She Who Dares by Lyndsy Spence

Author:Lyndsy Spence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press

No woman ever carried a title more justly, more nobly. She is first, last and always, a woman – sympathetic, divinely intuitive, intelligent, utterly charming. To meet her is to recognise one’s superior in every degree of living. Her name would not be complete without a title before it.12

The happiness Irene found with the children and her charity work was overshadowed by difficulties in her private life. Her beloved dog, Winks, at the age of 15 had come to the end of his lifespan, and having treated him like a child, she was distraught. She wrote in her diary, ‘My love lay with his paws and head dozing on my lap and he looked up at me and pressed his wet nose up against me and I kissed him goodbye.’13 There was also a new admirer in her life, Nevile Henderson, who was head of the mission in Belgrade and soon-to-be British ambassador to Nazi Germany. Although he was kind and attentive and, more importantly, not married, Irene thought him slow and boring, and she attacked those qualities. The only remedy to such problems was a three-month cruise to the Americas, followed by the Far East. When she reached Colombo, a letter from Baba was waiting with the news that Mosley had invited Diana to stay at Savehay Farm, the home he had shared with Cimmie. She also received word that her Shilling Theatre Company had folded. And Nevile had written to say he had made up his mind and that she would not be a suitable wife. The letter from Nevile did little to stir Irene, and she felt relieved. However, the thought of the children staying under the same roof as Diana troubled her and she ended her cruise in Monte Carlo and returned to England. The homecoming was timely, as Irene worried about the children’s future and the freedom with which Mosley spent their money. Consulting with her lawyer, she proposed to oversee the distribution of the children’s money, as it would prevent Mosley from having access to it. Diana had recently begun to bring her two sons, Jonathan and Desmond Guinness, with her to Savehay Farm. To Irene it was reminiscent of Curzon and Grace, and she feared Mosley planned to spend the children’s money on his mistress and her children. She was further troubled by the rumour told to her by the nanny that Mosley had spoken of hiring a governess to care for the Mosley and Guinness children, which would remove Irene from the picture.

During this period Irene accepted an invitation from the German government to attend the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Given her stance on Mosley and the BUF, she initially declined and later wrote in her memoirs, ‘I did not want to be the guest of the German Government.’ When she learned that many distinguished guests were attending the games, she agreed to go. Baba would also be there, along with Diana, though not together, and Irene observed a different Germany than that of Mosley’s two mistresses.

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