Editing Unity Mitford (section)

==Early life==
Unity Mitford was the fifth of seven children born in London to [[David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale]], and his wife, Sydney, daughter of [[Thomas Gibson Bowles]]. The [[Mitford family]] is an aristocratic family tracing its origins in [[Northumberland]] back to the 11th-century [[Norman conquest of England|Norman settlement of England]]. She was the niece of [[Winston Churchill]].<ref name="wch1">{{cite news |url=https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/unity-mitford-family/ |title=Unity Mitford: Her Diary, Her Fetish and Her Family |date=27 January 2025 }}</ref>

Mitford was, coincidentally, conceived in Canada in the town of [[Swastika, Ontario]], where her family had gold mines.<ref Name="HBG"/><ref>Lovell, Mary. (2003) ''The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family''. Norton. p. 33; {{ISBN|0-393-32414-1}}</ref><ref name="np">{{cite news |last1=Hopper |first1=Tristin |title=The Nazi from Swastika, Ont.: How Canada's most unusually named town spawned a notorious Hitler fangirl |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-nazi-from-swastika-ont-how-canadas-most-unusually-named-town-spawned-a-notorious-hitler-fangirl |access-date=26 November 2021 |publisher=National Post |date=31 January 2017}}</ref>  Her siblings were [[Nancy Mitford|Nancy]] (1904–1973), [[Pamela Mitford|Pamela]] (1907–1994), [[Thomas Mitford|Thomas]] (1909–1945), [[Diana Mitford|Diana]] (1910–2003), [[Jessica Mitford|Jessica]] (1917–1996), and [[Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire|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]].

It has been speculated that Unity turned to Nazism as a way to distinguish herself within the family. As Dalley states: "I think the desire to shock was very important, it was the way that she made herself special. When she discovered Nazism and discovered that it was a fantastic opportunity to shock everybody in England she'd discovered the best tease of all."<ref Name="HBG2"/>

[[Diana Mosley]]'s biographer, Jan Dalley, believes that "Unity found life in her big family very difficult because she came after these cleverer, prettier, more accomplished sisters."<ref Name="HBG2">{{YouTube|SvUeVhu6ANo|"Hitler's British Girl", Part Two. Channel 4 Documentary 2007. Video}}. Accessed 26 August 2010.</ref> While another biographer, [[David Pryce-Jones]], added: "If you come from a ruck of children in a large family, you've got to do something to assert your individuality, and I think through the experience of trying to force her way forward among the sisters and in the family, she decided that she was going to form a personality against everything."<ref Name="HBG2"/><ref name="britishGirl">{{cite news|title=[[Hitler's British Girl]]|year=2007|publisher=Channel 4}}</ref> 

Unity's younger sister, Jessica, with whom she shared a bedroom, went to the opposite end of the political spectrum, since she became a dedicated [[communist]].<ref name="theTimes"/> The two drew a chalk line down the middle to divide the room. Jessica's side was decorated with [[hammer and sickle]]s and pictures of [[Vladimir Lenin]], while Unity's was decorated with [[swastika]]s and pictures of [[Adolf Hitler]]. Dalley commented, "They were kids virtually, you don't know how much it was just a game, a game that became deadly serious in later life."<ref Name="HBG2"/><ref name="britishGirl"/>