Sgurr wrote:Unity Valkyrie Freedom Mitford died at the West Highland hospital in Oban having previously shot herself in the English Garden in Munich.
(She must have chosen the "Valkyrie" for herself. )
The sequence in the picture clue is
1. By an odd coincidence, Unity was conceived while her parents were living in a Canadian town called Swastika, in 1913
2 By another odd coincidence, she was christened Valkyrie because the Mitford family knew Richard Wagner
3 To the horror of the rest of her family, including her socialist-leaning sisters Nancy and Jessica, she joined the Fascist “Blackshirt” movement and had a long and close (but probably platonic) relationship with Adolf Hitler.
4. She wanted peace between Britain and Germany: when war was declared she went to the English Garden and shot herself in the head, but survived, and was taken back to the UK.
5. In 1948 she was on a family holiday on Inch Kenneth, near Mull, and developed a meningitis infection around the bullet wound.
6.She was taken to the West Highland Cottage Hospital at Oban, but died soon after admission.
A cautionary tale - “don’t be a Nazi, it will get into trouble. Even if your name is Valkyrie.”
Over to you Sgurr
Tim
