Third Quarter 1989 • Number 64

Third Quarter 1989 • Number 64
Churchill in the Garden at Number Ten, by N. Nolin, Courtesy The Wall Street Journal
INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETY • AUSTRALIA • CANADA • NEW ZEALAND • UK • USA
THE RT. HON. SIR WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL SOCIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
or.
NO. 64 • THIRD QUARTER 1989 • ISSN 0882-3715
Published quarterly by The International Churchill Society and The Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Spencer Churchill Society of B.C.
ARTICLES
THE INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETY
From the Canon: Thoughts While on the Brink
4
The World Crisis, 1914; The Gathering Storm, 1939
by Winston S. Churchill
Poetry: Whom the Gods Require
7
Winston Spencer Churchill: Fifty Years On
by Charles Morgan
The End of the Beginning
The Things They Say About the Official Biography
Excerpts from the Reviews; Our Review of the Reviews
11
The Churchills: A Literary Family Tree
The Titles of a Many-Lettered Family
by Daniel J. Lenehan
16
The Dream (4)
"And Bring a Friend — If You Have One"
by Meredith Greisman
20
The Education of a Statesman
Churchill's Literary Allusions
by Darrell Holley
22
Sir Winston Churchill Scholarship Foundation
24
SIR WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL SOCIETY
by Harvey Hebb, M.D.
Revisionist Revised: Francis Neilson
A Critique of His Review of "Closing the Ring"
by Stanley B. Smith
DEPARTMENTS
Founded in 1964, the Society works to ensure that Sir Winston's ideals
and achievements are never forgotten by succeeding generations. All
members of the B.C. Branch are automatic ICS members, while ICS
membership is optional to members of the Edmonton and Calgary
Branches. Activities include banquets for outstanding people connected
with aspects of Sir Winston's career; public speaking and debating competitions for High School students, scholarships in Honours History, and
other activities.
PATRON
The Lady Soames, DBE
25
ICS HONORARY MEMBERS
~
Thoughts and Adventures/3 International Datelines/8 Despatch
Box/18 Book Reviews/21 Churchill in Stamps/26 Action This
Day/28 Riddles, Mysteries, Enigmas/30 ICS Stores/31 "Trivia" &.
"Woods Corner" will reappear next issue.
FINEST HOUR
Editor: Richard M. Langworth (tel. 603-7464433 days)
Post Office Box 385, Contoocook, New Hampshire 03229 USA
Senior Editors: John G. Plumpton (tel. 416-497-5349 eves)
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7 Auriol Dr., Bedhampton, Hampshire PO9 3LR, England
Cuttings Editor. John Frost (tel. 01-440-3159)
8 Monks Ave, New Barnet, Herts., EN5 1D8, England
Contributors:
George Richard, 7 Channel Hwy, Taroona, Tasmania, Australia 7006
Stanley E. Smith, 155 Monument St., Concord, Mass. 01742 USA
Derek L. Johnston, Box 33859 Stn D, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6J 4L6
Produced by Dragonwyck Publishing Inc.
A non-profit association of scholars, historians, philatelists, collectors
and bibliophiles, the Society was founded in 1968 to promote interest in
and knowledge of the life and thought of Sir Winston Churchill, and to
preserve his memory. ICS is a certified charitable organisation under the
laws of Canada and the United States, is Affiliate #49 of the American
Philatelic Society, and is a study unit of the American Topical Association. Finest Hour subscriptions are included in a membership fee, which
offers several levels of support in four different currencies. Membership applications and changes of address welcomed at the business office listed on
page 3. Editorial correspondence: PO Box 385, Contoocook, NH 03229
USA. Permission to mail at non-profit rates granted by the United States
Postal Service. Produced by Dragonwyck Publishing Inc. Copyright ©
1989. All rights reserved.
YousufKarsh.OC
The Marquess of Bath
The Duke of Marlborough, DL, JP
Winston S. Churchill, MP
Martin Gilbert, MA
Sir John Martin, KCMG, CB, CVO
Grace Hamblin, OBE
Anthony Montague Browne, CBE, DFC
Robert Hardy, CBE
The Lady Soames, DBE
Pamela C. Harriman
Wendy Russell Reves
James Calhoun Humes
Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger, GBE
Mary Coyne Jackman, BA, D.Litt.S.
In Memoriam:
The Baroness Clementine Spencer-Churchill of Chartwell, 1977
Randolph S. Churchill, 1968
Harold Macmillan, Lord Stockton, 1986
The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 1979
W. Averell Harriman, 1986
Dalton Newfield, 1982
The Lord Soames, 1987
Oscar Nemon, 1985
Sir John Colville, 1987
ICS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
= ex-officio
Australia: Peter M. Jenkins
Canada: George E. Temple, Ronald W. Downey, Celwyn P. Ball,
Murray W. Milne, Frank Smyth*, John G. Plumpton*
New Zealand: R. Barry Collins
United Kingdom: Geoffrey J. Wheeler, Richard G. G. Haslam-Hopwood
United States: Merry N. Alberigi, Derek Brownleader, William C. Ives,
Wallace H. Johnson, George A. Lewis, Richard H. Knight, Jr.,
David A. Sampson
D I R E C T O R Y
WHAT LIES AHEAD . . .
ICS BUSINESS OFFICES
Australia: Peter M. Jenkins, (03) 700.1277
8 Regnans Av., Endeavour Hills, Vic. 3802
Canada: Celwyn P. Ball, (506) 386-8722
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hlew Zealand: R. Barry Collins
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UK: David Merritt (0342) 327754
24 The Dell, E. Grinstead, W.Sx. RH19 3XP
United States: Derek Brownleader, (504) 292-3313
1847 Stonewood Dr., Baton Rouge, La. 70816
Chairman of the Board: Wallace H. Johnson
1650 Farnam St., Omaha, Neb. 68102 USA
Telephone (402) 346-6000
Vice Chairman/Canadian Afrs: George Temple
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Executive Director: Richard M. Langworth
Putney House, Hopkinton, NH 03229 USA
Telephone (603) 746-4433 • FAX (603) 746-4260
CHURCHILL SOCIETY OF B.C.
Frank Smyth, President
2756 Pilot Drive
Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada V3C 2T4
ICS CHAPTERS
Chicago: Ambassador Paul H. Robinson Jr.
135 S. LaSalle St., Chicago, IL 60603
Illinois: William C. Ives
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Connecticut: Harvey William Greisman
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Indiana: Robert Alan Fitch
417 Vine St., Madison, IN 47250
Nosfwille: Richard H. Knight, Jr.
167 Charleston Park, Nashville, TN 37205
New Brunswick: Celwyn P. Ball
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New Mexico: Cdr. Larry M. Kryske, USN
3416 La Sala del Este NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111
hlew York City: Alfred J. Lurie
450 E. 63rd St, Apt 8A, NY, NY 10021
No. California: Merry N. Alberigi
PO Box 624, San Anselmo, CA 94960
No. Ohio: William Truax
25 Easton La., Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
hlo. New England: Jon S. Richardson
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No. Texas: David A. Sampson
5603 Honey Locust Tr., Arlington, TX 76017
Toronto: John G. Plumpton
130 Collingsbrook Bl, Agincourt, ON M1W 1M7
SPECIAL OFFICERS
Bibliography: Ronald I. Cohen
4280 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Flat 3,
Westmount, P.Q., Canada H3Z 1K6
Commemorative Cows: Dave Marcus
221 Pewter La, Silver Spring, MD 20904 USA
ICS Stores: Sue Ellen Truax
25 Easton La, Chagrin Falls, OH 44022 USA
It has been difficult producing everything I have contracted to produce
for ICS this year, owing to the sheer volume: record-size Finest Hours, the
1987 Proceedings, the Chartwell Bulletins, the 1988 Proceedings; and hosting
the 1989 Churchill's Europe Tour. We are slowly catching up — as the
proximity of this issue to the last one suggests — and I have only two immediate goals: producing the fourth quarter issue immediately after the
holidays; and producing (when I can fit it in) the 1988 Proceedings. This
booklet will be distributed to all members and will contain addresses
heard by ICS and the Churchill Society of British Columbia — who have
stalwartly supported this mutual effort by presenting automatic ICS
membership to each of their members year after year for the past five
years. The contents will therefore include the 1988 speeches of Lord
Blake (Vancouver), Alistair Cooke (Bretton Woods) and the Rt. Hon. J.
Enoch Powell (Burford Bridge, UK); the papers presented by four professors at Bretton Woods; and the text of Martin Gilbert's 1987 Vancouver speech, which we were not able to publish in full in the 1987 Proceedings. (Incidentally, the 1987 Proceedings, and most other individual
ICS publications, along with back issues of Finest Hour, are available from
ICS Stores in Ohio; refer to the inside back cover, page 31.)
UK ELECTIONS
In Finest Hour 62 we announced that Geoffrey Wheeler, chairman of
ICS/UK, had been succeeded by David Porter; in Finest Hour 63 we announced that this proclamation was premature; now in issue 64 we announce again that Geoffrey Wheeler has been succeeded by David Porter.
In addition, UK members meeting in London on August 19th elected a
committee of several interested persons, along with David Merritt as
Secretary and Mark Weber as Treasurer. The official office of ICS/UK is
that of David Merritt and is listed in the column at left.
ICS/UK has also become an autonomous, independent, not-for-profit
organisation. Its Committee have contracted with ICS/USA to supply
Finest Hour and individual booklet publications to all present UK
members in the same manner as at present. We wish ICS/UK and its new
committee well, and look forward to a long and fruitful association.
CHURCHILLIANA BY THE POUND
I have greatly tried the patience of longtime member Joan A. Pearson
by at least twice failing to mention the availability of her fine Churchilliana — brass, china, glassware — to members at very attractive
prices, far below the inflated numbers I see in places like the West End. By
way of begging her indulgence I have promised to mention this prominently "up front," and the most forward position I can find is page 3.
So, if members care to write to Joan Pearson, Kiltearn House, Hospital
Street, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5RL, England - or telephone (0270)
628892 — they will be rewarded by a series of very interesting lists of unique memorabilia.
PROJECT '90
John Plumpton toils as I write on our 1940-1990 Calendar, which will
be out by the end of the year. A very large supply is being printed, and
calendars will be offered free to schools and libraries, even in quantities of
20 or 30 to high school history classes. If you are a teacher, or can interest
a teacher in such a supply, all we require is a letter on school stationery
formally requesting the calendars, which we will gladly supply. Write the
editor.
—R.M.L.
rom tke C anon:
Thoughts While
On the Brink
BY WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
The World Crisis
1914
A
S EARLY as Tuesday, 28 July 1914, I felt that
the Fleet should go to its War Station. It must go
there at once, and secretly; it must be steaming to the
north while every German authority, naval or military, had the greatest possible interest in avoiding a
collision with us. If it went thus early it need not go
by the Irish Channel and north-about. It could go
through the Straits of Dover and through the North
Sea, and therefore the island would not be uncovered
even for a single day. Moreover, it would arrive
sooner and with less expenditure of fuel.
At about 10 o'clock, therefore, on the Tuesday
morning I proposed this step to the First Sea Lord
and the Chief of the Staff and found them wholeheartedly in favour of it. We decided that the Fleet
should leave Portland at such an hour on the morning
of the 29th as to pass the Straits of Dover during the
hours of darkness, that it should traverse these waters
at high speed and without lights, and with the utmost
precaution proceed to Scapa Flow. I feared to bring
this matter before the Cabinet, lest it should mistakenly be considered a provocative action likely to
damage the chances of peace. It would be unusual to
bring movements of the British Fleet in Home Waters
from one British port to another before the Cabinet. I
only therefore informed the Prime Minister, who at
once gave his approval. Orders were accordingly sent
to Sir George Callaghan, who was told incidentally to
send the Fleet up under his second-in-command and
to travel himself by land through London in order
that we might have an opportunity of consultation
with him.
Admiralty to Commander-in-Chief Home Fleets.
28 July 1914. Sent 5 p.m.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, the First Fleet is to leave
Portland for Scapa Flow. Destination is to be kept
Churchill by Guthrie, a painting contemporary with the years
of the World Crisis. (Scottish National Portrait Gallery)
secret except to flag and commanding officers. As
you are required at the Admiralty, Vice-Admiral 2nd
Battle Squadron is to take command. Course from
Portland is to be shaped to southward, then a middle
Channel course to the Straits of Dover. The
Squadrons are to pass through the Straits without
lights during the night and to pass outside the shoals
on their way north. Agamemnon is to remain at
Portland, where the Second Fleet will assemble.
We may now picture this great Fleet, with its
flotillas and cruisers, steaming slowly out of Portland
Harbour, squadron by squadron, scores of gigantic
castles of steel wending their way across the misty,
shining sea, like giants bowed in anxious thought. We
may picture them again as darkness fell, eighteen
miles of warships running at high speed and in absolute blackness through the narrow Straits, bearing
with them into the broad waters of the North the
safeguard of considerable affairs.
Although there seemed to be no conceivable
motive, chance or mischance, which could lead a rational German Admiralty to lay a trap of submarines
or mines or have given them the knowledge and the
time to do so, we looked at each other with much
satisfaction when on Thursday morning (the 30th) at
our daily Staff Meeting the Flagship reported herself
and the whole Fleet well out in the centre of the
North Sea.
Later in the morning I learnt that Lord Fisher was
in the office and I invited him into my room. I told
him what we had done and his delight was wonderful
to see.
Foolish statements have been made from time to
time that this sending of the Fleet to the North was
done at Lord Fisher's suggestion. The interview with
me which Lord Fisher records in his book is correctly given by him as having taken place on the 30th.
The Fleet had actually passed the Straits of Dover the
night before. I think it necessary to place on record
the fact that my sole naval adviser on every measure
taken prior to the declaration of war was the First
Sea Lord.
The German Ambassador lost no time in complaining of the movement of the Fleet to the Foreign Office. According to the German Official Naval
History, he reported to his Government on the evening of the 30th that Sir Edward Grey had answered
him in the following words: —
"The movements of the Fleet are free of all offensive character, and the Fleet will not approach
German waters."
"But," adds the German historian, "the strategic
concentration of the Fleet had actually been accomplished with its transfer to Scottish ports." This
was true. We were now in a position, whatever happened, to control events, and it was not easy to see
how this advantage could be taken from us. A surprise torpedo attack before or simultaneous with the
declaration of war was at any rate one nightmare
gone for ever. We could at least see for ten days
ahead. If war should come no one would know where
to look for the British Fleet. Somewhere in that enormous waste of waters to the north of our islands,
cruising now this way, now that, shrouded in storms
and mists, dwelt this mighty organization. Yet from
the Admiralty building we could speak to them at any
moment if need arose. The King's ships were at sea.
Tke Gatkering Storm
1939
A
A French press photo, 19 April 1939, when Churchill's
Cabinet appointment was expected. (Newfield Collection)
BRITISH ULTIMATUM had been given to
Germany at 9:30 p.m. on September 1, and
this had been followed by a second and final ultimatum at 9 a.m. on September 3. The early broadcast of the 3rd announced that the Prime Minister
would speak on the radio at 11:15 a.m. As it now
seemed certain that war would be immediately
declared by Great Britain and also by France, I
prepared a short speech which I thought would be
becoming to the solemn and awful moment in our
lives and history.
The Prime Minister's broadcast informed us that
we were already at war, and he had scarcely ceased
speaking when a strange, prolonged, wailing noise,
afterwards to become familiar, broke upon the ear.
My wife came into the room braced by the crisis and
commented favourably upon the German promptitude
and precision, and we went up to the flat top of the
house to see what was going on. Around us on every
side, in the clear, cool September light, rose the roofs
and spires of London. Above them were already
slowly rising thirty or forty cylindrical balloons. We
gave the Government a good mark for this evident
sign of preparation, and as the quarter of an hour's
notice, which we had been led to expect we should
receive, was now running out, we made our way to
the shelter assigned to us, armed with a bottle of
brandy and other appropriate medical comforts.
I
FELT IT my duty to visit Scapa at the earliest
moment. I had not met the Commander-in-Chief,
Sir Charles Forbes, since Lord Chatfield had taken
me to the Anti-Submarine School at Portland in June,
1938. I therefore obtained leave from our daily
Cabinets, and started for Wick with a small personal
staff on the night of September 14. I spent most of
the next two days inspecting the harbour and the entrances with their booms and nets. I was assured that
they were as good as in the last war, and that important additions and improvements were being made or
were on their way. I stayed with the Commander-inChief in his flagship, Nelson, and discussed not only
Scapa but the whole naval problem with him and his
principal officers. The rest of the Fleet was hiding in
Loch Ewe, and on the 17th the Admiral took me to
them in the Nelson. As we came out through the
gateway into the open sea, I was surprised to see no
escort of destroyers for this great ship. "I thought",
I remarked, "you never went to sea without at least
two, even for a single battleship". But the Admiral
replied, "Of course, that is what we should like; but
we haven't got the destroyers to carry out any such
rule. There are a lot of patrolling craft about, and we
shall be into the Minches in a few hours."
It was like the others a lovely day. All went well,
and in the evening we anchored in Loch Ewe, where
the four or five other great ships of the Home Fleet
were assembled. The narrow entry into the loch was
closed by several lines of indicator nets, and patrolling craft with Asdics and depth-charges, as well as
picket-boats, were numerous and busy. On every side
rose the purple hills of Scotland in all their splendour.
My thoughts went back a quarter of a century to that
other September when I had last visited Sir John
Jellicoe and his Captains in this very bay, and had
found them with their long lines of battleships and
cruisers drawn out at anchor, a prey to the same
uncertainties as now afflicted us. Most of the captains
and admirals of those days were dead, or had long
passed into retirement. The responsible senior officers
who were now presented to me as I visited the
various ships had been young lieutenants or even midshipmen in those far-off days. Before the former war
I had had three years' preparation in which to make
the acquaintance and approve the appointments of
most of the high personnel, but now all these were
new figures and new faces. The perfect discipline,
style and bearing, the ceremonial routine — all were
unchanged. But an entirely different generation filled
the uniforms and the posts. Only the ships had most
of them been laid down in my tenure. None of them
was new. It was a strange experience, like suddenly
resuming a previous incarnation. It seemed that I was
all that survived in the same position I had held so
long ago. But no; the dangers had survived too.
Danger from beneath the waves, more serious with
more powerful U-boats, danger from the air, not
merely of being spotted in your hiding-place, but of
heavy and perhaps destructive attack!
