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THE CHURCHILL CENTER
INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETIES
UNITED STATES • UNITED KINGDOM • CANADA • AUSTRALIA
PATRON: Till- LADY SOAMES, D.HM • WWW.WINSTONCIIURCIIILL.ORG
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The Churchill Center is a non-profit organization which encourages study of the lile and thought of Winston Spencer
Churchill; fosters research about his speeches, writings and deeds; advances knowledge of his example as a statesman; and, by
programmes of teaching and publishing, imparts that learning to people around the world. 1 he Center was organized in 1995 by
the International Churchill Societies, founded in 1968 to educate future generations on the works and example of Winston
Churchill. The Center and Socielies jointly sponsor Finest Hour, special publications, symposia, conferences and tours.
JOINT HONORARY MEMBERS
The Lord Black of Crossharbour OC(C) PC
Winston S. Churchill • The Lord Deedes KBE MC PC DL
Sir Martin Gilbert CBE • Grace Hamblin OBE
Roberr Hardy CBE • Yotisuf Karsh CC
The Lord Jenkins of Hillhcad OM PC
William Manchester
The Duke of Marlborough JP DL • Elizabeth Nel
Sir Anrhony Montague Browne KCMG CBE DEC
Colin I.. Powell KCB • Wendy Russell Reves
Ambassador Paul H. Robinson, Jr.
The Lady Thatcher LG OM PC FRS
The Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger GBE
THE CHURCHILL CENTER
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Randy Barber • David Boler • Nancy H. Canary
D. Craig Horn • William C. Ives • Nigel Knocker
Richard M. Langworth " John H. Mather MD
James W. Mullcr • Charles D. Platt • John G. Plumpton
Douglas S. Russell
OFFICERS
John G. Plumpton, President
130 Collingsbrook Blvd., Toronto, Ontario M1W I M7
Tel. (416) 495-9641 • Fax (416) 502-3847
Lmail: [email protected]
William C. Ives, Vice President
20109 Scott, Chapel Hill NC 27517
Tel. (919) 967-9100 • Fax (919)967-9001
Email: [email protected]
Nancy H. Canary, Secretary
Dorchester, Apt. 3 North, 200 North Ocean Blvd.
Delray Beach FL 33483
Tel. (561) 833-5900 • Email: [email protected]
D. Craig Horn, Treasurer
8016 McKenstry Drive, Laurel MD 20723
Tel. (888) WSC-1874 • Fax (301) 483-6902
F.mail: [email protected]
Charles D. Platt, Endowment Director
14 Blue Heron Drive W., Greenwood Village CO 80121
Tel. (303) 721-8550 • Fax. (303) 290-0097
E-mail: [email protected]
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Winston S. Churchill • Laurence Geller • Hon. Jack Kemp
George A. Lewis " Christopher Matthews
Amb. Paul H. Robinson, Jr. • The Hon. Celia Sandys
The Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger GBE
Richard M. Langworth CBF, Chairman
181 Burrage Road, Hopkinton NH 03229
BUSINESS OFFICES
Lorraine C. Horn, Administrator
Debby Young, Membership Secretary
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Email: wsc_ [email protected]
CHURCHILL STORES (Back Issues & Sales Dept.)
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Webmaster: John Plumpton, [email protected]
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CHURCHILL CENTER ASSOCIATES
Winston Churchill Associates:
ICS Unired States " The Churchill Center
The Annenberg Foundation • David & Diane Boler
Colin D. Clark " Fred Farrow
Mr. & Mrs. Parker H. Lee HI
Michael & Carol McMenamin " David & Carole Noss
Ray L. & Patricia M. Orban • Wendy Rcvcs
Elizabeth Churchill Sncll • Mr. & Mrs. Matthew B. Wills
Alex M. Worth Jr.
Clementine Churchill Associates
Ronald D. Abramson " Winston S. Churchill
Jeanerte & Angclo Gabriel • D. Craig & Lorraine Horn
James F. Lane " Barbara & Richard Langworth
Drs. John H. & Susan H. Mather • Linda & Charles Platt
Ambassador & Mrs. Paul H. Robinson Jr.
James R. & Lucille I. Thomas
Mary Soames Associates
Solveig & Randy Barber • Gary J. Bonine
Daniel & Susan Borinsky " Nancy Bowers • Lois Brown
Nancy H. Canary • Dona 8c Bob Dales
Jeffrey & Karen Dc Haan • Ruth & Laurence Geller
Frederick C. & Martha S. Hardman • Glenn Horowitz.
Mr. & Mrs. William C. Ives • J. Willis Johnson
Mr. & Mrs. Gerald Drake Kambcstad • Elaine Kendall
Ruth J. Lavinc • Mr. & Mrs. Richard A. Leahy
Cyril & Harriet Mazansky • Michael W. Michclson
Mr. & Mrs. James W Muller • Earl & Charlotte Nicholson
Bob & Sandy Odell • Dr & Mrs. Malcolm Page
Rurh & John Plumpton • Hon. Douglas S. Russell
Shanin Specter • Robert M. Stephenson
Richard & Jenny Streiff • Peter J. Travcrs • Gabriel Urwitz
Damon Wells Jr. " Jacqueline & Malcolm Dean Wirrcrr
BOARD OF ACADEMIC ADVISERS
Prof. Paul K. Alkon, University of Southern California
Sir Martin Gilbert CBE, D. Lite, Merton College, Oxford
Prof. Barry M. Gough, Wilfrid Laurier University
Prof. Christopher C. Harmon, Marine Corps University
Col. David Jablonsky, US Army War College
Prof. Warren E Kimball, Rutgers University
Prof. Paul A. Rahe, University ofTulsa
Prof. John A. Ramsden,
()ueen Mary dr Westfield College, University of London
Prof. David f. Stafford, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Jeffrey Wallin, President, The American Academy
Prof. Manfred Weidhorn, Yeshiva University
Prof. James W. Muller, Chairman,
University of Alaska Anchorage
1518 Airporr Hrs. Dr., Anchorage AK 99508
Tel. (907) 786-4740 • Fax. (907) 786-4647
Email: afjwm@\iaa.alaska.cdu
AFFILIATE
Washington Society for Churchill
Caroline Hartzler, Presidenr
PO Box 2456, Merrifield VA 22] 16
Tel. (703) 503-9226
Members also meet regularly in Alaska, California,
Chicago, New England, Norrh Texas and Northern Ohio.
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL
OF CHURCHILL ORGANIZATIONS
Ambassador Paul H. Robinson, Jr., Chairman
208 S. LaSalle St., Chicago II, 60604 USA
Tel. (800)621-1917
INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL
SOCIETY OF CANADA
Ambassador Kenneth W Taylor, Hon. Chairman
Randy Barber, President
4 Snowshoc Cres., Thornhill, Ontario I.3T 4M6
Tel. (905) 881-8550
Jcanettc Webber, Membership Secretary
3256 Rymal Road, Mississauga, Ontario L4Y 3Cl
Charles Anderson, Treasurer
489 Stanficld Drive, Oakville, Ontario L6L 3R2
The Other Club of Ontario
Norman MacLeod, President
16 Glenlaura Court, Ashbirrn, Onrario LOB 1A0
Tel. (905)655-4051
Winston S. Churchill Society of Vancouver (Affiliated)
Dr. Joe Siegenberg, President
1 5-9079 Jones Road
Richmond, British Columbia V6Y 1C7
Tel. (604) 231-0940
INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL
SOCIETY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
Chairman:
Nigel Knocker OBE
PO Box 1257, Melksham, Wilts. SN12 6GQ
Tel. &Fax. (01380) 828609
TRUSTEES
The Hon. Celia Sandys, Chairman
The Duke of Marlborough JP DL
The Rt. Hon. Earl Jcllicoc KBE DSO MC FRS
David Boler • David Porter • Geoffrey Wheeler
COMMITTEE
Nigel Knocker OBE, Chairman
Wylma Wayne, Vice Chairman
Paul H. Courrenay, Hon. Secretary
Anthony Woodhead CBF. FCA, Hon. Treasurer
John Glanvill Smith, Editor ICS UK Newsletter
Eric Bingham • John Crookshank • Geoffrey Fletcher
Derek Green well • Michael Kelion • Fred Lockwood CBE
Ernie Money CBE • Elisabeth Sandys • Dominic Walters
NORTHERN CHAPTER
Derek Grccnwell, "Farriers Cottage," Station Road
Goldsborough, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG5 8NT
Tel. (01432) 863225
The staff of" Finest Hour, published by
The Churchill Center and International Churchill
Societies, appears on page 4.
JOURNAL OF THE CHURCHILL CENTER & SOCIETIES
SPRING 2002 • NUMBER 114
5 HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother 1900-2002
14 The Atlantic Takes a Dive
We shouldn't be upset abut the shrill cries of the muckrakers.
They give us such great material! • Richard M. Langworth
18 "For Valour": King George VI
A Remembrance of His Late Majesty • Winston S. Churchill
20 Churchill's Women: Sir Martin Gilbert Recalls Who Made the Man
"My stick as I write carries my heart along with it." • Precis by Robert Courts
23 Bletchley Park: What's New in 2002 • Douglas J. Hall
26 A Silent Toast to William Willett
"Why doesn't everyone get up an hour earlier?" • Winston S. Churchill
28 Winston Churchill: A Leadership Model for the 21st Century
The Queen Mary Fellows Program • John G. Plumpton
40 Leading Churchill Myths: "He let Coventry burn..." • Peter J. Mclver
BOOKS, ARTS & CURIOSITIES:
30 "The Great Courses" video is a fearsome ordeal, says the Editor ... John
Plumpton praises Roy Jenkins's Magnum Opus ... Leon Waszak on de
Gaulle and the Anglos ... Eisenhower and Churchill, says Richard
Langworth, need more scrutinizing ... David Freeman suspects "Bobbety"
and his father put Churchill in office; John Ramsden is not so sure. G. W
Simonds on Churchill and Hayek. Andy Guilford poses the race question.
Despatch Box 4 • Riddles, Mysteries, Enigmas 6 • Wit & Wisdom 6 • Datelines 7
Calendar 10 • Local & National 11 • Around & About 13 • Action This Day 16
Inside the Journals 37 • Eminent Churchillians 42 • Recipes from No. Ten 43
Woods Corner 44 • Ampersand 46 • Churchilltrivia 47
Cover: Winston S. Churchill, 1941, an oil painting by Martin Driscoll commissioned by The
Churchill Center and presented to Hotel Queen Mary. For fine canvas reproductions see page 29.
DESPATCH BOX
Number 114* Spring 2002
ISSN 0882-3715
www.winstonchurchill.org
Barbara F. Langworth, Publisher
([email protected])
Richard M. Langworth, Editor
([email protected])
PO Box 385, Contoocook,
NH 03229 USA
Tel. (603) 746-4433
Senior Editors:
James W. Muller
John G. Plumpton
Ron Cynewulf Robbins
Associate Editor:
Paul H. Courtenay
News Editor: John Frost
Features Editor: Douglas J. Hall
Contributors
George Richard, Australia;
Randy Barber, Chris Bell,
Barry Gough, Canada;
Inder Dan Ratnu, India;
Paul Addison, Winston S. Churchill,
Robert Courts, Sir Martin Gilbert,
Allen Packwood, Phil Reed,
United Kingdom;
David Freeman, Chris Harmon,
Warren F. Kimball, Cyril Mazansky,
Michael McMenamin, Mark Weber,
Manfred Weidhorn, Curt Zoller,
United States
• Address changes. USA, Australia,
Western Hemisphere and Pacific: send to
the The Churchill Center business office.
UK/Europe and Canada:
send to UK or Canada business offices.
All offices are listed on page 2.
Finest Hour is made possible in part through
the generous support of members of The
Churchill Center and Societies, and with the
assistance of an endowment created by The
Churchill Center Associates (listed on page 2).
Finest Hour is published quarterly by The
Churchill Center and International Churchill
Societies, which offer various levels of support
in their respective currencies. Membership
applications should be sent to the appropriate
offices on page 2. Permission to mail at nonprofit rates in USA granted by the United
States Postal Service, Concord, NH, permit
no. 1524. Copyright 2002. AH rights reserved.
Designed and edited by Dragonwyclc Publishing Inc. Production by New England Foil
Stamping Inc. Printed by Twin Press Inc.
Made in U.S.A.
THE PLEASURE WAS OURS
I am overwhelmed by the honour conferred
on me by The Churchill Center with its 2001
Farrow Award. The plaque was very welcome
and the generous cheque took me completely by
surprise. It is a truly wonderful and inspiring
start to the New Year for me. My deepest thanks
for an honour that is all the greater when I consider the distinguished company I am joining.
Since September 11th I have often found
myself reflecting on the vital importance of intelligence in world affairs and on Churchill's
great prescience here, as in many other fields. As
he also insisted, and as events have once again
demonstrated, strong transatlantic relations
must lie at the heart of any successful defence of
western and democratic values.
I am very pleased to be attending the 2002
Conference on the theme, "Churchill and Intelligence." It will be nice to see many old friends
again. With warmest and sincerest thanks, and
with all best wishes to The Churchill Center for
another successful year.
—DR. DAVID STAFFORD FRHS
CENTRE FOR SECOND WORLD WAR STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
BANNING THE CIGAR
When going through the English-Speaking
Union magazines here in London, I came across
a piece of doggerel on the vexed question of
whether the Washington statue of WSC should
have a cigar. It appeared in the Yorkshire Post,
1965, from a correspondent signing himself
"Postilion." It might amuse the readership.
—PROF. JOHN RAMSDEN
QUEEN MARY & WESTFIELD COLLEGE, LONDON
Aesthetics was not offered—
Blood, toil, and sweat, and tears
Were all that Churchill proffered,
In Britain's darkest years.
It heartened all, the free cigar,
Throughout that bitter war—
The hand that made the V-sign,
Held also a cigar.
Drop his cigar? Have at you!
What can this nonsense be?
As well de-torch the statue,
That stands for Liberty1.
