The Hon. Vivien Elisabeth Forbes Adam (1921-2002) daughter of Sir Oswald Mosley, Bt

[Michael Rhodes]

The Hon. Mrs Forbes Adam, who died suddenly at her home, 25 August,
2002, aged 81, was the eldest child, and only daughter, of the British
Fascist leader, Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet, by his first wife,
Cynthia Blanche Curzon, daughter of the 1st and last Marquess Curzon
of Kedleston, KG, PC, GCSI, GCIE.

She was born 25 February, 1921, as Vivien Elisabeth Mosley. Her
parents had married in May, 1920, and her mother died tragically early
in 1933, when Vivien was only 12.

Vivien's maternal grandfather, a Viceroy of India, who fathered three
daughters, was created, in 1911, Earl Curzon of Kedleston, with
remainder to the heirs male of his body, and Baron Ravensdale, with
remainder, in default of male issue, to his eldest daughter, Mary
Irene, and the heirs male of her body, and with remainder to his
second and third daughters successively in order of birth and the
heirs male of their bodies. He was further advanced, in 1921, to be
Marquess Curzon, with remainder to male heirs only.

With the demise of Marquess Curzon in 1925, the barony of Ravensdale
descended to his eldest daughter, a spinster. On the death of Mary
Irene Curzon in 1966, the barony passed to Vivien's brother, the
writer Nicholas Mosley, who was born in 1923.

Vivien was subsequently raised to the rank of a Baron's daughter.

She married at the Church of St-Martin-in-the-Fields, London, in
January, 1949, Desmond Francis Forbes Adam, the son of Colin Gurdon
Forbes Adam, of Skipwith Hall, Selby, Chairman of Yorkshire Post
Newspapers, by his wife, the former Hon. Irene Constance Lawley,
daughter of the 3rd Lord Wenlock, PC, GCSI, GCIE, KCB. Her father, Sir
Oswald, gave her in marriage at the ceremony.

The couple had a son, Rupert, born in 1957, and two daughters,
Cynthia, born in 1950, and Arabella, born in 1952.

The marriage ended tragically in January, 1958, when her husband was
killed in a road accident at Newark. He was 31.

Desmond Forbes Adam had been travelling from London to a family
christening in Yorkshire, when a car, in which he was a passenger,
collided with a lorry travelling in the opposite direction. He died
instantly.

The Hon. Mrs Forbes Adam had a home in London. The funeral takes place
at St Helens Church, Skipwith, Yorkshire, on Wednesday 4 September,
2002.

--
Michael Rhodes