The Mitford Girls

by Mary S. Lovell

  Dinky, whom he adores, flies regularly from the East Coast to visit him as he feels he could no longer tolerate East Coast winters. Just before I visited them they had had a rare disagreement. Bob had referred to her in conversation as ‘my step-daughter’. Dinky took him to task: ‘You’re the only father I’ve ever known,’ she pointed out.

  In Dinky’s generation other descendants of the sisters, too, have made significant successes of their lives. Debo’s son ‘Stoker’ has been chief steward of the Jockey Club, while her elder daughter Emma is a talented artist and has been for many years the head of National Trust Gardens. Diana’s second son Desmond has devoted his life, and financial support, to the Irish Georgian Society, which he founded and which has saved countless eighteenth-century buildings, architectural features and artefacts. He has lectured all over the USA for forty years on the subject. Her son Max is president of the international organisation which governs Formula One motor-racing, and Debo and Diana each has a granddaughter who is a supermodel.

  Debo and Diana are the sole survivors of the sisters. Diana celebrated her ninetieth birthday in 2000. When the Temple with its large gardens became too much for her to cope with she sold it, and now lives quietly in her light, airy apartment in the heart of Paris. Her sitting room is at tree-canopy level and overlooks a huge walled garden that once belonged to Napoleon’s mother. With the full-length windows open in the summer, it is hard to believe it is only a few minutes’ walk to the roar of the Place de la Concorde. Although Diana is very deaf, state-of-the-art hearing-aids enable her to enjoy the regular visits of friends, whom she entertains with customary style and charm, and her large family of grandchildren and great-grandchildren are never far away. Looking back over her life when interviewed for this book she said, ‘We all seem to have gone from disaster to disaster, yet I look back on my life, except prison, as being happy, and so lucky.’25

  Debo is equally family-minded, but for her there is no hint of retirement although her stewardship of Chatsworth is a full-time job that would defeat many a younger person. She still appears to have all the energy and liveliness that so characterized the Mitford sisters, and recently Andrew said in the popular TV series Great Estates, ‘My wife is far more important to Chatsworth than I am.’ This modesty is typical of the Duke. In fact, all the important decisions concerning the running of the estate have always been taken by him, though in recent years he has been assisted in this work by his son, Stoker. In addition, Andrew has taken his position in the county very seriously. Apart from his time as Member of Parliament, he was for a time Mayor of Buxton, and there is scarcely an organization in Derbyshire, large or small, from village cricket clubs to the Mothers’ Union and the boards of major public institutions such as hospitals, that has not benefited in some way from his personal support.

  But ‘the house’, as Chatsworth is known locally, has been Debo’s responsibility for over fifty years now. The building that had such a hangdog air when the war ended now looks glossy and well cared-for. This has not happened automatically, and the huge cost of running Chatsworth has to be earned by making the house and the estate pay their way. Chatsworth has always been among the leading stately homes in terms of annual visitors, but what impresses those who pay to see it is not just its grandeur - it is one of the great treasure houses of Europe - but the sense that it is a family home and not a museum.26 Debo cannot understand this, saying that it is a mixture of hotel and museum and that, after all, ‘The family do not live in the state rooms.’ Nevertheless, she has created an unmistakable ambience of warmth and friendliness, based on what she learned from Sydney. This does not simply apply indoors: the sense of belonging that Andrew and Debo have engendered among the huge staff, some of whom are in the third and fourth generation at Chatsworth and feel they are part of ‘the family’, permeates everywhere, even to the car parks where Debo’s flocks of chickens - especially the stately Buff Cochins - scratching about in the sun have now become almost as famous as the house itself.

  With no business training Debo is now a seriously successful entrepreneur, not only overseeing the commercial activities of Chatsworth but for some years serving as a director on the board of an international company where her opinions were greatly valued.27 From the start she and Andrew were determined to make Chatsworth self-sufficient and it is a matter of personal pride that they have never asked for any government grants. A long-term renovation programme costing half a million pounds per annum concentrates on a major project each year and the work is carried out during the winter months when the house and its hundred-acre garden are closed to the public. When the house is open the full-time staff is supplemented by a small army of local volunteers who enjoy the sense of history of the house and being associated with its treasures. The famous Chatsworth Archive is available to scholars and researchers, and the Duchess is generous in allowing charities to use the house for functions. Several major events, such as country fairs and horse trials, are held annually, attracting tens of thousands of visitors.

