trenchard

Monday, May 24, 2021

Max Rufus Mosley 1940-2021

 _.Max Mosley, who died 23 May, 2021, aged 81, was a scion of the Mosley baronets, and was a British racing driver, lawyer and past president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), a non-profit association which represents the interests of motoring organisations and car users worldwide. The FIA is also the governing body for Formula One and other international motorsports.

Max Rufus Mosley was born 13 April, 1940, son of Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet [1896-1980], and his second wife the former Hon Diana Freeman-Mitford [1910-2003], one of the celebrated Mitford Sisters, scion of the Barons Redesdale.

He married 9 July, 1960, Jean Marjorie Taylor, daughter of James Taylor, of Chelsea, by whom he had issue, two sons, Alexander [1970-2009], & Patrick [born 1972].

Max Mosley was a barrister and former amateur racing driver, who was the founder and co-owner of March Engineering, a racing car constructor and Formula One racing team. He dealt with legal and commercial matters for the company between 1969 and 1977 and became its representative at the Formula One Constructors' Association (FOCA), the body that represents Formula One constructors. Together with Bernie Ecclestone he represented FOCA at the FIA and in its dealings with race organisers. In 1978, Mosley became the official legal adviser to FOCA. In this role he and Marco Piccinini negotiated the first version of the Concorde Agreement, which settled a long-standing dispute between FOCA and the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA), a commission of the FIA and the then governing body of Formula One. Mosley was elected president of FISA in 1991 and became president of the FIA, FISA's parent body, in 1993.

Mosley identified his major achievement as FIA President as the promotion of the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP or Encap). He has also promoted increased safety and the use of green technologies in motor racing. In 2008, stories about his sex life appeared in the British press, along with unfounded allegations regarding Nazi connotations. Mosley successfully sued the newspaper that published the allegations and maintained his position as FIA president. He stood down at the end of his term in 2009 and was replaced by his preferred successor, Jean Todt.

From The Times:-

Max Rufus Mosley was born in London in April 1940, weeks before his father and mother, like many other active fascists in Phoney War Britain, were interned in Holloway prison on national security grounds. Sir Oswald Mosley had been a Labour minister and a member of parliament for the Conservative Party in the 1920s but had left mainstream politics to lead the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s, a movement associated with authoritarian policies, violence towards its opponents and Nazi-style antisemitism.

After the death of his first wife in 1933, Oswald had married Diana Mitford in 1936 in a ceremony in Germany at the home of Joseph Goebbels and attended by Adolf Hitler. After his birth there were unfounded rumours in the press that Mosley was the son of Hitler and Unity Mitford, one of Diana’s five sisters. Unity was obsessed with Hitler and died in 1948, nine years after shooting herself in the head with a pistol given to her, for her own protection, by Hitler.

The young Mosley started life being looked after by a governess and being allowed only occasional visits to his parents in prison...

...After his parents’ release in 1943 to considerable public outrage, the family moved between a succession of country houses in England where Mosley and his elder brother, Alexander, were tutored at home...

While at Oxford Mosley married Jean Taylor, the daughter of a policeman from Streatham in south London, who survives him. ...  the biggest price he paid was the loss of his eldest son, Alexander, who died of a drug overdose at the age of 39... In addition to Alexander they had another son, Patrick, who leads a private life.

Max Mosley, racing driver, lawyer and former president of the FIA, was born on April 13, 1940. He died of cancer on May 23, 2021, aged 81

-=-

No comments: