The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family (68 page)

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

CHP
Chatsworth Papers

DD
Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire

DM
Diana Mitford (later Mosley)

DR
Lord Redesdale (David Freeman Mitford)

ER
Esmond Romilly

JLM
James Lees-Milne

JM
Jessica Mitford

NM
Nancy Mitford

OSU
Ohio State University

PJ
Pamela Mitford Jackson

RT
Robert Treuhaft

SR
Lady Redesdale (Sydney Bowles Freeman Mitford)

TM
Tom Mitford

UM
Unity Mitford

VH
Violet Hammersley

YUL
Yale University Library (Beinecke)

Introduction

1
Interview 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 author 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

1
James 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
The 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
The 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

1
Interview 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
The 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
The 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
The 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
The 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
The 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

1
Last 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.