| Description | This series consists of personal and formal correspondence organised according to either the identity of the sender or the subject matter discussed. It comprises letters from pupils at 'The Links' boarding school in Eastbourne dating between about 1916 and 1918; letters from officers and other ranks serving in the 1914-1918 war; letters from members of the Belgian royal family dating between 1915 and 1931; letters and other papers relating to visits to France that Oswald and Cynthia Mosley made during the 1920s; largely formal correspondence relating to Oswald and Cynthia Mosley's tour of India in 1925; largely formal correspondence relating to Oswald and Cynthia Mosley's tour of the United States of America in 1926; correspondence from friends, politicians, constituents and members of the public relating to Cynthia Mosley's political speeches and broadcasts between 1927 and 1930.
Letters from Cynthia's school friends, from the majority of her correspondents serving in the First World War, and from the Belgian royal family primarily concern personal and social affairs, but the First World War letters obviously also contain information about the progress and impact of the war, and some letters from Cynthia's school friends also contain references to the impact of the war on people on the Home Front. Letters and papers relating to visits to France by the Mosleys reveal details about the couple's social life, involving foreign travel, shopping and extensive leisure time; by contrast, letters relating to Oswald and Cynthia Mosley's tours of India and the United States of America, to view labour conditions in both countries, provide evidence of their interest in the Labour movement and in socialist politics, even before Cynthia became a Labour MP in 1929. Correspondence relating to Cynthia's speeches and broadcasts gives a further indication of her developing political views and interests after her election as MP. |
| Arrangement | Most of this correspondence was clearly kept in some kind of order by Cynthia Mosley. Much of the formal correspondence includes annotations in Cynthia's handwriting, suggesting that she kept a record of replies and acknowledgements. However, it has not been possible to discover whether the correspondence was sorted into subject files by Cynthia, or whether this was done by Nicholas Mosley in the process of the research for his biography of his parents, 'The Rules of the Game'. The only set of letters that was certainly filed by subject by Cynthia herself is the correspondence from her schoolfriends.
The volume of correspondence from Cynthia's schoolfriends, and from friends and acquaintances serving in the First World War has necessitated the creation of two sub-series for letters from each of these two groups. Within these sub-series, there are separate files of correspondence with named individuals. The arrangement of the remainder of the correspondence sorted by subject has been preserved, with separate files for each subject. |