A Collection-level Description for the Oswald Mosley Papers

Reference and contact details: GB 150 XOMN
Title: Oswald Mosley Papers
Dates of Creation: 1858-1990
Held at: University of Birmingham Information Services, Special Collections Department
Extent: 50 boxes
Name of Creator: Oswald Mosley
Level of Description: fonds
Language of Material: English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch
Published by: University of Birmingham Information Services, Special Collections Department

Main Library, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom
Tel 0121 414 5838
Fax 0121 471 4691
Email special-collections@bham.ac.uk

Administrative/Biographical History

Sir Oswald Mosley (1896-1980) was educated at Winchester College. Afterwards, he entered the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and in 1914, was gazetted to the 26th. Lancers. Impatient with inactivity at base, he joined the Royal Flying Corps and within weeks the 18 year old Mosley was flying over German lines as an Observer. Mosley was later discharged due to injuries and ended the War in the Foreign Office. He entered Parliament as Harrow's Conservative MP in the Election of 1918 and at 22 was the youngest member of the House of Commons.

Four years later Oswald Mosley left the Conservatives following his strong disagreement with the Government's Irish Policy and their use of the "Black and Tans", and Mosley was returned as an Independent M.P. for Harrow in the 1922 General Election.

In 1924 Mosley joined the Labour Party and following its election victory in 1929 was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with a special responsibility for finding a solution to unemployment. He was the youngest person to hold Ministerial rank for 50 years. His proposals for job creation, known as the Mosley Memorandum, were highly regarded at the time but were not adopted by the Labour Government because of resistance from financial interests in the City, and after several attempts to persuade them to take action Mosley resigned from office in 1931. Shortly afterwards, with the support of an all-party group of M.Ps, he formed the New Party which contested the General Election of 1931 advocating Mosley's measures to combat unemployment. Every one of its candidates was defeated.

By now Mosley was looking with interest at the economic policies that Mussolini had used to solve unemployment in Italy. During 1932 Mosley wrote and published his first book, The Greater Britain, in which he set out his grand plan for the economic, social and political reconstruction of Britain. On Saturday October 1st. 1932 he founded the British Union of Fascists to implement his policies.

The programme of what subsequently came to be known as the British Union remained fairly consistent throughout its existence but with different emphasis depending on current political events. Policy was set out in great detail in The Greater Britain (1932) and Mosley's other major inter-war book Tomorrow We Live (1938); The Coming Corporate State by Alexander Raven Thomson; a large number of leaflets and booklets by various authors; the Movement's two regular weekly newspapers The Blackshirt and Action; and the intellectually focused magazine British Union Quarterly.

Mosley's central economic theme was that British Industry was being undermined by cut-price imports from cheap -labour countries abroad. The country could never hope to compete against these except by reducing the wages of the British people to the subsistance level of Far East workers. To prevent this, the British Union of Fascists advocated a policy of complete economic self-sufficiency for Great Britain and the Empire. This would effectively insulate industry from cheap-labour competition from what would now be called Third World countries. The Empire Territories would concentrate on producing food and raw materials while Great Britain would remain the industrial workshop of the Empire in a reciprocal arrangement that would be beneficial to all. The exploitation or "sweating"of native labour would be prohibited and in its publications British Union campaigned against such practices most notably on West Indian sugar plantations in the late 1930s. Little trade would be permitted with countries outside Great Britain and the Empire as this area would contain all the raw materials, food, energy resources and manufacturing capacity to ensure self sufficiency.

Reference: friends of Oswald Mosely, Sir Oswald Mosley, British Politician and Philosopher, 1896-1980 (http://www.oswaldmosley.com/).

Scope and Content

Diana Mosley Deposit

Publicity material, 1950s-1960s; the Jewish question and anti-sematism, 1930s-1970s; libel cases, 1934-1990; public order legislation, 1936-1985; General Election campaigns, 1959-1966; printers copies of Mosley's autobiography, My Life; 1960s; speeches on unemployment and economics, 1928-1930; Oswald's handwritten notes, 1965-1980; passports, 1949-1974; articles and speeches, 1970-1980; political documents and publications, 1928-1930; photographs of Mosley and family;

Correspondence: Orsay, France between Oswald and Diana Mosley and various correspondents, 1955-1980; Labour Party and resignation, 1922-1967; broadcasting/television, 1968-1974; passports,1948-1949; family correspondence, 1952, 1963; doctors reports and correspondence, 1958, 1959, 1970; Lady Redesdales letters, cuttings and documents relating to detention, 1939-1967; general correspondence, 1947-1981; with Thomas Nelson and Sons publishers, 1966-1969; copy letters to Lady Cynthia and Sir Oswald from George Bernard Shaw, Roosevelt and Ramsay MacDonald, 1930-1933; Naumann' correspondence concerning allegations of Mosley's involvment in funds for Werner Naumann's group of ex-Nazis, 1953-1956; from Germany, 1964-1973; from America concerning the United States publication of My Life, 1970-1972;

Press cuttings and other papers relating to: Fascist writers, 1950s-1960s; Africa, 1948-1960s; Colin Wilson and George Orwell, 1950s-1970s; old parties, 1947-1970s; post-war violence, 1961-1962; Asia, Japan, Suez, India, Israel, the Korean War, 1930s-1970s; Hitler; trials of German war criminals, 1940s-1980s; European Movement pro-market arguments, 1960s-1980s; Onion Movement election results, 1960s-1970s; Cecil King, 1967-1972; German anti-Nazi underground, 1954-1983; Ireland, 1970s; Labour Party, 1926-1970; government of National Union, 1960s-1970s; Mosley, 1920s-1970s; the Mitfords, 1970s; European press cuttings in French, German, Spanish, German, Dutch.

Publications: Books by Mosley, 1948-1968; pamphlets by Mosley, 1923-1968; other publications, 1931-1990.

Multimedia: Audio cassettes of Mosley speeches, 1934-1993; video cassette of Mosley on Panorama, 21 October, 1968; sound reel tapes of Mosley, 1939-1979.

Nicholas Mosley Deposit

Correspondence: Children's letters and schoolwork; family papers and correspondence from and to Lady Cynthia, Tom Mosley, Oswald Mosley, Diana Mosley, 1896-1981; the Crowood estate, 1944-1946; publication of My Life; detention of Mosley's 18B records, 1981.

Papers relating to the British Union of Facists, 1946-1948; Mussolini, 1933-1934; the Labour Party, 1927-1929; articles, publications and miscellaneous items, 1920-1967; press cuttings on Fascism and politics in general, 1937-1980; other press cuttings, 1943-1980; journal articles, 1934-1977; papers relating to broadcasting, 1930s-1940s; financial documents, 1937-1953; notebooks, diaries, 1946-1947, 1949; papers relating to Unity Mitford, R Skidelsky.

Publications: Blackshirt, No.97, 1 March 1935 - No.151, 13 March 1936; Action/Union, 1938-1959, 1981 (incomplete series); New Kensington Leader, 1858-1959.

System of Arrangement

The collection is arranged broadly by document type within each deposit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was acquired in two deposits from Diana Mosley and Nicholas Mosley.

Accruals

Further deposits are not expected.

Access Conditions

Open. Access to all registered researchers.

Copyright/Reproduction

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the University Archivist, Special Collections. Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

Finding Aids

A temporary box list is available in the Special Collections Department.

A full item-level description is available through the Access to Archives (A2A) website http://www.a2a.org.uk/html/150-xomn.htm.

Note

Former Catalogue Ref. OMN.