Mosley, Sir Oswald Ernald, 1896-1980, British fascist leader. He entered (1918) Parliament as a Conservative, became (1922) an independent, and then joined (1924) the Labour party. He was junior minister in the Labour government of 1929 but resigned (1930) when the cabinet rejected his economic proposals. In 1931 he founded another socialist party, the New party, but it received little support, and Mosley began to drift toward fascism. He organized (1932) the British Union of Fascists, modeled upon the German and Italian fascist parties.

Married first to Lady Cynthia Curzon, daughter of Lord Curzon, after her death he married (1936) his mistress, Diana Mitford Guinness (1910-2003), sister of the writers Jessica and Nancy Mitford. Diana and another sister, Unity Freeman-Mitford, were friends of Hitler. Until after the outbreak of World War II, Mosley conducted a speech-making campaign of vilification and abuse, directed largely against the Jews. In 1940 he and his wife were interned. They were released in 1943. After the war Mosley attempted to revive his movement. As an unsuccessful candidate in the election of 1959 he called for an end to nonwhite immigration.

Mosley, Walter, 1952-, African-American author, b. Los Angeles. He was a computer programmer until his first novel, the bestselling mystery Devil in a Blue Dress (1990; film, 1995), was published. A noirish tale of the search for a missing blonde in a seedy, corrupt 1948 Los Angeles, it introduces Mosley's smart, decent, and streetwise black detective, Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, a World War II veteran with a jaundiced view of the racist, money-fueled justice system. Mosely's subsequent mysteries move Rawlins forward in time; they include A Red Death (1991), Black Betty (1994), the short stories of Six Easy Pieces (2003), Little Scarlet (2004), and Cinnamon Kiss (2005). A versatile and prolific author, Mosley has written other mysteries, e.g., Fearless Jones (2001); literary fiction, e.g., RL's Dream (1995) and Fortunate Son (2006); science fiction, e.g. Blue Light (1998) and Futureland (2001); and nonfiction, e.g., Workin' on the Chain Gang (2000) and Life Out of Context (2006).

Not to be confused with Moseley or Mosely

Mosley is a family name.

The Mosley family were the lords of the manor of Manchester, England until 1846. They subsequently became wealthy landowners in Staffordshire. Famous family members included:

• Sir Oswald Mosley (1896–1980), leader of the British Union of Fascists
• Lady Cynthia Mosley (1898–1933), his first wife.
• Nicholas Mosley (born 1923), novelist, their eldest son.
• Diana Mosley (1910–2003), his second wife (née Diana Mitford)
• Max Mosley (born 1940), their son, president of FIA

Other people with the family name Mosley include:

• Edward Mosley, frontier trader in the United States in the 1850s
• Ian Mosley (born 1953), drummer in the band Marillion
• Karla Cheatham Mosley (born 1981), American actress
• Lacey Mosley (born 1981), American vocalist for the band Flyleaf
• Roger E. Mosley (born 1938), American television actor
• Shane Mosley (born 1971), American World boxing triple-champion at lightweight, welterweight and light middleweight
• Timothy Z. Mosley (born 1971), known as Timbaland, American hip hop producer and rapper
• Walter Mosley (born 1952), American crime fiction writer

Mosley may also mean:

• Mosley, Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States