Biography of Unity Valkyrie Mitford 1914-1948

In February 1904 [her father] David Freeman-Mitford 2nd Baron Redesdale (age 25) and [her mother] Sydney Bowles (age 24) were married.

On 8th August 1914 Unity Valkyrie Mitford was born to [her father] David Freeman-Mitford 2nd Baron Redesdale (age 36) and [her mother] Sydney Bowles (age 34).

On 17th August 1916 [her grandfather] Algernon Freeman-Mitford 1st Baron Redesdale (age 79) died. His son [her father] David (age 38) succeeded 2nd Baron Redesdale of Redesdale in Northumberland.

6th February 1929. The Sketch. The marriage of Mr. Bryan Guinness (age 23), son of the Hon. Walter Guinness, to the Hon. [her sister] Diana Mitford (age 18), third daughter of Lord and Lady Redesdale, was solemnised at St. Margaret's, Westminster [Map]. The lovely nineteen-year-old bride was attended by eleven bridesmaids.

Note. Her sisters [her sister] Nancy (age 24) and Unity (age 14) were two of the eleven bridesmaid. Her younger sisters [her sister] Jessica Lucy Mitford (age 11) and [her sister] Deborah Vivien Mitford Duchess Devonshire (age 8) were unwell but threw rice as her car passed.

6th January 1932. The Sketch. Photograph of sisters [her sister] Nancy Mitford (age 27), Unity Valkyrie Mitford (age 17), [her sister] Jessica Lucy Mitford (age 14) and [her sister] Diana Mitford (age 21).

11th September 1935. Daily Mirror. ‘Daughter [Unity Valkyrie Mitford (age 21)] of Peer Nazi Guest of Honour.'

5th April 1939. Tatler. Unity Mitford (age 24) (centre), pictured 15 months after returning to England.

1st December 1939. Daily Mirror. Miss Unity Mitford (age 25), pro-Hitler daughter of Lord Redesdale, has been shot by the Gestapo, according to reports from Paris. It is stated that she demanded to return to England after stormy scenes with Hitler, and that the German secret police feared she might ‘talk.' Hitler, says the reports, had told her many secrets, but after war began she began to lose her admiration for him. Himmler and his Gestapo hated her. They envied her influence with the Fuehrer. Whether Hitler knew of her execution, or even gave the order for it, may be a secret forever, the reports declare.

2nd January 1940. Daily Mirror. the ‘Hitler-admiring daughter (age 25) of Lord Redesdale, is expected back in England today.'

On 19th April 1941 [her brother-in-law] Andrew Cavendish 11th Duke Devonshire (age 21) and [her sister] Deborah Mitford (age 21) were married. He the son of Edward William Spencer Cavendish 10th Duke Devonshire (age 45) and Mary Alice Gascoyne-Cecil Duchess Devonshire (age 45).

At the commencement of their honeymoon Deborah ‘stopped the car when starting on her honeymoon and registered at a small Labour Exchange for National Service,' as per The Sketch.

Before 31st August 1945. William Acton (age 39). Portrait of Unity Valkyrie Mitford (age 31).

On 28th May 1948 Unity Valkyrie Mitford (age 33) died of meningitis caused by the cerebral swelling around the bullet that had lodged in her brain after she had shot herself in December 1939.