TOM MITFORD BIOGRAPHY
A FEARFUL OLD TWISTER
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email Will williecross@aol.com
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1904 :
Tom’s parents Hon David Bertram
Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford and Sydney Bowles marry.
1904 : Tom’s sister Nancy born 28 November.
1907 : Tom’s sister Pam born 25
November.
1909 : Tom born 3 January at 1
Graham Street, London.
1909 : Tom baptised on 10
February as Thomas David Freeman-Mitford.
1910 : Tom’s sister Diana born
17 June.
1911 : Tom at Undercliff Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth
on the 1911 Census.
1914 : War declared on 28 July.
1914 : Tom’s sister Unity born 8
August.
1914 : Tom’s father David goes to war with the
Northumberland Fusiliers.
1915 : Death of Tom’s uncle Hon.
Clement Freeman-Mitford heir to the
Barony of Redesdale, eldest brother of David on 13 May.
1915 : Tom’s father David
becomes heir to the Barony of Redesdale on 13 May. Tom becomes an ‘Honourable’.
1916: Death of Tom’s paternal
grandfather ‘Bartie’ Freeman-Mitford:
Lord Redesdale 17 August.
1916 : Tom’s father David
becomes Lord Redesdale, Tom is next heir in waiting.
1917 : Tom’s sister Jessica
born 11 September.
1918-9 : Batsford Park : The Mitford Family Home sold
off.
1919: Asthall Manor : Acquired
as the new Mitford Family Homestead.
1919: Tom goes off to Lockers Park Preparatory School, Hemel Hemstead.
1920: Tom’s sister Deborah born
31 March.
1922 : Tom’s maternal
grandfather ‘Tap’ Bowles dies 12 January
1922 : Tom goes to Eton College
as an Oppidan Scholar at Lent Term under
House Tutor FW Dobbs in Jourdelay House.
1922-1928 : Tom’s Eton
College key contemporaries include James
Lees-Milne, ( diarist) Randolph Churchill ( son of Winston), Nigel Birch ( politician)
and Edward James ( Poet).
1924-7 : Tom joins Cadets C.Q.M.S. Eton College. Contgt and later 16th London Regiment.
1926 : David , Tom’s father, pet family name of ‘Farve’ takes a long lease on 26 Rutland Gate, South Kensington, London SW7 with adjoining stables and a Mews flat.
c 1928 : Tom loses his virginity
with Baroness ‘ Baba’ De’ Erlanger, having previously engaged in homosexual affairs at Eton with Hamish Erskine, Robert Byron, and
others.
1928 : Tom leaves Eton College
having made a name for himself in sport, drama and in musical events. Rejects going to University in England.
1922-1930s : Tom’s six sisters
reach their ‘coming out’ years as debutantes and are presented at Court by
Sydney, pet family name Muv.
1928 : Tom begins his travels
through Europe, including to Italy,
Germany, Austria and Hungary, for pleasure and to study music and law.
1928-1939 : Tom stays as
a paying guest at Castle Bernstein
meets Count, Janos Almassi
and his neighbours including two sisters, the Countesses Erdody. Tom remains in close touch with regular visits
for a decade and more and has Intimate affairs with them ( almost certainly
sexual/ diviant).
1928 : Tom has romantic flings in Vienna and Berlin with
Penelope Cunard and others.
1929 : Tom returns to England to
the family homes in London and
Swinbrook.
1929 : Tom enrols as a
trainee barrister at the Inner Temple.
1920s-30s : Tom shares a flat
with Randolph Churchill and later has his own flat at 4 Rutland Mews.
1929 : Bruno Hat Hoax – Tom is importuned by Lytton Strachey.
1929 : Tom meets Tilly Losch (
Austrian ballet dancer and later Hollywood
actress) in Paris and begins a 10-year-long affair.
C1929-1944 : Tom has a series of
carnal affairs with numerous women including
Baroness Baba D’erlanger, Doris Castlerosse, Lady Diana Cooper, Janetta Woolley, Penelope
Dudley Ward, Sheilah Graham,
Barbara, Countess of Moray, Lady Carolyn Paget, La Jana, and
Tilly Losch.