  When the house was first reopened to the public in the 1950s staff were often asked where they could buy souvenirs so Debo and her housekeeper organized a trestle table to sell matches and postcards. From this small beginning sprang a sizeable trade in souvenirs, books and high-quality items for the home, such as cushions, knitwear, porcelain and hand-made furniture. The famous Chatsworth Farm Shop sells estate produce, and queues form early each morning for new-laid fresh eggs from the Duchess’ free-range hens. In recent years a healthy mail-order business has been added, and in the summer of 2000 Debo opened a London branch of the farm shop, which is already as busy as the one on the estate. The half-dozen picnic tables and chairs, originally put out to serve cups of tea to visitors, have evolved into a series of cafés and restaurants, and a highly profitable commercial-catering concern. In the last decade the retail and catering business has increased fifteenfold and Debo now runs a substantial and extremely profitable business, ‘And there is no detail of the organization in which Her Grace is not intimately involved,’ a member of staff told me. The house, the retail and catering spin-offs now support the estate, rather than the other way round, and it all helps to secure the future of Chatsworth. Debo said recently that she and Andrew ‘set out to leave Chatsworth in better heart than we found it’. Without doubt they have succeeded in this aim.

  It is this remarkable energy, joie de vivre and self-confidence that enabled all the Mitford sisters to take up their own individual causes with such fervour, making their lives so unique that they have now become almost creatures of mythology. If Hitler had never come to power we might never have heard of them outside Society columns or book-review pages, for Nancy was always going to be a writer and Decca, too, was a born wordsmith. Debo and Diana are undeniably able to write well - well enough, certainly, to produce bestselling books - but their writing was a side-dish to the main course of their lives. It was the opposing political forces of Fascism and Communism that lit the tinder of the girls’ lives and set alight fires that propelled them from the ordinary to the extraordinary, and made them household names.

  And despite the portrait of Sydney promoted by Nancy’s books and Decca’s account of her unhappy adolescence, it is clear that much of their attitude to life was engendered by their mother, who allowed them freedom to develop while always being there to support in moments of crisis. In reply to his letter of condolence after David’s death, Sydney wrote to James Lees-Milne that she thought often of ‘the happy days when you were all young and David and I had the children all around us. I was lucky to have those perfectly happy years before the war. Isn’t it odd how, when one looks back at that time, it seems to have been all summers?’28

  SOURCE NOTES

  Abbreviations used in citations

  Introduction 1Interview with Lord Longford at the House of Lords, May 2000.

  2 Nancy Mitford; Diana Mosley and Unity Mitford. See Bibliography.

  3 See Chapter 19.

  4 DM to the a
uthor January 2001.

  5 He was full brother to Caroline Bradley’s Cornishman.

  6 Rene Wayne Golden, who represented Decca’s interests on a number of occasions in respect of screen rights.

  7 As a result the film rights to the book (Straight on till Morning) were sold but the proposed film was never made. Plans are now in hand by Warner Bros to make a film based partially on the book, with Beryl Markham’s memoir West with the Night, and other biographical material.

  8 Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

  9 By US writer/journalist Peter Sussman.

  Chapter 1: Victorian Roots, 1894-1904 1James Lees-Milne, obituary of Sydney, Lady Redesdale; The Times, 28 May 1963.

  2 ‘Barty’ was probably a contemporary pronunciation of Bertie, although in some contemporary diaries and letters he is referred to as ‘Barty’.

  3 Redesdale, Sydney, ‘The Dolphin’ an unpublished memoir, p. 1. Jessica Mitford Papers. OSU/1699.

  4 Bowles, Thomas Gibson, The Log of the Nereid (Simpkin, Marshall & Co, 1889).

  5 Guinness, Jonathan and Catherine, The House of Mitford (Hutchinson, 1984), p. 221.

  6 Rita Shell, known as ‘Tello’. Tello would have several children by Thomas Gibson Bowles. These children were given his name and looked after financially, although he never married their mother. After Sydney and Weenie grew up, and no longer needed a governess, Tello worked in a senior position at the Lady for many years. Sydney was always fond of Tello and knew about her half-brothers.

