My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyThe element of charm was again provided in ample measure by the Dublin society ofthat time. Lord Wimborne was Viceroy and Sir Bryan Mahon was Commander-in-Chief. Both were married to remarkable and charming women —the first to aGrosvenor of exquisite manners, and the second to the widow of Sir John Milbanke,the Boer War V.C., and one of the most accomplished horsewomen Leicestershire hadproduced; both were outstanding as hostesses in their respective positions, thoughthey did not get on well together. I had known both before, and found them in Dublinsurrounded by my London and Leicestershire friends. As my duties at the Curraghwere light, I was able to divide my time between the stimulating companies at Vice-Regal Lodge and G.H.Q., Ireland. All this did not last long, for I soon had to report toa more permanent location of light duty in the E3 category.Life at Eastbourne as an instructor to wounded officers provided more opportunity forcontinuous reading. The duties were even lighter, as no one was fit for hard training,and the distractions were few. We lived on the chilly heights at the back ofEastbourne in canvas huts, which were not quite so cold as the trenches because wehad the use of oil-stoves. It did not take me long with the friendships and associationsI had now made to get transferred to administrative posts in London. The old boy orold girl network was working quite well even in those days, and I used it realisticallyand relentlessly while avoiding getting caught in the net. However, my firstappointment was well outside its usual ambit, for I was sent to the Ministry ofMunitions, where I had my first insight into industrial conditions and the negotiationswith trade unions in which our department was continually engaged. At this stage Ilearned a lot but contributed little; it was then a new world to me.My second sphere of operation was much more subject to social influence, for I wasgiven an administrative post in the War Department of the Foreign Office, a verycentral situation. A few young men had to handle all the main telegrams whichreached the government, and reply to many letters on instructions of the Secretary ofState. I was the only outsider, as the rest were all professional diplomats who hadentered the Foreign Service before the war. Strange to relate, my chief difficulty wasmy handwriting—strange because it seemed odd that in the Central Department of theForeign Office in the middle of a war everything should be done by manuscript. Thearchaic forms in which letters were written at first also seemed to me peculiar, but Isoon came to appreciate them because it was in practice easier and quicker to writeletters in these set forms than to puzzle out various ways of address on each separateoccasion. The rituals of the Foreign Office like those of the Army had a practicalquality evolved over a long stretch of time.The duties were in themselves extremely interesting, though I was, of course, at thisstage very much the apprentice. The range of experience in foreign affairs was wide,as we covered practically the whole field. An additional advantage was meeting forthe first time some of the politicians with whom I was later to be most closelyassociated. Aubrey Herbert drifted in one day with his subtle blend of charm andvagueness in manner which covered a very acute intelligence. If I remember rightly,he had just escaped from a German prison camp and was seeking Foreign Officeadvice in certain difficulties. He was a brother of Lord Carnarvon and very English,but became so involved in the affairs of the Balkans that he was offered the crown ofAlbania. After the war, during week-ends in his beautiful Adam house at Pixton, Iused to combine shooting with speaking for him in his constituency at the74 of 424