History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

The charismatic, but controversial politician Sir Oswald Mosley was born in Mayfair in 1896. He came from a wealthy aristocratic family in Staffordshire who until 1846 were lords of the manor of Manchester. After serving in WWI, he married Cynthia ‘Cimmie’ Curzon, daughter of the Foreign Secretary in 1920 and their wedding guests included King George V and Queen Mary. After a period in the Conservative Party and then the Labour Party, Mosley started his own New Party in March 1931, but it failed to secure any seats at the general election that October.  Following the rise of Fascism in Germany and Italy, and after meeting Mussolini, Mosley set up the British Union of Fascists (BUF) on 1 October 1932 at 12 Great George Street. That year he began an affair with Diana Mitford who was married to Bryan Guinness. After the death of Cimmie in April 1933, Mosley married Diana in Berlin on 6 October 1936 at the home of Josef Goebbels, with Hitler as the guest of honour. However, Mosley look...

          Gaetano Meo (copyright Tom Gordon-Craig) Looking at this photograph of Gaetano Meo, it may come as a surprise to learn that as a young man he was a favourite model of London’s leading Pre-Raphaelite painters. We first encountered him when researching ‘The Good Grave Guide to Hampstead Cemetery’, where he is buried. This is the story of his life in London, and the lives and loves of some of his family members.   From Italy to London Around 1865, Gaetano arrived in London as an illegal immigrant, smuggled into the country aboard a freighter from France. He was born on 15 December 1849 in southern Italy, to Rocco and Francesca Meo. Tradition has it that all the Meo family were musicians, including Gaetano who played the harp. An alternative but less credible version (given we know most family members did play instruments well), claims Gaetano was sold by his cash-strapped parents to gypsies, who taught him to play.  Gaetano left Italy in M...