Max Mosley - Family and Early Life

Family and Early Life

Sir Oswald Mosley was a Labour minister, and a Member of Parliament for both the Conservative and Labour parties in the 1920s. By the 1930s, he had left mainstream politics and become the leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF). His first wife died in 1933, and in 1936 Sir Oswald married Diana Mitford, in a ceremony in Germany attended by Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler. Max was born in London in April 1940 during the early days of the Second World War. In May, Sir Oswald, who had campaigned for a negotiated peace with Nazi Germany, was interned by the British Authorities under Defence Regulation 18B, along with most other active fascists in Britain. Lady Mosley was imprisoned a month later. Max and his brother Alexander were not included in this internship and as a result were separated from their parents for the first few years of their lives. In December 1940, then-prime minister Winston Churchill, who knew Lady Mosley socially, asked Home Secretary Herbert Morrison to ensure Lady Mosley was able to see Max—whom she had christened Entschlossener (determined one)—regularly.

Sir Oswald and Lady Mosley were released from detention at HMP Holloway on 16 November 1943, provoking widespread public protests. Their children were refused entry to several schools, due to a combination of their wildness and their parents' reputation, and were initially tutored at home. The family moved to a succession of country houses in England. Mosley's older half-brother Nicholas describes the family, including Sir Oswald’s children from his first marriage, spending the summer of 1945 getting the harvest in and shooting at Crowood Farm. In 1950, the Mosleys bought houses in Ireland, and in Orsay, near Paris. They spent the year moving around Europe, spending the spring in France and the autumn and winter in Ireland, where Mosley was keen on riding and hunting. His aunt Nancy Mitford, in letters to Evelyn Waugh, recalled Sir Oswald and his family cruising the Mediterranean Sea on the family yacht. On one such trip they visited Spain and were entertained by Sir Oswald's friend, General Franco.

Initially Mosley was educated in France, then at the age of 13 he was sent to Stein an der Traun in Germany for two years, where he learned to speak fluent German. On his return to England he was educated at Millfield, an independent boarding school in Somerset. He attended Christ Church at Oxford University, graduating with a degree in physics in 1961. During his time there he was Secretary of the Oxford Union. In 1961, Mosley campaigned under the slogan "Free speech for fascists", when his father's invitation to speak at the Union was opposed. Shortly afterwards, Mosley introduced his father to Robert Skidelsky, one of Mosley's contemporaries at the university, who later wrote Sir Oswald's biography. Rejecting an early ambition to work as a physicist after "establishing that there was no money in it", Mosley went on to study law at Gray's Inn in London, specialising in patent and trademark law, and qualified as a barrister in 1964. Northumbria University awarded Mosley an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law in 2005. During the early 1960s, Mosley was a member of the Territorial Army, training as a parachutist.

Mosley, like many of Formula One's drivers, lives in Monaco. On 9 June 1960 he married at the Chelsea Register Office Jean Taylor, the daughter of James Taylor, a policeman from Streatham. In 1970 their first son, Alexander, was born and in 1972 their second son, Patrick. On 5 May 2009, Alexander, a restaurateur, was found dead at his home. He was thirty-nine. At an inquest on 10 June 2009 the Westminster coroner declared that he had died due to heroin intoxication.

In addition to his full-brother Alexander, Mosley has five older half-siblings. On his father's side they are Vivien Mosley (1921–2002), novelist Nicholas Mosley, 3rd Baron Ravensdale, and Michael Mosley (born 1932). On his mother's side they are merchant banker Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne, and Irish preservationist Desmond Guinness.