BURN AND GLOW
I have often meant to send a note of thanks
for the magnificent quarterly, Finest Hour, and
am finally compelled to do so by your stirring
essay in the Autumn 2001 issue, "Our Qualities
and Deeds Must Burn and Glow." Thank you so
much to you and Barbara for your work in keeping our hero's memory fresh. Even if your work
is not always acknowledged as it should be, it is
always important and appreciated.
—CHRIS POWELL, MANCHESTER, CONN.
Best pay we get, Sir, many thanks. —Ed.
FINEST HOUR I H / 4
CONFERENCE APPRECIATION
(To Judy Kambestad) Can it be that two
months have passed since the conference in
Southern California wherein Solveig and I and
indeed, the entire Canadian contingent enjoyed
ourselves? The organization, programme and all
the hundreds of other "little things" were seamless to all of us, yet appreciated so much at the
same time. I don't think attendees were moved
as much to different locales to enrich our experience since the Calgary/Banff conference in
1994, and not one of your buses had a flat tire!
The Hotel Del Coronado was truly a historic
and beautiful destination, but the phrase, "it
never rains" was proven wrong and was the only
thing you didn't make perfect for we northerners. I know you would want to share our thanks
and appreciation with your team and ask you to
pass these remarks along to each of them.
—RANDY BARBER, PRESIDENT
ICS CANADA, THORNHILL, ONT.
ATTRIBUTION
In an Erratum (FH 112:15) it is suggested
that Churchill did not acknowledge Dr. Johnson as the author of the quotation: "Depend
upon it, when a man knows he is going to be
hanged in a month, it concentrates his mind
wonderfully." Churchill most certainly did: the
quotation and attribution are on page 162 of
Their Finest Hour, second volume of The Second
World War (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1949).
—RAFAL HEYDEL-MANKOO, OTTAWA, ONT.
TRANSCRIPTS
The panel discussion at George Washington University {FH 113, page 11) seems very interesting. I would like to know more about it.
Fortunately there's our own Churchill Proceedings to look forward to, but would it be possible
for members to get copies of handouts from various events reported on in "Datelines"?
—ANNE BURTON, DOWNER'S GROVE, ILL.
That's a very good point. Chris Harmon, who
organized the event, tells us that the GWU panel
was more a conversation than a formal seminar, so
transcripts don't exist. But audiotapes were made,
and we are trying to obtain some. If anyone else
besides Mrs. Burton would like a cassette, please let
me know when you read this.
We usually try to get hard copy summaries or
papers for the academic events we report. Sometimes authors don't make transcripts available because they are raw material for a book. This is the
case for
the
London
Churchill conference
("Churchill in the Twenty-first Century," FH
111), and our abstracts are the only ones in print.
Associate editor Paul Courtenay laboriously wrote
these based on his personal attendance, and got
them approved by each speaker. Paul is not the author of the forthcoming book based on the London
conference, but when it is published it will be offered through our book service. —Ed.
$5
HM QUEEN ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER
1900 - 2002
I
n an age when retired leaders
strive vulgarly to create "legacies" it is sobering to reflect
that the most genuinely loved
woman in England secured her
place with a casual remark over
six decades ago. Asked if she
would remove her two young
daughters from London during
the Blitz, Queen Elizabeth
replied: "The girls will not leave
unless I do. I will not leave unless
the King does. And the King will not leave under any circumstances whatsoever."
Her closeness to the people was unprecedented in a
monarchy renowned as aloof and hidebound. The Royal
Family in the late 1930s was divided between those who
admired Hitler and those who supported Chamberlain;
the King and Queen threw a gala reception for the latter
when he returned from Munich waving his bit of paper.
All that was washed away by her courage during the
Blitz. Historian David Cannadine, no great admirer of
tradition, said: "She brought a particular kind of charm
and public appeal the like of which no authentic member
of the royal family ever quite seems to have had."
The Queen Mother's charm lay in small acts which
became legendary. The beat near Clarence House, her official residence, was patrolled by a policeman to whom
she took a liking; often she -would pass him a bag of his
favorite sweets, from Harrod's, when her car drove by.
Nor did this highly traditional royal personage exhibit
the accepted intolerances of her generation. Unable one
night to get a free line out of Clarence House, she cut off
a conversation between two famously homosexual
courtiers: "If you two young queens don't mind, there's
an old Queen here who needs to use the telephone."
As 1940 proved, there was tough fibre beneath her
feathery, pastel image. Born a commoner on 4 August
1900, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon had never expected to
be Queen; she was forced into it when "Bertie," her shy
and stuttering husband, became King upon the abdication of his brother in December, 1936. She told her
household, "We must take what is coming and make the
best of it," but she never forgave divorcee Wallis Simpson
for precipitating the crisis.
Undoubtedly this affected her view in 1955 that her
second daughter, Princess Margaret, should not marry a
divorcee she deeply loved, Group Captain Peter
Townsend. The memory of what another divorcee had
recently done to the monarchy and her family was too
close. More divorce was to come, thankfully much later:
VE-Day, 8 May 1945.
Princess Anne and Mark
Phillips after nineteen years of
marriage; Prince Charles and
Princess Diana after eleven;
Prince Andrew and Duchess
Sarah after six. She sailed
through it all, including
Diana's shocking death in
1997, and her daughter Margaret's death barely a month
before she herself departed.
Like Churchill's, her finest hour was in 1940, when
she, the King, and the Prime Minister rallied one nation
to keep liberty alive. Ensconced at Buckingham Palace as
the bombs rained, she remarked that this allowed her to
look East Londoners in the eye. Her defiance caused
Hitler to brand her "the most dangerous woman in Europe," which politically correct obituaries muddled into
"most dangerous person." We all know whom Hitler regarded as the most dangerous person in Europe.
Those two dangerous people shared several traits.
Both had a fondness for spirits, though Churchill's tipple
was Johnny Walker Red, hers Beefeater's. Both took more
out of alcohol than alcohol took out of them; no one
ever saw either of them the worse for drink. Horse-racing
was another shared interest, though her favorite hobby
was salmon-fishing, while WSC preferred the brush.
For sixteen years the devoted consort of George VI,
the Queen Mother outlived him by half a century. She
was the rock of support behind her daughter, passing to
Elizabeth II her resonant devotion to duty, honour and
country. "Duty was important to the Queen Mother,"
wrote one observer, "and despite illness and various operations she was still one of the hardest-working royals, carrying out 130 engagements in her 80th year."
In a "low dishonest decade" when the Queen and
Prince of Wales were regularly excoriated for their wealth,
it is remarkable that such envy never attached to the
Queen Mother, who once bounced a £4 million cheque
and was well known for extravagance. It made no difference. The crowds would always gather outside Clarence
House on her birthday, waiting for her smiling appearance, dressed as usual in her pastels and pearls.
Her devotion is a model not yet obsolete, as proven
by the worldwide sadness at her passing, at Windsor on
March 30th, where she will now lie, beside Bertie at last.
Even when her health had finally failed, what Wendell
Willkie said in 1941 was still valid in her case: "The
Britons are almost miraculously fortunate in their present
leaders." —Editor
M>
FINEST HOUR I H / 5
RIDDLES,
MYSTERIES,
ENIGMAS
Send your questions
to the editor
Q
Did Churchill play golf? If so,
• where? I once noted his supposed description of the sport in a
book of quotations: "a game where you
put a small ball in a small hole with
tools singularly ill-designed for the
purpose." —Mike Campbell
(The Editor is preparing a book of
Churchill quotes and would be grateful
if someone could provide attribution
for this quotation, which I think Mike
has right.)
%
A
^ He played golf into the Teens,
• but it wasn't really his game,
needed too much precision. Polo suited
him better: live opposition, a much
bigger ball, and a real mallet to smack
it with. See FH 111:7 for a photo of
WSC setting off on the links with
Maxine Elliott in Cannes, February
1913. See also Randolph ChurchillHelmut Gernsheim, Churchill: His Life
in Photographs (1955), photos #62
(same as above) and #63 (apparently
taken the same day). Randolph's caption: "He fails to keep his head down
and foozles his drive. Mr. Churchill
had little aptitude for golf and so he
abandoned it quite early in life."
Robert Courts adds: "He certainly
played with Asquith in his Liberal days:
Violet Bonham-Carter, in Winston
Churchill as I Knew Him (1965) recalls
that it was quite easy on the golf course
to get WSC onto one of his favourite
subjects (e.g., Dreadnoughts), after
which he would not play another shot,
much to Asquith's delight!"
a
I am researching the history of a
• British Army base in Germany
Hohne (Bergen-Belsen) and I
have been told that Churchill paid a
visit to the camp for a couple of days in
May 1956. Can you provide me with
any information?
#
A
^ The visit followed his trip to
• Aachen to receive the Charlemagne Prize. Sir Martin Gilbert's Volume VIII {"Never Despair, "p. 1197)
mentions the visit but gives no details.
Anthony Montague Browne's Long
Sunset mentions the visit on page 207,
specifically the visit to Celle, near
Hanover, but is also scarce on details.
—Gregory B. Smith
Wk&
Wisdom
Q
^ After a lifetime in business a
• Canadian friend writes of his
experience as a young child in the
Blitz. He has retired to Charlottetown,
Prince Edward Island. Is PEI its own
province, or is it part of another, larger
one? How long has that bridge been
there? —Scott Mantsch
A:
Prince Edward Island, the site of
.•the creation of the Canadian
Confederation in 1867 (though PEI
did not join the provinces that formed
Canada until 1873), is a province in its
own right. It can be reached by car
ferry from Nova Scotia, as well as by
the new bridge from New Brunswick.
Our drive from Halifax, N.S. to Charlottetown was easily done in a day, taking the ferry. There are many intriguing Churchill sites in Halifax and recollections of his visits in the archives
there. On PEI we were most interested,
having a daughter then seven years old,
to visit the Anne of Green Gables sites.
—James W. Muller
More on P.E.I....
It's a great summer vacation spot
(the northern shore of PEI is basically
one long beach), and is the site of my
ancestors' first landing in North America from Scotland. I'd say the drive
from Halifax to Charlottetown via the
Confederation Bridge is about 3.5
hours. I believe the bridge was completed in 1997; I recall taking the nowdefunct ferry along the course of the
span as it was being constructed. The
ferry from eastern PEI to Nova Scotia
is still in operation. —Mike Campbell
And does everyone know that the
author of Anne of Green Gables, Lucy
Maud Montgomery, was born (ready
for it?) on 30 November 1874?
—Todd Ronnei
FINEST HOUR
li
114/6
Wisdom of the Moment
A selection of Churchillian remarks
suitable to the present situation,
compiled by Laurence Geller.
Concluded from last issue.
"The British and Americans do
not war with races or governments as
such. Tyranny, external or internal, is
our foe, whatever trappings or disguise it wears, whatever language it
speaks or perverts."
"There is only one answer to defeat, and that is victory."
"I never worry about action, but
only about inaction."
"Difficulties mastered are opportunities won."
"We are firm as a rock against aggression, but the door is always open
to friendships."
"Wickedness is not going to
reign."
"It is a crime to despair. We must
learn to draw from misfortune the
means of future strength."
"What we require to do now is
to stand erect and look the world in
the face and do our duty without fear
or favour."
$5
DATELINES
QUOTATION OF THE SEASON
"Tnink or tne long, wearying montns in wnicli we nave been tramping rruitlessly on the bloodstained treadmill in Palestine, because ministers could not make up tlieir minds either to act or
to go....Solutions tbat were possible two years ago nave been swept away."
—WSC, ALBERT HALL, 21 APRIL 1948
Off to a Flying Start
Churchill himself didn't
think much of statues. Asked
if he wanted one to commemorate his efforts after World
War II, he said he would prefer a park in the blitzed East
End for children to play in.
Hundreds of statues later
we're still waiting for the park.
LONDON, JANUARY 6TH—Win-
ston Churchill comfortably
beat "William Shakespeare
(second) and Lord Nelson
(third) in a BBC poll of the
greatest Briton of all time.
While figures such as John
Lennon made it into the top
ten, Churchill, Shakespeare
and Nelson saw off a challenge led by a contingent of
world-renowned
scientists.
Programmes about the top
ten will be broadcast by BBC
radio this year.
The presence of two war heroes in
the top three partly reflects the timing,
according to the BBC. The September
1 lth terrorist attacks were uppermost in
public consciousness. [Notice how
quick the BBC is to imply that, of i
course, war heroes wouldn't rate so high
in a "normal" situation... —Ed.] Well
before the survey closed on December
31st Churchill was so far ahead that he
could not be beaten.
Despite Churchill's undisputed
greatness, however, his latest biographer, Lord Jenkins, is uncertain that he
deserves the title of greatest-ever Briton:
"When I was writing my Gladstone biography, I summarised that he had the
edge on Churchill," said Jenkins, a former home secretary and chancellor. But
when I did Churchill I put him slightly
ahead of Gladstone. I suppose I tend to
think whoever I'm writing about at the
time is best."
Jenkins said he would have
plumped for Shakespeare at the top.
—Condensed from an article
by Richard Brooks
Ignoratio Elenchi (2)
FINEST HOUR 113, p. 7—The exam-
Lady Churchill and Mr. Speaker after the
unveiling of the Oscar Nemon House of
Commons statue on 1 December, 1969.
Statue-itis
ple we cited of "Ignoratio
Elenchi" (obfuscating the real
issue with a side issue) was directed at David Irving's book,
Churchill's War, and not at Andrew Roberts, who reviewed the book in
FH 112. We regret any confusion.
Easton: Nyet on
Companions, Essays
LONDON, MARCH 28TH—Not only is there
controversy over the brooding Ivor NORWALK, CONN., JANUARY 11TH—We d i d
Roberts-Jones statue of Churchill in Par- everything but get down on our knees
liament Square, particularly since it be- and sing "Mammy"—even offered to
came a target for celebrants of freedom | help finance—a six-volume version of
of expression {FH107:5). From the be- the three ultra-rare Companion Volginning, former Minister of Public umes to Vol. 5 of the Official BiograBuildings Charles Pannell detested the phy, which contain all the significant
Nemon statue of Churchill at the en- documents compiled by official biogratrance to the House of Commons. In pher Sir Martin Gilbert for Churchill's
documents recently made public, Pan- life from 1922 to the outbreak of war in
nell said that Churchill was too large,
1939. We also asked Easton to consider
towering over Lloyd George and making reprinting the now-scarce Collected Esthem look like "man and boy." Others says of Sir Winston Churchill, published
said the size was in proportion to their only in a 1975 limited edition—the
significance. The rule that a politician only collection of Churchill's periodical
must be dead for ten years before getting articles ever published in volume form.
a statue in Parliament was waived for the But Easton's executive vice-president
Churchill bronze—which today has a and trade books manager, Michael
highly polished shoe. MPs entering the Hendricks, sent a disappointing reply:
Commons like to touch it for luck,
"As you know, the audience for
which maintains the shine.
continued overleaf
FINEST HOUR 114/7
DATELINES
leather-bound books is a limited one
due to the high prices. While the works
you suggest are clearly worthy of
leather-bound treatment, at this point
we cannot project sufficient sales to our
general audience to warrant going forward with them."
We will keep knocking on doors
until these two jobs get done. If any
benefactor would like to sponsor, with a
tax-deductible donation (or as a recoupable investment) either or both
these two admirable projects, we are
looking at costs in the range of $20,000
for either the Companions or the Essays. Please contact the editor.
From childhood letters to state papers, the
Churchill Archives are a priceless resource.
Freeman to "Journals"
FULLERTON, CALIF., JANUARY 11TH—Following the untimely death of Chris
Hanger, Finest Hour is pleased to announce that David Freeman of California State University, Fullerton, will continue Chris's popular column of article
abstracts, "Inside the Journals." The
first installment is in this issue, a major
abstract of Prof. Larry Witherell's "Lord
Salisbury's Watching Committee and
the Fall of Neville Chamberlain, May
1940," English Historical Review, November 2001. Chris left us with a small
backlog, which will appear in due
course under his own byline.
Stamps on the Web
The "WSCstamps" list has been up for
about six months now and is off to a
good start. The group has fifteen members from the United States, Canada,
Sweden, and Denmark. If you're even
slightly interested in Churchill philately, visit their homepage. Most recently
added is a database link to the page,
which lists all new Churchill stamps issues since 1998 (forty-one entries):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WSCstamps.
Archives on the Web
CAMBRIDGE, NOVEMBER—The Churchill
Archives Centre has made a pilot version of the electronic catalogue of the
Churchill Papers is now available online
at: http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/churchill_papers/ The Churchill Papers, comprising
original documents sent, received or
composed by Winston S. Churchill
during the course of his long and active
life, contain everything from his childhood letters and school reports to his
final writings. They include his personal
correspondence with friends and family,
and his official exchanges with kings,
presidents, politicians and military leaders. Some of the most memorable
phrases of the twentieth century are
preserved in his drafts and speaking
notes for the famous war speeches. The
Churchill Papers, purchased for the nation in 1995 with Heritage Lottery
funds and a grant from the John Paul
Getty Foundation, include an estimated
one million documents.
Unable to locate Churchill's 1956
correspondence with Eisenhower (see
review of Eisenhower and Churchill this
issue), we queried Churchill Archivist
Natalie Adams about whether it was
possible actually to read documents on
the web. "The catalogue is a finding aid
to the files which are held," she explained, "so it is not possible to access
FlNESTHOUR 114/8
images of the documents online. The
catalogue's main function is to enable
researchers to plan their research far
better than they were able to previously,
and to gauge the amount of relevant
material." Thus the website is not a
complete resource in itself, but an important and vital tool which will save
reserchers many hours when they actually set out on their research.
Some direct access is possible, Ms.
Adams continues: "Visitors to our site,
http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/ can
access some images of actual documents
by viewing online educational resources,
the "Churchill Era" (http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/churchill_era) and "Churchill:
the Evidence" (http://www.churchill.nls.ac.uk/), or by visiting the website's
image gallery area (http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/gallery/). Most of
the Churchill papers have been described at file level so the catalogue descriptions cover a whole file of papers
(the precise extent of the file is indicated
in the 'physical' field at the bottom of
the descriptive record). This is the case,
for example, for all the references retrieved by a search for Eisenhower between 1955 and 1956.
"The catalogue does, however, contain descriptions of about 64,600 individual documents in key classes where
research interest is likely to be extremely
high. These sections of the catalogue are
rich in detail. A search for 'Eisenhower'
(without a date range of 1955-1956) retrieves many references to individual
documents (mostly contained in
Churchill's wartime Prime Ministerial
material, references beginning 'CHAR
20').
"One of these entries is a description of Eisenhower's report as Supreme
Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force to the Combined Chiefs
of Staff on the operations in Europe of
the Allied Expeditionary Force, 8 June
1944 to 8 May 1945—a key document
for Second Word War historians (reference CHAR 20/244/2).
"The cataloguers have taken account of documents which have been
published by Martin Gilbert in the Official Biography and its Companion
Volume or speeches which were pub-
DATELINES
lished by Rhodes James in Winston S.
"Nothing is settled either for
or against us. We have no reason
to despair; still less haw we any
reason to be self-satisfied."
Churchill: His Complete Speeches" Ms.
Adams continues, "so the catalogue can
also be used as 'way-in' to published
documents. For example, references in
CHAR 9 and CHUR 5 (Churchill's
speech notes) include references to the
relevant pages of Rhodes James."
Rafal Heydel-Mankoo of Ottawa,
Ontario is one satisfied member who
has used the new website: "Researching
Churchill's dealings with the Polish
Government-in-Exile, I was able to find
eighty documents dealing with, or
mentioning, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk in
less than thirty seconds. Each document is accompanied by a descriptive
paragraph and a citation/reference.
"This is a very encouraging start
and will undoubtedly be of profound
assistance to researchers outside England. The search engine is user-friendly
and, most importantly, fast. Too often
pilot projects utilizing search mechanisms are slow and awkward. This does
not appear to be the case for the
Churchill Papers catalogue."
On a parallel project, the Churchill
Papers are being microfilmed and published by the Gale Group, Inc. (For detailed information visit their website
http://www.galegroup.com/ and search
for "Churchill.") Gale's first unit is
shortly to be published on microfilm
and should mean that the papers become a great deal more accessible to
those who are not able to consult the
originals at the Archives Centre.
The cataloguing of the Churchill
Papers has been going on now for over
six years. The catalogue now contains
over 70,000 entries and the pilot Internet version allows you to search for catalogue descriptions using "free text,"
"keyword" and "date range" fields.
Searching methods will be improved
and refined over the forthcoming
months but the Centre is interested in
Comments and suggestions.
Comments are most welcome by
Natalie Adams, Archivist/Information
Services Manager, Churchill Archives
Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge
CB3 ODS, England, email Natalie.
[email protected],
telephone
(01223) 336222, fax (01223) 336135.
r
Strategic Hotel Capital's Churchill Ad Grows to a Series
CHICAGO, DECEMBER 3 IST—Strategic Hotel
Capital has expanded its Churchill advertisement (see back cover, FH 112)
into a series, the second and third of
which, produced by Daly Gray, a Herndon, Virginia-based communications
firm, are shown herewith. The first ad
("An optimist sees the opportunity in
every difficulty"), the first commercial
advertisement ever to appear in Finest
Hour, was published not for commercial reasons but for its artistry and relevance. Finest Hour contributed the
quote and attribution to the third ad.
"We created the first ad to provide
encouragement to the hotel industry,
which was in the midst of the effects of
an economic slowdown," said SHC
chief executive officer Laurence Geller.
"Like much of what Sir Winston
voiced, however, the enduring quotation lent itself equally well to the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist
attacks." Geller noted that following
the recent horrific events, Churchill's
words frequently served as the greatest
source of inspiration for an array of political figures.
The response to the ad from the
hotel industry was overwhelmingly positive, which led Strategic Hotel Capital
to expand the series. "We intend periodically to invoke the sage words of Sir
Winston in advertising to provide additional encouragement and inspiration
for the industry," adds Geller, an avid
reader of history, student of the life of
FINEST HOUR I H / 9
Churchill, a Mary Soames Associate
and a Trustee of The Churchill Center.
Headquartered in Chicago, Strategic Hotel Capital currently owns
twenty-seven luxury and upscale hotels
and resorts in North America and Europe. The company acquires and assetmanages properties with 200-plus
rooms in markets with unique, hard-toduplicate locations and high barriers to
additional competition. SHC's portfolio includes the Essex House in New
York City; the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna
Niguel in Dana Point, California; the
Four Seasons Mexico City; the Hyatt
Regency Embarcadero and Park Hyatt
in San Francisco; the Hyatt Regencies
in New Orleans and on Capital Hill,
Washington; the Marriott Hamburg,
Germany; the Hotel Inter-Continental
Praha in Prague, Czech Republic; and
the Marriott Champs Elysees in Paris.
SHC (www.shci.com) is a privately held
limited liability company whose major
stakeholders include the Whitehall
funds and Prudential Insurance Co. of
America.
New Paintings Catalogue:
An Appeal for Help
LYME REGIS, DORSET, MARCH 10TH—I
am
working with David Coombs, compiler
of the 1967 catalogue, Churchill: His
Paintings, on a new updated edition.
The original was mainly in black and
white; the intent for the new edition is
continued overleaf
DATELINES
CHURCHILL
CALENDAR
Local events organizers: please send upcoming event notices to the editor for posting here.
If address and email is not stated below, look for it on inside front cover.
21 July: Washington Society for Churchill picnic-book discussion.
Contact: Caroline Hartzler, tel. (703) 503-9226
19-22 September: 19th International Churchill Conference, "Churchill and
the Intelligence World," Lansdowne Resort, Leesburg, Va.
Contact: Nigel Knocker, Chairman, ICS/UK (see page 2).
30 November: Sir Winston Churchill's 128th birthday will be celebrated
with black tie dinners in Boston, Mass, and Anchorage, Alaska. Contacts:
Boston, Suzanne Sigman ([email protected]), tel. (617) 696-18330;
Alaska, James Muller (af)[email protected]), tel. (907) 786-4740.
6-10 November 2003: 20th International Churchill Conference, Hamilton,
Bermuda, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Bermuda Conference.
Contacts: David Boler ([email protected]), tel. (0207) 558-3522;
and Randy Barber ([email protected]), tel. (905) 881-8550.
2004: 21st Intl. Churchill Conference, 60th Anniversary D-Day
Portsmouth, England, sponsored by ICS, UK
New Paintings Catalogue...
to achieve all reproductions in colour.
This will be the definitive catalogue of
Sir Winston's over 500 canvases and we
are trying to trace them all and obtain
colour transparencies for reproduction.
We have now traced over 450 paintings,
discovering some that were not in the
original catalogue, which is very exciting. We are presently trying to trace
those paintings that have disappeared.
If you own one of Sir Winston's
paintings, or know of the whereabouts
of any—even though you might feel
that we know about it—please contact
us. We will treat all information, ownership and location in the strictest of
confidence. For publication purposes,
paintings can be, if requested, credited
as, for example, "in a Canadian collection" or similar wording.
—Minnie S. Churchill,
Churchill Heritage Ltd., Ware House,
Lyme Regis, Dorset DT73RH, England,
([email protected]).
Painting at Madeira, 1950
David Coombs writes: "You might
be interested in hearing about some of
the things I have found. At Chartwell, I
discovered a large and uncatalogued
cache of black and white photographs
relating to Churchill's painting. These
include a number of him working at his
easel (both before and after WW2) as
well a larger number of photographs
which he used for making paintings
down the years. The latter were especially interesting. I have made a selection from both categories which I hope
we will be able to include in the new
catalogue.
FINEST HOUR 114/10
"A number of lost paintings have
turned up: one for example is that auctioned at Balmoral Castle in 1927 for
King George V and Queen Mary. The
son of the original purchaser now owns
it. Only recent extensive correspondence with an American owner has revealed another painting by Churchill:
one that nothing was known of before.
This was a gift in 1928 to the artist who
painted the picture that hangs over
Churchill's bed at Chartwell: a view of
his mother's dining room."
Peregrine Spencer Churchill
VERNHAM DEAN, HAMPSHIRE, MARCH 19—
Henry Winston Peregrine SpencerChurchill, who died today after a short
illness aged 88, was a nephew of Sir
Winston Churchill and a trustee of the
Churchill Archives, containing the personal papers of Sir Winston, his brother
Jack, and members of their family.
Peregrine, as he was always known
(along with the nickname "Prebbin"),
was born 25 May 1913, the second son
of John Strange Spencer-Churchill
(1880-1947) and the former Lady
Gwendeline Bertie ("Goonie"), fourth
daughter of the Seventh Earl of Abingdon. Although six years Winston's junior, Jack was devoted to his brother
and their wives, Clemmie and Goonie,
became close confidantes.
In the First World War the two
families shared Jack and Goonie's house
in Kensington. Peregrine, with his elder
brother Johnny and sister Clarissa, grew
up in close proximity to Sir Winston's
offspring and were frequent visitors to
both Lullenden and Chartwell. Johnny
was born in 1909, and Clarissa, who
married Anthony Eden, followed in
1920. Peregrine was educated at Harrow and Cambridge and, in 1954, married Patricia Ethel Louise of Chesham,
Buckinghamshire. She died in 1956,
and his second marriage, in 1957, was
to Yvonne Henriette Marie of Rennes,
France. There were no children from either marriage.
In 1993, Peregrine Churchill was
instrumental in arranging the agreement between the Churchill heirs and
the Government over the acquisition of
the Churchill Papers by the nation.
DATELINES
Whilst attending the funeral of his
elder brother in 1992, Peregrine, a civil
engineer, was shocked at the condition
of the family graves in Bladon, Oxfordshire, not only those of Sir Winston and
Lady Churchill but of his parents, and
his grandparents, Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill. He proposed to use
some of the profits from the sale of the
archives for the £250,000 restoration
work at the famous country churchyard.
He made good his promise, and lived to
see a service of rededication after completion of the work.
Peregrine took a powerful interest
in the work of The Churchill Center
and Societies, and was instrumental to
researchers, notably assisting Dr. John
Mather's medical research, which
proved among other things that Lord
Randolph Churchill did not die of
syphilis {FH93).
Finest Hour editor Richard Langworth has fond memories of his visits
to Peregrine and Yvonne Churchill,
who were devoted to each other and to
their forebears: "I well remember Peregrine showing me the rows of Lady
Randolph's diaries, teaching me to look
beyond the rumors and misstatements
for the real truth—that Winston's parents took far more interest in him than
anyone believed, and that Winston did
much better in school than he preferred
to let on. I still routinely quote Peregrine's words: 'Winston was a very
naughty boy and his parents were
deeply concerned about him.'
"Peregrine had a burning loyalty to
the truth, which he often saw as overwhelmed by innuendo and bad research. He was instrumental in moving
the Southampton project and lived to
see its first fruits. He was a great man,
self-made and self-reliant. Devoted to
history, he saw Sir Winston in a balanced way, virtues and faults together.
And he banked his treasure, as his uncle
wrote of F. E. Smith, in the hearts of his
friends."
Peregrine Spencer Churchill was
privately cremated, and a Memorial
Service is planned for a later date. He is
survived by his sister Clarissa, Countess
of Avon, and by an extended family of
nephews and nieces. —Michael Rhodes
Local and National Events
Meeting at Dallas, November 30th: British Consul Paul Martinez, Barbara Willette, John
Williams, John Restrepo and Paula (seated), Dot and Asa Newsom, Jim Brown, Nathan Hughes,
Ann Martinez, Charlotte and Earl Nicholson.
Dallas
OCTOBER
2
IST—Members
of
The
Churchill Center and their guests gathered at the home of Richard and Anne
Hazlett for a stimulating program by
Chris Hanger. The program was especially poignant in the wake of Chris's
untimely death a few months later {FH
113:8). The program opened with a
videotaped message of welcome from
our Patron, Lady Soames, and a videotape of the launching in Maine of the
USS Winston S. Churchill, and her subsequent commissioning in Norfolk,
Virginia. The videos were augmented
with verbal commentary by Chris, who
also read an e-mail just received that afternoon from the ship's Commander,
Captain Franken. Winston S. Churchill
was at the time south of Ireland, her
goodwill visits to ports in the UK having been canceled following the September 11th attacks (see "We Stand By
You," FH 112:10). The program was
followed by a reception with wine and
hors d'oeuvres.
NOVEMBER 30TH—The
127th anniversary
of Churchill's birth was celebrated
tonight with a formal dinner in the
McKinney Room at the Cooper Aerobics Center. A social hour preceded the
FINEST HOUR 114/11
dinner and various pieces of Churchill
memorabilia were on display. The
British Consul, the Hon. Paul Martinez
and his wife graced the occasion.
The speaker was Lt. Col. Jim
Brown, who shared some of the wit and
wisdom of Sir Winston Churchill. This
was followed by a toast given by
Nathan Hughes, who fascinated us by
discussing the precise location of Sir
Winston on each decade of his birthday. About thirty members and guests
attended.
Both functions were arranged by
our faithful North Texas directors,
Paula and John Restrepo.
New Chartwell, N.C.
HIGH POINT, NORTH CAROLINA, NOVEMBER
I5TH—One of our loyal members is
doing his part to spread the word. Steve
Arnold's Arcon, Inc. has recently completed a small residential project known
as "New Chartwell." Steve has named
its three streets Blenheim Court,
Chartwell Drive and Number Ten Way:
"I have yet to find someone who immediately recognizes the significance of all
three names. I am quite certain I won't
have to tell you." (Steve, what's the
meaning of Blenheim Court, hey?)
continued overleaf
DATELINES
Errata, FH112
More than the usual number of clangers got by us last issue,
for which we are mortified, and offer apologies. —Ed.
• Page 12: Churchill visited the United States fifteen
times, not fourteen as we stated. We omitted a key visit:
June 1942 when, visiting Roosevelt, he first heard of the
loss of Tobruk. Thanks for this to Dr. R. I. MacFarlane.
Nobody else saw this?
• Page 14, righthand column: Eric Bingham reminds
us that Sedbergh School, famed for its association with
Brendan Bracken, is in "Cumbria," not Lancashire. We
maintain, and believe Bracken would agree, that Sedbergh
is in the traditional county of Westmoreland, not some political contrivance like "Cumbria."
• Page 17, righthand column: Penelope Dudley Ward
was, of course, mistress to the Prince of Wales, later Edward
VIII; not the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. Thanks
for this to Paul Courtenay.
• Page 31: Curt Zoller informs us that Orange County
Churchillians, which sponsored an ad for the San Diego
Conference, was omitted from the list of sponsors and supporters.
• Page 36: Stupidly, the editor omitted HMS Cossack
in describing Churchill's speech to the crews of HMS Exeter and Ajax on 23 February 1940 (top of middle column). Of course it was Cossack, not the other ships, which,
off Norway, liberated British seamen aboard the German
prison ship Altmark. Thanks for this to Robert J. Brown.
PAGE 5: ARRRGH!
So help us, it was there! The third column of
"Despatch Box" was exactly where we put it, on the lefthand side of page 5, when we last saw the proofs. The final
magazine showed up with the first column of letters (from
page 4) reprinted in its place! We know what happened,
and it will never happen again because we are changing file
transfer methods. Here are the missing letters which were
omitted from page 5:
chorus:
Shines the name...Roger Young,
Fought and died for the men he marched among.
Yes in every soldier's heart in all the infantry,
Lives the story of Private Roger Young.
It was he who drew the fire of the enemy,
That a company of men might live to fight,
And before the deadly fire of the infantry,
Stood the man, stood the man we hail tonight.
chorus: Stood the man....etc.
On the island of New Georgia in the Solomons
Stands a simple wooden cross alone to tell
That beneath the silent coral of the Solmons,
Sleeps a man, sleeps a man remembered well.
chorus: Sleeps a man....etc.
—Not bad from the eighth grade! Ed.
Holland's "Wilhemus" Preceded "God Save the King"
Though I count myself a loyal subject of the Queen
and carry British and Canadian passports, Linda Colley
(FH 111:31) is wrong: "God Save the King/Queen" was
preceded by more than a century by the Dutch "Wilhemus" song. The "Wilhemus" was adopted in the 1580s as
the Dutch fought their way out of the Spanish Hapsburg
empire. Probably written by Philip Marnix (1540-98), it
became a little more familiar in England after the Dutch
Statholder, William III, arrived in England in 1688 and
was crowned King the next year. William reigned until
1702 and fought with Churchill's ancestor, John Duke of
Marlborough, since the War of Spanish Succession, in
which the Duke won his glory, was just beginning.
JOHN F. BOSHER, OTTAWA, ONT.
Vanishing National Anthems (FH 111)
Enjoyed your National Anthems article and so will my
Canadian cousins, who know only two verses of "O
Canada." Surely no one living ever heard of "Roger Young"
and no one (possibly not even yourself because you are too
young) knows all the words—except for yours truly!
GERALD LECHTER, FORT LEE, N.J.
For the record, Gerald...
O they've got no time for glory in the infantry,
And they've got no use for praises loudly sung,
But in every soldier's heart in all the infantry,
Shines the name, shines the name of Roger Young.
Unadulterated Praise
I bumped into Hugh Segal ("Churchill as a Moderate," Churchill Proceedings 1996-1997) today and he pulled
me aside to tell me how much he enjoys FH. From the articles to the recipes, he thinks it's a bang-up job. He was
reading it on a plane and a seatmate asked about it and he
told him it was a secret and he wouldn't tell him how to get
one! Of course, I shot him on the spot! I told Hugh I
would share his plaudits, so consider it done.
RANDY BARBER, PRESIDENT, ICS CANADA
Randy, the immoderates still claim, in the wake of Hugh's
speech, that WSC was always immoderate, like them. —Ed.
FINEST HOUR I U / 1 2
DATELINES
Toronto
28TH—Toronto's venerable Albany Club again served well for "An
Evening with Winston Churchill," the
popular lecture series staged by The
Other Club of Ontario. The speaker
was John Plumpton, President of the
Churchill Center and past-President of
ICS Canada, who remarked eloquently
on the continuing relevance of
Churchill in today's world, especially in
the context of September 11 th. He also
made a moving plea for educational institutions to return to the study of traditional history and not let future generations grow up ignorant of our own
story. Mr. Plumpton concluded with a
brief explanation of the mission of the
Churchill Center and Societies, and informed us of various initiatives in planning for the future.
During the second half of the
evening Garth Webb, a Juno Beach veteran, and Don Cooper introduced
members of the Other Club and their
guests to the fascinating Juno Beach
Centre project. The Juno Beach Centre
will open on the site of the Canadian
D-Day landing in Normandy, and will
serve as a permanent memorial to this
great Canadian contribution to world
freedom. The project will cost several
million dollars, part of which is to be
financed by the sale of "donor and
memorial" bricks which will form part
of the museum. Following the address,
ICS Canada President Randy Barber
announced that a titanium donor brick
had been purchased by ICS-Canada,
which will be on display in perpetuity.
FEBRUARY
A very pleasant evening ended with
light refreshment and a chance to examine several more artifacts from Randy's
bottomless chest of Churchilliana.
Thanks go to Norman MacLeod, President of the Other Club of Ontario, and
his team for putting the successful event
together. Congratulations are also due
to Norm's wife Jean, who is to be invested as a member of the Order of
Canada for her services to volunteerism:
an award of great distinction presented
to a most deserving lady. Our next
"Evening with Winston Churchill" will
occur in the autumn.
—Rafal Heydel-Mankoo ®
AROUND & ABOUT
"Shave his head, pack a hundred or so extra
pounds on him, pop a cigar in his mouth,
trick him out in a waistcoat with a watch fob
stretched across his substantial tummy and—
voila!—you've turned George W. Bush into
Winston Churchill." (Thanks to David Stejkowski for passing us this cut from the
March 28th Chicago Tribune)
Belated
recognition by the French occurred in the
June 2000 issue of France's Historia magazine, which spent thirty pages naming Churchill Statesman of the Century. The
first article was by Francois Kersaudy, author of Churchill and de Gaulle
(1981), entitled "A Monument of Contradictions." Mike Campbell reports
that it's "a somewhat frustrating piece: one long list of Kersaudy's ideas on how
Churchill was full of contradictions. It's also weirdly written: one long string of
thoughts separated by semicolons. Ultimately positive, Kersaudy does use the
'I-word' (Iroquois) and I think there are at least a few questionable points
raised." Kersaudy concludes: "Under this mass of apparent contradictions, there
exist numerous keys to Sir Winston Spencer Churchill. If they do not open all
the doors, it's because each man guards his part of the mystery. But, following
step by step, since very young, the peripheries of this fabulous existence, is
something that should enrich all of ours." Okay, if you say so
Repeat a lie
often enough and gullible people will believe it. Thus Peter Carlson in the
Washington Post Outlook ofMarch 26th. Writing admiringly of The Atlantic
Churchill attack by Christopher Hitchens (see next page), Carlson said
Hitchens's "revelation" that an actor delivered Churchill's war speeches over the
radio left him "slack-jawed." Replying nastily to our own Chris Dunford, Carlson said he had "no vested interest in perpetrating [a myth] if it isn't true." So
we wrote and referred him to "Leading Churchill Myths (2): An actor read
Churchill's wartime speeches over by wireless,'" by the late Sir Robert Rhodes
James (FH112:52-53): "If we told you the yarn about how Churchill caused
the 1929 stock market crash, would you go slack-jawed again?" Mr. Carlson
did not reply (surprised?)... .And you'll love this one, from The Atlantic's website: "We (mistakenly) advertised in the April Atlantic that this Flashback
would include two articles by Winston Churchill, written early in his career:
'Modern Government and Christianity' (January 1912) and 'Naval Organization, American and British' (August 1917).... Further research turns up the fact
that there was in fact another Winston Churchill, an American who lived from
1871-1947...." Sometimes you just gotta laugh!... Former U.S. presidential
candidate Al Gore rallied his party faithful in Florida with a semi-quote from
Churchill's famous quote Never give in—never, never, never, never." But Al
added two "nevers" to his version. Maine Governor Angus King, at the launch
of USS Winston S. Churchill, believed WSC's seven words comprised the entire speech—will they ever get it right?... HBO's presentation "The Gathering
Storm: with Albert Finney as Churchill and Vanessa Redgrave as Clementine
has had rave reviews—and will get one from us next issue. Don't miss it!
M>
FINEST HOUR m / 1 3
DATELINES
THE ATLANTIC TAKES A DIVE
We shouldn't be upset about the shrill cries ot the muckrakers.
They give us such great material!
RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Perhaps in self-defense, The Atlantic
website has now posted links to other articles about Churchill from its archives.
See: http:llwww. theatlantic. comlunboundlflashbkslchurchill. htm
T
he cover story on the April issue
of The Atlantic Monthly—
"Churchill Takes A Fall: The
Revisionist Verdict: Incompetent,
Boorish, Drunk, and Mostly Wrong,"
by Christopher Hitchens—was not so
bad as the title suggests.
Hitchens, a paid iconoclast
who regularly skewers phonies of
the left and right, takes proper aim at
the politicians who've wrapped themselves in Churchillian rhetoric since
September 1 lth. The pols are still at it,
and unless they begin seriously to mobilize the citizenry it's going to take another attack to make us realize what
we're up against. Instead of frisking
dowagers at airports and showing us
colored disks to define the current
threat level, they should have declared
a state of war with "the nation of terrorism," financed it with War Bonds,
plugged porous borders, invaded Iraq,
and started discriminating against
Middle Easterners boarding airplanes.
Call it racism—or call it survival. Take
your pick.
Unfortunately, Hitchens larded his
10,347 word critique with every accusation against Winston Churchill except the one about how he caused the
stock market crash in 1929. As
Churchill once remarked, "I have never
heard the opposite of the truth stated
with greater precision."
The trouble with this sort of bunk
is that unless it is refuted, after awhile
people believe it. That's already started,
with columnists bearing IQ's no higher
than their body temperature going
"slack-jawed" at Hitchens's "revela-
"Around and About" on
the preceding page). So here is a response—only to The Atlantic's most
egregious errors:
1. Actor Norman Shelley's ridiculous notion that he delivered
Churchill's war speeches over the BBC
has been laid to rest by eyewitness testimony for years. What Shelley recorded,
apparently in 1943, was an obscure,
unpublished Churchill speech, the origin of which has eluded even the
Churchill Archives. Neither the Prime
Minister's 13 May speech ("Blood,
Toil, Tears and Sweat") nor his 4 June
speech ("Fight on the Beaches") was
even broadcast by anyone purporting
to be Churchill. Sir Martin Gilbert's
official biography does quote a letter
by Vita Sackville-West of 4 June, implying that at least part of that speech
was repeated by the BBC announcer
{Winston S. Churchill, London: Heinemann, 1983, VL469). Shelley may
have recorded the "Beaches" speech
later, possibly for the BBC overseas
service, but no one has ever been able
to track this.
FINEST HOUR I H / 1 4
2. Amusingly, Hitchens even gets
the lie wrong: Shelley's role in "The
Children's Hour" was "Dennis the
Dachshund," not "Winnie the Pooh."
Poor Mr. Shelley can't win.
3. Undoubtedly the "military and
economic support of Canada, Australia, India, and the rest of a gigantic
empire," not to mention the
fighting Greeks, comprised a
monumental consolation to
the British during the Blitz.
"Keep low, men, we still have
the Greeks with us."
4. But Hitchens wants Greece
both ways. He condemns
Churchill for trading Greek freedom for Stalin's dominance of the
Balkans; then he rabbits on about
Greece's resistance to tyranny. A more
rational view is that saving Greece was
the best Churchill could make of a
sorry situation, allowing Greeks to
enjoy postwar the liberties they defended in 1941.
5. The first air force to bomb civilians was the Luftwaffe over Warsaw
(and later Rotterdam)—not the RAF
over Berlin. In March 1945, Churchill
was the first to question the carpet
bombing of Dresden and other German cities (see Christopher Harmon,
"Are We Beasts?", Newport: Naval War
College, 1991).
6. The silly charge that Churchill
ran and hid in the country when
warned in advance of air raids on London is almost as old as the accompanying canard that he let Coventry burn
rather than tip the Germans that he'd
read their codes. On the night of the
Coventry attack Churchill, headed for
the country, turned round and returned
to London after reading decrypts which
incorrectly held London the target.
There he sent his staff to safety and
mounted the Air Ministry roof to await
the bombers that never came.
Hitchens has "never seen [this] addressed by the Great Man's defenders."
Really? It was addressed in The Times
by John Martin on 28 August 1976; by
John Colville (The Churchillians, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981).
Norman Longmate, Ronald Lewin,
Harry Hensley, and David Stafford—
DATELINES
none of them whitewashes—are just
four historians who, as early as 1979,
dismissed the Coventry story for the
myth it is. Yet it lives on, a dark seam
of treacle emerging regularly from the
fever swamps and conspiracy nuts.
7. In cabinet discussions in May
1940 Churchill said at one point (not
"more than once") that he'd considered
whether it was part of his duty "to
enter into negotiations with That Man
[Hitler]." On
this slim
X
thread
9. "Unless fresh information
comes to light," Mr. Hitchens will believe the fable that Churchill set up the
Lusitania sinking to entice the Americans into World War I. Well, okay, if
he wants to...but that particular red
herring was exploded 20 years ago by
Harry V. Jaffa {Statesmanship, Durham:
Carolina Academic Press, 1981), and
by others since.
10. There is not a shred of evidence that Churchill knew in advance
about the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor and this, again, has been
broadly rejected, most recently by
David Stafford {Churchill and Secret
Service, London: Murray, 1997).
M
CARTOON BY
RALPH SALLON
Hitchens assures us that Churchill did
not want to fight! Numerous historians
(e.g., Sheila Lawlor, Churchill and the
Politics of War, Cambridge University
Press, 1991) conclude that at that
point, Churchill's political position was
too unfirm overtly to dismiss Halifax's
cry for negotiation. By the end of May
Churchill had convinced his cabinet to
fight on. History turned on that
achievement.
8. Churchill did not skip Roosevelt's funeral out of "pique at Roosevelt's repeated refusal to visit Britain
during the war"; in fact he agonized
over missing it. Mr. Hitchens forgets
that there was a war on. The Allies
were closing on Berlin, the end might
come any day. There were more pressing things than funerals to occupy
heads of government.
r. Hitchens is an able potstirrer, but he should be
reading the more balanced
historians: Norman Rose, Henry
Pelling, Warren Kimball, Paul Addison,
Robert Rhodes James.
Churchill's faults were on a grand
scale, and Mr. Hitchens has managed
to list almost all of them, including the
imaginary ones, which continue to impress the irrational. The overriding
point is that the virtues outweighed the
faults. If his "lapidary phrases" and
"gallows humor" have reacquired
renown, it is because Churchill crafted
words to express what free people were
thinking—and because last September
those words proved starkly relevant.
In the 1930s—the period when
Hitchens finds him particularly contemptible—Churchill said: "The worst
difficulties from which we suffer do
not come from without. They come
from within... .They come from a peculiar type of brainy people always
found in our country, who, if they add
something to its culture, take much
from its strength."
Brainy people have been celebrating Churchill's feet of clay (and they
were big feet) for half a century. Theirs
is an error of proportion. They forget
that at the key moment in the 20th
century, as Charles Krauthammer
wrote, one man proved indispensable.
How sad to find a good writer like
Christopher Hitchens suffering from
the same amnesia.
FINEST HOUR \UI 15
From the Archives
1. There is no proof that any of
Churchill's famous broadcasts were
made by Norman Shelley. This claim is
made by David Irving in the first volume of his book, Churchill's War, based
apparently on conversations with Shelley [although Irving's footnote for said
conversations is dated after Shelley's
death! —Ed.]
As far as I can establish, Shelley
did claim to have recorded as Churchill
during the war, but (in public at least)
never claimed that he broadcast the famous 1940 speeches contemporaneously. He may have claimed to have
broadcast the June 4th "Beaches"
speech at a later date. The only proof
that his family have been able to offer
is a BBC recording of Shelley speaking
as Churchill and delivering an address
that seems to relate to 1942, and does
not seem to equate with the text of any
Churchill speech held here.
There is no doubt that Churchill
delivered the speeches in the House of
Commons (at least there are hundreds
of witnesses to that). However, where
the argument really falls down, is that
the speeches of 13 May and 4 June
were only delivered by Churchill in the
Commons and were not broadcast by
him or anyone else at the time (although
after the war WSC recorded them for
Decca). The speech of 4 June was repeated by the BBC radio announcer.
2. We have the evidence that
Churchill's speeches were set out by his
private office secretaries in the blank
verse style that they referred to as
"speech form" or "psalm style," so this
did not originate with William Manchester's books. Anyone can come to
the Archives Centre and consult the
original speaking notes.
3. It is not really my place to comment on the "revisionists" as the
Archives Centre exists to provide access
to all, and to make the Churchill Papers available for this type of historical
debate. But I think it is fair to say that
some of these works are much better
researched than others.
—Allen Pack woodActing Keeper
Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge M>
125-100-75-50 YEARS AGO
Michael McMenamin
125 Years Ago:
Spring 1877-Age 2
"Dressed...Like a Girl"
A
letter from his mother described
life in Dublin with her young son:
"Winston is flourishing tho rather X
the last 2 days more teeth I think. Everest has been bothering me about some
clothes for him saying that it was quite
a disgrace how few things he had &c
how shabby at that." Churchill's granddaughter, Celia Sandys, offers this portrait: "Winston had arrived in Dublin a
month after his second birthday
dressed, as was the fashion, like a girl.
At that time children were dressed alike,
making boys and girls indistinguishable
one from the other, for the first few
years of their lives."
It was early days in Ireland for
Churchill's 28-year-old father. In his biography of Lord Randolph, Churchill
writes of the routine into which his father soon settled: "Five minutes' walk
from the Viceregal Lodge, on the road
to the Phoenix Park, there stands, amid
clustering trees, a little, long, low, white
house with a green verandah and a tiny
lawn and garden.
"This is the 'Little Lodge' and the
appointed abode of the private secretary
[Lord Randolph] to the Lord-Lieutenant. By a friendly arrangement with
that gentleman Lord Randolph was
permitted to occupy it; and here, for
the next four years, his life was mainly
lived. He studied reflectively the jerky
course of administration at the Castle.
He played chess with Steinitz, who was
Lady Soames, who published this photo
in her Family Album (1982), believes it
to be the earliest of her father.
living in Dublin at this time; he explored Donegal in pursuit of snipe; he
fished the lakes and streams of Ireland,
wandering about where fancy took him;
but wherever he went, and for whatever
purpose, he interested himself in the
people and studied the questions of the
country."
100 Years Ago:
Spring 1902-Age 27
"The Politics of the Future"
I
n April, Churchill and the other
Hooligans voted with the Liberals
against the Tory Government in support of a British journalist named
Cartwright who, after serving a twelveFlNJ-STlIOWR 1 1 4 / 1 6
month sentence in South Africa for
criminal libel over an article critical of
Kitchener, was denied the right to return to England. The reason the Government offered was: "it seemed inexpedient to increase the number of persons in this country who disseminated
anti-British propaganda."
Speaking in the House, Churchill
said, "What reason has the government
to be afraid of Mr. Cartwright? There
are many people in this country who
spread what is called anti-British propaganda, but does that alter the opinion
of the British people? Has it in any way
impaired the security of the British
Government? No Government has benefited so much by the strong support
and opinions of the masses of the country as this Government. No Government has less right not to allow those
masses to receive any opinion within
the law which may be properly expressed to them. This is a great constitutional principle."
Dining with the Hooligans that
evening, after the Liberal Party's motion
had been defeated, Joseph Chamberlain
criticized the young Tory MPs for their
lack of support: "What is the use of
supporting your own Government only
when it is right? It is just when it is in
this sort of pickle that you ought to
have come to our aid."
Churchill records in My Early Life
that at the conclusion of the dinner
where Chamberlain had been "most gay
and captivating," he offered this parting
advice: "You young gentlemen have entertained me royally, and in return I
shall give you a priceless secret. Tariffs!
There are the politics of the future, and
of the near future. Study them closely
and make yourselves masters of them,
and you will not regret your hospitality
to me." Indeed, it was Chamberlain's
and the Conservative Party's support for
tariffs and opposition to Free Trade
which would lead Churchill out of his
party in less than two years. At the
time, however, Churchill gave no appearance of courting the Liberals' favor.
The Liberal Parry's motion on that
occasion had been placed by John Morley, whom Churchill had sharply criticized, along with Liberal leader Sir
125-100-75-50 YEARS AGO
Henry Campbell-Bannerman, at a Conservative Party dinner in Manchester a
month earlier: "I admire those who display a great deal of patient toleration.
Some people are violent for war; others
are violent for peace. People in Manchester recently listened to one of the
most bellicose peacemakers of the time,
Mr. John Morley. (Laughter.) I disagree
from Mr. Morley in almost every single
important particular, but I have great respect for Mr. Morley. Although Mr.
Morley's views are pernicious—would
be pernicious if they attained to an electoral majority—it must nevertheless be
recognized that his are the views of an
honest man, a man who, somehow, in
spite of his views, one does not altogether dissociate from the fortunes of
his country. (Hear, hear.)
"One would not like to say the
same about Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. (Laughter.) One cannot say
that he is an honest exponent of the
views of a strong man. (Renewed laughter.)....The words a great satirist of the
last century applied to Sir Robert Peel
might be brought up to date and made
to read (in the phraseology of the
satirist's last will and testament), 'I give
and bequeath to Sir Henry CampbellBannerman my patience. He will want
it all before he becomes Prime Minister
of England. But in the event of Sir
Henry Campbell-Bannerman's becoming Prime Minister of England my patience is then to revert to the English
people.' (Loud laughter.)"
75 Years Ago:
Spring 1927 • Age 52
"Buoyant Mischievousness"
C
hurchill's third budget represented,
in his own words, "the limits of
what could be done by way of taxation
without checking a trade revival."
Churchill was opposed to further tax
increases. As he wrote privately on 16
April after presenting his budget: "We
have assumed since the war, largely
under the guidance of the Bank of England, a policy of deflation, debt repayment, high taxation, large sinking funds
and Gold Standard. This has raised our
credit, restored our exchange and lowered the cost of living. On the other
hand it has produced bad trade, hard
times, an immense increase in unemployment involving costly and unwise
remedial measures....This debt and taxation lie like a vast wet blanket across
the whole process of creating new
wealth by new enterprise."
Nevertheless, Churchill's budget
was well received. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin wrote to the King describing Churchill's presentation to the
House: "Mr. Churchill as a star turn has
a power of attraction which nobody in
the
House
of Commons
can
excel....There is in Mr. Churchill an
under current of buoyant mischievousness which frequently makes its appearance on the surface in some picturesque
phrase or playful sally at the expense of
his opponents."
Lord Winterton, who as Edward
Tumour was an original member of
The Other Club, wrote in a private letter on 6 June: "The great Parliamentary
event was Winston's Budget speech, I
thought it a masterpiece, and about the
best I have ever heard. Winston is a
wonderful fellow...head and shoulders
above anyone else in the House (not excluding Lloyd George) in Parliamentary
position, and both oratorical and debating skill he has suddenly acquired,
quite late in his Parliamentary life, an
immense fund of tact, patience, good
humour and banter on almost all occasions; no one used to 'suffer fools
ungladly' more fully than Winston,
now he is friendly and accessible to
everyone, both in the House, and in the
lobbies, with the result that he has become what he never was before the war,
very popular in the House generally—a
great accretion to his already formidable parliamentary power."
50 Years Ago:
Spring 1952-Age 77
"He Hated Yes-Men"
I
n a cabinet meeting on 13 March,
Churchill's proposals on three defense
issues—the sale of arms to India and
Pakistan; priority over civil production
FINI-ST HOUR I H / 17
for certain defense equipment; and the
enlargement of industrial capacity for
tank production—were all overruled.
Martin Gilbert quotes Lord Alexander,
the Minister of Defence, on how WSC
handled disagreements: "Winston loved
argument. Whenever I saw him and
Brendan Bracken together they were
quarreling. That's what Winston liked;
he hated yes-men—he had no use for
them. What he wanted was people who
would stand up to him. Winston would
put forward some point of view and
Brendan would say straight out, 'That's
all wrong.' Then Winston would question him at length, probing his position.
Once, in Cabinet, when I was Minister
of Defence, Winston began running
down the Army. I got very angry and
burst out: 'That's all nonsense. You don't
know anything about the Army....' I was
very outspoken. Winston just grunted.
When I had finished my outburst I
thought, 'That's done it. I've overstepped the mark.' That same night we
were to dine together at a mutual
friend's house. I was rather anxious.
Winston came up to me, and I began to
apologize. Then a smile came over his
face. 'Dear boy,' he said, you said what
you felt had to be said.' And we sat
down to dinner. He bore no malice."
Churchill continued to be concerned about the after effects of his
stroke, telling Lord Moran on 23
March: I have noticed a decline in mental and physical vigour. I require more
prodding to mental effort....I'm as
quick at repartee in the House as ever I
was. I enjoy Questions there. Do you
think I ought to see Brain?" The suitably named Sir Russell Brain was
Churchill's neurologist.
On April 29th, his daughter Sarah
was in the United States and read a
message from her father at Carnegie
Hall upon the fourth anniversary of the
creation of Israel: "As a Zionist from the
days of the Balfour Declaration, I have
watched with admiration the courageous effort of Israel to establish her independence and prosperity. May this
and future anniversaries be celebrated
with growing confidence and good will
by Israel's friends throughout the
®
f-"KOMTf[fiCA\O\ •
(I)
LOUR "
In Remembrance or His Late Majesty ana
to Commemorate tne Golden Jubilee 01 Her Majesty Queen Elizabetb II
WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
In this year of the Golden Jubilee, when acts of commemoration for King George VI have occurred across the
Commonwealth, we publish, at the suggestion of Rafal
Heydel-Mankoo, Churchill's moving and eloquent tribute
from fifty years ago. "Churchill's eulogy," Rafal writes, "is one
of the finest ever made. His passage: 'The King walked with
death...' is most moving and his closing homage to the new
Queen is inspiring." Most moving of all were Churchill's
words on his floral tribute to Britain's wartime King, taken
from those on the Victoria Cross: "For Valour."
W
hen the death of the King was announced to us
yesterday morning there struck a deep and
solemn note in our lives which, as it resounded far and wide, stilled the clatter and traffic of twentiethcentury life in many lands, and made countless millions
of human beings pause and look around them. A new
sense of values took, for the time being, possession of
human minds, and mortal existence presented itself to so
many at the same moment in its serenity and in its sorrow,
in its splendour and in its pain, in its fortitude and in its
suffering.
The King was greatly loved by all his peoples. He
was respected as a man and as a prince far beyond the
many realms over which he reigned. The simple dignity of
his life, his manly virtues, his sense of duty—alike as a
ruler and a servant of the vast spheres and communities
for which he bore responsibility—his gay charm and
happy nature, his example as a husband and a father in his
own family circle, his courage in peace or war—all these
were aspects of his character which won the glint of admiration, now here, now there, from the innumerable eyes
whose gaze falls upon the Throne.
We thought of him as a young naval lieutenant in
the great Battle of Jutland. We thought of him when
This broadcast of 7 February 1952 was published by BBC's The Listener a week later. Single-volume editions (Woods A135) were published in 1952 by The Times Publishing Co. and in miniature form
by Achille ]. St. Onge, Worcester, Massachusetts. Reprinted by kind
permission of the copyright holder, Winston S. Churchill.
calmly, without ambition, or want of self-confidence, he
assumed the heavy burden of the Crown and succeeded
his brother whom he loved and to whom he had rendered
perfect loyalty. We thought of him, so faithful in his study
and discharge of State affairs; so strong in his devotion to
the enduring honour of our country; so self-restrained in
his judgments of men and affairs; so uplifted above the
clash of party politics, yet so attentive to them; so wise
and shrewd in judging between what matters and what
does not.
All this we saw and admired. His conduct on the
Throne may well be a model and a guide to constitutional sovereigns throughout the world today and also in
future generations. The last few months of King George's
life, with all the pain and physical stresses that he
endured—his life hanging by a thread from day to day,
and he all the time cheerful and undaunted, stricken in
body but quite undisturbed and even unaffected in spirit—these have made a profound and an enduring impression and should be a help to all.
He was sustained not only by his natural buoyancy,
but by the sincerity of his Christian faith. During these
last months the King walked with death as if death were a
companion, an acquaintance whom he recognized and
did not fear. In the end death came as a friend, and after
a happy day of sunshine and sport, and after "good night"
to those who loved him best, he fell asleep as every man
or woman who strives to fear God and nothing else in the
world may hope to do.
The nearer one stood to him the more these facts
were apparent. But the newspapers and photographs of
modern times have made vast numbers of his subjects able
to watch with emotion the last months of his pilgrimage.
We all saw him approach his journey's end. In this period
of mourning and meditation, amid our cares and toils,
every home in all the realms joined together under the
Crown may draw comfort for tonight and strength for the
future from his bearing and his fortitude.
There was another tie between King George and his
people. It was not only sorrow and affliction that they
shared. Dear to the hearts and the homes of the people is
the joy and pride of a united family. With this all the trou-
FlNHSTllOt.'K 1 14/ 18
bles of the world can be borne and all its ordeals at least
confronted. No family in these tumultuous years was happier or loved one another more than the Royal Family
around the King.
N
match with no idea of regal pomp or splendour. Indeed,
there seemed to be before them only the arduous life of
royal personages, denied so many of the activities of ordinarv folk and having to give so much in ceremonial public service. May I say—speaking with all freedom—that
our hearts go out tonight to that valiant woman, with
famous blood of Scotland in her veins, who sustained King
George through all his toils and problems, and brought up
with their charm and beauty
the two daughters who
mourn their father today.
May she be granted strength
to bear her sorrow.
To Queen Mary, his
mother, another of whose
sons is dead—the Duke of
Kent having been killed on
active service—there belongs
the consolation of seeing
how well he did his duty and
fulfilled her hopes, and of
knowing how much he cared
for her.
o Minister saw so much of the King during the
war as I did. I made certain he -was kept informed
of every secret matter, and the care and thoroughness with which he mastered the immense daily flow
of State papers made a deep
mark on my mind.
Let me tell you another
fact. On one of the days when
Buckingham Palace was
bombed the King had just
returned from Windsor. One
side of the courtyard was
struck, and if the windows
opposite out of which he and
the Queen were looking had
not been, by the mercy of
God, open, they would both
have been blinded by the bro"ow I must leave the
ken glass instead of being
treasures of the past
only hurled back by the
and turn to the
explosion. Amid all that was
future. Famous have been the
then going on, although I saw
reigns of our queens. Some of
the King so often, I never
the greatest periods in our
heard of this episode till a
history have unfolded under
long time after. Their
their sceptre. Now that we
Majesties never mentioned it
have the second Queen
or thought it of more signifiElizabeth, also ascending the
cance than a soldier in their
Throne
in her twenty-sixth
armies would of a shell burstThe PM bids good-bye to the King and Queen after a
year, our thoughts are carried
ing near him. This seems to
luncheon at No. 10 Downing Street, 28 October 1941.
back nearly four hundred
me to be a revealing trait in
years to the magnificent figthe royal character.
ure who presided over and, in many ways, embodied and
There is no doubt that of all the institutions which
inspired the grandeur and genius of the Elizabethan age.
have grown up among us over the centuries, or sprung
into being in our lifetime, the constitutional monarchy is
Queen Elizabeth II, like hei predecessor, did not
the most deeply founded and dearly cherished by the
pass her childhood in any certain expectation of the
whole association of our peoples. In the present generaCrown. But already we know her well, and we understand
tion it has acquired a meaning incomparably more powwhy her gifts, and those of her husband, the Duke of
erful than anyone had dreamed possible in former times.
Edinburgh, have stirred the only part of the
The Crown has become the mysterious link, indeed I may
Commonwealth she has yet been able to visit. She has
say the magic link, which unites our loosely bound, but
already been acclaimed as Queen of Canada.
strongly interwoven Commonwealth of nations, states,
We make our claim too, and others will come forand races....
ward also, and tomorrow the proclamation of her sovereignty will command the loyalty of her native land and of
For fifteen years George VI was King. Never at any
all other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire.
moment in all the perplexities at home and abroad, in pubI, whose youth was passed in the august, unchallic or in private, did he fail in his duties. Well does he deserve
lenged and tranquil glories of the Victorian era, may well
the farewell salute of all his governments and peoples.
feel a thrill in invoking once more the prayer and the
It is at this time that our compassion and sympathy
anthem,
"God save the Queen!"
M>
go out to his consort and widow. Their marriage was a love
N!
FINEST HOUR 114/19
CHURCHILLS WOMEN
Sir Martin Gilbert Recalls
tke Women Wko Made tke Man
PRECIS BY ROBERT COURTS
"I am a pretty dull and paltry scribbler,
but my stick as I write carries my heart along with it."
—Sir Winston to Lady Churchill, 1963
Ever first: Elizabeth Everest, left, whom he loved all his life; his
mother Jennie (oval), who advanced his causes (sketch by Sargent).
ast October 23rd,
hundreds gathered in a marquee
in the Royal Geographical Society's grounds
to hear the official biographer speak of the
women who mattered
in Winston Churchill's
life. Churchill, we were
told during the introduction, is a subject that
arouses strong passions. Indeed, no sooner than the day
after the announcement of Sir Martin's lecture, an indignant answer-phone message was left
with the RGS claiming that the title of the talk was an
"insult to the great man"!
The indignant caller need not have worried: where
Churchill is concerned, such a title carries no puerile implications, particularly given the speaker, and the presence
of Sir Winston's daughter, Lady Soames. As we have come
to expect from Sir Martin, the session was gripping, frequently funny, and filled with fascinating glimpses into
the human side of Churchill.
Of the women in Churchill's early life, the first was of
course his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill. Winston,
she wrote, was a "demanding son," and Sir Martin gave
plenty of examples to show what she meant.
Mr. Courts is a member of the International Churchill Society
of the UK and is is training to work as a barrister. He lives in Balsall
Common, near Coventry in Warwickshire.
Even at the early age of twelve, Winston was a great
letter-writer, possessed of a precocious talent, who
wrote to get others to do what he wanted them to do.
In addition to frequent appeals for visits, he wrote to
his mother at the time of Queen Victorias Jubilee,
explaining how much he wanted to see Buffalo Bill.
Unfortunately, this would require that he leave
Brighton, where he was at school with the Thompson sisters. He wanted his parents to demand that he be released
to the Jubilee, and went so far as to draft their proposed
letter. The request did not, unsurprisingly, cite Buffalo Bill
as a reason! Winston followed up by saying he was "in
torment" over the delay in his mother's reply. Needless to
say, he got his way.
Churchill unashamedly used his mother's influence
well into his twenties. His letters are full of phrases like
"please exert yourself," "it is no use to preach the gospel of
patience," and "leave no stone unturned." It was Lady
Randolph to whom he turned to in order to further his
career. On his plans to go to Egypt as part of the Omdurman campaign, he exhorted her to "strike while the iron is
hot" and to leave "no cutlet uncooked."
A major influence in Churchill's young life was his
great-aunt, the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough. While
considering Winston "affectionate, not naughty," she also
felt that he was too "excitable," which he made worse by
going out too much. His school reports frequently disagreed with this generous appraisal, and his parents suggested the idea of a tutor for the school holidays, an idea
which was greeted with opprobrium. "Some enemy has
sown fears in your mind," he wrote to his mother: "please
give me a chance [to acquit myself] of the evil of which I
am accused." He wrote to the woman he called his
"deputy mother," Lady Wilton (a friend of his parents),
"my mother is incensed against me."
His true "deputy mother" was probably his nanny,
Elizabeth Everest, the dominant female influence of his
youth. He held her in affection long after boys were supposed to leave their nannies behind. Sir Martin quoted an
FINEST HOUR J H / 2 0
Relatives. Left: Grandmama Fanny and
sister-in-law Goonie wedding brother Jack,
1908. Oval: "Deputy Mother" Lady Wilton.
occasion when he asked for
help with his teeth, which
were giving him trouble. Mrs. Everest replied with a number of well-intentioned but bizarre remedies, including
pulling socks over his head when he went to sleep. His
mother replied more practically, telling him that he
should brush them!
Once the prima facie reason for her employment was
past, Mrs. Everest was peremptorily dismissed as the
Churchills' nanny. Aghast, Winston wrote to his parents
appealing for her better treatment. His appeal was in vain:
she was dismissed by letter, without even the customary
courtesy of an interview with her employer. The fate of
Mrs. Everest, and so many of her class, had a great effect
on Winston, and influenced him during his radical years
as a crusading Liberal MP. It was through Mrs. Everest
that he saw the working class, with whom he would otherwise have had no contact.
T
o the women in his life Churchill confided,
amongst other things, the realities of warfare. He
was critical of the new dum-dum bullets which
caused such horrific injuries. These, he said, were "not [to
be] alluded to in print." To his grandmother he explained
his disgust, but his mother was not wholly impressed by
his letters, which she felt were too boastful. Not for the
first time, he had to apologize.
Flames. Left: Ethel Barrymore, who said she turned him down.
Above right: first love Molly Hackett. Above: Muriel Wilson as
"Vashti." Top (overlapped): Pamela Plowden, "the most beautiful
girl that I have ever seen." Photographs from the official biography.
Perhaps one of the most profound influences on
Churchill, albeit not one of the most obvious, came from
Lady Gwendoline ("Goonie"), his sister-in-law. It was she
who in 1915 introduced him to painting, which would
provide him with so much solace and enjoyment for the
rest of his life. Another woman, Lady Lavery, taught him
how to attack a canvas. "Wallop, smash, clean no longer"
was her approach, and Winston wholeheartedly adopted
it: "I fell upon my victim with berserk fury," as he characteristically put it.
Churchill had a number of lady friends before he
married Clementine, the first being Molly Hackett, a relationship cut off when she married someone else. Next was
Muriel Wilson, who tried to help Churchill cure himself
of his lisp, the speech impediment that caused him much
irritation. Repeatedly she practiced with him the line,
"The Spanish ships I cannot see for they are not in sight."
Engagement was discussed, but Muriel wanted someone
with good financial prospects, and this Winston could not
offer. Actress Ethel Barrymore also turned him down.
Pamela Plowden, whom Winston held "the most
beautiful girl that I have ever seen," was the most serious
early love, and they had a lifelong friendship: fifty years
later he was to write to her, "I cherish your signal across
the years....I was a freak, but you saw some qualities." >>
FINI-ST HOUR I H / 2 1
Their relationship did not work: in 1900 Pamela complained hat he was "incapable of affection." Churchill responded: "Perish the thought. I love one above all others.
And I shall be constant. I am no fickle gallant capriciously
following the fancy of the hour. My love is deep and
strong....Who is this that I love. Listen—as the French
say—over the page I will tell you." Over the page he
wrote: "Yours vy sincerely, Winston S. Churchill."
U
ltimately, of course, as Sir Martin continued, his
wife Clementine was the "rock for his career."
Their relationship had an odd start: when they
first met he was too shy to speak to her. A few weeks after
this meeting, the young Assistant Secretary for the
Colonies was present at a colonial states meeting in London, where a rumour emerged of his engagement with
Helen Botha, daughter of the South African general. The
Manchester Guardian presented its compliments, and former love Muriel Wilson spoke of her hope for "little
Bothas." But there was no engagement.
Shortly after, Winston was sat next to Clementine at a
party, but spent his time talking to the girl on the other
side of him. At the end of the dinner he noticed her, and
asked if she would read a copy of his new book. She said
she would, if he would send it round. He forgot!
Despite these false starts, fate intervened and their relationship blossomed. Clementine would witness at first
hand the great strains of Winston's political life, and was
always the greatest support to him. He feared that he was
a "dull companion" and said, "I wish I were more varied."
But politics was his life, and he knew that one has to be
"true to oneself."
In time Churchill was to become a loving husband
and then a father, cautioning Clementine, "...do not let
[the children] suck the paint off" their new toys. Despite
his affection for his family, he frequently caused Clementine pain and anxiety. He loved flying, but three of his instructors were killed, one in a machine that Winston himself had frequently used. Clementine begged him to desist, which eventually he did ("this is a wrench"), admitting to her that he was sorry to have enjoyed himself "at
your expense."
After his resignation over the Dardanelles campaign
in 1915, a period in which Clementine thought "he
would die of grief," Churchill went to the trenches in
France, writing Clementine a letter to be opened in the
event of his death. It is a revealing document. She was to
be his sole literary executor; she was to get hold of his papers relating to the Dardanelles, and to ensure that "the
truth be known." Randolph, he wrote, would carry on his
work. Touchingly he told her: "do not grieve...death is
only an incident...I have been happy." Clementine had
taught him to know "how noble a woman's heart to be."
As we know, Churchill survived six months on the
Western Front, after which he needed to rebuild his ca:
Family. Upper left: Clementine
Hozier at the time of her engagement to Churchill, 1908. Above:
Clementine with their daughter
Diana, 1910. Left: WSC with
Randolph at the seaside, 1912.
Official Biography photographs.
reer. Crucial to Churchill over the next twenty years were
a number of secretaries whom he worked hard but genuinely cared for. A key secretary during the wilderness
years was Mrs. Violet Pearson; Churchill provided for her
and paid for her daughter's education after her retirement.
There was Katherine Hill, who was the first to be resident
at Chartwell and who served throughout the Second
World War. There were Miss Holmes and Miss Layton
(now honorary member Elizabeth Nel), who, as Sir Martin said, "saw him in all moods and lights." In addition to
political work, they were vital in Churchill's massive outpouring of books.
He wrote Clementine a ceaseless stream of letters.
Even in his eighties, he would still write to her, albeit at
this point with great difficulty. On her seventy-eighth
birthday in 1963 he wrote her a birthday letter in his own
hand, as he had every year for fifty-five years: "I am a
pretty dull and paltry scribbler but my stick as I write carries my heart along with it."
Sir Martin concluded with a reference to some of the
most important women in Churchill's life, his children.
Diana, Sarah and Mary offered him support when he was
"up" and comfort and encouragement when he was depressed, especially towards the end of his life, when blows
and disappointments came his way and the first critical
books began to be published. In the presence of his
daughter Mary, Sir Martin quoted her own words to her
father, which sum up better than any others what
Churchill did for the world: "In addition to all the feelings a daughter has for a loving, generous father, I owe
you what every Englishman, woman & child does—Liberty itself."
»
I N H S T H O U R 114/22
BLETCHLEY PARK: WHAT'S NEW IN 7 02
A tribute to tne perseverance and dedication or Rita and Jack Darran
DOUGLAS HALL
Taken with friends at
Chartwell, this is Jack's
favourite photo of Rita,
whom we all mourn deeply
(FH113:8-9). Jack tells us
that when he first took an
interest in collecting
Churchilliana, Rita enthusiastically immersed herself
in the distaff side of the
family, on which she
quickly gained expertise.
Together they created the
brilliant display that welcomes visitors to Bletchley,
recounting the saga in the
artifacts of the Churchill
years. Herewith FH Features Editor Douglas Hall
recounts the move of Jack's
collection to larger quarters
on the premises.
I
n "History Lives at Ditchley and Bletchley" {FH 85)
we outlined the Second World War role of the top secret code-breaking establishment at Bletchley Park,
Buckinghamshire, and its inestimable value to Winston
Churchill in securing victory. "Bletchley Park Blooms
with Churchilliana" {FH 91) described the superb Darrah-Harwood collection of Winston Churchill memorabilia which had been installed in two rooms of the Bletchley Park Mansion in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day.
In the years since, thousands of visitors have stopped
at Bletchley (it is now open every weekend and by special
arrangement during the week) to view the ever-growing
assemblage of exhibitions, displays and reenactments illustrating the rich and diverse history of the site and its
involvement in military intelligence, electronics and computing, cryptography and code-breaking, telecommunications, radar and air traffic control. The vast majority of
those visitors have been enthralled by Jack and Rita Darrah's magnificent exhibition of Churchill memorabilia,
and the sad recent loss of Rita {FH 113:8) reminds us that
an update is in order.
The various attractions at Bletchley Park are largely
run by an enthusiastic band of volunteers, but to secure
the long-term future and continued development of all
the historic exhibitions the Bletchley Park Trust is aiming
to achieve fully funded charitable status and to create a
permanent living memorial to all those fine achievements.
The Mansion will generate a significant income when
converted to a Conference Centre and so, to make way,
Jack and Rita moved their Churchilliana exhibition into a
large refurbished room in "A" Block— an operation involving, according to Jack, much "blood, toil, tears and
sweat." The bonus is that there is now more space in
which to display the collection to even greater effect.
"A" Block was the first "permanent" building to be
erected at Station "X"—the earlier wartime overflow from
the Mansion had been accommodated in a collection of
wooden army huts—and was heavily constructed in 1941
of concrete reinforced with more than 200 bracing steel
girders. The fear of a gas attack by the Luftwaffe was still
very real at the time and the building was provided with
hermetically sealing doors, a much reduced window area
and heavy, airtight window blinds. The original use of the
room now occupied by the Churchilliana exhibit was to
house large wall charts of the Atlantic, on which the positions and movements of German U-boats were plotted as
the intercepted signals traffic was decrypted and analyzed.
After the end of the war "A" Block was taken over by the
Civil Aviation Authority for use as its training school,
which kept it in an excellent state of repair until the CAA
vacated the site in 1991.
continued
overleaf.
FINEST HOUR 114/23
From fencing at Harrow to the Admiralty in WW1, painting and horse racing to "Winsome Hats," Jack's glass cases tell the whole story.
Winston Churchill himself visited the code-breaking operation at Bletchley Park on 6 September 1941.
Sixty years later, on 23 September 2001, an impressive
turnout of younger Churchills descended upon the Park
to open the relocated Churchilliana exhibition. Three
great-grandchildren of Sir Winston and progeny of his
grandson Winston were in attendance: Randolph, Marina
and Jack, with Randolph's two small daughters, attracting
much attention centre stage, as great-great-granddaughters of Sir Winston and the fifth generation.
Randolph revealed that he was born on 22 January
1965, just two days before Sir Winston died, and that his
grandfather (also called Randolph, in the family tradition
of using Winston and Randolph alternately) wrote to
Clementine telling her the news: "In the midst of death
we are in life." Jack Darrah had asked Randolph to provide a photograph of himself, preferably in his naval uniform, to be added to the burgeoning gallery of distinguished visitors to the exhibition; but Randolph explained
that his naval career had been short, modest and sufficiently long ago that his uniform no longer fitted him! Instead he presented Jack with a 120-year-old photograph of
his great-grandfather, aged seven, in a sailor's suit.
Presiding over the re-opening ceremony was Sir
Christopher Chataway, Chairman of the Bletchley Park
Trust, best remembered by many present as having represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games in 1952 and
1956 and for holding the world 5,000 metres record in
1954. A Member of Parliament from 1958 to 1974, Sir
Christopher recalled that his "finest hour" had probably
occurred in 1955 when he was a very young and callow
MP and Sir Winston came and sat next to him on a
House of Commons smoking room sofa: "I had to keep
pinching myself," he said, "to make sure I wasn't dreaming
and it really was my great hero, the Sir Winston Churchill,
sitting beside me."
Christian and Danielle Pol-Roger donated a case of
Winston Churchill cuvee Champagne to ensure that the
toasts were drunk in an appropriate fashion and, at the
last minute, decided to come over from France themselves
to see the exhibition. Christine Large, chief executive officer of the Bletchley Park Trust, welcomed the visitors—
well over 100 invited guests were substantially augmented
by members of the public. ICS UK was represented by
former chairman and trustee David Boler and by membership secretary Eric Bingham.
PINHST HOUR m / 2 4
WW2 gets heavy coverage, with fascinating souvenirs and chinaware, and a bit of Hitleriana to remind us of who the enemy was.
SUNDAY JUNE Z8II
FOR SEVEN a.
A fascinating moment occurred during the showing
of a short film of Winston Churchill's wartime exploits.
Little Zoe Churchill, seated on her mother's lap, viewed
the jerky, grainy, black and white pictures and asked in a
stage whisper, "Mummy, which one of those men is my
great-great-grandfather?" "Shush," Catherine replied, "he's
the one in the white suit." I wonder what thoughts those
evocative images had conjured up in that little girl's mind?
Churchill's
Geese
In commemoration of
the opening of
the new
Churchill Room,
Bletchley Park
Post Office has created its own little piece of art and history in the form of a postal cover. A key feature is the
specially commissioned portrait of Churchill by local
artist Danny Rogers. A set of 1974 Churchill Centenary
stamps has been added to each cover and cancelled on
the day with Bletchley Park Post Office's unique date
stamp. Only 1000 of these hand finished covers were issued.
This new Churchill portrait is on a background
representing the Atlantic Ocean and the Stars and Stripes
of the United States. The latter symbolizes Churchill's
American heritage and the strong bonds that exist between the USA and the UK. The shadowy "geese" at his
shoulder are looking westward towards their vital task.
The "golden egg" is their achievement in cracking the
"unbreakable" U-boat Enigma code. On 28 September
the Enigma film based on Bletchley Park's race to crack
the code and save a vital convoy from destruction was released.
The cover is available, inclusive of post, direct from
Bletchley Park Post Office at £9.95 ($15 US) or £17.95
($30 US) for a specially mounted version that includes
copies of the artist's working sketches. Contact the Post
Office for more information through their website
(www.bletchleycovers.com) or at The Mansion, Bletchley
Park Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB, United Kingdom. The
proceeds from sales of the cover will now be donated to
New York disaster fund charities on behalf of Bletchley
Park Trust and its volunteers.
$
FINEST HOUR
iw/25
FROM THE CANON (2)
A SILENT TOAST TO
WILLIAM WILLETT
On a morning ride through Petts
Wood, Willett was struck hy the tact
that the minds or houses were closed
even though the sun was rully risen.
"Why," he thought, "doesn't
everyone get up an hour earlier?
WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
I
t is one of the paradoxes of history that we should
owe the boon of summer time, which gives every
year to the people of this country between 160 and
170 hours more daylight leisure, to a war which plunged
Europe into darkness for four years, and shook the foundations of civilization throughout the world.
I was one of the earliest supporters of Daylight
Saving. I gave it my voice and my vote in Parliament at
a time when powerful interests and bitter and tenacious
prejudices were leagued against it, and while the mass of
the population was either indifferent or scornful.
The movement to secure this great public reform
was launched by Mr. William Willett (1865-1915). He
lived at Chislehurst, and the idea of saving daylight
occurred to him in his early morning rides on St. Paul's
Cray Common and in the adjoining Petts Wood, which
is now the Willett Memorial Park.
