Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet

Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician who rose to fame in the 1920s as a Member of Parliament and later in the 1930s became leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF).[1] Mosley inherited the title 'Sir' by virtue of his baronetcy; he was the sixth baronet of a title that had been in his family for centuries.[2]

After military service during the First World War, Mosley was one of the youngest Members of Parliament, representing Harrow from 1918 to 1924, first as a Conservative, then an independent, before joining the Labour Party. At the 1924 General Election he stood in Birmingham Ladywood against future Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, coming within 100 votes of beating him.

Mosley returned to Parliament as Labour MP for Smethwick at a by-election in 1926 and served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Labour Government of 1929–31. He was considered a potential Labour Prime Minister but resigned due to discord with the Government's unemployment policies. He chose not to defend his Smethwick constituency at the 1931 general election, instead unsuccessfully standing in Stoke-on-Trent. Mosley's New Party became the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932.

Mosley was imprisoned in May 1940, and the BUF was banned. He was released in 1943 and, politically disgraced by his association with fascism, moved abroad in 1951; he spent the majority of the remainder of his life in Paris. He stood for Parliament during the post-war era but received very little support.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Mosley

'Worst' historical Britons named

• Oswald Mosley continued to have "a pernicious impact on our society" as an inspiration for far-right groups in the UK, according to Professor Joanna Bourke of London's Birkbeck College.
  
• "On his death in 1980, his son Nicholas concluded that his father was a man whose 'right hand dealt with grandiose ideas and glory' while his left hand 'let the rat out of the sewer'.
  

Links

• Oswald Mosley at Wikipedia
• Oswald Mosley at nmdb
• http://ww2gravestone.com/people/mosley-oswald-ernald/