1930s : Tom is flying with the Auxiliary Air Force and has an accident.
1930-1: Tom is a part of the
Mitford family ski-ing and skating trips to Switzerland.
1932 :Tom is called to the Bar
and begins to seek "briefs" and has own
London flat at 4 Rutland Mews with a housekeeper.
1933 -1940s : Tom is active in
the Territorials – “ Queens Westminsters”.
1930s : Tom is involved in running “ The Worst Play
Club” and regular first- nighter.
1933 : Tom provides support to
his sister Diana during her divorce from Bryan Guinness.
1933-34 : Tom’s affair with
Tilly Losch reaches a crisis point with Tilly’s divorce from Edward James.
1934 : Tom is junior consul in
the Haddon “ Letters to the King” blackmail scandal.
1935 : Tom Is junior consul in
the Rattenbury Murder Case defending
“George Stoner”.
1935- 1939 : Tom is on call as aid/driver / companion for his sisters
Diana and Unity during conquest of Germany and pursuit of Adolf Hitler. Tom
meet Hitler and attends several Nazi Rallys at Nuremberg. Back in England Tom also joins Oswald Mosley’s BUF.
1936 : Tom’s mistress Tilly
Losch leaves Britain for USA ( she
returns 1938) and has a holiday with tom in Austria. Tilly goes to a TB clinic
in Switzerland.
1937 : Tom is involved in the “
Ward of Court” application over
elopement of his sister Decca with Esmond Romilly. Tom defends sister Deborah in a legal action
for libel against the "Daily Express".
1938 : Tom is a dilemma over the
Munich crisis and invasion of Austria.
1938 : Tom is made up to Deputy
Judge Advocate General dealing with Court Martials.
1939 : Tom is called up for full time military service as war clouds form
over Europe.
1937-9 : Tom supports his father
“Farve” in pro –German speeches in The
House of Lords
1939 : Tom attends a BUF meeting
at Earls Court addressed by Oswald
Mosley and salutes – his former mistress
Tilly ( a Jewess) attends with
Randolph Churchill and leaves in horror.
She ends the relationship with Tom. Tom is trouble for taking the salute
to Mosley.
1940-1944 : Tom is army training and posted with the “ Queens
Westminsters” to Italy, North Africa and Palestine.
1940s : Tom ( with Muv) makes
representations to Winston Churchill to have Diana and Oswald Mosley ( interned
as a danger to the state) brought
together in one prison – and this was achieved.
1944: Tom spends 6 months back in London at Army
Staff College – Several references of note covering the period in James
Lees-Milne Diaries.
1945 : Tom reassigned to a Unit away from the European land mass goes as Adjutant to 1 Battn Devonshire Regiment – in the jungles of Burma.
1945 : March Tom is wounded and
transferred to hospital where he dies on 30 March 1945.
1946? : Farve has
the memorial to “ A Very Perfect Son and Brother “ for Tom placed in St Mary’s Church, Swinbrook.
1958 : Farve Dies at Otterburn,
Northumberland – his last years are spent with his mistress.
1963 : Muv Dies at Inch Kenneth
– the Scottish Island owned by Tom.
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The book " TOM MITFORD: A FEARFUL OLD TWISTER" is available from the Author William Cross, FSA Scot
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Tom’s parents had
separated several years before his demise so each was forced to grieve for
their only beloved son entirely alone in their own small corner, numbed in
comprehending it, and in terrible despair.
The marital
estrangement of David and Sydney was in part
owing to a feud over their differing beliefs at the time of the rise of
Nazism and the posturing of two of their daughters, Tom’s sinister sisters, Diana and Unity, who
were fanatical followers of Adolf Hitler.
Tom’s dad, aka Farve, who was David Mitford, Lord Redesdale, was a minor British aristocrat and peer of the realm ( see sketch, below). He eventually saw through Hitler’s deceit and corruption and thought the Nazis were a murderous gang of pests, but his wife Sydney, Lady Redesdale, thought that Hitler had such good manners and she believed in him.
