Mitford family

The Mitford family is an aristocratic British family who became particularly well known in the 1930s for the six Mitford sisters, the daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife, Sydney Bowles. They were celebrated and sometimes scandalous figures. One journalist described them as "Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-lover; Nancy the Novelist; Deborah the Duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur".

The family traces its origins in Northumberland back to the time of the Norman Conquest. In the Middle Ages they had been border reivers based in Redesdale. The main line had its family seat first at Mitford Castle, then Mitford Old Manor House, prior to building Mitford Hall in 1828. All three are near Mitford, Northumberland. Several heads of the family served as High Sheriff of Northumberland.

A junior line, with seats at Newton Park, Northumberland, and Exbury House, Hampshire, descends via the historian William Mitford (1744–1827) and were twice elevated to the British peerage, in 1802 and 1902, under the title Baron Redesdale. This branch of the family, to whom the Mitford sisters belonged, were seated at Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, and then at Asthall Manor and Swinbrook, in Oxfordshire.

The sisters gained widespread attention for their stylish and controversial lives as young people, and for their public political divisions between communism and fascism. Nancy and Jessica became well-known writers: Nancy wrote The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, and Jessica The American Way of Death (1963). Deborah managed Chatsworth House, one of the most successful stately homes in the United Kingdom.

Jessica and Deborah married nephews of prime ministers Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan, respectively. Deborah and Diana both married wealthy aristocrats. Unity and Diana were well known during the 1930s for being close to Adolf Hitler. Jessica turned her back on her inherited privileges and eloped with her cousin, Esmond Romilly, who was hoping to report on the Spanish Civil War for the News Chronicle, having briefly fought with the International Brigade. Jessica's memoir, Hons and Rebels, describes their upbringing. Nancy drew upon her family members for characters in her novels. In 1981, Deborah became politically active when she and her husband Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire, joined the new Social Democratic Party.

The sisters and their brother Thomas were the children of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife Sydney, the daughter of Thomas Bowles. To their children, they were known as "Farve" and "Muv", respectively. David and Sydney married in 1904. The family homes changed from Batsford House to Asthall Manor beside the River Windrush in Oxfordshire, and then Swinbrook Cottage nearby, with a house at Rutland Gate in London. They also lived in a cottage in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, which they used as a summer residence.

The siblings grew up in an aristocratic country house with emotionally distant parents and a large household with numerous servants. This family dynamic was not unusual for upper-class families of the time. The parents disregarded formal education of women of the family, and they were expected to marry at a young age to a financially well-off husband. The children had a private language called "Boudledidge" (/ˈboʊdəldɪdʒ/), and each had a different nickname for the others.

After the Nazi Regime started the Invasion of Poland, the Second World War began and their political views came into sharper relief. "Farve" remained a conservative who had long favoured Neville Chamberlain's approach of appeasing Nazi Germany. Once Britain declared war on Germany, he returned to being an anti-German British patriot. "Muv" continued her fascist sympathies and usually supported her fascist children. The couple separated in 1943 as a result of this conflict.