Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor (May 19, 1879 – May 2, 1964) was a socialite politician and a member of the prominent Astor family.

Period of traumas and controversies

Unlike the 1920s, the 1930s proved to be something of a disaster for her both personally and professionally. Hints of coming problems came in 1928 when she barely defeated the Labor candidate. However in 1931 her problems became more acute as her son from her first marriage, Bobbie, had been arrested for homosexuality. He had already shown enough tendencies toward alcoholism and instability that her friend Philip Kerr, now Marquis Lothian, told her the arrest might be a good thing. She also made a disastrous speech stating that the British cricket team lost to Australians because of alcohol. Both the British and Australian teams turned against this. The signs had begun that her life would soon unravel, although she remained oblivious to them almost to the end.

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Her growing friendship with George Bernard Shaw helped her through some of these problems, but in some ways also made things worse. It had been an odd friendship as he had been very different than her in politics and personality. However he liked her as a fellow non-conformist, and she had always liked writers. The negative had been his tendency to make strange pronouncements or put her into unusual situations. Soon after Bobbie?s arrest he invited her with him on his trip to the Soviet Union. This high lighted this negative impact on her as well as her better qualities. Shaw said many flattering statements about Stalinist Russia, but Nancy often disparaged it. She even asked Stalin point blank why he slaughtered so many Russians. Therefore she criticized a genocidal regime when her intellectual friend had not. The negative came from the fact her criticisms had been translated into innocuous statements and even her question to Stalin may have been likewise translated if he had not insisted that he be told what she had actually said. Further Shaw?s rather glowing praise of the USSR made the trip seem like a coup for Soviet propaganda, which had been the motive, and made her presence in it disturbing for the Tories.

Related Topics:
George Bernard Shaw - Stalin

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The Soviet trip did not compare to what would follow. Although she had criticized the Nazis for devaluing the position of women she had been adamant against another World War. Her friends, especially Lord Lothian i.e, Philip Kerr, became heavily involved in the appeasement policy.

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Her group of friends and associates who supported appeasement became known as the "Cliveden set." The term started in the newspaper ran by reformist Claude Cockburn. However after he created the term the excitement over it grew and the allegations grew more elaborate. ?Cliveden? became viewed as the prime mover for appeasement, or a society that secretly ran the nation, or even as a beach head of Nazism. Nancy had even been viewed as being Hitler?s woman in Britain, or even having hypnotic powers.

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Evidence of these allegations is weak, but she did occasionally meet with Nazi officials in keeping with Neville Chamberlain's ideals. She told one such Nazi official, who later turned out to be trying to ruin the Nazis from within, that she supported their rearmament. However she did so because Germany was "surrounded by Catholics" in her opinion. Her other statement to them had been that Hitler looked too much like Charlie Chaplin to be taken seriously. That appears to be the extent of her Nazi connections.

Related Topics:
Neville Chamberlain - Charlie Chaplin

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Despite that her increasingly puzzling public statements caused difficulties. She became harsher in her Anti-Catholicism and Anti-Communism. After the Munich Agreement she said that if the Czech refugees fleeing Nazi oppression were Communists they should seek asylum with the Soviets instead of the British. Even supporters of appeasement felt this insult of them to be out of line. Her friend Lothian, at this point, went even further and encouraged her attitudes. He railed against the Pope for not supporting Hitler's annexation of Austria and generally influenced her attitudes.

Related Topics:
Anti-Catholicism - Anti-Communism - Munich Agreement - Nazi - Pope

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When war did come she admitted she had made a mistake, and even voted against Chamberlain, but hostility remained. Her ability to be taken seriously had greatly declined with some calling her "The Right Honorable Member from Berlin." Her own abilities as an MP had declined with age. Her increasing fear of Catholics led her to make a speech about how a Catholic conspiracy was subverting the foreign office. Her traditional hatred remained against Communists and she insulted Stalin's role as an ally during the war. Her speeches became rambling and incomprehensible. Even her enemies lamented that debating her had become "like playing squash with scrambled eggs." She had become more humorous then hateful to her enemies.

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The period from 1937 to the end of the war also saw some severe personal traumas develop. In the period of 1937-8 her sister Phyllis and only surviving brother had died. In 1940 her close friend and spiritual advisor Lord Lothian nee Philip Kerr died. Although his influence had a strong negative side, he had been her closest friend in the faith even after her husband converted. George Bernard Shaw?s wife also died about two years later. During the war she got into a fight with her husband Waldorf about chocolate and soon after he had a heart attack. The pettiness of the argument and her subsequent discomfort with his health problems likely contributed to their marriage growing cold. As in World War I she ran a hospital for Canadians, but openly expressed a preference for the vets of the previous World War.

Related Topics:
1937 - World War I

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On a briefly lighter note it is generally believed that it was Nancy Astor who, during a World War II speech, first referred to the men of the 8th Army fighting the Italian campaign as the D-Day Dodgers. Her implication that they had it easy because they were avoiding the real war in France and the future invasion. The allied soldiers in Italy were so incensed, they composed a sarcastic song to the tune of the haunting Marlene Dietrich song Lili Marlene that they called "The Ballad Of The D-Day Dodgers".

Related Topics:
World War II - Italian campaign - D-Day Dodgers - Marlene Dietrich

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