  7 Telephone interview with Julia Budworth, 31 August 2000.

  8 House of Mitford, p. 186

  9 Sydney and her brother George were both painted as children by Millais; it is thought that George was probably the sitter for Millais’ Cherry Ripe, one of the most popular images in Victorian England and used on the top of many chocolate boxes in the early part of this century.

  10 House of Mitford, p. 221.

  11 Ibid.

  12 Budworth, Julia, Never Forget - A Biography of George F. Bowles (privately published, 2001), p. 182.

  13 JM in interview: Chicago Tribune, 23 October 1977.

  14 Julia Budworth, conversation with the author, 31 August 2000.

  Chapter 2: Edwardian Afternoon, 1904-15 1Interview with Diana Mosley, Paris, 2000.

  2 Diana Mosley, letter to the author, 1 August 2000.

  3 Guinness, Jonathan and Catherine, The House of Mitford (Hutchinson, 1984), p. 230.

  4 Ibid. p. 154.

  5 In her father’s book The Log of the Nereid (Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1889), Sydney hardly warrants a mention, but every baby utterance of Weenie is pounced upon and included to illustrate the cleverness and humour of his youngest child. The dedication reads: ‘To Captain Weenie (aged 3) whose splendid impatience of discipline and entire want of consideration for others, absolute contempt of elders, complete devotion to her own interests, endeared her to the crew of the Negroid, this book is dedicated by her doting father.’ Sydney’s grandson, Jonathan Guinness, who has written an excellent biography of his great-grandparents in The House of Mitford, told me, ‘The key to Sydney is her father.’

  6 Mitford, Nancy, The Water Beetle (Hamish Hamilton, 1962), p. 8.

  7 House of Mitford, p. 166.

  8 James Lees-Milne, ‘Obituary of Sydney, Lady Redesdale’, The Times, 28 May 1963.

  9 OSU: NM to JM, 13 October 1971. Diana and Debo say they never heard this story, and think it ‘unlikely’.

  10 House of Mitford, p. 166.

  11 Ibid.

  12 Governor of the Bank of England from 1920-44, he wielded immense influence in international monetary affairs throughout those troubled decades.

  13 See House of Mitford, p. 249; also, Mary Soames, Speaking for Themselves (Doubleday, 1998), p. 4.

  14 Ibid.

  15 For the full story of the romance between Elizabeth of Austria and Bay Middleton, see John Welcome, The Sporting Empress (Michael Joseph, 1975). Captain Middleton broke his neck steeple-chasing in 1892.

  16 Blanche confided this secret to Lady Londonderry at Aix where she had gone to be confined. See Lees-Milne, James, Caves of Ice (John Murray, 1983), p. 129.

  17 Interview with Constancia ‘Dinky’ Romilly, October 1999. Decca believed that Esmond was Churchill’s son. When Giles had a mental breakdown and committed suicide in 1967, Decca said to Nancy that she hoped it didn’t run in the family on account of Dinky’s children. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Nancy told her. ‘Everyone knows Esmond is Winston’s son and the mad streak came from Col. Romilly.’ See OSU/1568, JM to DD, 26 October 1995.

  18 ‘Puma’: Frances Mitford Kearsey, David’s eldest sister, 1875-1951.

  19 House of Mitford, p. 234

  20 The Water Beetle, p. 13.

  21 The cottage belonged to Lord Lincolnshire. Sydney Redesdale bought it from him shortly after the end of the First World War.

  22 Interview with DD, May 2000.

  23 David never had an entrenching tool. Diana recalls that they heard as children that Sir Ian Colquhoun had one over his fire which gave Nancy the idea.

