The picture image above is Batsford Park, one time seat of the Redesdales
An Illustrated talk on Tom Mitford by William Cross FSA Scot
Tom Mitford ( 1909-1945)
A clever, gifted man, with brilliant musical talents albeit harboring a darker, brooding side and personality flaws. He was involved in the notorious ‘Bruno Hat’ Art hoax of 1929 a sting that remains one of the best tales from the Bright Young Things era. As a barrister Tom was a junior in the curious Rattenbury Murder case of 1935 and defended a man who claimed to have a right to the British throne. Tom’s male contemporaries including epic diarist James Lees-Milne, Randolph ‘The Rabbit’ Churchill ( son of Winston) and travel writer Robert Byron clung to him as a friend and lover. Tom wooed and was seduced by both sexes, he lived his short life as he wished, he could be diffident, difficult and self- centred, a serious intellectual and aesthetic and heir to a family barony. Being fluent in the German language he was a great admirer of Germany the country, its history, art and culture; he flirted with fascism in the 1930s, meeting Hitler, and attended the Nuremberg Rallies and seeming following Oswald Mosley, lover then husband of Tom’s sister Diana. Tom later fought bravely in North Africa, Italy, & finally Burma where he was killed at the age of just 36, leading a British force from against a small group of Japanese occupying a wooded rise.
Society Author William Cross, FSA Scot has made a close study of Tom Mitford’s life,loves, career and the relationship with his well known sisters and parents. This illustrated talk will shock and amuse : this is a detailed insight into one topsy-turvy, dysfunctional family, perhaps Britain first soap opera. Tom’s family memorial at St Mary’s Church, Swinbrook records him as being a “very perfect son and brother”. But was he?
For more details contact William Cross, FSA Scot by e-mail
