itwas an advantage, a small but important ingredient to make a complete whole.Ganzheit, said Goethe, is the highest desideratum, the becoming of a complete man.After my return from the war the process of development by experience went apace.Hospital treatment and convalescence were soon followed by entry into theadministration, but two spells of light duty with the army came first. In 1917, theregimental depot at the Curragh was not quite so peaceful as usual because the EasterRising had occurred the year before. The genial company of the hunting field by daywas divided by the sniper's bullet at night. The Irish revolutionaries were muchblamed by the army at that time for their method of fighting, but guerilla war wasclearly the only possible means to carry on their struggle against an overwhelmingmilitary force; it was a method which became familiar all over the world at a laterdate. The military and political lessons of that period were considerable, but belongproperly to later chapters where the politics and action of the time will be regardedmore closely. Here we are concerned with the enforced relaxation which in my casefollowed the rigours of war, and the considerable contribution which it made to mycomplete life experience.73 of 424