David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale

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David Freeman-Mitford in 1915.
Lord and Lady Redesdale.

David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale (13 March 1878 – 17 March 1958) was a British aristocrat, hereditary Peer, soldier, and landowner. He was the father of the famous Mitford sisters, in whose various novels and memoirs he is depicted.[1][2] The Mitfords are said to have come to England with William the Conqueror[3] and held considerable estates in Northumberland, notably Newton Park in Redesdale, the ancient family seat being Mitford Castle (now a ruin), as well as others in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.

Family

David, 2nd Baron Redesdale, was the second but eldest surviving son of Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale (1837-1916)[4], the famous diplomat and author, and his wife Lady Clementina Gertrude Helen Ogilvy, who was an aunt of Clementine, wife of Sir Winston Churchill. Born in his father's London town house in St.Luke's parish, Chelsea, he had an illustrious pedigree: his father and grandfather were renowned scholars, and his paternal grandmother's father was George, 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, K.G. (1760-1839). David's mother was the daughter of the 5th Earl of Airlie (1826-1881). In 1886 David's father inherited the Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, estates of his distant cousin John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Earl of Redesdale, who died unmarried when his titles became extinct. A condition of the inheritance was that he adopt the surname "Freeman-Mitford". Algernon Mitford assumed the additional surname of Freeman by Royal License in 1886, and was subsequently created Baron Redesdale (the second creation.[5]). David appears in his father's family in the 1881 England and Wales Census at their London house in Chelsea, aged 3[6], and again in the 1891 Census when they are at their country seat in Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, he now being aged 14[7]. In 1916 David and his family moved to the family's smaller country house at Asthall Manor, in Oxfordshire. That was sold in Autumn 1926, and Lord Redesdale moved to a smaller estate at Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, where he had a new country house built. At the same time he bought a large London house at 26 Rutland Gate in Knightsbridge.

David inherited his father's hereditary title in 1916 which automatically gave him a seat in the House of Lords.

Military service

David Freeman-Mitford served in the South African War 1899-1902 and was a Lieutenant in the Northumberland Fusiliers 1901-1902. David rejoined this regiment on the outbreak of The Great War and served as a logistics officer in Flanders, gaining a mention in despatches for his bravery at the Second Battle of Ypres 22 Apr to 25 May 1915. His elder brother Clement was killed in the Battle of Loos between 24 Sep and 14 Oct of the same year.

Political position

Like his wife, Lord Redesdale endorsed National Socialist Germany during the 1930s, their argument being that they were doing wonders for Germany. During this period almost all the Mitfords were regularly in Germany and met Hitler.[8] Redesdale was, however, a British patriot, and after Britain again declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, he renounced the National Socialists, which his wife refused to do leading to their estrangement.[9]

Marriage and children

Lord & Lady Redesdale and their children at Swinbrooke House, Oxfordshire, 1930.

Lord Redesdale married his wife, Sydney, daughter of Thomas Gibson Bowles, Member of Parliament and his spouse Jessica, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Samuel Evans-Gordon, on 6 February, 1904, in St George's Hanover Square, London. (Sydney was born on 10 May 1880 at Inchmerry House nr. Exbury in Hampshire.) They become the parents of the famous 'Mitford Sisters', with one son, Major Thomas David Freeman-Mitford, who was killed in action in Burma in WWII.

The children of Lord Redesdale and Sydney née Bowles:

  1. Nancy Freeman-Mitford (28 Nov 1904 - 1973), authoress & historian.
  2. Pamela Freeman-Mitford (25 Nov 1907 - 1994)
  3. Major Thomas David Freeman-Mitford (2 Jan 1909 - 30 Mar 1945)
  4. Hon. Diana Freeman-Mitford, Lady Mosley, (17 Jun 1910 - 11 Aug 2003), authoress.
  5. Hon. Unity Valkyrie Freeman-Mitford (8 Aug 1914 - 28 May 1948)
  6. Hon. Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford (11 Sep 1917 - 1996), authoress.
  7. Hon. Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire (31 Mar 1920 - 24 Sep 2014).

Following his separation from his wife during WWII she moved to Inch Kenneth, an island the family owned in Scotland's Western Isles. However, in March 1958, Lady Redesdale, Deborah and Diana decided to go to Redesdale for Lord Redesdale's eightieth birthday as he had been unwell. Diana related how happy he was to see them, his wife in particular: "All their differences forgotten, they seemed to have gone back twenty or more years to happy days before the tragedies." Lord Redesdale died in Redesdale Cottage on his Northumberland estate in 1958 with them at his bedside.[10] He was buried near their old home, in St Mary's Churchyard, Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, where his wife would finally join him upon her death from Parkinson's Disease in 1963. Nearby are the graves of their daughters Nancy (1904-1973), Unity (1914-1948), Jessica (1917-1996) and Diana (1910-2003).

Sources

  1. ↑ Guinness, Jonathan, 3rd Baron Moyne, and Catherine Guinness: The House of Mitford: Portrait of a Family, Hutchinson & Co., publishers, 1984, ISBN: 0-09-155560-4
  2. ↑ Mitford, Nancy, Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1980, ISBN: 0-241-10510-2.
  3. ↑ Burke, Esq., John, A Genealogical & Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, vol.ii, London, 1835, p.282.
  4. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor, Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th edition, vol.2, Crans, Switzerland, 1999, p.2382, ISBN: 2-940085-02-1
  5. ↑ The first creation was on 15 February 1802 for John Mitford, second son of John Mitford (d.16 May 1761), of Newton Park, Northumberland, & Exbury, Hampshire. See Cockayne, G. E. C., The Complete Peerage, vol.X., London, 1945, p.659-760.
  6. ↑ 1881 Census: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q273-4C41
  7. ↑ 1891 Census: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WG1R-HPZ
  8. ↑ Dalley, Jan, Diana Mosley: A Life, Faber & Faber, London, 1999, p.177-9 ISBN: 0-571-14448-9.
  9. ↑ Dalley, 1999, p.240.
  10. ↑ Mosley, Diana, A Life of Contrasts (autobiography), Gibson Square Books, 2003, p.225-6, ISBN: 1-903933-20-X.
  • Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed, and Official Classes, 29th annual edition, London, 1903, p.1048.
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