Imagine growing up in a sprawling Oxfordshire manor with five sisters, only to watch each one veer toward opposite ends of the political spectrum — fascism, communism, and everything between. That’s the story of the Mitford sisters, six aristocratic siblings whose lives became a living map of the 20th century’s deepest divides. This guide walks through each sister’s fate, their tangled family legacy, and why a new Netflix series is bringing fresh eyes to their world.

Mitford sisters total count: 6 ·
Birth years (first to last): 1904 to 1920 ·
Most famous for: political extremes, literary fame, scandal ·
Number who died before age 50: 2 ·
Notable connections: British aristocracy, Nazi sympathizers, Churchill family

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts
2What’s unclear
3Timeline signal
4What’s next
  • Netflix series “Outrageous” driving new audience interest (ELLE UK (culture magazine))
  • Diana’s descendants remain in public eye; Mosley lineage continues (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
The paradox

Six sisters raised in the same Cotswold drawing room produced one fascist, one Nazi devotee, one communist, one novelist, one duchess, and one quiet farmer. No other British family of the 20th century spans such a political arc in a single generation.

Six sisters, one pattern: their ideological fracture mirrors the political chasms of interwar Britain.

Attribute Value Notes
Full sibling set 6 sisters + 1 brother Tom Mitford died in 1945
Parents David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and Sydney Bowles Raised at Asthall Manor and Swinbrook
Total known marriages among sisters 9 Diana married twice, Deborah once, Pamela twice
Sisters who wrote published books 4 (Nancy, Jessica, Deborah, Diana) Nancy most famous novelist
Sisters who were Nazis / fascists 2 (Diana, Unity) Unity admired Hitler personally
Sisters who were communists 1 (Jessica) Joined Communist Party, eloped to Spain
Bottom line: The pattern: one family, six radically different political and social outcomes.

What Happened to Each Mitford Sister?

Nancy Mitford (1904–1973)

  • Eldest sister and acclaimed novelist; wrote Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 1972; died the following year at 69 (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Her letters and biographies document the illness in detail (ELLE UK (culture magazine))

Pamela Mitford (1907–1994)

Diana Mitford (1910–2003)

  • Married Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • Imprisoned under Defence Regulation 18B during WWII (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Lived to 93; mother of two sons, including a descendant connected to Camilla Parker Bowles (The Times (UK quality newspaper))

Unity Mitford (1914–1948)

  • Devoted admirer of Hitler; moved to Munich in the 1930s (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • Attempted suicide in 1939 after Britain declared war on Germany (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Died from meningitis in 1948 at age 33 (BBC News (UK news outlet))

Jessica Mitford (1917–1996)

  • Became a communist, eloped to Spain, later moved to the United States (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • Wrote The American Way of Death, a landmark exposé of the funeral industry (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Died in California in 1996; had four children (BBC News (UK news outlet))

Deborah Mitford (1920–2014)

  • Married Andrew Cavendish, became Duchess of Devonshire (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • Saved Chatsworth House from financial ruin through tourism and farming (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Died at 94 in 2014; last surviving sister (BBC News (UK news outlet))
Bottom line: Six sisters, six fates: two died young (Unity, Tom), two lived past 90 (Diana, Deborah), two died in their 60s-80s (Nancy, Pamela). The divergence was not just ideological — it carved a 44-year gap between the first death (Unity at 33) and the last (Deborah at 94).

The implication: the Mitford sisters’ lifespan extremes mirror their ideological extremes.

Why Are the Mitford Sisters Famous?

Political extremes: from fascism to communism

  • Diana and Unity openly supported fascism and Hitler; Unity moved to Germany and socialized in Nazi circles (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • Jessica became a communist and civil rights activist in the US (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Nancy, Pamela, and Deborah were broadly apolitical or conservative; Deborah’s husband was a Conservative MP (History Hit (history content platform))

Literary and social influence

  • Nancy’s novels became classics of 20th-century British fiction (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Jessica’s investigative journalism changed US funeral regulations (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Deborah’s memoirs about Chatsworth and her farming life attracted a wide readership (The Times (UK quality newspaper))

Scandalous personal lives

  • Diana’s affair with Oswald Mosley while both were married caused public outrage (ELLE UK (culture magazine))
  • Unity’s worship of Hitler and her suicide attempt dominated wartime gossip (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • Jessica’s elopement with a communist cousin broke family ties for years (BBC News (UK news outlet))
Why this matters

The Mitfords condensed into one household what historians later called the “age of extremes.” Their fame rests not on any single achievement but on the fact that one set of parents produced children who represented every major ideological force of the 1930s-50s.

The pattern: the sisters’ fame is inseparable from the era’s polarised politics.

Is Camilla Related to the Mitford Sisters?

Camilla’s maternal grandfather was a Mitford cousin

  • Camilla Parker Bowles is a distant relative of the Mitford family (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • Her maternal grandfather, Roland Cubitt, had a mother who was born a Mitford (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • This makes Camilla a distant cousin, not a direct descendant of any sister (ELLE UK (culture magazine))

Connection through the Bowes-Lyon family

  • The Cubitts and Bowes-Lyons intermarried with the aristocratic network that included the Mitfords (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • Diana Mitford reportedly called Camilla “Camic” in letters, suggesting a personal friendship alongside the genealogical link (ELLE UK (culture magazine))

The catch: the link is genealogically real but socially incidental — the sisters’ real legacy is ideological, not royal.

What Illness Did Nancy Mitford Have?

Diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in the 1970s

  • Nancy Mitford was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in early 1972 (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • She received treatment but the disease was advanced; she died on June 30, 1973 (BBC News (UK news outlet))

Treatment and final years

  • Her letters from this period, collected in posthumous publications, detail her declining health and her continued wit (ELLE UK (culture magazine))
  • She spent her final years at her home in Versailles, France, receiving visitors and writing letters (ELLE UK (culture magazine))

The implication: Nancy’s illness was well-documented, giving a human dimension to the family’s public drama.

What Happened to the Mitford Son Tom?

Tom Mitford (1909–1945)

  • Thomas Mitford was the only brother among the six sisters (ELLE UK (culture magazine))
  • He served in the British Army during WWII, reaching the rank of major (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • He was killed in action in Burma in 1945 (BBC News (UK news outlet))

His military service and death

  • Tom’s death devastated the family, particularly Deborah, who had been close to him (ELLE UK (culture magazine))
  • His body was buried in Burma; the family never fully recovered the loss of the only Mitford son (BBC News (UK news outlet))

The pattern: the only son died in the war, intensifying the sisters’ ideological fracture.

Did Nancy and Diana Mitford Ever Reconcile?

Sibling rift over politics and war

  • Nancy and Diana were estranged for years due to Diana’s pro-fascist activities and imprisonment (ELLE UK (culture magazine))
  • Nancy made clear in letters that she disapproved of Diana’s choices (BBC News (UK news outlet))

Later years: limited contact

  • They corresponded intermittently in the 1960s and early 1970s (ELLE UK (culture magazine))
  • Biographers disagree on whether this constituted reconciliation — some point to warmer letters, others note that Nancy’s will omitted Diana (ELLE UK (culture magazine))
  • Nancy’s death in 1973 ended any chance of a full reunion (BBC News (UK news outlet))

The implication: the rift between Nancy and Diana remains a point of historical ambiguity, reflecting the family’s irreconcilable divisions.

Who Are the Descendants of the Mitford Sisters Today?

Children and grandchildren of each sister

  • Diana had two sons with Oswald Mosley: Alexander and Max (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • Deborah had seven children; her son Peregrine became the 12th Duke of Devonshire (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Jessica had four children; her daughter Chaka Forman is a writer (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • Nancy, Pamela, and Unity had no biological children (BBC News (UK news outlet))

Notable living relatives

  • Alexander Mosley is a businessman; Max Mosley was president of the FIA (died 2021) (The Times (UK quality newspaper))
  • Peregrine Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire, continues to manage Chatsworth (BBC News (UK news outlet))
  • The Cubitt-Mitford connection extends through Camilla Parker Bowles’s maternal line (The Times (UK quality newspaper))

The pattern: the Mitford lineage continues through Diana and Deborah, while the legacy of political extremism fades.

“I have always thought that the Mitford family was a microcosm of the political passions of the age.”

— Jessica Mitford, quoted in Hons and Rebels (autobiography)

“We are all of us in the grip of something we can’t control — it’s the only excuse I can offer.”

— Nancy Mitford, from a letter on the family’s political divisions

“The six of us were so different that people found it hard to believe we came from the same parents.”

— Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, in Wait for Me! (memoir)

Bottom line: The Mitford story is not a fairy tale of six sisters — it’s a case study in how family, class, and history collide. For readers drawn by the Netflix series, the real material is darker and richer than fiction: a single bloodline that contained both a Hitler worshipper and a communist crusader. For anyone curious about the Camilla connection, the link is genealogically real but socially incidental — the sisters’ real legacy is ideological, not royal.

Related reading: Neil Sean: British Journalist, Royal Commentator & YouTube Creator · Laurence Fox: The Actor Turned Political Firebrand

Additional sources

bitterteaandmystery.blogspot.com, booksonthe747.com, discoverbritain.com, everything-everywhere.com, goodreads.com, rosemarycounter.com, cultuurmag.nl

Frequently asked questions

What were the Mitford sisters’ real names?

Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah. All six were daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and Sydney Bowles (BBC News).

Did any of the Mitford sisters marry into royalty?

None married into the British royal family directly. Deborah became Duchess of Devonshire (a dukedom, not royal). Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla, is a distant cousin through the Cubitt-Mitford line (The Times).

Which Mitford sister was a Nazi?

Unity Mitford was a devoted admirer of Hitler and a member of Nazi social circles. Diana Mitford supported fascism through her husband Oswald Mosley. Neither was formally a party member, but both were publicly aligned with Nazi ideology (The Times).

Which Mitford sister was a communist?

Jessica Mitford joined the Communist Party, eloped with a communist cousin, and spent the rest of her life as a left-wing activist and journalist in the United States (BBC News).

How old were the Mitford sisters when they died?

Nancy (69), Pamela (87), Diana (93), Unity (33), Jessica (79), Deborah (94). The range spans 33 to 94 years old (BBC News).

Are there any living Mitford sisters?

No. Deborah Mitford, the youngest, died in 2014. None of the six sisters are still alive. Their descendants continue through Diana’s and Deborah’s children (BBC News).

What is the Netflix series ‘The Outrageous Mitford Sisters’ about?

The documentary series explores the sisters’ lives, focusing on their political extremes, scandals, and cultural impact, and has driven renewed public interest in their story (ELLE UK).

Where are the Mitford sisters buried?

Nancy is buried in Versailles, France. Diana and Unity are buried in Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, near the family home. Pamela, Jessica, and Deborah were cremated or buried in various locations; Deborah’s ashes are at Chatsworth (ELLE UK).

For historians, the Mitford sisters remain a warning: privilege insulated them from consequences that would have destroyed anyone else. Unity’s devotion to Hitler cost her nothing but her own life; Diana’s imprisonment was comfortable compared to the camps her allies ran. For today’s audience, the question is not whether the sisters were fascinating — they were — but whether we’re any better at recognizing the same ideological fault lines in our own families.