Lady Cynthia Mosley

Lady Cynthia Blanche Mosley (née Curzon; 23 August 1898 – 16 May 1933) was a British aristocrat, politician and the first wife of the British Fascist politician Sir Oswald Mosley.

Born Cynthia Blanche Curzon at Kedleston Hall, she was the second daughter of Hon. George Curzon (later Marquess Curzon of Kedleston) and his first wife, Mary Victoria Leiter, an American department-store heiress. As the daughter of an Earl (and later a Marquess), she was styled Lady Cynthia from 1911. She was nicknamed "Cimmie".

On 11 May 1920, Cynthia married the then-Conservative politician, Oswald Mosley. He was her first and only lover.

They had three children:

Both Cynthia and Oswald Mosley joined the Labour Party in 1924. She was elected Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent in the 1929 general election, her husband having been elected MP for Smethwick in 1926. Frustrated with the ruling Labour Party's complacent and conservative response to high levels of unemployment, Oswald Mosley formed the New Party on 1 March 1931 which his wife also joined. The party failed to win any seats at the 1931 general election. After that Mosley started his move towards Fascism, losing many of those who had joined the New Party as a result.

In September 1930, Lady Cynthia, after flying to Istanbul, sent a letter to the exiled Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, whom she admired. As Labour MP for Stoke, Lady Cynthia had failed to get the British Labour government to offer Trotsky political asylum in Britain. Lady Cynthia's letter read:

"Istanbul, 4th September, 1930

Dear Comrade Trotsky,