Sydney Bowles Mitford Lady Redesdale was the 'vague' mother of the famous Mitford Girls. Muv or TPOF (the poor old female) to her husband Davids Farve and TPOM. She was the daughter of Thomas Gibson-Bowles, who raised Sydney and her siblings on boats, after his wife Jessica died while in childbirth. Her father went on to start the magazines Vanity Fair and The Lady.Sydney was known to be very vague as a parent was evident in Mitford lore when young Bobo (daughter Unity) flew into her study to tell her mother that Decca (Jessica) was about to jump off the roof in a suicide attempt as a girl. Sydneys response was classic: "Oh poor duck, I hope she wont do anything so terrible." Sydney became the peace maker later in life between feuding family members, mainly Jessica VS. Diana (later Lady Mosley)and Farve VS. Jessica (after cutting her out of the will fearing she'd had over her inheritance to the Communist party). The majority of the Mitfords had taken up extremist views: Diana a Fascist, Unity a Nazi, and Jessica a communist who ran off to Spain to elope with her cousin Esmond Romilly, Churchills nephew. Exasperated at hearing daughter Nancy's romance with Col. Gaston Palewski, she droned "Why must all my daughters fall in love with dictators." Sydney spent her last years up at Inch Kenneth, an island in the Hesbrides. It is here where Unity became her life after a failed suicide attempt after war was declared between England and Germany. Unity survived for a few years living an almost childlike existence, until her death in May 1948. Long suffering from Parkinsons she began to succumb to her disease shortly after her 83rd bithday, surrounded by daughters Nancy, Pamela Jackson, Diana Lady Mosley and Deborah Duchess of Devonshire and grandson Desmond Guinness (from Dianas first Marriage to Bryan Guinness, later Lord Moyne.)and Desmond children Patrick and Marina. Daughter Jessica mourned the loss of a mother of whom she had bitterness over the years after leaving home that only was recently replaced by adoration of her Muv. Sydney always was quite fond of Deccas braveness calling her "brave little D."∼Daughter of Thomas Gibson Bowles MP
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