Having inspected two more ships on the morning of
the eighteenth, and formed during my visit a strong
feeling of confidence in the Commander-in-Chief, I
motored from Loch Ewe to Inverness, where our
train awaited us. We had a picnic lunch on the way
by a stream, sparkling in hot sunshine. I felt oddly
oppressed with my memories.
"For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings."
No one had ever been over the same terrible
course twice with such an interval between. No one
had felt its dangers and responsibilities from the
summit as I had or, to descend to a small point,
understood how First Lords of the Admiralty are
treated when great ships are sunk and things go
wrong. If we were in fact going over the same cycle
a second time, should I have once again to endure the
pangs of dismissal? Fisher, Wilson, Battenberg,
Jellicoe, Beatty, Pakenham, Sturdee, all gone!
"I feel like one
Who treads alone
Some banquet hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!"
And what of the supreme measureless ordeal in
which we were again irrevocably plunged? Poland in
its agony; France but a pale reflection of her former
warlike ardour; the Russian Colossus no longer an
ally, not even neutral, possibly to become a foe. Italy
no friend. Japan no ally. Would America ever come
in again? The British Empire remained intact and
gloriously united, but ill-prepared, unready. We still
had command of the sea. We were woefully outmatched in numbers in this new mortal weapon of the
air. Somehow the light faded out of the landscape. •
Excerpted from "The World Crisis, " Volume I,
1911-1914, copyright the Hamlyn Publishing Group;
and from "The Second World War, " Volume I,
copyright Houghton Mifflin Co. Reprinted by permission of the publishers, Curtis Brown and Winston
Churchill, MP.
WKom the Gods Require
Winston Spencer CKurcKill: Fifty Tears On
BY CHARLES MORGAN
A visit to the commando training base at Loch Fync, Scotland, C. 1942. (Imperial War Museum)
I
Whom the gods require and love
They walk with all his days,
As Pallas did Odysseus prove,
They test him by delays.
They batter at his heart and tempt
His spirit to despair;
From no ordeal is he exempt
By sea or land or air.
His ship they wreck, his raft they break,
And mock him with their power,
But rule the tempest for his sake
And keep him for their hour.
Three things they spurn above all other;
A Puppet God, a Holy State,
A coward that whimpers "Brother! Brother!'
To those who hammer at the gate.
Three things they love: a loyal servant,
A single mind, a lion-heart;
Therefore, of character observant,
They chose this man to play their part.
The tragic gift of long prevision
Into that character they wrought.
The iron rule of full decision,
Many long years ago they taught,
When without sanction of committees,
Urged by the over-ruling Fates,
The lightless and embattled cities
Passed up from Portland through the Straits.
So had the First Fleet put to sea,
"Like giants bowed in anxious thought,"
And by that stroke of destiny
Decided actions yet unfought.
II
Years passed . . . The ancient evil grew
Fresh tentacles of cheat and chance.
From him the testing gods withdrew
Authority and countenance.
Outcast and near alone he waited,
Scorned for his truth, disarmed of power,
Until, to strangle pride they hated,
The gods recalled him in their hour.
Ill
He at the challenge of disaster —
The hour, for all men else, too late —
By act and word, of both a master,
Made England mistress of her fate.
What others doubted, he decided;
When Europe's lips were dumb, he spoke;
A faith, which half the world derided,
In one small island re-awoke.
And since the light which still prevaileth
Leapt from that re-awakened spark,
Say not the struggle nought availeth,
Though in the East the land is dark.
While Blenheim and Atlantic blood
Can yet to such a child give birth,
The government of natural good
Shall not perish from the earth.
In this man still those glories move
Which have safeguarded England's ways;
For whom the gods require and love
They walk with all his days. •
THEY BOUGHT CHARTWELL
LONDON, JULY 9TH — Sir Winston's
family, and this Society on occasion,
have often stirred uncomfortably when
the names of people who bought Chartwell in October 1946 are mentioned.
(The object was to relieve Churchill of
the financial burden, and to endow
Chartwell to the National Trust when he
and his wife died or departed.) The
reason for the stirrings is that lists of
benefactors have always been incomplete, crediting some and ignoring
others. Now Lord Hartwell, son of the
chief benefactor, Lord Camrose, has
published in The Times a full list of participants:
"Camrose organised the purchase for
£95,000, but was himself one of many
. . . Camrose gave £15,000 and 16
others gave £5000 each (now £70,000).
They were: Lord Bearsted, Lord
Bicester, Sir James Caird, Sir Hugo
Cunliffe-Owen, Lord Catto, Lord Glendyne, Lord Kenilworth, Lord Leathers,
Sir James Lithgow, Sir Edward Mountain, Lord Nuffield, Sir Edward
Peacock, Lord Portal, J. Arthur Rank,
James de Rothschild and Sir Frederick
Stewart.
"In his presentation speech my father
observed: 'Mr. Churchill has said in
very definite fashion that he would accept no reward or recognition of his
work for the nation in any shape or
kind.' He finished by prophesying that
Chartwell would become 'the Mount
Vernon of England.' "
CHURCHILLIAN FLORA
CARPINTERIA, CALIFORNIA, JUNE — S t e w a r t
Orchids are offering numerous red
paph hybrids with the Paph. Winston
Churchill as one of the crosses, according to their catalogue sent us by Cdr.
Larry Kryske, USN. Three Winston
Churchill sub-varieties carry the subtitles "Redoubtable," "Indomitable"
and "Patriot." The orchids come in
four-inch pots and sell for $17-18 per
pot. For information write Stewart Orchids, PO Box 550, Carpinteria CA
93013 or call (800) 684-5448.
A handsome double daffodil named
"Sir Winston Churchill," white with
deep orange-yellow center, has also
been developed, according to Barbara
f
-V
Sir Winston Churchill
Lang worth, who has ordered some.
Bulbs cost $4.25 per half-dozen and are
available from Peter de Jager Bulb Co.,
PO Box 2010, S. Hamilton MA 01982,
tel. (508) 468-4707.
ICS Covers #32 & #33
Cover 32: "The King's Ships Were at Sea"
marks the 75th Anniversary of the outbreak of
World War I, 4 August. Total 232: 150 posted
Portsmouth with G.B. 1982 Lord Fisher stamp;
82 at Church Hill, Md. (US Churchill stamp).
Cover 33: "Winston is Back" marks the 50th
Anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, 3
September. Total 301: 57 posted London with
special one-day hand cancel and G.B. 1982 Adm.
Cunningham stamp; 204 posted Winston, Ky. (US
Churchill stamp); with non-Churchill stamps: 20
London hand cancels; 20 Portsmouth special
cancel noting start of World War II.
Everyone on the covers list received these two
free: British covers went to Commonwealth
members, US to American members; 12 leftover
British versions will appear in the ICS auction
(next issue). American versions are $2 each
(Canada/Aus $3) ppd from ICS, Dave Marcus,
221 Pewter La., Silver Spring MD 20904 USA.
If you are not on the covers list, send Dave a
recent address label from Finest Hour. Our next
two covers will mark the Battle of the Falkland
Islands (13Decl4) and the Battle of the River
Platte (17Dec39), issued at Falkland NC, USA
and London (one-day hand cancel).
MORE ON EDISON COLLECTION
TORONTO, JUNE 3OTH - The Thomas Fisher
Rare Book Library newsletter, The Halcyon, reports in its June issue on John
Edison's Churchill collection, recently
donated (FH 63) to the Library: "The
collection consists of several hundred
titles . . . First editions are very well
represented, as are subsequent printings
and several scarce Canadian imprints
and unrecorded variants [and, of
course] the thirty-four volume Collected
Works. Mr. Edison's set is unique in
that it contains a second copy of Volume
I, which is signed on the title page by
Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan,
the immediate successors of Churchill
as Prime Minister.
' 'Another notable strength of the collection lies in the variety of scarce
broadsides, pamphlets, newspapers,
magazines and ephemera it contains.
"In recognition of the importance of
our collection, the International Churchill Society has generously offered to
donate the remaining companion
volumes it has helped to sponsor, any
future works on Churchill, and its
quarterly journal.
"The Edison gift compliments the
university's holdings of twentiethcentury British history and will be of
great value to future scholars and
students interested in studying this great
man. An exhibition is scheduled for the
autumn of 1990."
For details of the ICS Newfield Bequest programme, write the editor.
REAGAN IN BRITAIN
LONDON, JUNE BTH - On his first speech
abroad since leaving office, former
President Ronald Reagan delivered the
annual lecture held by the EnglishSpeaking Union to honor the memory of
Sir Winston. Speaking at the Guildhall,
with a Churchill statue peering from a
gallery of British heroes, Reagan spoke
of ' 'The Triumph of Freedom . . . You
cannot run tanks over hope. You cannot
riddle people's yearning with bullets."
Reagan, whose speech was laced with
quotations from Churchill, used as his
central theme the worldwide revolution
in communications technology. He said
totalitarian states were increasingly
continued on page 10
STOP PRESS: BREAKING NEWS
CHURCHILL'S EUROPE TOUR AN INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS
Capped by a gala finale in Epernay, France, where we were royally hosted
by the Pol-Roger family, our Fourth Bi-annual Tour welcomed 70 individuals
from France, Britain, Canada and the USA, including honorary members Lady
Soames, Grace Hamblin and Robert Hardy. We held our first French meeting,
August 26th at Chateau Pol Roger, and visited five WSC homes or haunts-Ventnor, Hoe Farm, Lullenden, Chartwell and Blenheim. We presented two new
Blenheim Awards for distinguished service to Geoffrey Wheeler (UK) and to
George Temple (Canada); a Certificate of Thanks to Edmund Murray for his 15
years as Sir Winston's bodyguard; and the Third Emery Reves Award was
presented to Maurice Ashley, Sir Winston's literary aide on MARLBOROUGH. A
full report will occur next issue. Thanks to all who helped and supported.
AUGUST 1990 SAN FRANCISCO CONVENTION WELCOMES LADY SOAMES
Our Patron will be our chief speaker for the first time since 1983 at the
Stanford Court Hotel, San Francisco, the weekend of August 18-19th 1S90 (with
optional activities on Friday and Monday). Striving for a new approach to a
subject she knows well, Lady Soames suggests a "Q & A" evening, at which she
will respond to questions submitted in advance by attendees. A discussion of
Churchill as commander-in-chief by Cdr. Larry Kryske (USN) and Lt David
Sampson (USAFR), notable exhibits, a seminar, tours of San Francisco and the
wine country, and more is being planned by chairman Merry Alberigi and our N.
California Chapter. Remarkably low rates have been achieved at the Stanford
Court, a legendary hotel ranked among the top 25 worldwide. Attendance, from
North America, Europe and Australia, will top 250. Further details shortly;
meanwhile, block out these dates on your calendar.
FIVE CLASSIC CHURCHILL BOOKS BACK IN PRINT
INDIA - MALAKAND FIELD FORCE - BOER WAR - MY AFRICAN JOURNEY - MY EARLY LIFE
ICS actively assisted the creation of these classic
new editions, not seen
for as many as 75 years. We provided bibliographic notes for the Forewords to
MALAKAND, AFRICAN JOURNEY, EARLY LIFE and THE BOER WAR (a combination of
LONDON TO LADYSMITH VIA PRETORIA and IAN HAMILTON'S MARCH). In return, London
publisher Leo Cooper kindly provided ICS with a two page appendix in each
book. The USA publisher is Norton (Scribner for EARLY LIFE.)
The editor is especially proud to announce a publication of his own:
INDIA, one of Churchill's rarest titles, out of print since 1931. Dragonwyck
Publishing has produced an exact replica of the Thornton Butterworth hardbound
first edition, adding a splendid Foreword by Dr. Manfred Weidhorn, who
pronounced Churchill's "India" speeches as the equals of his 1940 war speeches
—albeit on a far more controversial topic. This First American Edition will
be available both in the replica form, and as a leatherbound limited edition.
For complete information on all these books, members in USA, Canada and
Australia may write the editor at PO Box 385, Contoocook NH 03229 USA. UK
members will find the Cooper volumes in bookshops; those who would like INDIA
may write the editor at the above address.
ICS AUCTION RESUMES IN OUR NEXT ISSUE: SEND YOUR CONSIGNMENTS NOW!
A broad array of Churchi11iana, from books to stamps to memorabilia to
photos, is being put together by Alain Hubert for our new Mail Auction, which
resumes next issue (sorry, not this issue: there was just not enough time).
All proceeds support the work of the Churchill Society. ICS charges a minimum
commission, but welcomes 100X donations! If you have material you wish to
auction, send NOW (stating minimum price required, if any) to Alain Hebert,
11695 Bois de Boulogne, Montreal, P.Q., Canada H3M 2X2.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8
helpless against it, and called information the "oxygen of the modern age . . .
If we turn the tide, which I am certain
we are close to doing, as long as men
speak of individual liberty and those
who protected it, they will remember
us and they will say, 'Here were the
brave and here they gave us
freedom.' " -NYTIMES
WSC WAS HERE
THEYDON
GARNON,
ESSEX,
JUNE
15TH
-
Coopersale Hall, a Grade 2 listed country house, is to become the first private
preparatory school to be opened in
Essex since the 1939-45 war. The
Georgian house was built in 1778; in the
early 1920s it was the home of Lord
Lyle when he was MP for Epping.
The Churchill link came when WSC
took over as MP and, it is said, went
through the official transfer procedure
with Lord Lyle at Coopersale Hall in
1924. As a result, Churchill formed
Nicholas Hagger at Coopersale Hall. Photo: Ivor Best, Harlow & Epping Star
strong links with the house, frequently
staying there, especially during the war,
when it was a hospital for officers. It
gave Churchill the close proximity of
North Weald airfield and Blake Hall,
where the Battle of Britain was mapped
out, according to Coopersale's owner,
Nicholas Hagger.
Mr. Hagger recently met one of the
officers who recalled sharing a room
with one of Churchill's family, and seeing the great man himself walking down
the corridor.
— CUTTING SENT BY A.H. BENHAM
CHURCHILL AS ADVERTISER & ADVERTISED
Varying degrees of cleverness or tastelessness (you be the judge) are regularly sent to us by readers. Three recent ones are ranged
below, along with the two most famous frauds in the field of Churchilliana: the Boer "Wanted Posters," of which only one
original ever existed — though the unwary still buy copies.
TURN YOUR NEXT MEETING INTO
AN HISTORIC EVENT.
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Hotel Queen Mary
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DEAD OR ALIVE
TO
THIS
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LOOK DE HAAS, S.c.
Above: A handsome 1945 calendar by Brooke
Bond & Co. Ltd., collection L.L. Thomas.
Left: A recent fake of the "Wanted Poster" is
printed in modern typefaces.
Right: Finest Hour 57 showed that only one
original of this poster ever existed, surely without
the English legends.
10
CHUBCHILL,
The End of the Beginning
The Things They Say About the Official Biography
FINEST
The official biography has ended (though thanks to Wendy Reves
and ICS, the document volumes go on). Herein we distill the
essence of the most important reviews, and offer our own review
— of the latter.
HOUR
ENCOUNTER
The biography has been meticulously and lavishly undertaken, and is a true monument to Churchill. For Gilbert's
assiduity and attention to detail one can have nothing but praise
and gratitude. It is a remarkable personal achievement.
Randolph Churchill, and Martin Gilbert after him, took as
their theme the words of Lockhart upon Scott: "He shall be his
own biographer." The problem with this was twofold. First,
Lockhart had not followed this theme at all — at least, not a
outrance. But, second, Winston Churchill had already been his
own biographer, at very considerable length and in many
volumes, from his childhood to the end of the Second World
War. No public man in modern history has written more about
himself or made so much money from doing so. The World
Crisis and The Second World War were, as Churchill robustly
said, "the case for the defence." This was absolutely fair and
justifiable . . .
Volume I virtually wrote itself, [being based largely on] the
private papers of Lord Randolph, his correspondence with his
wife, and all the letters on his elder son. Volume II, however,
was a disaster. Randolph was increasingly unwell, and unsure
of himself. There were evident examples of bias . . . What we
were getting was another version of the case for the defence,
and in the process the man himself, with his fire, brilliance, fun,
erratic judgment, humanity, genius, and human fallibilities had
gone, to be replaced by an all-wise automaton incapable of error, a giant among pygmies, tirelessly dedicated to the delivery
of speeches, prescient memoranda, and much vision.
[After Randolph's death] the mistake was to keep the original
format. Everything would be included, often mercilessly so. It
would still be "the case for the defence." The first example
of this was the treatment of the Dardanelles Campaign, where
there was, to put the matter mildly, very good cause seriously to
challenge Churchill's own account in The World Crisis and his
evidence to the Dardanelles Commission, but we had the complete Churchillian version once again. This set a pattern.
It would indeed be difficult, in reading Gilbert's six volumes,
to appreciate that Winston Churchill was a deeply ambitious,
egocentric, often abominably selfish, difficult, and ruthless man
with very few friends and supporters, and whose judgment —
as, for example, over the Russian Civil War, Ireland, de Gaulle,
and India — could be so appallingly wrong.
But I understand very clearly, and very sympathetically, why
Martin Gilbert venerated Churchill and was determined to serve
him well. And so he has. I cannot think of any contemporary
historian who could have done half as well, or would have been
prepared to dedicate himself more devotedly to a great cause.
For these and other merits he deserves unstinted praise and
gratitude. Still, the great lesson is that when a family next
decides on the biography of a great personage it should get its
first choice right, and should learn from this example that when
a large ship is pointed in the wrong direction it is very difficult
indeed to induce it to change course — let alone to make it
reverse.
— ROBERT RHODES JAMES
THE NEW YORK TIMES
I must admit that I approached "Never Despair" in a spirit of
duty rather than with any very keen anticipation of pleasure.
Within a page or two, however, the book had begun to cast its
spell. Churchill imposes his own sense of drama; and once your
attention has been captured, there is no substitute for the precise
context and the exact detail.
He had his faults, and he made mistakes — Mr. Gilbert
doesn't try to conceal them. In knitting together his material,
Mr. Gilbert has once again done an admirable job. He has been
criticized by some reviewers in Britain, where the book has
already appeared, for not having rounded it off with a grand
summation of Churchill's character and career. But such an exercise would have been out of place in a work whose primary
purpose has already been to set down the facts as fully as possible, clearly laid out but unadorned.
