Oswald Mosley

Who was Oswald Mosley?

Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet of Ancoats was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists. He was a Member of Parliament for Harrow from 1918 to 1924, for Smethwick from 1926 to 1931 and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Labour Government of 1929–31, a position he resigned due to his disagreement with the Labour Government's unemployment policies. He then formed the New Party which merged with the BUF in 1932. Although relatively well funded, Mosley often overemphasized intellectual fine points that appealed to few voters, opposed free trade and associated closely with Nazi Germany. Mosley was interned in 1940 and the BUF was proscribed. He was released in 1943, and politically disillusioned in Britain he moved abroad in 1951, spending most of the remainder of his life in France.