Unity Mitford

Unity Valkyrie Freeman-Mitford (8 August 1914 – 28 May 1948) was a British socialite, known for her relationship with Adolf Hitler. Both in Great Britain and Germany, she was a prominent supporter of Nazism, fascism and antisemitism, and belonged to Hitler's inner circle of friends. After the declaration of World War II, Mitford attempted suicide in Munich by shooting herself in the head. She survived but was badly injured. She was allowed safe passage back to England but never recovered from the extensive brain damage. She died from meningitis related to the bullet in her brain. Unity was a member of the Mitford family, and all of her siblings achieved fame and/or notoriety. Childhood Unity Mitford was the fifth of seven children born in London to David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife, Sydney (1880–1963), daughter of Thomas Gibson Bowles, MP. (The Mitford family is an aristocratic family tracing its origins in Northumberland back to the 11th-century Norman settlement of England.) Unity Mitford was conceived in the town of Swastika, Ontario, in Canada, where her family had gold mines. Her siblings were Nancy (1904–1973), Pamela (1907–1994), Thomas (1909–1945), Diana (1910–2003), Jessica (1917–1996), and Deborah (1920–2014), later the Duchess of Devonshire. The Mitford children lived at Asthall Manor in Asthall, Oxfordshire, and Unity was educated at St Margaret's School, Bushey.