Editing Nancy Mitford (section)

===First years===
Responsibility for Nancy Mitford's day-to-day upbringing was delegated to her nanny and nursemaid, within the framework of Sydney's short-lived belief that children should never be corrected or be spoken to in anger. Before this experiment was discontinued, the young Nancy Mitford had become self-centred and uncontrollable; Hastings writes that her first years were "characterised by roaring, red-faced rages".<ref>Hastings, p. 9.</ref> Just before her third birthday, a sister, [[Pamela Mitford|Pamela]], was born; the nanny's apparent change of loyalty in favour of the new arrival was a further source of outrage to Mitford, and throughout their childhood and into young adulthood she continued to vent her displeasure on her sister.<ref name=Hastings10>Hastings, p. 10.</ref>

In January 1909 a brother, [[Tom Mitford|Tom]] was born, and in June 1910 another sister, [[Diana Mitford|Diana]], followed.<ref name=Hastings10/> That summer, to relieve the pressure on what was becoming an overcrowded nursery, Nancy Mitford attended the nearby [[Francis Holland School]]. The few months she spent there represented almost the whole of her formal schooling; in the autumn the family moved to a larger house in [[Victoria Road, Kensington|Victoria Road]], [[Kensington]], after which Nancy was educated at home by successive [[governess]]es.<ref name=odnb>{{ODNBweb |first=Selina |last=Hastings |title=Mitford, Nancy Freeman- (1904–1973) |origyear=2004 |year=2015 |edition=online |id=31450 }}</ref> Summers were spent at the family's cottage near [[High Wycombe]], in [[Buckinghamshire]], or with the children's Redesdale grandparents at Batsford Park.<ref>Hastings, pp. 15–17.</ref> In the winter of 1913–14 David and Sydney visited Canada, prospecting for gold on a claim that David had purchased in [[Swastika, Ontario]]. It was here that their fifth child was conceived, a daughter born in London on 8 August 1914 and christened [[Unity Mitford|Unity]].<ref>Lovell, p. 32.</ref>