- JOHN GROSS
11
THE OBSERVER
After [the previous seven volumes] it might be thought that
there was nothing further to be said and that this last volume
could achieve little more than the completion of a set upon the
shelves. This is not the case. What Dr. Gilbert has achieved is a
remarkable paradox. The pressures of time make it almost impossible to read his book without skimming (otherwise it would
occupy virtually every working hour of two weeks), but the
compulsion of the narrative makes it almost equally impossible
to jump; gems of interest may be concealed in any fold. The
book is extremely difficult to hold (because of its brutal size)
and has to be put down for quite frequent wrist-reading, but it is
even more difficult not to take up again. At the beginning I
thought that I knew almost everything about Churchill that I
wanted to, but rapidly discovered this was not so.
Dr. Gilbert rarely judges. In some ways this is a virtue, particularly as he rarely suppresses either, and selects more to get
the order right than to exclude. The result is a rich weave which
does not falter throughout the acres of tapestry.
— THE RT. HON. THE LORD JENKINS
was "clever enough to be stupid on a rather large scale." A
similar paradox applies to Churchill himself: he was good
enough to be bad (when he was bad) on a rather large scale.
Either way he was a genius, and his genius is stamped on almost
-JOHNGRIGG
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
There is a short-range difficulty in the literary marketplace
for the last two volumes of this work. By the end of the war, it
was clear that Churchill, in his "finest hour," had become a
giant of history. There naturally followed a flood of diaries and
reminiscences by those who had known and worked with him.
These, combined with Churchill's own memoirs, left Mr.
Gilbert little "new" material to bring forward.
But the whole of Mr. Gilbert's art in narrating the story is
more than the sum of these parts. An example is the story of
Churchill's physical struggle to recover from his stroke in June
of 1953 and [to] remain in office. The diary of his physician
Lord Moran is a moving account of this battle. Mr. Gilbert
quotes liberally from the Moran diaries throughout. But his own
flat, factual recitation, which places the recovery in the context
of all the political pressures and decisions Churchill faced, as
well as the impression he left on several others, builds the drama
even higher. This volume is not a new story. But it is the full
story.
— NEIL ULMAN
ST. LOWS POST-DISPATCH
Churchill was arguably less important than Lenin or Hitler,
but when the total breadth of his skills is considered, his claim to
first place is less controversial. Moreover he was, as these
books frequently demonstrate, a fine, decent man, possessing
qualities of compassion and understanding his rivals for eternal
distinction notoriously lacked. If anyone deserves devoted
biographical treatment certainly Churchill does.
The biography lacks the imaginative potential that writers like
Morgan and Manchester employ, but on the other hand nobody
will be able to ignore the depth of research. Altogether, it is a
magnificent tale, told laboriously but with power. Churchill
changed courses in his career, shifting parties and causes but not
principles. He worried about problems as they developed, so
that his attitude toward Germany and Russia, for example,
altered quickly. More quickly than others could accept; he was
too early but not usually too hasty. Anyone deeply interested in
the history of our century must read these books.
— JOSEPH LOSOS
THE TIMES (LONDON)
What [Dr. Gilbert] has achieved is the detailed record of a life
rather than a rounded biographical study. Almost without exception his comments on Churchill are eulogistic; he praises,
but does not appraise. It is quite a shock when, on page 32 of the
present book, Churchill's first election broadcast in 1945 (in
which he said that a Labour government "would have to fall
back on some form of Gestapo") is described by the author as
"injudicious". But even such mild impiety is never repeated.
Much of the detail is fascinating, and it is good to see extensive use made of Lord Moran's Winston Churchill: The Struggle
for Survival, to which guardians of the Churchill shrine gave
very rough treatment when it appeared. Clearly Churchill
employed Moran not only as a doctor but also, knowingly, as a
potential Bos well. Unfortunately, not all that Dr. Gilbert quotes
in the book is of the same quality as the Moran extracts. Too
much is banal and a waste of space, such as routine messages of
congratulations or family greetings.
Unlike Hitler and Stalin, Churchill was a witty and humorous
man, saying for instance of his religious position that he was
"not a pillar of the Church but a buttress — [he] supported it
from the outside." He also said of John Foster Dulles that he
COLLECTION LL THOMAS
12
THE GUARDIAN (MANCHESTER)
THE JERUSALEM POST
Excellent use has been made of the previously published
diaries of Lord Moran, Sir John Colville, Anthony Eden and
Harold Macmillan. But Gilbert has also chased less well-known
sources and has evidently gone to immense trouble to locate and
interview practically every surviving person who knew, met or
even glimpsed Churchill. The result is a triumph of research and
of narrative history.
It is not the author's fault if an air of bathos hangs over this
final volume. These were not Churchill's finest hours . . . But
beyond this painstaking (and at times painful) portrait of Churchill in decline, the reader is throughout conscious of the
greatness that went before.
And one interesting point, highlighted again and again by
Gilbert, is his consistent and forthright support for Zionism and
the state of Israel; dozens of documents quoted in this book
attest to this.
This is a splendid and fitting conclusion to the greatest life —
and perhaps the finest political biography — of our time.
Happily its author, having already been prolific enough for
several lives, remains at the height of his powers . . . what can
he possibly do next?
— BERNARD WASSERSTEIN
I said [to Martin Gilbert] that I could remember no comment
of his own anywhere. He said all historians commented in their
selection of material, but he hadn't felt that his opinion had
much to add to the narrative. He had, however, tried strongly to
counter the impression, left by Churchill's doctor, Lord Moran,
that Churchill in his last years as prime minister was gaga and
past it. He had gone out of his way to show that Churchill retained a clear and far-sighted grasp of events. That whole approach was a comment. But he had not made a running commentary of approval or disapproval. "You, the reader, should
say, 'Goodness me, how wise, how witty, or how stupid.' "
I said how Churchill had loathed what he called the clattering
down of the British Empire. To this Mr. Gilbert replied that he
would also draw attention to Churchill's remarkable decision
not to oppose the Indian Independence Bill, when many Conservative members wanted him to. "Churchill took the
statesmanlike view that the independence of a country should
not be in the gift of either party and should not be given in a
divisive way. The clattering down of the British Empire was
painful. Nevertheless, he had the vision not to allow his personal feelings of bitterness and sadness to impede the Act itself,
which many of his supporters would have done, to harass the
Labour government."
He will be a dull reader of this biography who is not delighted
by the vigour of Churchill's language. When in 1946, under the
new Labour government, there was a threat of bread rationing,
something which had not been imposed even in wartime, he
said, "Now I'm going to stay and have them out. I'll tear their
bleeding entrails out of them.'' About the same time he remarks
that "the Socialist ideal is to reduce the country to one vast
Wormwood Scrubbery."
And as Mr. Gilbert says: "I liked writing about this because it
seemed to me he took authorship very seriously, although in a
way it didn't take up too large a percentage of his time. He had a
love of the written word of course, a love of presenting i t . . . I
think his way of working with his researchers was fascinating.
"Some of their recollections are among the most charming,
and most descriptive of Churchill. There's that marvellous moment, you remember, when Denis Kelly [a researcher; see his
"The Dream (3)" in Finest Hour 62] had prepared the draft for
the final volume of the war memoirs. There is some phrase like,
'Germany had been defeated and partitioned.' Churchill put his
finger on it and said, 'The word you want is crushed.' "
— TERRY COLEMAN
THE WASHINGTON POST
Sad to say, the final massive volume runs to quite the opposite
extreme [from Manchester's "Last Lion"]: Scrupulously composed and documented, it is distinguished by a striking reticence
of judgment. It is an event of note when Martin Gilbert permits
himself an adjective. Churchill once said that "the secret of narrative is in chronology," but Gilbert, to whom all hats must be
tipped for his archival labors, has carried the chronological
principle to bizarre lengths. "Never Despair" comes closer to
chronicle than to biography or history in the usual sense. And it
is a jerky, discontinuous chronicle, mere sequence being for
great stretches the only guiding thread.
Scores of puzzling discontinuities result. We learn through a
minor aside in a quoted letter that a Nobel Prize may be in the
offing for Churchill. But then all is silence again for some 20
pages, when we finally read that Lady Churchill went to
Stockholm to collect the Prize. And this is reported as matter-offactly as if she had walked to the greengrocers for a package of
tea.
The resulting impression, which owing to the subject and
scale is not without a certain grandeur, is of a spacious tapestry
with a thousand threads dangling loose, lacking proportion or
hierarchy of design. A typical paragraph hops and skips through
five or six random topics, merely because they happened to fall
on the same day. Humdrum party politics claim equal space
with grand occasions illumined by Churchillian wit and eloquence. Brilliant bon mots flutter into a dreary compost of
cabinet minutes and maneuvers of little or no lasting consequence. The personal and political are interlaced as arbitrarily
as the fat and lean of a slab of bacon.
With its forbidding lengths and textbook design the official
biography seems destined in the main for the shelves of Churchill specialists. The coming generations, who will have no
direct memory of Churchill or his time, but no less need than we
of his example, will have to look for his spirit elsewhere.
THE NEW REPUBLIC
Gilbert's method draws our attention to the pertinacity of
[Churchill's] personal relationships. On the day after the German surrender, Churchill found time to telegraph to three
former French prime ministers, to Leon Blum, Edouard
Daladier and Paul Reynaud, his congratulations on their liberation. No one would have blamed him if he had held at least the
last two partly responsible for France's collapse in 1940. And
later in that year he sprang to the defense of a fourth, PierreEtienne Flandin, who was being tried for treason for collaborating with the Vichy government in its early days. The
court was stirred when Churchill's letter was read; the serious
charges were dropped, and Flandin was released from custody.
The volume ends as it must, with the funeral. For once I wish
Gilbert had abandoned his severity. It is totally plausible that
— EDWIN M. YODER, JR.
13
Churchill planned his own funeral . . . nobody but him could
have thought that his body should be taken by barge, like a
Tudor sovereign, from a pier near to St. Paul's Cathedral to a
pier near to Waterloo Station, where it would be borne by train
to the burial plot near Blenheim. In the event, however, the
most heraldic feature was none of Churchill's doing. As the
barge progressed down the Thames, the dockside cranes all
dipped as it passed.
The sight of these bowing cranes moved a nation (and me) to
tears. For dockers, stevedores, are a nation's most Bolshie
workers. In Britain, certainly, none of them ever could have
voted for Winston Churchill. Yet they, these proud proletarians,
by their own bidding, on a day off, and not on the orders of their
employers, lowered their cranes like guardsmen making an arch
of their swords over the passing of a monarch.
— HENRY FAIRLIE
tions than answers. Does Gilbert make judgments, or does he
not? Does the work consist only of ' 'the case for the defence,''
or are Churchill's errors also cited? What the reviewer concludes seems to depend to a large extent on whether or not he
approves of Winston Churchill, or Martin Gilbert, or even Randolph Churchill. The only way to find out is to read the
biography yourself.
I was most impressed by Martin Gilbert's remark to Terry
Coleman of The Guardian: "You, the reader, should say,
'Goodness me, how wise, how witty, or how stupid.' " Let
me cite some examples of how Gilbert's method leads us to
think for ourselves, instead of merely to accept what the
biographer tells us.
Volume VII, "Road to Victory," made me reconsider my
belief that the Churchill-Roosevelt invasion controversy had
mainly been over the "soft underbelly" (Sicily, Italy) versus
"Overlord" (Normandy). Not at all. In fact, the American
chiefs of staff, and Eisenhower, wanted to go right across the
Mediterranean once the Huns were cleared out of North Africa.
The only argument at that point was whether the first hop should
be to Sardinia instead of Sicily — an idea backed by Ike at one
point because the Germans had "two divisions" in Sicily. But
document after document proves that Churchill saw Sicily-thenItaly as the dominant theater in that instance; and that he convinced Eisenhower to accept Sicily as the obvious first hop.
The real break came over the diminishment of the Italian campaign for the sake of a south-of-France landing ("Anvil," later
"Dragoon") which, though in the end useful, was never more
than a sideshow. Now all the pro-Roosevelt biographers either
didn't read or were unable (because of secrecy laws) to read the
"Enigma" decrypts, which conclusively proved that Hitler
was stupidly planning to throw everything he had into the Italian
front. Churchill read them — and correctly argued that if the
Allies pressed on in Italy, they would have given "Overlord"
far greater support (by drawing off many more German divisions) than"Dragoon" possibly could. And he was right.
Nor does this biographer-without-opinion ever lose the ability
to astonish — as when we find Roosevelt suggesting that he and
Churchill "lay their cases [about the second front] before Uncle
Joe" for resolution! The naTvete of that suggestion — even
knowing what we do now about the dying President — boggles
the mind. Only Churchill seemed to realize at that stage why
"Uncle Joe" wanted the main Allied thrust to come across
France. Of course we know Stalin's reasoning, through hindsight. Churchill knew it at the time.
Of course Volume VII explodes the idea that Churchill was
against "Overlord." It is going to be hard for the next revisionist to revive that one, in the face of Gilbert's monumental
documentary evidence to the contrary. From February 1944 on,
for example, Churchill was chairing a weekly problem-solving
committee on Overlord, and writing sheafs of memos to break
up logjams and get on with it. His only caveat was that the
military climate in France when "Overlord" was launched must
be such (in the opinions of the joint chiefs) as to warrant success. The so-called architect of Gallipoli was against creating
"a sea of corpses." Who can blame him?
Volume VIII, "Never Despair," is laden with revelations:
that post-1952 Churchill was not gaga, for example, as everyone who disagreed with his policies insisted. But my conclusion
from Volume VIII was that Churchill's case for detente with
Stalin's successors was unconvincing, and mainly wishful thinking. This may not be your conclusion, but the point is that the
biographer has laid the evidence at our feet for us to accept or
END OF AN EPIC: REVIEWING THE REVIEWS
The trouble with reviewing the Official Biography is that it
does not lend itself to the traditional cut-and-dried appreciation
or scathing dismissal. Yet many reviewers seem determined to
tackle it in the orthodox way. They are defied by
the fact that Churchill — who I daresay will go down as more
important than Lenin or Hitler, if for no other reason than that
Churchill's side will prevail — obviates the safe, the routine, the
conventional. Nobody else spent both World Wars in high national office; nobody else wrote about his experiences with such
flair; no other statesman experienced the common tragedy of
the Century of the Common Man yet retained his sense of
humor and humanity; no other had such innate decency. The
Man of the Century deserved the Biography of the Century.
And he got it.
Read as a whole, the reviews leave the reader with more ques14
1
m
C/3
m
reject as we see fit. Why shouldn't we, instead of the
biographer, draw our own conclusions? To paraphrase what
Churchill said about democracy, Gilbert's biography is the
worst form of biography ever invented, except for all the other
forms.
One prominent reviewer seems to want it both ways. He says
Gilbert shuns opinion — and then he says the Official Biography
is just another "case for the defence." Come again?
Churchill, this reviewer reminds us, has already presented his
defense in his books — as if the voluminous Churchill papers
and Gilbert's assiduous interviewing and culling from other
people's papers didn't matter. If indeed Churchill himself has
largely written his own defense, his analysts pro and con have
written a good deal more.
Already we have: a splendid one-volume biography (Pelling's
Winston Churchill); a workmanlike two-volume biography
(Broad's Years of Preparation/Years of Achievement); a lyrical
and opinionated three-volume biography, with one volume still
to come (Manchester's Last Lion). We have an excellent
scholarly critique (Rhodes James' Churchill/A Study in
Failure); a political attack (Emrys Hughes' British Bulldog); a
scattershot criticism by a former intimate, Desmond Morton
(via R.W. Thompson's Yankee Marlborough and Churchill and
Morton); an attack on WSC's military judgments by Alanbrooke
(via Bryant's Turn of the Tide/Triumph in the West). We also
have equally good defenses (Colville's Fringes of Power,
Wheeler-Bennett's Action This Day, Ismay's Memoirs.) We
even have psycho-physical analyses by doctors (Anthony Storr,
Lord Moran). And still they want more.
Having reviewed my share of books I share and recognize the
reviewers' culpability: the need to prove to our readers that
we've really read the work. Thus we develop a lemming-like
need to find something to criticize. But in the process we
sometimes say the silliest things.
One reviewer (whose own multi-volume biography of Lloyd
George seems permanently stalled at Volume 2) praises the
many quotes from Lord Moran's useful but flawed Churchill/The Struggle for Survival, and actually believes ' 'Churchill
employed Moran not only as a doctor but also, knowingly, as a
potential Boswell." Personally I think Gilbert gives undue
weight and coverage to the peipatetic doctor's windy and
speculative diaries. As Jock Colville pithily said, "Lord Moran
was never present when history was made, but he was
sometimes invited to lunch afterwards."
Many reviewers take pains to hit all the simplistic antiChurchill buttons. WSC was wrong, one says, about: the Russian Civil War (had Churchill's ideas prevailed, would the
world have been more miserable, or less?); Ireland (WSC was
the only statesman in history ever to get both Republicans and
Unionists to agree to a treaty); de Gaulle (whoever was "right"
about de Gaulle?); and India (much of what Churchill predicted
following independence came true, including a bloodbath).
Another critic is amazed that Gilbert is not more censorious
over Churchill's reference to a Labour "Gestapo." Yet only
last year a socialist friend in England commented to me that the
tactics of certain radical Labour councils in Britain precisely
reminded her of the Gestapo.
A reviewer of the traditional school says the biography is a
"jerky, discontinuous chronicle" with "puzzling discontinuities," and is aghast to find the first reference to the Nobel
Prize 20 pages ahead of the event. I have read the kind of
biographies he likes, where a single event — perhaps crucial,
perhaps not, like Churchill's flash trip to Antwerp and offer to
command its defense in 1914 — is subject to a mountain of
analysis out of all proportion, while the biographer digresses for
a chapter to suit his or her particular hang-up. That's quite all
right for conventional biography — but this is the official
biography of Winston Churchill. Those who refer to it will certainly want to know what else was going on — personal,
military, political — when WSC went to Antwerp. Gilbert's
method absolutely assures that you will find, at any juncture, all
the happenings in Churchill's life, to weigh, consider, accept,
reject, forget or remember.
Most reviewers have rightly avoided the uneducated view that
"all has been said" about Winston Churchill. There is still
room for a lot more, including studies on his many faceted
journalistic career, to cite one lightly-trod area. Well, fair
enough. But to have more we must have a foundation.
May I propose, then, the 9.2 million words, eight biographic
volumes and thirteen companion volumes already published,
and the ten companion volumes still to come — 31 volumes in
all — as the foundation required, even at the risk of adding
substance to the saying that a bore is somebody who tells
everything?
— RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
8
I
AN EXCERPT FROM THE UNOPINIONATED AUTHOR
Churchill was indeed a noble spirit, sustained in his long
life by a faith in the capacity of man to live in peace, to seek
prosperity, and to ward off threats and dangers by his own
exertions. His love of country, his sense of fair play, his hopes
for the human race, were matched by formidable powers of
work and thought, vision and foresight. His path had often been
dogged by controversy, disappointment and abuse, but these
had never deflected him from his sense of duty and his faith in
the British people.
In the last years, when power passed, to be followed by extreme old age with all its infirmity and sadness, Churchill's
children expressed to him in private the feelings which many of
his fellow countrymen also felt . . . From his daughter Mary
had come words of solace, when at last his life's great impulses
were fading. "In addition to all the feelings a daughter has for a
loving, generous father," she wrote, "I owe you what every
Englishman, woman & child does — Liberty itself."
- MARTIN GILBERT
Next issue: ' 'Churchill: The Rounded Picture,'' by Martin
Gilbert; ' 'Life, Love and Liberty'': Max Hastings on Martin
Gilbert.
15
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THE
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CHURCHILL
WORKS ABOUT CHURCHILL: SECTION 2, PART 3, (REVISED 1 9 8 9 , FH64)
HANDBOOK
120 Marchant, Sir James, KBE, Ed.
WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL | SERVANT OF
CROWN AND COMMONWEALTH | A TRIBUTE BY
VARIOUS HANDS PRESENTED TO HIM ON HIS
EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY
=KRONANS OCH SANVALDETS T JAN ARE (Swedish
ed.)
Contributors:
Aga Khan, H.H. The, 'The Sportsman', p. 143.
Amery, Rt. Hon. L.S., 'Two Great War Leaders', p.55.
Attlee, Rt. Hon, Clement R., 'Across the House', p.7>3.
Baruch, Bernard, 'A Birthday Letter', p. 162.
Bonham Carter, Lady Violet, 'Winston Churchill — As
I Knew Him', p. 147.
Cecil of Chelwood, Viscount, 'The Man of Peace',
p.22.
Coote, Colin, 'The Politician', p.34.
Eden, Rt. Hon. Anthony, 'Epilogue', p. 171.
Fraser of North Cape, Admiral of the Fleet Lord,
'Churchill and the Navy', p.77.
Herbert, Sir Alan, 'The Master of Words', p. 100.
McNalty, Sir Arthur, 'The Churchill Heritage', p.9.
Menzies, Rt. Hon. R.G., 'Churchill and the Commonwealth', p.91.
Murray, Professor Gilbert, 'Prologue', p.l.
Norwich, Viscount, 'To W . S . C (a poem), p.ix.
Rothenstein, Sir John, 'The Artist', p. 136.
Samuel, Viscount, 'The Campbell-Bannerman-Asquith
Government', p.45.
Simon, Viscount, 'Churchill's Use of English Speech',
p.29.
Webster, Sir Charles, 'The Chronicler', p. 116.
London: Cassell & Co. Ltd., 1954; Stockholm: P.A.
Norstedt, 1954.
•
125 Birket-Smith, Kjeld
WINSTON CHURCHILL [Text in Danish.]
Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1955.
•
126 Churchill, Randolph S. & Gernsheim, Helmut
CHURCHILL | HIS LIFE IN PHOTOGRAPHS
=EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO SIR WINSTON
CHURCHILL [Beaulieu Edition]
=CHURCHILL: HANS LIV I BILLIDER/Danish trans, by
H.M. Hansen
=iHANS LIV I BILD/Swedish translation
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; New York: Rinehart
and Co. Inc., 1955; Beaulieu, Hampshire: Beaulieu
Heritage, 1955 (the British edition specially bound in full
red morocco); Copenhagen, Martins Forlag, 1955.
Stockholm: Sven-Erik Bergs Fb'rlag, 1955.
•
127 D'Arcos, Joaquim Paco
CHURCHILL O ESTADISTA E O ESCRITOR
=CHURCHILL | THE STATESMAN & THE WRITER/
English trans.
by F.R. Holliday & P. Sousa Pernes Lisbon: British Institute, 1955; London: Caravel Press, 1957 (Delivered
as a lecture at the British Institute, K Lisbon, on Churchill's 80th birthday.)
•
128a Ferrier, Neil (Editor)
CHURCHILL | THE MAN OF THE CENTURY | A PICTORIAL BIOGRAPHY
London: L.T.A. Robinson, Ltd., 1955; London: Photocron Midget Books, 1955.
•
128b
CHURCHILL: THE MAN OF THE CENTURY. A PICTORIAL BIOGRAPHY
London: Purnell & Sons Ltd.; New York: Doubleday,
1965. (Revised & updated version of above, with added
Appreciation, pp 5-6.)
•
129 Humble Scot, A.
CUTS AND COMMENTS: A SET OF LINOCUTS WITH
APPROPRIATE COMMENTS ILLUSTRATING SOME
OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE PRIME MINISTER
DURING THE PERIOD 1948-1954
Edinburgh: Home Press, 1955. ("Designed, Illustrated,
Written and Printed by" the anonymous author.)
•
123 Williams, Dorothy Jane
A JUVENILE BIOGRAPHY | WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1954. Doctoral
Dissertation (Mann Library 41-1, 1954, W723).
130 Marsh, John
THE YOUNG CHURCHILL
London: Evans Brothers Ltd. 1955; "A Consul Book,"
Manchester: World Distributors (Manchester) Ltd.,
1962; New York, London & Richmond Hill, Ontario:
Scholastic Book Services, 1967 (paperback).
•
124a Wrinch, Pamela N.
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL ON BRITAIN'S ROLE
TOWARDS EUROPE | DETACHMENT AND COMBINATION
New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University, 1954. (Doctoral dissertation).
131 Siosteen, Bengt
GLIMTAR UR WINSTON CHURCHILLS LIV. EN
BEARBETNING AV RADIOSERIEN OM WINSTON
CHURCHILL [Glimpses from the life of Winston Churchill. An adaptation of the radio broadcast serial about
Winston Churchill.]
Stockholm, Skoglunds Bokforlag, 1955.
•
132 Thompson, Inspector Walter H.
ASSIGNMENT: CHURCHILL
New York: Farrar, Straus & Young; Camp Hill,
Penna.: Book of the Month Club, 1955; Toronto, Ontario: George J. McLeod, 1955; New York: Popular
Library, 1961.
•
121 Moorehead, Alan
WINSTON CHURCHILL | IN TRIAL AND TRIUMPH
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1954, reprinted 1955.
•
122 Neilson, Francis
THE CHURCHILL LEGEND
=THE CHURCHILL LEGEND | CHURCHILL AS
FRAUD, FAKIR AND WARMONGER [1979]
Appleton, Wisconsin: C.C. Nelson Publishing Company, 1954; Brooklyn, New York: Revisionist Press,
1979 (reprint). N.B.: Appendix, pp 367-458, contains
Neilson's reviews of THE SECOND WORLD WAR by
Churchill (6 vols.) which appeared originally in the
American Journal of Economics and Sociology (see Sec.
Ill) 1949-54.
•
•
•
1955
124b
THE MILITARY STRATEGY OF WINSTON CHURCHILL
Boston: The University Press, 1961. (Published version
of preceding work.)
2.13 (rev. 1989)
•
•
141 Broad, Lewis
THE ADVENTURES OF SIR WINSTON j THE CAREER
OF THE GREAT CHURCHILL PRESENTED AS AN
ADVENTURE STORY
=THE ADVENTURES OF SIR WINSTON [Republished
title]
London: Hutchinson Authors Ltd. (ArrowBooks), n.d.
[1957]; London: Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd., 1963.
•
142 Colonial Williamsburg, Trustees of
PROCEEDINGS OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE
WILLIAMSBURG AWARD BY THE TRUSTEES OF
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG TO THE RT HON
WINSTON S. CHURCHILL AT DRAPER'S HALL,
LONDON, DECEMBER 7, 1955
Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg Inc.,
1957. Woods D(d)l 10.
D
143 Higgins, Trumbull
WINSTON CHURCHILL AND THE SECOND FRONT |
1940-1943
Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1957.
•
144 Malkus, Alida Sims
THE STORY OF WINSTON CHURCHILL
"Signature Books 40," New York: Grosset & Dunlap:
1957; New York: Tempo Books, 1965 (paperback).
Juvenile biography.
•
145 Norris, A.G.S.
A VERY GREAT SOUL | A BIOGRAPHICAL CHARACTER
STUDY OF THE RT. HON. SIR WINSTON S. CHURCHILL, K.G. P.C. O.M. C.H. M.P. | TESTED AGAINST
TABULATED SCIENTIFIC DATA
Edinburgh: International Publishing Co., 1957.
133 Urquhart, Fred, compiler
W.S.C. I A CARTOON BIOGRAPHY/Fwd. by H. Nicolson
London: Cassel & Co. Ltd., 1955.
1956
•
•
134 Bibesco, Princesse Marthe Lucie
CHURCHILL: OU LE COURAGE [original French title]
=SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL | MASTER OF COURAGE/
English trans, by Vladimir Kean
=SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL. EN STUDIE I MOD,
KRAFT OCH DJARVET/Swedish trans.
from the English edn. by S. Unger. Paris: Editions Albin
Michel, 1956 (paperback); London: Robert Hale Ltd., 1957; New
York: John Day, 1959; Stockholm: Gothia, 1959.
135 Chastenet, Jacques
WINSTON CHURCHILL ET L'ANGLETERRE DU XX
SIECLE
=CHURCHILL Y LA INGLATERRA DEL SIGLIO XXI
Spanish trans, by Miguel Maura
"Les Grandes Etudes Historiques" Series, Paris: Artheme Fayard, 1956 (paperback); and revised ed. 1965;
Ottawa, Ontario: "Le Cercle du Livre de France Ltee",
Artheme Fayard, (2 vols., paperback), 1956; Madrid:
Ariel S.A., 1957; "Le Livre de Poche Historique" No.
2176, Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 1967 (paperback).
•
136 Connell, John [Robertson, John Henry]
WINSTON CHURCHILL
"Writers and their Work" Series., No. 80, London:
Longmans Green & Co. for the British Council and the
National Book League, 1956 (paperback); second revised edition, 1965; "British Writers" Series, Vol. 6, New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980.
•
137 Rabinowicz, Oskar K.
WINSTON CHURCHILL ON JEWISH PROBLEMS: A
HALF CENTURY SURVEY
=WINSTON CHURCHILL ON JEWISH PROBLEMS
(Yoseloff Ed.)
"Popular Jewish Library," London: Lincolns-Praeger
(Publishers) Ltd., 1956 (paperback); New York & London: Thomas Yoseloff, 1960. Published for the World
Jewish Congress, British Section.
•
D
138 Tabori, Paul
BEI WHISKY UND ZIGARRE. ANEKDOTEN
WINSTON CHURCHILL
Zurich: Diogenes Verlag, 1956.
1958
•
146 Bocca, Geoffrey
THE ADVENTUROUS LIFE OF WINSTON CHURCHILL
=WINSTON CHURCHILL | DER GROSSE DRAUFGANGER/trans. by Sebastian Speich (Swiss Edition)
New York: Julia Messner, 1958; Toronto: Avon, 1958;
Zurich: Orell FUssli, 1965.
•
147 Booth, Arthur H.
THE TRUE BOOK ABOUT WINSTON CHURCHILL
=THE TRUE STORY OF WINSTON CHURCHILL |
BRITISH STATESMAN [U.S. title]
London: Frederick Muller Ltd., 1958; Chicago:
Children's Press, 1964. Juvenile.
•
148 Farmer, Bernard, J.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WORKS OF SIR WINSTON
CHURCHILL
London: Privately published (mimeographed) by the author,
1958.
•
149a Makins, Clifford (Narrator)
THE HAPPY WARRIOR | THE LIFE OF SIR WINSTON
CHURCHILL IN PICTURE-STRIP
London, Hulton Press, 1958. A juvenile, which appeared in series in the weekly boy's magazine Eagle between October 1957 and September 1958. Illustrated by
Frank Bellamy.
UM
139 Wibberley, Leonard
THE LIFE OF WINSTON CHURCHILL
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Inc., 1956; Revised edition, 1965; New York: Ariel Books, 1956 (paperback).
1957
•
140 Andrews, Charles T.
SENIOR STATESMAN WITH A FUTURE | A DISCUSSION OF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL'S ENDEAVORS
FOR EUROPEAN UNION, AMERICAN-BRITISH
ALLIANCE AND WORLD PEACE
Belmont, Massachusetts: privately published by the
author, 1957. Revised ed. same year.
2.14 (rev. 1989)
The Editor Proudly Announces the Return of a Classic:
«R WINSTON ©HURCHILL'S
DEFENDING T H E JEWEL
HN T H E (DROWN
First American Edition • The First Edition in 59 Years
With a New Introduction by Dr. Manfred Weidhorn • Delivery in January 1990
jSm Winston CHUKCHILL|
'• t ^ * - S , DF.FCIDIMG TllL JLUIJ.
1M Tnr. CKOWM
The orange and black dust jacket
designed by Charlotte Fletcher.
Left: Orange sailcloth binding with black lettering and debossed logo duplicates
the original: Right: inserts duplicate the style of the 1931 wrappers.
In an exciting Foreword that leaves you anxious to read them, Yeshiva University Professor Dr. Manfred Weidhorn rates
these rare speeches on India as the equals of Churchill's great war speeches of 1940. They have only gone unnoticed, he says,
because they were made over a much more controversial subject: Dominion status for India and the consequent end of the Raj. Read
today, they provide a ringing example of Churchillian rhetoric at its best — and, sadly, not a bad set of predictions.
"We would like genius to be discerning and moderate, to be a little bit more like the rest of u s , " Weidhorn writes. "Few
geniuses have been so. Churchill had the vices of his virtues. In judging him we err by unconsciously depending on the wisdom of
hindsight. No one could tell at the time how the India campaign of 1931 — or the War campaign of 1940 — would turn out. If
responsible voices in 1931 told Churchill that the Imperial age was over, just as many responsible voices in 1940 said
that Hitler could not be beaten. Only the pugnacious Churchill of 1931 could see his way through the impossibilities of 1940."
Out of print for 59 years, INDIA is one of Churchill's scarcest books, often missing even from advanced collections. We
have produced in this First American Edition an exact copy of the 1931 First Edition. But, whereas the original now commands up to
$750, you can own this historic book for as little as $25 — if you act now.
Pre-Publication Offer
THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION: The original text reproduced line
for line and page for page, using the same type, paper and orange
sailcloth binding with black letters. The original text is set off by orange
and black inserts which duplicate those of the paperback version of the
First Edition; Dr. Weidhorn's brilliant Foreword precedes the insert,
and we have designed a new color dust jacket. Hardbound, varnished
dust wrapper, 5 x 7V6", 168 pages.
Bookshop price $35; PRE-PUBLICATION PRICE . . . . $25
THE DELUXE LIMITED EDITION: The same contents, bound in full
orange leather with gilt page edges, special endpapers and satin page
marker. Limited to 100 copies signed and numbered by the publisher.
Bookshop price $100; PRE-PUBLICATION PRICE . . . . $75
MAIL TO: DRAGONWYCK PUBLISHING INC.
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n
149b Makins, Clifford (Editor)
HIGH COMMAND | THE STORIES OF WINSTON
CHURCHILL AND GENERAL MONTGOMERY
Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Netherlands: Dragon's Dream,
B.V., in conjunction with I.P.C. Magazines Ltd., 1981.
Juvenile reprint of original title with an additional one
on Montgomery. New foreword by Robert Fitzgerald.
Illustrated by Frank Bellamy.
•
150 McGowan, Norman
MY YEARS WITH CHURCHILL
London: Souvenir Press; New York: British Book
Centre, 1958; London: Pan Books, 1959 (paperback),
extracts were serialized in the Sunday Pictorial, London,
27 October and 3/10/17/24 November 1974, see Sec.III.
N.B. Author's name is spelt "MacGowan" on the dust
jacket of the English edition and on the spine of the
American edition.
•
151 Nel, Elizabeth
MR. CHURCHILL'S SECRETARY
=MR. CHURCHILL'S SECRETARY/Dutch trans, by
Marianne Calogeropoulos
London: Hodder & Stoughton; New York: Coward
McCann, Inc., 1958; London: Hodder & Stoughton,
1961 (paperback); "Antilope Reeks" [Antelope Series]
No. 17, Wageningen, Netherlands: H. Veenman &
Zonen N.V., 1959 (paperback). Baarn, Netherlands:
Uitgeverij het Werelvenster, n.d.
1959
158 Horning, Ross C, Jr.
WINSTON CHURCHILL AND BRITISH POLICY TOWARD
RUSSIA, 1918-1919
Washington: George Washington University, 1960.
Doctoral dissertation.
•
159a Moorehead, Alan
CHURCHILL | A PICTORIAL BIOGRAPHY
=CHURCHILL AND HIS WORLD [paperback title]
=CHURCHILL | EN BILDBIOGRAFI/Swedish trans, by
Bjorn Dalgren
=CHURCHILL/Dutch trans, by L. van Weezel, fwd. by
H.J. Venman
London: Thames and Hudson; New York: Viking Press,
1960; London: Panther Books, 1964 (paperback); Paris:
Hachette, 1961 (text in French); Stockholm: Natur och
Kultur, 1962; "Biografieen im Woord en Beeld,"
Sgravenhage, Netherlands: Kruseman, 1963.
•
159b
CHURCHILL AND HIS WORLD [Revised & extended
edition]
London: Thames and Hudson, 1965; New York: Viking
Press, 1969. Includes postscript by Douglas Sutherland,
pp. 129-36.
•
160 Publisher's Association of America
A SALUTE TO CHURCHILL FROM THE PUBLISHERS
OF AMERICA
New York: Publishers' Association of America, 1960.
1961
•
152 Birket-Smith, Kjeld
WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
Copenhagen: Dansk Bibliografisk Kontor, 1959. (A
short study of and guide to Churchill's literary works.)
•
153 Green, David
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL AT BLENHEIM PALACE |
AN ANTHOLOGY
Oxford: Alden & Co., 1959 (softbound). Second ed.
1965; reprints 1970, 1973.
•
•
154 Miller, H. Tatlock & Sainthill, Loudon
CHURCHILL | THE WALK WITH DESTINY
London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., New York: Macmillan
&Co. Inc., 1959.
•
161 Black, Edgar
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL | THE COMPELLING LIFE
STORY OF ONE OF THE TOWERING FIGURES OF
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Derby, Connecticut: Monarch Books Inc., 1961 (paperback).
•
162 de Mendelssohn, Peter
THE AGE OF CHURCHILL | VOLUME I | HERITAGE
AND ADVENTURE 1874-1911
London: Thames & Hudson; New York: Alfred Knopf,
Inc., 1961. N.B. No further volumes published.
•
163 Gudme, Sten
WINSTON CHURCHILL/MED EN EFTERSKRIFT AF
EBBE MUNCK [Text in Danish]
Copenhagen: Stig Vendelkaers Forlag, 1961.
1960
•
D
•
1962
155 Broad, Lewis
THE WAR THAT CHURCHILL WAGED
London: Hutchinson of London, 1960.
156 Carrington, Norman T., M.A.
WINSTON CHURCHILL | MY EARLY LIFE
"Notes on Chosen English Texts" series, Bath,
Somerset: James Brodie Ltd., n.d. [1960] paperback,
educational text. Juvenile.
157 Coolidge, Olivia
WINSTON CHURCHILL AND THE STORY OF TWO
WORLD WARS
=WINSTON CHURCHILL EN DE TWEE WERELDOORLAGEN/Dutch trans, by M. van Oort-Lan
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1960; Amsterdam,
Netherlands, 1961.
•
164 Clark, Ronald W.
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL
London: Phoenix House, 1962; "Living Biographies for
Young People" series, New York: Roy Publishers,
1962. Juvenile.
•
165 D'Aroma, Nino
CHURCHILL E MUSSOLINI [Text in Italian]
Rome: Centro Editoriale, Nazionale Divulgazioni
Umanistiche Soc. Storiche, 1962.
•
166 Farrell, Alan
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL
"Men and Events" series, London: Faber & Faber,
1962; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1965. Juvenile.
2.15 (rev. 1989)
•
167 Harrity, Richard & Martin, Ralph G.
CHURCHILL | MAN OF THE CENTURY
New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1962.
•
175 Nathan, Adele Gutman
CHURCHILL'S ENGLAND
New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1963. Juvenile.
•
168 LeVien, Jack & Lord, John
WINSTON CHURCHILL: THE VALIANT YEARS | A
NEW DRAMATIC NARRATIVE OF THE SECOND
WORLD WAR
New York: Bernard Geis Associates; London: George
G. Harrap & Co., 1962; Camp Hill, Pennsylvania:
Book of the Month Club, 1962.
•
•
169 Sims, Victor, ed.
CHURCHILL THE GREAT THE BEST STORIES
London: The Daily Mirror Newspapers Ltd., 1962
(paperback).
•
170 Staub, Herbert Ulrich
SIR WINSTON S. CHURCHILL | VERSUCH EINES
PORTRAITS
Winterthur, Switzerland: Keller, 1962. Dissertation,
Zurich University.
176 Pawle, Gerald
THE WAR AND COLONEL WARDEN | BASED ON THE
RECOLLECTIONS OF COMMANDER C.R. THOMPSON, C.M.G. O.B.E. R.N. (RET.), PERSONAL
ASSISTANT TO THE PRIME MINISTER 1940-1945
=LE VIEUX LION AU MICROSCOPE [French Ed.]
=CHURCHILL I KRIG/Danish trans, by Christian Dahlerup
Koch
=WINSTON CHURCHILL ALS KOLONEL WARDEN |
ACHTER DER FRONTEN VAN DE TWEEDE WERELDOORLOG (2 Vols)/Dutch trans, by J. van Ginkel
London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd.; New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1963; "Coup d'Oeil," Paris: Presses
de la Cite, 1963; Copenhagen: Fremad, 1964; Amsterdam: Elsevier n.d. [1964] (paperback). New York:
White Lion Publishers, 1974.
•
177 Reynolds, Quentin
WINSTON CHURCHILL THE COURAGEOUS ADVENTURER, THE REBELIOUS POLITICIAN, THE INSPIRING WAR LEADER
=ALL ABOUT WINSTON CHURCHILL [English Ed.]
("World Landmark" Series No. 56)
=WINSTON CHURCHILL/French edition adapted by Nicole
Rey
New York: Random House, 1963; London: W.H.
Allen, 1964; Paris: Nathan, 1965. Juvenile.
•
178 Smith, N.D.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
=CHURCHILL OCH HANS ENGLAND/Swedish trans, by
Magnus K:son Lindberg
("Methuen's Outline" Series), London: Methuen & Co.
Ltd., 1963; New York: Roy Publishers, 1964;
Stockholm: Sv. la'raretidn, 1966. Juvenile.
•
179 Staub, Robert & Gudenus, Johann B.
DER LETZTE VON OMDURMAN | WINSTON CHURCHILL UND DIE PFERDE [THE LAST WORD ON
OMDURMAN | WINSTON CHURCHILL AND THE
CAVALRY]
"Mensch und Pferde" Series No. 18, PfaffikonZurich: Schweizer Kavallerist, 1963.
•
180 Thompson, R.W.
THE YANKEE MARLBOROUGH
=WINSTON CHURCHILL | THE YANKEE MARLBOROUGH [U.S. title]
London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.; Garden City,
New York: Doubleday & Co. Inc., 1963.
•
181 Woods, Frederick
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WORKS OF SIR WINSTON
CHURCHILL, K.G. O.M. C.H. M.P.
London: Nicholas Vane, 1963; Second Revised Edition,
London: Kay & Ward Ltd. ,1969; London: Kay & Ward
/Library of Imperial History, 1975 (second revised
edition); St. Paul's Series "Number 1," Winchester:
St. Paul's Bibliographies & Foxbury Enterprises, 1979
(reissue). N.B.: An amplified list including Section
" A " titles not in this work published by the International
Churchill Society "Churchill Handbook," Sec. IV,
Part 2,
•
171 Webb, J.E.
CHURCHILL: SAVIOUR OR WRECKER?
Sydney: Prior Press, 1962.
1963
•
172 Higgins, Trumbull
WINSTON CHURCHILL AND THE DARDANELLES |
A DIALOGUE IN ENDS AND MEANS
=WINSTON CHURCHILL AND THE DARDANELLES
[English title]
New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Heinemann,
1963.
•
173 Kirk, R. Emmet
THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF WINSTON CHURCHILL
Chicago: University of Chicago, 1963. M.A. Thesis.
•
174 Maurois, Andre et al.
CHURCHILL
Contributors:
L'Aga Khan, 'L'Homme de Cheval', p.90.
Alanbrooke, Le Marechal, 'Devant Staline', p.68.
Bourdan, Pierre, 'Un Grand Gentilhomme d'Aventure',
p. 124.
Chastenet, Jacques, 'Le Soleil se Couche', p. 152.
Cooper, Sir Duff, 'Avec de Gaulle', p. 109.
Eisenhower, Le Generate, 'Avec Roosevelt', p.51.
Juin, Le Marechal, 'Le Churchill que J'ai Connu', p.23.
Maurois, Andre, 'Le Monstre Sacre', p.5.
Meleia, Marguerite-Yerta, 'Le Romancier d'un Seul
Roman', p. 120.
Montgomery, Le Marechal, 'H Conduit la Guerre . . .
Je le Fais,' p.36.
Moorehead, Alan, 'Prophete dans le Desert', p. 11.
Reynaud, Le President, 'Churchill et al France', p.81.
Roosevelt, Mrs. Eleanor, 'L'HotedelaMaisonBlanche',
p.64.
Rougier, Louis, "Les Negotiations de Londres', p. 141.
Tracy, G-M. 'La Legende de Churchill', p.166.
Vulliez, Le Commandant, 'Le Chef de l'Amiraute',
p.94.
Plus 7 short articles, anonymously written.
"La Novelle Librairie de France," Malakoff (Seine),
Miroir de l'Historie, 1963 (paperback).
2.16 (rev. 1989)
CKurcKill and Jerome:
A Literary Family Tree
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COMPILED BY DANIEL J. LENEHAN
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system among nations that share common interests, principles and customs. The USA,
the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
need each other today more than ever since
World War II. But are we this committed, or
just dreamers?
Commission,'' using that title for Chapter I
in his "Ian Hamilton's March" and the
American title of "My Early Life" 30 years
later.
— GEORGE C. MELLO, MIAMI, FL
ARCHITECTURAL QUOTES
A parishioner of mine sends this photo of a
building in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is
however unidentified. If the photo proves
unreadable, the Churchill quote is, "A nation that forgets its past has no future."
- DAVID A. SAMPSON, DALLAS, TX, USA
COPENHAGEN BUST
You will recognize WSC without having to
read his name carved on the plinthe; you may
not so easily recognize the monument itself.
The site is Churchillparken, Copenhagen,
Denmark, with St. Albans Church (C. of E.,
serving the British community) a hundred
yards or so down the road. WSC has been
portrayed actually looking toward the
church. It's a well known spot, with the
famous mermaid statue close by.
- D.J. OOSTRA, EMMELOORD, HOLLAND
ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNIONS
Bravo on your editorial in FH 62. I've
written Presidents before on this very issue. I
have written the President and the Prime
Ministers, attaching a copy of your editorial.
If this cause is important, as it surely was
to Sir Winston, why not make a greater commitment to see it through? As an average
citizen I plainly do not have the forum to get
the message to those on top.
International relationships are in flux, with
Germany's greater independence, Europe's
slow move toward a socialized union, the
growing popularity of the USSR, the
betrayal of China, and continued economic
strain with Japan. Change is all too unpredictable. All the more reason for an alliance
It is important to distinguish between an
alliance and a ' 'fraternal association,''
which is what Churchill favored and my
editorial suggested. There are already
alliances in place and these do not exclude
non-English speaking peoples. The nations
above-mentioned need to consult with each
other more often, as brothers. FINEST
HOUR'S role is to refract Churchill's principles, and to bring them, hopefully, to the
consideration of people who matter. Our
readership is small, but influential. Ed.
SORRY, TED
In FH 62 Stan Smith writes to say he
received no reply to his letter to Sen. Kennedy urging support for Churchill Recognition Week. I too wrote my Senators and
Representative and, thinking of his family's
unique connection, I wrote Sen. Kennedy. I
received a letter in reply promising his full
support for the Bill. I cannot explain why,
writing from California, I succeeded where
Stan didn't! In fairness it should be known
that Mr. Kennedy did support the Churchill
bill.
GERMAN JIBES
Certainly the most tasteless piece of
ephemera I've seen is this papier mache
"toby" showing WSC, straining hard, in the
WC. According to the Churchill Memorial
in Fulton, their copy (from the Ivan Hiller
collection) was listed by Hiller as a Nazi
propaganda piece. I don't doubt it! I do not
suggest you show the indecent side of this
caricature . . .
- JACK NIXON, SUDBURY, MASS.
We won't, but the curious may write us for
a photocopy. Ed.
ft.'*
- DAVID FREEMAN, PLACENTIA, CA
BLOOD, TOIL . . .
The expression "blood and sweat and
t e a r s " occurred in "My Wayward
Pardner," by Marietta Holley (Hartford,
Conn.: American Publishing Co. 1888,
copyright 1880). Miss Holley wrote the
humorous pieces in a rural New York state
dialect. She advocated progressive views —
this book attacks what she saw as the danger
to women of Mormonism. It does not seem
impossible that Lady Randolph, who shared
Holley's philosophies, may have acquired
her books, and that young Winston read
them. It may be of some interest that the
phrase is often popularly remembered the
way Marietta Holley wrote it, without the
"toil" which Churchill included in 1940.
Despite the similar names, I am not a relation of Miss Holley.
— FATHER RAYMOND HOLLY, FRANKFORT, IL
It's quite possible. WSC with his
prodigious memory "filed" his favorite
quotes, and never forgot. He obviously enjoyed Henty's Victorian novel, "A Roving
18
LEONARD JEROME, HIMSELF
Here is a handsome portrait of Sir
Winston's grandfather, Leonard W. Jerome,
a studio card by W. Kurtz of New York City.
The original is 3 4/8 by 5 1/2" and printed
in sepiatone. A friend purchased it at a
Philadelphia estate sale in 1987.1 have never
seen the photo before and do not know if it
has ever been published.
- DOUGLAS RUSSELL, IOWA CITY, IA
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THE DREAM (4)
"And Bring a Friend — If You Have One."
BY MEREDITH GREISMAN
Sir Winston's original "Dream" was published in
1987 by ICS and is still available. "Dream 2" was
the editor's, in issue 60; "Dream 3," by Denis
Kelly, WSC's postwar literary assistant, ran in issue
62. The author of "Dream 4" is going on 13 years
old and has recently completed the Sixth Grade (with
top marks for book reports).
I
T WAS LATE at night. I was in the middle of writing a
book report on Winston Churchill for my sixth grade
class. Since I am a member of the International Churchill
Society and have been to Chartwell, I have a vivid picture in
my mind of Sir Winston, his family and his home. The last
thing I remember about my book report was writing a
description of the great man. Then . . .
"Good morning, Meredith," said two girls in unison. I
looked closely at them and realized that they were Edwina
and Celia Sandys, Churchill's granddaughters. We were
standing, unmistakably, on the lawn at Chartwell. The girls
were my age. Somehow, I had passed through a time warp,
and had been transported back four decades to the years just
after the Second World War when Churchill had been turned
out of office and was writing his war memoirs.
"Hello," I replied, hoping they would not notice that my
voice quivered.
The two Sandys girls said they were glad I had come over
to play, and cheerfully invited me inside the house. I
remember thinking, not how large it was, but how unusual it
appeared from the outside, while on the inside it was very
cozy, almost ordinary.
Celia and Edwina asked me to come up to their room to
play at "dressing up." Strange things began happening as I
followed them upstairs, which made me wonder whether I
was really at Chartwell or back home in Connecticut,
dreaming.
There was the bark of a dog that sounded like mine, but
just as I was about to call "Liza" (my Bichon Frise), Edwina
screamed, "Rufus, go away and leave us alone." Then I
caught the whiff of cigar smoke, and thought I might be
sleepwalking into my dad's den. Reality and panic took over
when I heard the unmistakable voice of the recent Prime
Minister of Great Britain: "Enter and report, Rufush, my
darling!"
I suddenly found myself in a room that was certainly not
Edwina's or Celia's. It was an adult's room, masculine. I
stood in front of a wardrobe. It held all sorts of funny jumpsuits, hats and bow ties, great for "dress up" — or for the
costume I had in mind to wear when presenting my book
report to my sixth grade class.
"I'm so glad we can help you with your book report," said
Celia, with one of the nicest smiles I've ever seen.
"When I told Grandpapa he was very excited, and wanted
to know if you had any questions to ask him,'' Edwina
added.
From the apparent source of the blue cigar smoke that
other voice began talking again. I peered through the door,
and found what I expected: Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, addressing a mirror.
"When I warned them that Britain would fight on whatever
they did, their Generals told their Prime Minister, and his
divided cabinet: 'In three weeks England will have her neck
wrung like a chicken.' Some chicken!"
"Some neck!," I blurted out uncontrollably.
Edwina and Celia stared at me. WSC nodded.
"I like that," he said, "but it does seem that I have heard
it somewhere before. Do you mind if I use it whilst recording
my memoirs of the late war with this confounded device Life
magazine have kindly sent me?" He gestured disdainfully at a
mass of wires at his feet.
"Of course I don't mind," I replied with pleasure, thinking
that, after all, it was his to begin with, and hoping I had
actually reminded him of it — that he was not just being
polite.
"Is this the young lady who is doing a book report on
me?," Churchill asked his granddaughters.
"Yes, Grandpapa," they replied. The great man turned and
stared intensely at me for what seemed forever. Then he said
he would like to do something for me because I had helped
him with his tape recordings: "Is there something I can do
that will give you pleasure?"
"Well," I said, "my Dad — er, Papa —just loves Havana
cigars, but they are hard to come by. Do you think he could
have one of those — and a ticket to Question Time during
your next Prime Ministership — if there is one?"
I guess he thought I was being a smart alec, because he
replied, "I will see that you receive two tickets so that you
may bring a friend — if you have one."
He then muttered something about whether I knew George
Bernard Shaw, which I didn't understand at the time.*
Suddenly, I awoke. Clasped in my hand was a bow tie, an
inscribed copy of My Early Life, and the largest cigar I had
ever seen.
•
*During rehearsals for the theatrical production of "Saint
Joan,'' the playwright, George Bernard Shaw, wired Churchill: ' 'Reserving two tickets for you for my premiere. Come
and bring a friend — if you have one. " Churchill wired back:
"Impossible to be present for the first performance. Will
attend the second — if there is one.''
20
Reviews: Allusions to Churchilliana
"Churchill's Literary Allusions"
Images of Greatness''
W
E ARE PLEASED that both books reviewed this issue
have been written by ICS members, for whose contributions to the field we are most grateful.
Darrell Holley, whose synopsis of his book appears on page
22, has added remarkably to Churchill scholarship with the first
"Index to the Education of a Soldier, Statesman and
Litterateur." In a thin (but thankfully hardbound) volume which
is bound to be well thumbed by the serious, he has compiled
every example he could find of Churchill's allusions to
literature.
Holley organizes his book into 13 chapters, commencing with
the Bible and the Classics, and working along through the Dark
Ages, Renaissance and Romance period through Nineteenth and
Twentieth Century literature. The Book of Common Prayer,
Shakespeare, the Victorian poets and Thomas Babington
Macaulay — all quoted prodigiously by Churchill — receive
individual chapters. There follow numerous appendices and
indices: "Unidentified Allusions," Biblical allusions in
canonical order, Churchill's books, the editions cited, and
secondary sources.
Two massive indices are especially helpful: "Titles, Authors,
and Characters" directs us to everyone Churchill alluded to
from Addison to Zola; an "Index to Keywords" helps us to
locate an allusion with only a bare recollection of the crucial
words used. If, for example, you remember WSC referring to
somebody as "the young Adonis," you are referred to entry
262: "Once again the Great King acknowledged the bows of the
young Adonis in scarlet and gold, of whose exploits under the
planets of Mars and Venus he had already been well informed
through the regular channels." Next to this entry, Holley cites
the reference: Marlborough, Volume 1, page 108 (US edition).
Flip z page and you find the allusion grouped under
"mythological-historical references" in Chapter 2, "The
Classics."
As an exercise, take the quote published in "From the
Canon" (this issue), from The Gathering Storm: "I feel like one
/ Who treads alone / Some banquet hall deserted, / whose lights
are fled, / Whose garlands dead, / And all but he departed!"
What is the key word? Try "treads" — no luck. But Holley is
logical: try "departed." Sure enough, you're referred to entry
607. There you learn that Churchill was quoting Thomas
Moore's "Oft in the Stilly Night," and the page in Gathering
Storm where the quote appears. (Holley is also thorough. If interested in young Winston's self-education, look up "Savrola's
library" in the keyword index: Holley cites thirteen references.)
Disadvantages? Very few, really. The main problem is that
the book is based only on Churchill's books, omitting his
articles, contributions to other books, or speeches not published
in book form. Further, some books used were not the definitive
editions — the River War references are gleaned from the 1951
abridged reprint, not the two-volume unabridged original.
Finally, most books are the American editions. Commonwealth
readers with the English edition or Canadian or Australian
issues are going to be bolloxed with pagination variances.
CHURCHILL'S LITERARY ALLUSIONS, by Darrell Holley,
5'/2x83A ", 220 pages hardbound. McFarland & Company, PO
Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640 USA, $19.95 plus shipping.
CHURCHILL: IMAGES OF GREATNESS, by Ronald A.
Smith, 6%x9V2", 208 pages softbound. Kevin- Francis
Ceramics, 85 Landcroft Rd, E. Dullwich, London SE22 9JS,
England, £12.95; 13540N. Florida Ave., suite 103, Tampa FL
33613 USA, $24.95; 10 Centre St., Markham, ON L3P 2NH
Canada, $29.95 plus shipping.
ICS NEW BOOK SERVICE supplies both titles at discount.
IMAGES OF GREATNESS is feature selection of Catalogue
25/Autumn. For details write Churchillbooks, Burrage Road,
Contoocook NH 03229 USA.
The essential cross-references could be sorted out with an
even larger computer database. (I can't believe Mr. Holley did
without one). But the real answer to his prayers (and ours) is the
creation of an "electronic index" to all Churchill's works on a
CD-Rom disk with instant reference-retrieval to every word
WSC wrote. One day I hope ICS will be permitted to get that job
done.
— RICHARD LANGWORTH
IMAGES OF GREATNESS
This book has been a long time coming, and may breed discontent, both over the wait and the final work. If you were expecting a comprehensive survey of Churchilliana — chinaware,
brass, glass, metal, cigarette cards, stamps and lapel pins —
you'll be disappointed. Mr. Smith provides a broad crosssection but makes no attempt at completeness. In some ways this
is understandable: there are no known charts to the many fish in
this enormous sea. But collectors might have hoped for a better
organized approach.
Instead of dividing the book strictly by types or materials,
Smith casts much of the ephemera among a potted biography.
About 40 pages of narrative trace the well-worn story. It seems
doubtful that Churchill specialists need to be told the tale again;
but if they must, they might reasonably expect accuracy.
continued overleaf
21
BOOK REVIEWS, continued
The Education
of a Statesman
An Abstract of
"Churchill's Literary Allusions"
Book is free with either toby jug
from ICS New Book Service (p 21).
BY DARRELL HOLLEY
Typos, mistakes and repeats of discredited stories are rife. The
book misspells such easy marks as "Hozier," "Macaulay,"
"Bailey," "Sutty," "Storeys Gate" — and "peninsula" and
' 'warmonger.'' In other places there is a kind of patent-English:
"the storm clouds gathering over Europe darkened"; Oscar
Nemon was commissioned "to sculpture" the first statue. The
book says that Churchill was a "civilian" in the Boer War; that
the Sidney Street criminals were "Latvians"; that WSC returned to Parliament in 1916 owing to ' 'lack of command''; that
Labour came to power for the first time in 1929; that
Chamberlain issued an ultimatum "when German troops
massed along the Polish frontier"; that the Atlantic Charter was
a document. He swallows old clangers, like the £25 Boer
"Wanted Posters" (See p. 10 this issue, FH #32 and #57).
When I read that in 1940, "instatement of [Lord Halifax as]
Prime Minister would be unconstitutional since no first born son
of a Peer can sit in the House of Commons" (Prime Minister
Lord Salisbury seemed to operate from the Lords without a constitutional crisis), I turned to the pictures. These come thick and
fast after page 72. Prior to that, the photos that do appear are inadequately captioned, and one has to dig into the text to learn
(perhaps) the date, the producer, and so forth.
The photos are excellent and, from this point, well captioned
by the obviously expert author, although some dates, probably
hard to tell, are omitted. But the book cries for organization.
One is soon hopelessly lost in the deluge of toby mugs, dishes,
cups, plaques, paper, sweet dishes, ashtrays, pins and
glassware. They are arranged roughly in chronological order,
yet surely it is more important to the collector that all the china
or metal, or all the toby mugs, say, be grouped in one place
where they can be got at without hunting? An excellent 32-page
color section follows the black & whites.
One suspects that Mr. Smith was hardpressed, as anyone
would be, by this task. Perhaps the parameters were too large.
Adding such "public" items as paintings, pub signs, waxworks
and statues (all, also, incomplete) complicates the already huge
job of covering "private" items. Medals — comprehensively
catalogued in Engstrom's Medallic Portraits of Winston Churchill (Spink, 1972) — and/or stamps, books and statues, could
be left to another volume, or referenced in other existing works.
The author would no doubt reply — and rightly — that his
book is a sampling of the entire range of Churchill "images,"
and that one asks too much by expecting completeness. True,
but anybody could do that; Mr. Smith, an expert, must know
much more. As a sampler, aside from the error-strewn
biography, it is an adequate book (Memo to ICS: the publisher
takes adverts — go for one!) One can only hope that its success
will encourage Mr. Smith to create a more comprehensive
sequel.
PROFESSOR ALLAN BLOOM, in his explosive new book The Closing
of the American Mind, decries the great ignorance of the
average college student. The students simply have not read.
They are unfamiliar with the stories of the Bible. They have not
read Shakespeare's plays or, if they have read one or two, they
have not considered that these works might have something important to say about real life. The classics, both Greek and
Latin, are entirely lost to them. As a result of their ignorance,
they have only their own experiences and the current poppsychology on which to build their lives and from which to
shape their societies. They have no heroes to emulate.
But Winston Churchill, says Bloom,
was inspired by his ancestor Marlborough, and his confidence
in his own action is inconceivable without the encouragement provided by that model. Marlborough said that Shakespeare was essential to his education. And Shakespeare learned
a large part of what he knew about statesmanship from Plutarch.
This is the intellectual genealogy of modern heroes. The democratic revolution of the mind extinguishes such old family lines
and replaces them with decision-making theory, in which there
is no category for statesmanship, let alone heroes.1
In the middle of the most exciting debate in years, a debate
about the importance and value of reading as education,
Winston Churchill once again figures prominently. We who
view Churchill as both statesman and hero are not surprised.
For Churchill was a reader.
Considered dull by his parents, and a dunce by some of
his early teachers, he was not really educated in schools. He
attended them, of course, but he did not ultimately receive his
education from them. In My Early Life, in a chapter entitled
"Education at Bangalore," Churchill tells how he came to
educate himself. Intrigued by a friend's statement about ethics,
he began to realize his inadequate education.
I would have paid some scholar £2 at least to give me a lecture
of an hour or an hour and a half about Ethics. What was the
scope of the subject; what were its branches; what were the
principal questions dealt with, and the chief controversies
open; who were the high authorities and which were the
standard books? But here in Bangalore there was no one to tell
me about Ethics for love or money. . . . I now wished I could
find a competent teacher whom I could listen to and crossexamine for an hour or so every day. . . . So I resolved to
read. . . .2
Churchill described this learning he gave himself as "a
curious education." 3 It certainly was not like that usually
received by young men of his age and social position. Perhaps,
however, it was somewhat like their educations were intended
to be. While young Winston Churchill was reading in his
— MICHAEL RICHARDS
22
popularizations in the sense of simplifying what can be found
in other books. I mean they were initially written for a popular
audience.7
These are the books that have shaped the culture of Western
civilization — and they shaped Churchill too.
A study of Churchill's literary allusions can help shed light on
the education of a man who was a soldier, statesman, and litterateur. In a day when the very foundations of education are being reexamined perhaps the education of this premier citizen of
the English-speaking nations can serve as a model. One begins
to understand how his own writing was the outgrowth of his
education; his political values, too, seem to flow quite directly
from his reading.
There are those today who continue to see Churchill as an example par excellence of the educated statesman. The late professor Leo Strauss, political philosopher at the University of
Chicago, was one such admirer. He recognized in Churchill that
devotion to those eternal verities which the human race has
discovered over six thousand years and which it has recorded in
its greatest literary works. (Indeed, one recent magazine mentions that Strauss's students "get together to share Straussian interpretations of books and political events, and they celebrate
the birthday of Sir Winston Churchill — Leo Strauss's favorite
politician — with brandy and cigars.") 8 Allan Bloom, Strauss's
most prominent student, now diagnoses the great vacuity of
modern education: we are not educating our children in that
great literature that shaped the mind of Churchill and other
heroes of our past.
Simon Schama, in a recent review of Martin Gilbert's studies
of Churchill, remarks that from reading the works of Churchill
one begins to ' 'see just how the great orations were put together
from the capacious filing cabinet of his literary memory and the
emotional impetus of the moment"; one sees how "Churchill
created a patriotic community of common history, language,
and sentiment."9
Churchill's literary allusions reveal the contents of that
"capacious filing cabinet of his literary memory." It was from
that body of literature that Churchill drew the cords which
bound a nation (and, he hoped, all Christian civilization)
together. If he was, as Schama calls him, "a populist," it was
because he had something in common with the people, common
beliefs arising out of a common literature.10 If the world is ever
to see a real-life Savrola again, it will be only when the Churchillian curriculum is imitated.
•
bungalow in India, other young men were at Oxford and Cambridge. They too were supposed to be reading; indeed, the very
terminology of those institutions implied as much. A student
read theology or English literature or classics. This reading was
guided by his tutor and explained by lecturers.
Churchill's "curious education" did not end with his service
in India. He referred often in his works to books that he had
recently read. Once, while speaking to a university audience, he
explained this relationship between reading and education:
But one must not look on education as something which ends
with one's youth. A university training is the key to many
doors, doors both of knowledge and wisdom. A man's education should be the guiding line for the reading of his whole
life, and I am certain that those who have made good use of
their university studies will be convinced of the importance
of reading the world's great books and the literature of their
own land. They will know what to read and how to understand
it.4
From Quintilian's list of classics to the recent "Great Books
of the Western World," there have been many attempts to list
all the works necessary to a sound liberal education. The books
which formed the real education of Sir Winston Churchill cannot be easily listed. His autobiographical writings list some, but
certainly not all of them. His correspondence no doubt mentions
some, but no great number. He surely read many books which
did not really help educate him. How can one ascertain which
books influenced him and formed his mentality and shaped his
life? Those books that remained in his memory, those that he
quoted or referred to in his writings, can perhaps begin to form
such a list.
Of course, it is possible to quote from a book without having
read it. Churchill surely did; he was fond of Bartlett's Familiar
Quotations.5 It is not likely however that phrases, even entire
lines or passages, would be remembered unless the works had
been read — and more than once.
In an interesting passage from his only novel, Savrola, Churchill describes Savrola's library. Savrola is an intense,
vivacious, mature politician, the leader of his country in a time
of great crisis. It is fascinating to notice that Savrola is a great
reader. His library walls
were covered with shelves, filled with well-used volumes.
To that Pantheon of Literature none were admitted till they
had been read and valued. It was a various library: the philosophy of Schopenhauer divided Kant from Hegel, who jostled
the Memoirs of St. Simon and the latest French novel;
Rasselas and La Curee lay side by side; eight substantial
volumes of Gibbon's famous History were not perhaps inappropriately prolonged by a fine edition of the Decameron;
the Origin of Species rested by the side of a black-letter Bible;
The Republic maintained an equilibrium with Vanity Fair and
the History of European Morals. A volume of Macaulay's
Essays lay on the writing table itself. . . .6
This library of Savrola's is very indicative of Churchill's own
reading as seen in his literary allusions. Philosophy, popular
literature, novels, history, medieval romance, science, the Bible, classical literature, essays — these are what made up the
curriculum for Winston Churchill's education. His reading was
not scholarly in the sense in which that word is usually
understood. Mortimer Adler, who compiled one of the many
lists of great books, described them as
FOOTNOTES
'Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1987), p. 256.
2
Sir Winston Churchill, My Early Life (London: Reprint Society,
1944), pp. 118-120.
'Churchill, Early Life, p. 122.
4
Sir Winston Churchill, Europe Unite (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1950), p. 326.
'Churchill, Early Life, p. 125.
6
Sir Winston Churchill, Savrola (New York: Random House, 1956),
pp. 30-31.
'Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1940), p. 329.
8
Jacob Weisberg, "The Cult of Leo Strauss," Newsweek, August 3,
1987, p. 61.
'Simon Schama, "The Churchilliad," New Republic, December 5,
1983, p. 31.
I0
Schama, p. 31.
popular, not pedantic. They are not written by specialists
about specialties for specialists. Whether they be philosophy or
science, or history or poetry, they treat of human, not academic, problems. They are written for men, not professors.
When I say that they are popular I do not mean that they are
Mr. Holley is the author of Churchill's Literary Allusions, which is
reviewed on page 21.
23
Sir Winston CKurcnill Sckolarskip Foundation
A Notable Achievement by tKe Edmonton, Alberta Ckurchill Society
BY HARVEY HEBB, M.D.
In the spring of 1975, the speaker at
the Annual Dinner of the Sir Winston
Churchill Society was the former private secretary to Sir Winston, the late
Sir John Colville. The following summer my wife and I were in England —
and Sir John made arrangements for us
to visit Churchill College Cambridge.
He was very much involved with Churchill College and was instrumental in
raising £3,000,000 for its construction.
Sir John was very proud of the
school's success, and in a letter written
in 1977, he stated:
"Churchill College has done so well
in the last two years, specifically in the
realm of Science and Technology, that
its members have won more first class
honours than any other college at Oxford or Cambridge, or, I suspect,
anywhere else. In consequence, the
number of applicants for places has now
soared, and this autumn the total
number of applicants for 1978 entry is
higher than either Trinity College,
Cambridge or Christ Church, Oxford.
That is a remarkable achievement for a
college less than 20 years old."
We were escorted by the Vice-Master
on a tour of the college, followed by a
luncheon at the home of the master, Sir
William Hawthorne. During lunch, Sir
William asked for details concerning the
activities of the Churchill Society in Edmonton. I recounted the names of the
distinguished speakers who had come
each year since 1965, and then described the debates given by high school
students on the history of World War
Two and Churchill's role in it, sponsored by the Society. It occurred to me
that the Society should extend its raison
d'etre to include a scholarship whereby
a graduate student from the University
of Alberta would attend Churchill College. I asked the Bursar (who was sitting
opposite) how much it would cost for
tuition and accommodation. His reply
was "$4,000". In the afternoon, the
Vice-master and his wife escorted us
around the other colleges of Cambridge.
Before dinner, we were invited to have
cocktails on the patio of Sir William's
residence. I asked him if he would be interested in having a student come to
Cambridge from the University of
Alberta, and if so, what type of student
would he prefer. His prompt reply was
"Yes, someone interested in Energy."
On my return to Edmonton, I discussed the idea of a scholarship with Dr.
Walter Johns, and received a favorable
response. I then discussed it with
George Ford, Dean of Engineering at
the University of Alberta, who was
equally enthusiastic.
At the annual meeting of the Churchill Society Edmonton Branch, held in
December, 1975 at the Royal Glenora
Club, the suggestion was made that the
Sir Winston S. Churchill Society of Edmonton should sponsor a scholarship
Young Winston, c. 1900
for a graduate student from the University of Alberta to attend Churchill College, Cambridge. After considerable
discussion, it was agreed that such a
scholarship should be instituted.
At a meeting of the executive of our
Society held in January, 1976,1 was appointed chairman of the Scholarship
Fund. I then set up a board of directors
of the Scholarship Foundation consisting of Dr. Walter Johns, Dr. Joe
Siegenberg, Mr. Stanley Milner, the
president of the Society (ex-officio) and
me. A selection committee was also
formed consisting of Dr. Johns, Mr.
Ron Dalby, a representative of the
Faculty of Engineering appointed by the
Dean, the President of the Society and
24
me. Application was forwarded to Ottawa in order to register the Foundation
as a Charitable Organization. After a
long delay, Mr. Marcel Lambert came
to our rescue and secured our registration which permits all donations to be
tax-deductible.
During the early stages of setting up
the Scholarship the Premier of Alberta,
Peter Lougheed, was informed of its existence. He showed immediate interest
in the project and expressed the wish to
be informed of its progress. The financial campaign was successful, and in
due course the Provincial Treasurer
provided us with a matching grant of
$45,000.
In its first year (1978), we were able
to provide a scholarship of $5,500 to
our first Edmonton Churchill Scholar —
David Checkel — Gold Medallist of his
graduating class of 1976 in the Faculty
of Engineering. David has had an outstanding career at Churchill College and
is receiving his Ph.D. this year.
It was immediately apparent that costs
were mounting due to inflation and the
devaluation of the dollar — so it has
been necessary to keep the fund open
for donations. Fortunately, funds continued to flow in and we were able to increase David's scholarship to $8,000
for his second and third years.
By 1981 we had slightly over
$100,000, from which we were able to
provide a scholarship of $10,000 for our
second Edmonton Churchill Scholar.
Costs continued to rise and it was
necessary to allow the fund to remain
open indefinitely.
Our second Edmonton Churchill
Scholar was J. Douglas Hunt, one of
two top students in the Faculty of
Engineering at the University of Alberta
— and received his B.Sc. degree in
1981.
This is the story of the Churchill
Scholarship Foundation. It is my hope
that its work thus far is just the beginning of a long and happy association
between the University of Alberta and
Churchill College Cambridge and that
the Churchill Scholars will make a
valuable contribution to Alberta, and to
Canada.
•
Churchill ever expected Britain to stay in Greece, Turkey or Iran.
Whether Churchill could have long avoided Imperial liquidation had he
remained in power, is an arguable question: but it is hardly a model of
historical accuracy on Neilson's part to blame the actions of the Labour
Government on Churchill.
Neilson goes on to lay full blame on Churchill for the fall of
Singapore and the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse. These
incidents are described fully in earlier volumes. Churchill accepts his
share of responsibility for them, but the documents of the period show
that his advisors, the naval commander, and mainly the unavoidable
material preponderance of the Japanese in that theater and the everchanging techniques of warfare contributed most heavily to the results.
After deriding the Teheran conference as a meeting at which "the
world was made safe for Communism," Neilson condemns the "lying
statements of the Western governments" without condescending to support his accusations with facts or logic. Having criticized what he sees
as the "surrender" to the Communists at Teheran, Neilson then turns
around and condemns the 1939 British guarantee to Poland and the
reversal of the appeasement policy as "combining provocation with
temptation:" "No dictator, especially one like Hitler, could be expected to submit to such a slap in the face."
Incredible! In dealing with tyrants, Britain is damned if she does and
damned if she doesn't. Hitler had his plans for Poland well laid long
before the British guarantee; the notion that Chamberlain provoked an
innocent Hitler into war is absurd.
Neilson devotes a section to Pitt, faulting him for continuing the war
against Napoleon in 1799. He then moves on to Palmerston, whom he
accuses of first articulating and then abandoning isolationist principles.
Neilson here exults in citing repeated instances in which a war was at
first expected to be short, but turned out to be long. As this is true of
virtually all long wars, it proves nothing about any particular group of
statesmen!
Before returning to the general period of the Second World War,
Neilson extends his historical sweep to Henry IV, who advised his son
to "busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels." Neilson summarizes his
own attitude toward war and politics by saying that "the deadly work of
lying propaganda numbs the intelligence of the masses and leaves them
powerless in the grip of politicians." This can be little less than the
despairing cry of a man in passionate disagreement with the majority.
Churchill occasionally found himself in a similiar position. The difference was that Churchill was occasionally proven right . . .
Neilson argues that wartime promises of a better future and the
restoration of rights were never fulfilled. This obviously is much too
sweeping an assertion. Though in some ways the "broad, sunlit
uplands" are never quite reached, the restoration of freedom and independence to the nations of Western Europe after the overthrow of
Nazi Germany was indeed a substantial improvement. Neilson warns
of the rubble and burning hatreds of the immediate postwar years, but
his remarks in this regard are obviously dated.
Neilson concludes with a section on the meaning of "greatness."
"How anyone connected with this disaster (the war) can be called
'great'," he says, "beats my understanding. The word has been overworked for 50 years by undiscriminating scribes . . . Therefore, we
must conclude that the term 'great' as it is used today is merely a title of
the moment."
This is clearly not a valid argument. Even if we agree that not
everyone called "great" deserves the term, it does not follow that no
one deserves the term. Feeling as he does about the war, Neilson
naturally admits to no greatness in its participants, but that need not prevent the rest of us from doing so.
In his remarks on the recent television protrayal of Churchill by
Robert Hardy (written by James Humes), Sir John Gielgud pointed out
that Churchill is "considered the preemnient statesman of our century
. . . because the modern world was shaped by his leadership. He is held
in esteem by people in every part of the globe because they are affected
by his actions and inspired by his words. Winston Churchill was a great
man because of who he was and what he did — because he was as ordinary as any of us, and as extraordinary as any of us can hope to b e . "
One could hardly find a better definition of' 'greatness" than that. •
Revisionist Revised
A New Look at Francis Kleilson's
"Tke CKurcKill Legend," Part V
BY STANLEY B. SMITH
IN CLOSING THE RING, the fifth volume of his war memoirs, Winston Churchill narrates the course of the war from the summer of 1943 to the eve
of the D-Day invasion in June of 1944. Churchill describes the book's
theme as "How Nazi Germany was Islolated and Assailed on All
Sides.'' The first half of the book covers the conquest of Sicily, the fall
of Mussolini, the Quebec conference, and the invasion of Italy. The
second half deals with the high diplomacy of the Cairo and Teheran
conferences, Churchill's serious illness and convalescence, the heavy
fighting in Italy, and, finally, the massive preparation for the invasion
of the Continent.
In his review of the book, Francis Neilson hardly discusses Closing
the Ring at all. Instead, he indulges in a rambling, cynical essay, in
which he deplores the "disastrous" outcome of the war and the nature
of democratic politics in general a technique recently duplicated, almost
subject by subject, in David Irving's unbalanced "Churchill's War."
His perambulation through history more than once leaves the Second
World War in the dust and takes us as far back as Henry IV, touching
caustically on Pitt, Palmerston, and Theodore Roosevelt along the way.
Any sense of order or balance is missing. Under Neilson's pen, the
history of democracy is one of flocks of gullible sheep being led by
foolish or sardonic demagogues from one catastrophe to another. There
is no room for motivating idealism or principled action; all is gloom and
despair.
As distorted as this vision is, Neilson fails even to be logically consistent in his approach to it. On the one hand, he states that "the atmosphere is still charged with the prejudice fomented by propaganda,"
and that "we shall probably have to wait until our great man is gathered
to his fathers before the callous investigator deems it worth while to
give us the whole story of the war . . . " Thus he summarily dismisses
contemporary praise of Churchill and implies that only the passage of
time will reveal historical truth. On the other hand, he breaks his own
rule by forthrightly declaring that "the record shows that, as political
leader, strategist, and negotiator, Mr. Churchill failed signally at Cairo,
Teheran, and Yalta." But if time is needed to reveal the truth, how can
Neilson know that Churchill's account is false, or that his actions are
failures?
In true revisionist fashion, Neilson assumes that praise given to any
statesman is bred of ignorance and propaganda, and that the impartial
historian — such as Neilson himself — will inevitably show what a contemptible worm that statesman really is. He also deplores as "worse
than Pyrrhic" and "disastrous in the extreme" the victory that forced
Britain and France to borrow money from the United States. Apparently he feels that these countries would have fared better under
Hitler's New Order in Europe than with the beneficent generosity of the
American Treasury. Despite the Soviet threat, the victory has given
Western Europe more than 40 years of a peaceful freedom it would
hardly have enjoyed under Hitler. Is this tragic?
Neilson begins his discussion of "some Churchillian blunders" by
citing Churchill's famous 1942 statement, "I have not become the
King's first minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the
British Empire.'' This Neilson calls ' 'a case of self-delusion that is hard
to beat" and cites Britain's postwar withdrawal from Southern Asia,
Greece, Turkey, Palestine, and Iran. He neglects to mention, however,
that this was done under a Labour Goverment, or that no one including
25
Churchill in Stamps
ASCENDANCY
DlSMliMHEfilNO
PAGES 121-126: THE ROAD TO WAR
The sheets on this page are recent (one still incomplete), made
up with the computer (see FH 62 page 28, sheets 103-104.) In
paragraphs below, stamp catalogue numbers are Scott (#) and
Stanley Gibbons (sg). A slash (/) means a Churchill-related (C-R)
set from which any stamp may be used.
121. Less than six months after Munich, Hitler tore apart the remains of Czechoslovakia: Bohemia and Moravia (#1/19, sg 1-19)
was declared a Nazi protectorate; Slovakia, nominally independent, was a German satellite; Carpatho-Ukraine was given to
allied Hungary. Illustrating these events with stamps of the new
states has proven difficult; as can be seen, I have not yet acquired
appropriate stamps of Slovakia (#24/5, B25/6) or CarpathoUkraine. Stamps already in place are Bohemia and Moravia
#18-19 (sg?) and Czechoslovakia #216 (sg 363) showing President Benes, who would head a reconstituted Czech State in 1945.
CZECHOSLOVAK [A
"On M « r c h
IS.
I'.Kt!),
Mr.
C h n m h i - r l a i n h a d I n s a y \.o I tn> H o u
' T h r ; y . - 1 - u f . f i t ] n n of H o l n - m i i i l i y G c r i i i a n in 1 1. i I =i ry f u r c u s l i « t f a
;i I s i x o ' c ! u c k Mi i s m o r n i l i f j . . . ' !!*• I Ii'.-ri p r < I C I : K d--.l I o s I ;i I
Llj:i:
M i e « u a r u n t c o In- i i f i d g i v . - n ( " Z ' . M . I I O H I o v a k i • > i m l o n c . i . T
111 h i s o p i n i o n h o d v a l i d i t y [ s i n c - l
I he S J u v H k [) l e 1
Imil
yi-s I t - f f l o y d , - ( - l a n . M i t hI rrrj..p,..ndeiir-,. n f S l o v a k i a . "
•-WSC.
Adolf Iliili-r
l o o k s ,,,,i OV.M-
" r h -
CnLlier iiu;
Slci
i
|
1 hf Cz.:i.h . - a n i t a l
nf I'.aW, in :,
Man,,, I.1SU.-.I l.v
-]
I he Gr-rir.iin fr o
j
l..-.lorat<- l i o i i i ' a i n
!
and Moravia in
] f l 4 : i , :<:!'-\:r:t' l :.,•
h i s -"rir.l l i l r l h d . - i y .
j
Nominaliv
imlp-
121
[.rid.- F l i l ] - r
;l.;.y...| •lur-iHB
h i s d i :.m.-!iil.<-H in:
of r.'z.vhi.slo-
Anotimr iH.-it-
o
j.alho Ukraine-,
122. After the Czech debacle, Mussolini concluded the "Pact of
Steel" with Hitler on 23 May. Symbolic of the Axis partners is
Germany #B189 (sg?) and Romania #B193 (sg?) — Romania being a minor Axis partner. At top right, Italian East Africa #1 (sg
1) proclaims Musso's shortlived African empire, while Italy
#427/431/435 promises "La Vittoria sara del Tripartite" (the
pact by then having expanded to include Japan). In contrast to all
this was Britain's ally Portugal, which honored the inventor of the
postage stamp, Sir Rowland Hill, on its #595/602 (sg?).
handed ovf-r I o
l-i! l.-r':i
I ho Munich
Bent's
1.1:<
123. Next on Hitler's list was Poland, here represented by Marshal Pilsudski (#242, sg 262), who reviewed the troops (#340, sg
348) before the German invasion in September; President
Moscicki (#318, sg 334); and Marshal Smigly-Rydz (#312/13, sg
331/32). Poland's contribution to the later war effort is ably portrayed by any of its government-in-exile stamps (#3Kl-8, sg
478-85). A familiar portrait of Churchill is added by way of
Venezuela's diamond-shaped commemorative (#C912, sg 1923).
124. Nineteen thirty-nine is an appropriate year for stock taking:
for the West, it didn't seem good. France looked to Britain (#352,
sg 615), and wistfully to America (#332, sg 589); President Inonu
of Turkey (#934/39) proclaimed neutrality and Poland's
Moscicki (#317, sg 333) was not around long. Firmly neutral
were Sweden (#280/81), Switzerland (#210-15, sg 343-38), even
the Vatican (#8/13): Stalin (Poland #524/25, sg 718/19) signed a
non-agression pact with Hitler in August 1939.
all-.-
Hungary n=. j . a r l
of
i ivi-d
di.id
in
to [ „ •
l!H>!
ASCIiMJANCY
THI! it
I hf>
wake
:,
f
"PACT
Munich,
Oh
STF-. 1 !-. 1 !."
w h i l -
ANU
!i r i I fi l n
T H K fi, X J S
rm.l
FY;ir;:-.'
held
o n w/..i M n y s i j . { n ' ^ i ' • l i f " F ' n i l
o f S t •••.• i , "
i r i » < T , w i Mi l l w
- j i H i i i . u i of J : ) j t : i r i ,
Mi«F r i p f i r -t i i <• Pa<-t
or A x i s .
S f i : n > i ! y ,
H j l l * : r w r n t , . h i s ( - ! i i . . - f s o f •.; I n f f M I M I I I I
T'<« 1 f i n d :
"W..- c n r i i i . . !
n r i - i » - 1 it i o n of M M - i*?r-.-h n f f m r .
T h u r - w] I ]
}<•• w . i
f . . M » c c l
(,t Jfl'1 I
irtllflS
\\w S t ' . " : J
F'f-n:!
par I iif-rs;
for
[Idly,
i i mr-nril
tt f(ii»rnntfi.. of
h e r j » - i - m i m - i i i <•
1:1 F.ost A f r i i T i .
whirh
MiiSKuLini
i i f i r i n . - i - WDK
122
125. Poland's long history of invasion is represented by
Kosciuszkowski's 1794 attack on the Russians (#657/59, sg
897/99) and a beautiful stamp (#B41, sg 534) depicting the last
stand at Westerplatte is September 1939. German wartime semipostals depict Hitler and the Nazi invasion.
(tcniaiiui.
wtudi
[ ecej Vfd
I lit-
I!,.; r.,yp..|,s.- i.;"
IfiiLsni
in
}'Ml.
f t n i i an st :imp
.-if ! ! t 4 2 p r o V i I t or ;,-i «.;irn
tie I
»f
126. With the fall of Poland, Hitler proclaimed that the former
Free State of Danzig was German. Independent Danzig is
represented by its own stamps (#81/95, sg 44/55); "Danzig 1st
Deutsch" appears on Germany #492-93 (sg 703-03).
Tripnrt.it
! \f
Axis.
nf
l.rtf
it.y
went hiirk Id M»V.
In 1M0 I'ortufinJ
noted I lie run I i.-niir'y of the* Bril.isli
To be continued.
26
VHHH
1
ASCENDANCY
ASCENDANCY
THE POLISH QUESTION
POLAND INVADED
When Germany absorbed the rest of Czechoslovakia six months after Munich, Chamberlain gave up on appeasement and guaranteed
that Britain would come to the aid of Poland if attacked by
Germany. Thus Chamberlain turned to fight at the worst possible
moment, in a country where British forces could not be effective.
"Poland was attacked by Germany at dawn on September 1. The
mobilisation of all our forces was ordered during the morning...
che Polish forces on the frontiers were L'irst to be penetrated,
and then overwhelmed and surrounded by two pincer movements...
In numbers and equipment the Polish Army was no match for their
assailants, nor were their dispositions wise.'
-- The Gathering Storm
Marshal
Pilsudski
reviews troops
before the
attack on
Poland.
123
Poland has long
been subjec t to
invasion, by
the Russians
from the East,
the Germans
from Lhe West.
Here Kosciuszkow
leads a rebellion against the
occupying Russians in 179^.
Polish President Moscicki
and Marshal
Smigly-Rydz.
125
The Poles
fought well
in World War
II as Allied
field units,
and these
stamps were
issued for
their use.
Polish troops,
against long
odds, resist
German coastal
landings along
the Baltic
under German
navsl guns.
ASCENDANCY
FRIENDS AND OTHERWISE
"DANZIG TUT DEUTSCH"
Even with France, the Allied outlook in September 1939 w a s no
very hopeful, for the British and French could count only on
Turkey and an already-reeling Poland.
One of Hitler's immediate aims in attacking Poland was the
strategic city of Danzig (now Gdansk) on the Baltic, which
had been declared a Free State after Versailles. Resistance
of the Danzigers was quickly neutralized by the Wehrmacht.
After the war Danzig was incorporated into Poland.
France notes
her British
ally, and
wishes for
an American.
Presidents
Inonu of
Turkey and
Moscicki
of Poland.
124
Neutral
voices
included
the usual
Swedes,
Swiss and
Papal
officials,
but the
big loss
was Stalin,
who had
signed a
non-agression
pact with
Germany.
126
Partly created
to be Poland's
corridor port,
the Free State
included Danzig
proper plus the
surrounding
countryside,
a total of 75^
square miles.
The population
was mostly
German, as
Hitler often
pointed out.
German stamp,
celebrated
Danzig's
seizure by
rhe Reich by
proclaiming
Danzig 1st
Deutsch."
27
100-75-50-25 YEARS AGO
EDITED BY JOHN G. PLUMPTON
SUMMER 1889 • Age 14
From the time of his resignation Lord
Randolph had been a somewhat unenthusiastic supporter of the Government but now the breech arrived. He
had gradually lost most of his friends
and supporters but everyone was happy
to hear him speak in favour of the
Government's position on allowances
for the children of the Prince of Wales.
However, on 26 July he spoke out
against those mainstays of the Tory
party, the brewers, and thus alienated
most of his remaining friends within the
party.
This was followed by an attack on
Tory policy in Ireland. He said that
Dickens's character Mr. Podsnap
typified the Tory attitude on Ireland.
"Mr. Podsnap was a person in easy circumstances, who was very content with
himself and was extremely surprised
that all the world was not equally contented like him; and if anyone suggested
to Mr. Podsnap that there were possible
causes of discontent among the people
Mr. Podsnap was very much annoyed
. . . Podsnappery is rampant and rife in
London, and I think this Podsnappery
we ought to make a great effort to put
down."
At Harrow young Winston prepared
to go into the Army Class. A decision
was required whether he was destined
for Woolwich, the military academy for
the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers, or Sandhurst, the military
academy for the infantry, cavalry and remaining arms. His teachers concluded
that he was not good enough in Mathematics to pass into Woolwich and that
he ought to set his sights on Sandhurst.
SUMMER 1914 • Age 39
Following the assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand of Austria,
there seemed to be little immediate
threat to European peace. Churchill
continued with his plans to effect
economies in the Naval Estimates and a
test mobilization of the Third Fleet
replaced the usual summer manoeuvres.
On July 24 the Austrian Government
issued a stringent ultimatum to Serbia,
as a result of which, Churchill wrote his
wife, "Europe is trembling on the verge Maurice Hankey commented that
of a general war."
' 'Winston Churchill is a man of a totally
On 26 July Churchill and the First Sea different type from all his colleagues. He
Lord, Prince Louis Battenberg, can- had a real zest for war. If war there
celled the demobilization of the Third must needs be, he at least could enjoy
Fleet. Churchill also signalled the it." Even the Prime Minister thought
Mediterranean Fleet: "European that Churchill was a little too bellicose.
political situation makes war between
But there were others who were
Triple Alliance and Triple Entente thankful for his diligence and some of
Powers by no means impossible."
the praise came from rather strange
When Germany declared war on quarters. Lytton Strachey, a member of
Russia, Churchill implemented the pacifist Bloomsbury group, said that
emergency measures throughout the ' 'God put us on an island and Winston
country, even though these actions were has given us a navy. It would be absurd
forbidden by the Cabinet. Watchers to neglect these advantages."
were placed along the coastline,
Churchill recognized his own
harbours were cleared, bridges were strengths and weaknesses. He wrote to
guarded and all boats were searched. his wife: "Everything tends towards
The First Fleet was quietly moved from catastrophe and collapse. I am inPortland Head and took up war stations terested, geared up and happy. Is it not
in the North Sea.
horrible to be built like that? The
In the face of opposition from many preparations have a hideous fascination
admirals including Sir John Jellicoe, the for me. I pray to God to forgive me for
First Lord named Jellicoe to replace Sir such fearful moods of levity. Yet I wd
George Callaghan as Commander-in- do my best for peace, and nothing wd
Chief of the Home Fleet on the grounds induce me wrongfully to strike the
that the 62-year old Callaghan was not blow. I cannot feel that we in this island
up to the impending challenge. Despite are in any serious degree responsible for
the inopportune timing, Churchill had the wave of madness wh has swept the
been thinking of this move for some mind of Christendom. No one can
time and was strongly pressured by measure the consequences. I wondered
whether those stupid Kings and
Lord Fisher to make the change.
There was considerable division Emperors cd not assemble together and
among Cabinet members over how revivify kingship by saving the nations
Britain should respond to the crisis. from hell but we all drift on in a kind of
Almost all were opposed to being in- dull cataleptic trance."
volved in a Balkan war and 12 of 18
After learning of Germany's declaravoted against providing aid to France tion of war against Russia, Britain inand Russia. But Churchill did not formed France and Germany that Brisubscribe to this. He believed fervently tain would not allow German ships
that Britain's honour and interests re- through the English Channel or the
quired her to assist France, and Belgium North Sea in order to attack France.
if the latter's neutrality was threatened. When Germany ignored Britain's
He had little doubt about where the ultimatum demanding the honouring of
fault lay. He called Austria "Germany's Belgian neutrality, the British Governidiot ally" and later wrote in The World ment declared war against Germany and
Crisis that "the Germans had resolved the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
that if war came from any cause, they
At 11:00 p.m. on 4 August, the Adwould take and break France forthwith miralty signalled all ships and naval
as its first operation. The German establishments: "Commence hostilities
military chiefs burned to give the signal, against Germany."
and were sure of the result. [France]
would have begged for mercy in vain.
For farther reading on this dramatic
She did not beg."
episode, see pages 4-5; also refer to
His colleagues thought that he re- "The World Crisis, " Vol. I and the Oflished battle a little too much. Sir ficial Biography Vol. III.
28
SUMMER 1939 • Age 64
Churchill was frustrated by the
Government's reluctance to enter into
an alliance with the Soviet Union. He
was also disturbed by the apparent
desire of Chamberlain and Halifax to
come to some accommodation with
Hitler. He wrote Halifax: "I am sure
you realize that to talk about giving back
colonies, or lebensraum or any concession, while nine million Czechs are still
in bondage, would cause great division
among u s . "
Some of Britain's allies doubted her
ability to be victorious over Germany.
Among them was the United States Ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy. Churchill
challenged Kennedy's use of the
"dreadful word" defeat. He told Walter
Lippmann that he would willingly die
before admitting defeat but that if it
should happen then "it will be for the
Americans to preserve and maintain the
great heritage of the English-speaking
peoples."
He was convinced that American involvement was inevitable in any future
conflict. After outlining how Britain
should respond to the atrocity of bombing attacks on her cities, he predicted
that "of these grievous events, the
people of the United States may soon
perhaps be the spectators. But it
sometimes happens that the audience
become infuriated by a revolting exhibition. In that case we might see the spectators leaving their comfortable seats
and hastening to the work of rescue and
retribution. "
In June Churchill published a collection of newspaper articles under the title
Step by Step. Clement Attlee spoke for
many when he said: "It must be a
melancholy satisfaction to see how right
you were." Many, both within and outside the Government, wanted to see him
appointed to the Cabinet as the clouds
formed over Poland, but his supporters
tended to be younger members and the
old guard around Chamberlain was still
strongly opposed to him.
The public demand to bring back
Churchill continued to grow. A large
poster, paid for by an unknown Churchill supporter, appeared in the Strand
on 24 July asking: "What Price Churchill?" From most of the newspapers,
with the notable exceptions of the Daily
Express and The Times, came what the
Evening Standard called a "terrific barrage from the newspaper artilleries."
The Observer probably expressed it
best: ' 'That one who has so firm a grasp
of the realities of European politics
should not be included in the Government must be as bewildering to
foreigners as it is regrettable to most of
his countrymen."
The Times called this newspaper campaign "mischievous and futile." It was
indeed futile because the one man who
counted, Neville Chamberlain, believed
that Churchill's inclusion in the Cabinet
would frustrate his efforts to appease
Hitler. Chamberlain was still determined to reach some agreement with the
German leader. He wrote his sister: "It
is very difficult to see the way out of
Danzig but I don't believe it is impossible to find, provided we are given a
little time and also provided that Hitler
doesn't really want war."
Churchill supporter Harold Nicolson
lamented in his diary: "Chamberlain's
obstinate exclusion of Churchill from
the Cabinet is taken as a sign that he has
not abandoned appeasement and that all
gesture of resistance is mere bluff.''
General Ironside recorded Chamberlain's views in his diary. "Neville
Chamberlain is not a war Prime
Minister. He is a pacifist at heart. He
has a firm belief that God has chosen
him as an instrument to prevent this
threatened war. He can never get this
out of his mind. He is not against
Winston, but he believes that chances
may still arrive for averting war, and he
thinks that Winston might be so strong
in a Cabinet that he would be prevented
from acting."
Ironside also offered some comments
on Churchill's personal circumstances:
"What a man. Whisky and cigars all the
time. A fascinating house overlooking
the Weald of Kent. He inherited the
house from someone and has made it
worth living in. His own room is very
big, some 60 feet long and is like a
barn with its own rafters and beams.
Crammed with books and papers and
notes. He remarked that he would have
to pull in his horns considerably if he
ever took office, because he would have
to cease making money by writing."
Ironside was of course incorrect regarding the circumstances by which Churchill obtained Chartwell. He purchased
it for £5000 in 1922.
Churchill carefully kept his distance
from the political clamour. "I am quite
sure that any such demarche on my part
would be unwise, and would weaken me
in any discussion that I might have to
have with the gentleman in question."
He spent most of his time at Chartwell
29
working with Deakin and Bullock on
History of the English-Speaking Peoples
(Woods A138). "It is a relief in times
like these to be able to escape into other
centuries." After a bitter political battle
in early August, Chamberlain invoked
party discipline and forced a parliamentary adjournment for two months.
In a broadcast to the United States on
August 8, Churchill commented on the
holiday mood. "How did we spend our
summer holidays twenty-five years ago?
. . . Why, those were the days when
Prussian militarism was — to quote its
own phrase — 'hacking its way through
the small weak neighbour country'
whose neutrality and independence they
had sworn not merely to respect but to
defend."
He visited France several times during the summer and on 15 August he
toured the Maginot Line and was admitted to highly confidential sections
never shown to other foreigners. He
then took a short vacation at Consuelo
Balsan's chateau in Normandy. On 22
August while painting for relaxation, he
turned to another guest and said: "This
is the last picture I shall paint in peacetime for a very long time."
When he arrived back in London he
learned of the German-Soviet nonaggression pact. The next day Chamberlain recalled Parliament. That evening a
very gloomy Churchill, Eden, Sinclair,
Sandys and Duff Cooper dined at the
Savoy. At 8:30 AM on 1 September he
was awakened by telephone to be told
that German armies had entered Poland.
Later in the day he drove to London to
meet the Prime Minister, who advised
him that he would now like Churchill to
enter the Government.
But the call did not come immediately.
Despite his comments that "the die is
cast," Chamberlain still hoped for a
peaceful settlement. Churchill thought
the general mood was otherwise:
' 'There was no doubt that the temper of
the House was for war. I deemed it even
more resolute and united then in a
similar scene on August 3, 1914, in
which I had also taken part."
Many politicians from all parties
gathered at Churchill's home at
Morpeth Mansions to express dismay at
Chamberlain's hesitation. Finally, at
11:15 AM on 3 September, Chamberlain
broadcast that Britain was at war with
Germany. Churchill was to join the
War Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty. The signal went out to all ships
and naval bases: "Winston is Back!"
continued overleaf. . .
alcohol by volume at 60° F. (16° C.) In
England, proof is 49.28% of pure alcohol by
weight or 52.10% by volume at the same
temperature. Each 0.5% of alcohol over or
under proof is reckoned as one degree O.P.
orU.P."
Debossed at lower right is "Leyneek
. . . Beccles." But Beccles is a town
in Suffolk. Does anyone have a clue?
Q: Can you date this photograph, on an
ancient but unidentified postcard?
A: No, but perhaps a kind reader can
assist. Judging by the car and Churchill,
we'd guess a political canvassing scene, preWW1, when WSC was First Lord of the Admiralty.
Q: Alexis Lichine 's Encyclopedia of Wines
and Liquors mentions an amusing exchange
over the meaning of Proof Spirit when WSC
was Chancellor of the Exchequer. What was
it?
A: Philip Snowden, his opposite number in
the Shadow Cabinet, asked during a debate
on wine duties what Churchill meant by
"proof spirit." Churchill replied . . .
"I will endeavour to give a brief answer
[but] it is absolutely necessary to invoke the
great name of Mr. Gladstone, a name which
is received with reverence below the
Gangway on the Opposition side, and with a
certain amount of respect by some hon.
Members who sit opposite. [Hon. Members:
"What about yourself?"] I occupy the impartial position of historian.
"Mr. Gladstone laid down a principle
[which] even after the lapse of all these years
will commend itself to the good sense . . .
[that] the taxation of wine should be treated
in two branches . . . the natural and the
fortified wines . . .Mr. Gladstone fixed the
dividing line at 26 degrees, equivalent to
27 degrees on the hydrometer tables now in
use. I must explain for the information of the
Rt. Hon. Gentleman — for he particularly
pressed me on the point — that when we
speak of these degrees what we mean is
degrees of proof spirit, and when we speak
of degrees of proof spirit, what we mean is
these degrees!"
Lichine comments: "The confusion was
justified. When Clark invented the
hydrometer in the late 18th century, he knew
nothing of 100%, or absolute, alcohol. He
only knew that if he dropped his weighted
float into spirituous liquor, he could determine its density, and calculate the amount of
alcohol by the depth to which the float sank.
A certain concentration he arbitrarily named
"proof"; anything over the mark was O.P.,
over proof; anything under was U.P., under
proof. Thirty years later a hydrometer was
developed which has remained in use from
1816 to the present day. By [its] measurement, proof, in the United States, is 50% of
Q: What were Churchill's geneological
connections with Groucho Marx and Bertrand Russell?
A: According to Debrett Goes to
Hollywood by Charles Kidd (Weidenfeld and
Nicolson, 1986, £9.95), Groucho and WSC
Q: I've read that Churchill first met his
future wife in 1904, but the date is never
stated. When was it?
A: The summer of 1904, at a party hosted
by Lady St. Helier. We tried to obtain the
actual date to produce an ICS cover this year
on the 85th anniversary, but could not find it.
Lady Soames and Martin Gilbert do not have
it, and no date beyond 1904 is mentioned by
Morgan, Mendelssohn, Pelling, etc. The
Times sometimes lists, on the following
morning, guests attending an aristocratic
dinner. This would bear searching by
someone with time and access to the summer
1904 Times microfilms.
- L.L. THOMAS, EMSWORTH, UK
Q: On how many covers of Time magazine
did Churchill appear?
A: In 1925 (we have no date), 30 Sep
1940, 6 Jan 41 ("Man of the Year"), 2 Jan
1950 ("Man of the Half-Century") and 5
Nov 1951.
— C.P. BALL, MONCTON, NB, CANADA
were connected by marriage, but we do not
have a copy of the book. (If someone will
find us one we will gladly cover your expense.)
According to a clip we have in the Finest
Hour files . . .
John, 4th Duke of Bedford, d.1771
Caroline —m— George, 4th Duke of Marlborough
Francis,'d. 1767
John, 6th Duke of Bedford
George, 5th Duke of Marlborough
John, lsJ Earl Russell
George, 6th DuUe of Marlborough
John (third son)
John, 7th Duke of Marlborough
Bertrand, 3rd Earl Russell
of Kingston, d.1970
Lord Randolph'churchill, d. 1895
Sir Winston S. Churchill, d. 1965
ACTION THIS DAY . . .
SUMMER 1964 • Age 89
On 7 July, Sir Winston Churchill
went to the House of Commons for the
last time. The next day, a delegation
from the House including Prime Minister
Sir Alec Douglas-Home, and the Opposition Leaders, Harold Wilson and Jo
Grimond, came to Hyde Park Gate to
present Churchill with the following
Resolution:
"That this House desires to take this
opportunity of marking the forthcoming
retirement of the right honourable
Gentleman the Member for Woodford
by putting on record its unbounded admiration and gratitude for his services to
30
Parliament, to the nation and to the
world; remembers, above all, his inspiration of the British people when they
stood alone, and his leadership until
victory was won; and offers its grateful
thanks to the right honourable Gentleman for these outstanding services to his
House and to the nation."
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Full-color cards using cover art
from Finest Hour 63 with 1941
Churchill quote and flags.
Christmas card reads inside:
'/j :...:.:.: *4lf: "Greetings of the Season,"
Yl. """" ' H i with WSC's 1941 White House
Christmas remarks. All cards
carry ICS' name and five-nation identification inside. Notecards are otherwise blank. In packets of
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ROYAL DOULTON STATUETTE
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\n I ncnintoi [.tljk Htro
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B l . "Churchill — An Uncomfortable Hero,"
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MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATES
#102 Brand new Royal Doulton china statuette of
size and quality that promises solid collector
value. Designed by Adrian Hughes, WSC wears a
white suit and Homburg, pink buttonhole and
black bow-tie to match his silver-topped black
cane. Hand-painted facial detail is wonderfully accurate — even the cigar is carefully sculptured.
Size: WA inches. List price $195. ICS postpaid
price: USA $150, Canada C$180, Aus. A$200.
COMMEMORATIVE COVERS
22-23. (Advertise in FH for those no longer
available from us.) Postpaid prices:
USA $3, Can/Aus $4 (air), UK £2 (air).
5: 30th Ann. UN Conference 28Dec71
9: Centenary Exhibit, London lOMay 74
12b: WSC Centenary, blank postmk 30Nov74
13: Last Day Centenary Exhibit 14Oct74
20: 40th Ann. El Alamein 4Nov82
22a: 40th Ann. D-Day, Hyde Pk postmark
23: 40th Ann. Battle of Bulge 26Dec84
25a: 40th Ann. V-E Day, 8May 85
27: 40th Ann. Fulton Speech Mar 86
28: 50th Ann. Abdication HDec86
30: 25th Ann. Hon. US Citizenship, 9Apr88
31: 20th Ann. of Churchill Society, 15June88
#120 Display your support of ICS and the Man of
the Century with a beautiful 8'/2xl 1-inch Certificate of Membership, signed by our board
chairman and executive director, and individually
lettered with your name.
These certificates were suggested several years
ago by ICS director Ronald Downey of Vancouver, but we are only now able to produce them
to the standard we felt necessary.
Certificates are printed on heavy, 300-year,
acid-free Mohawk Superfine card stock, with the
Churchill coat of arms reproduced in full colour.
The handsome document may be housed in a standard frame, but responds particularly well to an
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ORAL HISTORY PROGRAMME
No.001: THE WAR MEMOIRS. WSC reads
from The Second World War, with excerpts from
his war speeches, 12 cassettes, 24 sides, postpaid:
USA $60, Can/Aus $75 (air), UK £35 (air)
Speeches to ICS in cassette tapes: each of these
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USA $6, Can/Aus $7.50, UK £3.50
No.002: SIR JOHN COLVILLE: "He Had No
Use For Second-Best" (London 22May 83).
No.003: LADY SOAMES: "Pages From The
Family Album" (London 31May83).
No.004: MARTIN GILBERT: "Churchill's
London" (London 17Sep85).
No.006: CASPAR WEINBERGER: "Churchill,
An Uncomfortable Hero" (Boston 2Nov85).
No.007: LADY SOAMES: "Churchill As
Father and Family Man" (Dallas 19Feb86).
No. 008: ALISTAIR COOKE: "Churchill:
Hindsight vs. Retrospect" (NH, USA 27Aug88)
No. 009: ENOCH POWELL: "Churchill: A
Man of His Time" (Sussex, England 22Oct88)
"ACTION THIS DAY" LABELS
ACTION
THIS DAY
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3x1% inches. Pad of 100 postpaid: USA $3, UK
£2, Canada C$4, Australia A$5.
IMMORTAL WORDS
HARROW 1940: AN OLD BOY RETURNS
It is a great pleasure and a refreshing treat
to join the School in singing Harrow songs . . .
We have sung of "the wonderful giants of old"
but can anyone doubt
that this generation is as good and as noble
as any the nation has ever produced,
and that its men and women
can stand against all tests?
Can anyone doubt that this generation
is in every way capable of carrying on
the traditions of the nation
and handing down its love of justice and liberty
and its message undiminished and unimpaired?
Hitler, in one of his recent discourses,
declared that the fight was between those who have been through the Adolf Hitler Schools
and those who have been at Eton.
Hitler has forgotten Harrow.
And he has also overlooked the vast majority of the youth of this country
who have never had the advantage of attending such schools,
but who have by their skill and prowess
won the admiration of the whole world.
When this war is won
— as it surely will be —
' it must be one of our aims to work to establish a state of society
where advantages and privileges which hitherto have been enjoyed only by the few
shall be far more widely shared by the many,
and by the youth of the nation as a whole.
It is a great time in which you are called upon to begin your life.
You have already had the honour
of being under the fire of the enemy,
and no doubt you acquitted yourselves with befitting composure and decorum.
You are here at this most important period of your lives,
at a moment when our country stands forth
almost alone
as the champion of right and freedom all over the world.
You, the young men,
will be the heirs of the victory which we shall surely achieve,
and perhaps some of you in this Speech Room
will derive from these songs and Harrow associations
the impulse to render that victory fruitful and lasting.
- HARROW SCHOOL, 18 DECEMBER 1940