  24 Duchess of Devonshire, My Early Childhood (privately published, 1995), p. 3.

  25 Rosemary Bailey and Julia Budworth.

  26 Julia Budworth, telephone conversation with the author, August 2000.

  27 DD, in conversation with the author, Chatsworth, 2 April 2000.

  28 DD, The Mitford Glow’, OSU 1710.

  29 The late Pamela Jackson, in informal conversation with the author, c. 1986.

  30 Mitford, Nancy, The Pursuit of Love (Hamish Hamilton, 1945), p. 11.

  31 My Early Childhood, p. 7.

  32 Mosley, Diana, A Life of Contrasts (Hamish Hamilton, 1977), p. 9.

  33 Budworth, Julia, Never Forget - A Biography of George F. Bowles (privately published, 2000), p. 155.

  34 House of Mitford, pp. 155-6.

  35 That is, Mosaic Law.

  36 The child was Unity. Interview with DD, Chatsworth, May 2000.

  37 His grandson, the famous Dr Cyriax of Harley Street, used many of the same techniques.

  38 Murphy, Sophia, The Mitford Family Album (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985).

  39 Leasor, James, Who killed Sir Harry Oakes? (Sphere, 1985), pp. 12-13.

  40 OSU/1697, SR to JM, 8 August 1937.

  41 The Water Beetle, p. 5.

  42 Bournhill Cottage on the Eaglehurst Estate (at Lepe, Hampshire), which then belonged to the Marconi family.

  43 ‘They looked identical but talked quite differently’, OSU/1565, JM, sundry note.

  44 OSU/1697, JM to her parents, September 1926.

  45 Duchess of Devonshire, ‘Hastings’: article in an unidentified magazine.

  46 Obituary, Lord Redesdale, The Times 26 March 1958, and a subsequent letter to the Editor from Brigadier H.H. Sandilands.

  47 Soames, Mary (ed.) Speaking for Themselves (Doubleday, 1998), p. 122: Clementine Churchill to Winston S Churchill, ‘Helen Mitford dined here 2 nights ago - her baby is 5 weeks old. She is heartbroken that it is not a boy. She is 23 & her hair is grey, which looks so odd with her young face.’

  Chapter 3: Nursery Days, 1915-22 1Last Will and Testament: the Rt Hon. Algernon Bertram, Baron Redesdale, GCVO, KCB.

  2 Guinness, Jonathan and Catherine, The House of Mitford (Hutchinson, 1984), p. 251.

  3 Obituary, Pamela Jackson, The Times, 19 April 1994.

  4 Butler, Lucy (ed.), Letters Home (John Murray, 1991), p. 107.

  5 DM, interview with the author, Paris, January 2000.

  6 OSU/1701, JM to DR, 9 February 1932.

  7 Duchess of Devonshire, My Early Childhood (privately published, 1995), p. 7.

  8 Ibid., p. 1.

  9 Ibid.

  10 Ibid.

  11 OSU, MS of ‘Mitford Country Revisited’, July 1982, p. 3.

  12 OSU/1637, JM to DD, 5 March 1990.

  13 OSU/1697, PM to SR, 24 June 1925.

  14 OSU, Lady Beit (formerly Clementine Mitford) to JM, 13 July 1973.

&nbs
p; 15 Interview with Rosemary Bailey, Westwell, April 2000.

  16 In other words, the appointment of the clergyman.

  17 OSU/1637, JM to DD, 28 February 1987.

  18 The legend tells of a medieval wedding party where the guests played a game of hide-and-seek. The young bride went off to hide and could not be found though the poor frantic bridegroom tore the house apart. A century later her skeleton was found, clad in the remains of her bridal finery. She had hidden away, curled up in a heavy old wooden chest decorated with the wood of a mistletoe bough; the lid had slammed shut and locked itself.

  19 OSU/1565, JM, sundry note, 1 June 1995.

  20 See also Murphy, Sophia, Mitford Family Album (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985), pp. 37-8.

  21 OSU/1698, SR to JM, 16 May 1968.

  22 Mitford, Jessica, Hons and Rebels (Victor Gollancz, 1960), p. 13.

  23 Mitford Family Album, plate.

  24 In Hons and Rebels, p. 13, Decca says Tom was given the name Tuddemy ‘partly because it was the Boudledidge translation of Tim, partly because we thought it rhymed with “adultery”’.

  25 Ibid., pp. 13-14.

  26 OSU/812, unpublished MS.

  27 Hons and Rebels, p. 23.

  28 DD, interview with the author, Chatsworth, June 2000.

  29 Hons and Rebels, p. 14

  30 Founded by Charlotte Mason in 1887, PNEU has been particularly valuable for military families and those travelling abroad. No matter where the child was taught they could always ‘drop back’ into the system at whatever level they had reached. Mason founded PNEU because of the widely held belief that ‘it was unnecessary to educate girls’ and her credo was that ‘the child is more complex than the sum of its parts’. Christian ethics is at the base of the curriculum, which concentrates on English and includes maths, science and biology, history and geography, music, dance, art appreciation and play.