Sydney preferred to sit things out on the
fence, in order to protect her two fascist daughters and ensure their
survival. The Redesdales could judge better than most of their fellow
countrymen and women since they’d met Hitler in
Tom Mitford also met Hitler through his errant sisters, and the two men enjoyed polite exchanges. The Fuhrer thought Tom intelligent, and Tom was respectful towards the tyrant. It was effortless for Tom because he was a good actor and a trained legal advocate. He was accomplished at hiding any critical inner feelings from being detected by convincing role-playing, and pleasing anyone, whether it be friend or foe.
Was Tom enticed by all the period drama, the rhetoric, the mass hypnotism, by the anti-Jewish fervour of the propaganda rallies? Yes, he probably was. Was he pro-Hitler? May be. Probably more pro-German, and he was no Jew-hater!
He was chiefly
present at these political events in
That brought with it a need to utter the shout of Heil! Hitler!, whether he believed in it or not.
Tom spoke the German
language fluently and could truthfully
declare his great unquestionable love for
The veracity of the cherished words chosen by David Mitford for Tom’s memorial at St Mary’s Church, Swinbrook, may be revisited but only with care. Such a daunting sentiment raised in glory to anyone is hard to expunge or dismiss after such a life cruelly cut short and early death. It stands as the most understandable expression of the heartache of a parent turned into an adoring epitaph.
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
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
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
ENQUIRIES ABOUT THE BOOK PLEASE EMAIL THE
COMPILER WILLIAM CROSS
THE BOOK CAN BE BOUGHT ON EBAY
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Evan Morgan in
“Evan Frederic Morgan : Final Affairs Financial and Carnal”
In fact the real story of Evan’s precious
possession relates to a reliquary of
“ Mr Morgan had arrived at
the [ Mission]
“I must buy it.” The Honourable Evan Morgan repeated. “ You must let me buy it.”
Impressed by the absence of any mention of price or inclination to bargain, Mr Borton, the curator promised to lay the matter before Mr Miller. Mr Miller replied that he was sorry, that nothing in the cross collection could be sold.
Mr Morgan now cried. “Please tell Mr Miller that I will pay anything he wishes, but I must have the cross.”
This word he followed with a personal letter to Mr Miller, repeating the wish to have the cross at any price, and enclosing three papal rings, whose settings were exquisite intaglios cut in amethyst and topaz. Sitting before an open fire in his cowled monk’s dressing gown of brown burlap, Mr Miller dictated his reply.
My DEAR FRIEND: I cannot find it in my heart to traffic in anything which you value as manifestly you this cross. Take it, with my appreciation of you.
I am returning the three
papal rings, which I am sure that you value more than I would know how to do.
Sincerely
yours,
FRANK A MILLER”[4]
Another teller of the same tale suggests that on
Evan’s visit to
A COPY OF THE BOOK MENTIONED ABOVE
“Evan Frederic Morgan : Final Affairs Financial and Carnal”
IS AVAILABLE FROM THE AUTHOR WILLIAM CROSS
EMAIL :
[1] Hon. Evan Frederic Morgan ( 1893-1949). The last Viscount Tredegar of
[2] Frank
A Miller( 1858-1935) . Owner and developer of Mission Inn Hotel
[3]
Gale, Zona. ‘Frank Miller of Mission Inn.’
D Appleton-Century company. (1938).
[4] Ibid.
[5] Advocate
( Melbourne), Vic. National Library of
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| Rupert Brooke - Poet - died 1915 Remembered Friends Died on 23 April 1915, of sunstroke, at Lemnos, Rupert Brooke, the almost excessively pretty poet….drooled after by Hon. Evan Morgan with cotton tissues. Evan's biographer William Cross, FSA Scot doubts their paths collided at Ottoline Morrell’s Garsington Manor except in the myths ... Evan's first visit to Garsington Manor, near Oxford was in 1916, the year after the death of Rupert Brooke. Portrait of Rupert Brooke by Hector Murchison
Evan Morgan & Friends on Twitter
Contact Evan's biographer William Cross, FSA Scot for more information on Evan Morgan, Lord Tredegar
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| Evan Morgan, Viscount Tredegar of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales Poet and Patron of the Arts 1893-1949
Evan Morgan on Twitter
Contact Evan's biographer William Cross, FSA Scot for more information on Evan Morgan, Lord Tredegar
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