![]() ![]() He was commissioned as a lieutenant and served as a logistics officer in Flanders, gaining a mention in despatches for his bravery at the Second Battle of Ypres (although there is no available record of this), where his elder brother Clement was killed. On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Mitford immediately rejoined the Northumberland Fusiliers. His daughter Unity Valkyrie Mitford stated that she was conceived in Swastika and shared this fact with Hitler upon becoming one of his British confidants. The Mitfords travelled regularly to Canada, where Mitford owned a gold claim near Swastika, Ontario: no gold was ever found there, but he enjoyed the outdoor life. For a time his father-in-law employed him as manager of The Lady, but Mitford showed no interest in, or talent for, this work. She was the daughter of Thomas Gibson Bowles, a journalist and Conservative MP, who in 1863 had founded the magazine Vanity Fair, and some years later the women's magazine The Lady. In February 1904, Mitford married Sydney Bowles (1880–1963), whom he had first met ten years previously, when he was 16 and she was 14. After his return, he was back as a regular lieutenant in his regiment in July 1902, but resigned from the army three months later, in October 1902. He was seconded to serve with the 40th (Oxfordshire) Company of the Imperial Yeomanry, and returned to the United Kingdom in April 1902. In May 1901 he was appointed aide-de-camp to Lord Methuen, a senior commander during the war, and on 10 August 1901 he was promoted to lieutenant. He was briefly taken prisoner by the Boers in June 1900 but escaped. ![]() His battalion served in the Second Boer War in South Africa, where Mitford soon joined in the fighting, in which he served with distinction and was wounded three times, losing one lung. In early 1900, he returned to England from Ceylon, and on he joined the Northumberland Fusiliers as a second lieutenant. However, he failed the entrance examination to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was instead sent to Ceylon to work for a tea planter. His lack of academic aptitude meant that he was not sent to Eton, with his older brother, but rather to Radley, with the intention that he should enter the army. However, he read most of his daughters' books. He later liked to boast that he had read only one book in his life, Jack London's novel White Fang, on the grounds that he had enjoyed it so much he had vowed never to read another. He was totally uninterested in reading and education and wished only to spend his time riding. ![]() As a child, he was prone to sudden fits of rage. Mitford's legendary eccentricity was evident from an early age. David Mitford, as the family commonly used the surname 'Mitford' by itself, and not the full 'Freeman-Mitford'. He was raised to the peerage in 1902, and so his son became known as the Hon. His father was a diplomat, politician and author, with large inherited estates in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and Northumberland. Redesdale was the second son of Algernon Bertram Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale, and Lady Clementine Gertrude Helen Ogilvy, daughter of David Ogilvy, 10th Earl of Airlie. Redesdale's great-great-grandfather was the historian William Mitford. The Mitfords are a family of the landed gentry, originally from Northumberland, whose history dates back to the 14th century. ( October 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. The neutrality of this article is disputed.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |