TOM MITFORD : A FEARFUL OLD TWISTER
THE ONLY BROTHER OF THE OUTRAGEOUS MITFORD SISTERS
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It was Tom's sister, Nancy who described him as a " fearful old twister".
Tom was not a headline seeker, he “ploughed his own solitary furrow”: yet, he often faced dilemmas that tested his loyalty in the madcap actions of his close family and friends.
After schooldays at Eton College, where he made friends with the caddish Hamish St Clair Erskine, Winston’s son, Randolph Churchill & art collector/poet, Edward James, Tom studied music and law in Austria and Germany, he had great admiration for Germany, its art, language & people.
Revealing a sense of fun, he took part in the 'Bruno Hat Art Hoax' that typified the ‘Bright Young Things’ of the late 1920s, but Tom was a serious operator.
In the 1930s he trained as a barrister, was active in the Territorial Army and adored flying. He was the family’s spokesman and chaperone when his sisters went off the rails on crazy pursuits of love and Nazi leanings, giving them, it seems, his support. But beneath the façade Tom was almost certainly seething at being dragged through their infamy, but he was also uncovered as a pro-fascist.
In his own carnal affairs Tom’s behaviour could be predatory, but ever the charmer, albeit with a twisted streak, one who broke hearts with sarcasm and false promises and rightly or wrongly, faced charges of “professional bad manners” and betrayal. His letters, published here, to one old flame, the Austrian dancer, Tilly Losch, show him to be an emotionally immature, vulnerable figure, but this love affair was a long charade for them both.
A complex man, he never married. Refusing to “Kill Germans” he spent his army years of WW2 fighting in Italy, Palestine and Burma, where he died from a sniper’s bullet on 30th March 1945, leaving his family grieving over their “ very perfect son and brother”. But does he merit this epitaph?
Tom is usually only written of afterwards, in the shadow of his parents and sisters’ notorious lives, but here he takes centre stage.
This is the only full length biography of Tom Mitford.
THE MITFORD FAMILY MOTTOIMAGES FROM THE BOOK
" TOM MITFORD : A FEARFUL OLD TWISTER"
BY WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT
ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR
BY E MAIL
williecross@aol.com
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