A TRIBUTE TO
THE HON. THOMAS DAVID FREEMAN-MITFORD
A NEW BOOK FROM WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT
Tom Mitford died 80 years ago this year
(2025) on Good Friday, 30 March 1945. It is therefore a most fitting time to
give him a retrospective glance, a biographical sketch, and this is why this
narrative has been compiled.
It first takes the form and outline of a
chronology/timeline from Tom’s birth in 1909 onwards, through his early
childhood days growing up in wartime London,
then to the Cotswolds countryside alongside his somewhat dysfunctional parents and sisters. Then, in 1919, on to
prep School at Locker’s Park, Hemel Hempstead,
where he made several friends for life amongst his contemporaries, some of whom
are themselves minor historical figures. Next, in 1922, onward to Eton College, and in 1928 to Tom’s
serious study of music and law and facing the growing pangs of temptation and
love in Hungary, Austria and Germany, followed by his return home to train at
the bar and become a barrister, and was
some time a Judge.
Later on in the 1930s Tom’s glorified
chaperone role to serve his Nazi-loving sisters Diana and Unity in
sometimes driving them though Nazi Germany where
he was compelled to meet Adolf Hitler
and attend propaganda rallies. Drawn
into the politics of the time in the flare path of his sisters’ alarming
beliefs, he does seem vulnerable to
accusations of sharing more than a curiosity about the Nazis,
particularly based on some pro-Nazi remarks he made in the 1940s, a confession
of his beliefs to an old school friend, James Lees-Milne. That disclosure has
been taken as confirming Tom’s much truer posture, yet it may also be an
example of Tom’s ability to twist things round so that people hear what they
want to hear.
Other aspects of Tom’s life are
considered, too. Central to them is his branding as being a pleasure-seeker of
sexual experiences, some of them on the edge of being decadent and depraved. Tom’s many “love”
(read carnal) affairs with men and women are covered. Also previously
unpublished letters, written by Tom in his long, fiery relationship with the Austrian ballet dancer
Tilly Losch.
Besides all that, there is passing
mention of some of Tom’s court cases as a lawyer, and as Judge Advocate
presiding over Army Court
Martials. Also his Territorial Army days, his wartime exploits and his
weeks in the jungle in Burma before
being hit by a sniper’s bullet.
THE MEMORIAL TO TOM MITFORD AT ST MARY'S CHURCH, SWINBROOK
ENQUIRIES ABOUT THE BOOK PLEASE EMAIL THE
COMPILER WILLIAM CROSS
williecross@aol.com
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