He adopted this cause as, in an earlier generation,
Samuel Plimsoll devoted himself to a crusade for the saving of life at sea, and, like Plimsoll, won an enduring
name. His tireless exertions, vision, enthusiasm and driving power kept the movement alive in the face of every
discouragement. But had it not been for the European
War it would never have attained success. In the crush of
that war people were forced to give up old prejudices
and shut off the sluggish inertia of their minds. So,
Obscure among the "potboilers" from his Chartwell "factory" during
the Wilderness Years, Churchill's salute to the creator of Summer
Time was published in the Pictorial Weekly for 28 April 1934 (Woods
A232/1) and in the 1975 Collected Essays (ICS A145). Reprinted by
kind permission of the copyright holder, Winston S. Chutchill.
O -c
LJ- CJ>
if
when in 1925 the emergency daylight saving of wartime
was made permanent by Act of Parliament, there was
virtually no opposition.
By then, of course, the country was able to appreciate, from experience, the benefits of summer time.
These are indeed widespread; rich and poor, young and
old, country and town dwellers, all alike enjoy the extra
hours of daylight.
The greatest beneficiaries, however, have been the
working classes, and particularly those who live in the
towns. Agriculturists, in spite of their bad life, very often
poor wages, and an absence of interests and variety, have
the one great consolation that they are in close touch
with Nature from day to day and year to year.
Such is not the fortune of the urban population.
They live in artificial conditions, and summer time,
which gives them an opportunity to correct the disadvantages of these conditions, is therefore of immeasurably greater value to them. To the swarms of workers in
mines and mills, factories and shops, these 160 hours
more daylight leisure in which to make use of parks and
gardens, and to indulge in some healthy and restful form
of recreation, mean much more than most of us realize.
It is not only the increase in the hours of daylight
leisure which is a benefit; it is the increase of the block
of leisure which has been secured by working classes.
With two hours a man might do something to get into
the country, or to the playing-fields, but that left practically no time for exercise or amusement. But with three
or three and a half hours much more can be done.
Then there is fine work, which imposes a strain on
the eyesight of those engaged in it. In so far as this is
done in daylight, there is probably a saving of the eyesight of the workers. There is also the clear and obvious
advantage in economizing the use of artificial light.
These advantages seem so clear and obvious today,
that it is difficult to realize and recapture the mood in
FINEST HOUR
114/26
which the idea of summer time was received when, early
already adopted this early-rising system, in spite of the
in the 20th century, Mr. William Willett wrote his pamenormous inconvenience which attends all alterations
phlet, The Waste of Daylight, and Mr. Robert Pearce
from the regular habits of the community as a whole,
introduced it into the House of Commons a Bill to give
before the first Summer Time Act, was very good evieffect to his proposals.
dence of the real, natural pressure behind the measure.
It is instructive to recall some of the arguments
Another objection was that our change of clock
which were advanced against the measure. It was
time would come into contact with unchanged times in
opposed, by one section of the community which found
other countries, and that there would thus be friction
spokesmen in Parliament, on moral grounds. The House
and discordance. Difficulties regarding the Continental
of Commons was told that it was in danger of adopting
mails and the Stock Exchange were exaggerated out of
hypocritical time—of departing from truth in matters of
all proportion to their real seriousness, and much was
time; and the hope was expressed that we should not
made of the inconvenience which would result to those
begin lying about this subject.
who, in Liverpool, gambled in cotton, or in London
dealt in the American market.
As I pointed out in a speech on the second reading
All these matters, however, were capable of adjustof the Daylight Saving Bill of 1909, the evil was done
ment. Another point raised was the question of harvestalready. In this matter the country had begun lying a
time. But harvest hours are always irregular hours, and
long time before. When local times which varied in difagricultural hours generally tend to correspond with the
ferent parts of the country were assimilated, a great
natural hours of sunlight.
departure from truth was undoubtedly made.
Perhaps the most extraordinary criticism of all conThis moral argument was, indeed, absurd,
cerned restaurants. It was urged in opposition to the
although I believe that its echoes still linger in some
1909 Bill that wealthy people liked to dine late, and that
remote districts, where rustic "last-ditchers" refuse to
ladies
preferred artificial light.
alter their clocks and watches throughout the summer. It
Another argument, from a very different angle, but
is not very easy to discover ultimate sanctions for any
which also reads strangely today, was that while daylight
human or temporal arrangements. Our arrangement of
saving would be a great boon to the working classes, that
time is conventional, and was probably fixed according
boon might be taken away by an increase of overtime.
to what was considered to be the general convenience.
This gloomy prophecy has not been realized.
There can, indeed, be no natural disharmony in
Indeed,
it should have been obvious from the first that
trying to make the waking hours correspond as closely as
overtime
is regulated, not by daylight, but by the
possible with the hours of daylight and the hours of
strength
of
the worker and the strength of the workers'
sleep with the hours of darkness. In countries farther
organizations.
north than ours the hours of daylight are so long that
Reading the debates which took place in
there may be no necessity for altering the clock. In counParliament on daylight saving in 1908, 1909, and 1911,
tries farther south there is so little difference between the
one marvels that so feeble a case should have been suswinter and the summer hours that no such step may be
tained so long, and that a measure whose
called for. Even so, summer time has been
effect has been to enlarge the opportunities
adopted extensively in other lands.
for the pursuit of health and happiness
But in these latitudes there is an
among the millions of people who live in
immense variation between the extreme seathis country should have met with so frigid
sons of the year, and, in spite of that
a
reception. Let us, then, as we put forward
immense variation, there was, until the
our
clocks for another summer, drink a
passing of the first Summer Time Act in
silent
toast to the memory of William
1916, practically no change in the hours of
Willett,
who spared neither labour nor
work and leisure. Looking at it from this
money
over
a long period of his life in his
point of view alone, there can be no quesadvocacy
of
this
great reform. He did not
tion that general advantage results from
live
to
see
success
crown his unselfish
making the hours of work and leisure correefforts; he died in 1915, a year before the
spond more closely to the seasons of the
passing of the wartime Act. But he has the
year.
monument he would have wished in the
It is quite impossible for an individual
thousands of playing-fields crowded with
to make alterations in the hours at which he
eager young people every fine evening
discharges particular duties, while everyone
throughout the summer and one of the
else remains unchanged, without subjecting
finest epitaphs that any man could win:
himself to a great deal of inconvenience, The wi|lett Memorial> near London Loop
He gave more light to his countrymen. $
and the fact that a number of firms had
y/^ an<j petts wood Station, Bromley.
FINEST HOUR
n4/27
WINSTON CHURCHILL A LEADERSHIP
MODEL foR THE 2 1 S T CENTURY
The Queen Mary Fellows Program, November 2nd & 3rd, 2001
JOHN G. PLUMPTON
H
ow can a man born into the 19th century
British aristocracy, most famous for his achievements in the middle of the 20th century, be relevant to students in the 21st century? That was our challenge to the Queen Mary Fellows and other college students at our seminar aboard The Queen Mary (formerly
RMS Queen Mary) in Long Beach, California on November 2nd through 4th, 2001.
Fortunately many of the lessons from the life and
achievements of Sir Winston Churchill are timeless, as revealed by Professor James Muller, chairman of The
Churchill Center Academic Advisers, and his corps of
teachers: Sir Martin Gilbert, Steven Hayward, Vice Admiral James Stockdale (Ret.), Max Arthur, and Larry Kryske.
On Friday evening, November 4th, Jim Muller addressed the Fellows on "The Education of Winston
Churchill," while Steven Hayward spoke on "Churchill
on Leadership," the title of his well-received book.
On Saturday, the Queen Mary Fellows had two
ninety-minute discussion sessions on Churchill's autobiography, My Early Life. During the first session, moderated by Professor Muller, they focused on Churchill's account of his schooling and his self-education in India,
asking what guidance it might give today's students in
preparing for careers in public service, politics or war.
Many Fellows were struck by Churchill's embrace
of the British Empire, and his enthusiasm for war. Some
defended and others attacked the idea that Western Civilization should be preferred to native rule.
The second session, moderated by Sir Martin
Gilbert, applied this question to Churchill's experience in
Queen Victoria's little wars. The Fellows observed that
Churchill deepened his appreciation of war in the last
five years of the 19th century, and they also considered
his account of late Victorian politics to see how it differs
from political life today.
Most of the talking was done by the students, but
Sir Martin Gilbert made some tantalizing observations
about how Churchill composed his autobiography. The
Fellows program concluded with a moving address by
Admiral James Stockdale on the meaning of courage,
Mr. Plumpton is President ofThe Churchill Center.
Above: Scholars and sponsor representatives. Front row, 1-r: Prof. James
Muller, Larry Kryske, Dr. Steven Hayward. Back row, 1-r: Admiral
Mike Ratliff, Jeff Cain, Admiral James Stockdale, John Plumpton,
Max Arthur, Sir Martin Gilbert. Below: Sir Martin leads a discussion.
based on his own experience as a prisoner of war in
Hanoi for over seven years.
The Fellows had been sent My Early Life prior to
the seminar, and they had read it with care. The moderators had only to launch the discussion with a question or
two and then conversation flowed among the Fellows. It
was an exciting program, observed by an audience of several dozen Churchill Center members.
On Saturday, the Fellows and Churchill Center
members joined a group of almost 100 other students
and professors for a series of speakers on the seminar
theme. Steve Hayward opened with a repeat of his Fellows lecture on Churchill and Leadership, challenging his
listeners with this question: is Churchill a relic of a bygone era, or a mere curiosity? He gave several examples of
the renewal of interest in Churchill and pointed out that
the battle between civilization and barbarism is not new,
and that the values we defend are timeless.
Sir Martin Gilbert followed with an outline of several historical cases in which Churchill showed his leadership talents. Sir Martin told the students of a letter writ-
F : I N I - S T H O U R 114/28
ten to Churchill when he was in his twenties, in which
the writer predicted the Churchill would become prime
minister some day because he combined "genius and
plod." The genius was obvious; the plod was his willingness to work hard.
Many years later, Randolph Churchill complained
to his father that his obligations to produce articles for a
newspaper were interfering with his enjoyment of life.
Winston replied, paraphrasing the poet Clough: "The
heights achieved by the men of Kent were not achieved
by sudden flight; for they, while their companions slept,
were toiling upwards in the night." The phrase became
part of Randolph's lexicon, and he recited it frequently—
in later years he would recite it as a pep talk to the
"Young Gentlemen," including Martin Gilbert, whom
Randolph hired as researchers on the official biography.
After lunch Larry Kryske gave his unique presentation, which uses painting to show how an understanding
of Churchill can lead one to develop his or her own potential to the fullest. Mr. Kryske makes this presentation
to student and corporate leaders throughout the nation.
It is illustrated in his book, The Churchill Factors, which
is available to members through our CC Book Club.
The program was developed and hosted by The
Churchill Center with generous support from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. The Center's contribution
was donated by Duvall Hecht of Books on Tape; Ambassador Paul H. Robinson, Jr. of Robinson Inc.; and
Richard Langworth ofChurchillbooks.com.
Representing The Churchill Center at this conference were this writer and Professor James Muller. Representing the Intercollegiate Studies Institute were Rear
Admiral Mike Ratliff (Ret.), Vice-President of Programs;
and Jeff Cain, Director of Membership. Ruth Plumpton,
Raili Garth and David Garth handled registration and
managed the day's activities.
$S
COVER STORY
As recounted by journalist
Max Arthur at the Queen
Mary seminar, the great
liner played a central role in
the life of Churchill, who
made the following eight
journeys aboard RMS
Queen Mary.
Martin Driscoll's New Painting for the
Churchill Suite, Hotel Queen Mary
You can own a fine canvas reproduction;
reserve your copy without obligation now.
R
eaders who have visited the Churchill Suite on the
Queen Mary are familiar with the quite dreadful
painting that had decorated one of its bulkheads
lo these many years. Observing that this representation
fell far short of a fitting memorial to Sir Winston, John
Plumpton had a chat with Martin Driscoll, whose art
studio is aboard the ship. The upshot was the commissioning of the new Churchill oil shown with Mr. Driscoll
at right, and reproduced on our cover.
The Churchill Center, which retains the copyright,
will shortly produce a high quality, oil-on-canvas reproduction of this fine painting, which will be available to
members only in a limited edition of only 100, signed
and numbered by the artist before the final coat of varnish preservent is applied. Thanks to Churchill Center
Associate Jeanette Gabriel for help in the arrangements.
Paintings will be on canvas with a foam core backing in the same approximate size as the original, 14x16
inches—a standard size allowing the owner to supply a
ready-made or custom frame as preferred individually.
* We haven't yet finalized it but the price will
be modest—in the region of $175-195
postpaid. If you wish to have first refusal
on one of these fine reproductions, which will quickly
sell out, contact the editor ([email protected])
telephone toll free (888) 454-2275.
•5-11 May 1943: Gourock,
Scotland to New York for
Third Washington Conference.
• 5-9 August 1943: Scotland
to Halifax, Nova Scotia for
First Quebec Conference.
• 5-10 September 1944: Scotland to Halifax for Second
Quebec Conference.
• 20-25 September 1944: New York to Scotland.
• 21-26 March 1946: New York to Southampton after
the "Iron Curtain" and other speeches in America.
• 31 December 1951 — 5 January 1952: Southampton to
New York to meet President Truman.
• 23-28 January 1952: New York to Southampton after
the meetings.
• 31 December 1952 - 5 January 1953: Southampton to
New York to meet President-elect Eisenhower and President Truman.
$9
ifoOKS,
& CURIOSITIES
Alto-Staccato
Rickard M. Lanswo rtk
The Great
Courses:
Churchill, by
Prof.
J. Rufus
Churchill
Fears. Audio
PmfraorJ Rufm F a n
and videotapes with
guidebooks.
The Teaching
Company,
4151 Lafayette Center Drive,
T H E TFJW;HING COMPANY
Suite 100,
Chantilly VA 20151-1231, telephone
(800) 832-2412. Three videocasettes
$149.95; six audiocassettes $89.95.
w Great Courses
O
ne is always grateful to members
of the academy for paying positive attention to Churchill, but I
couldn't get through these tapes. Prof.
Fears is a kind of right-wing Cornell
West, pontifical, self-satisfied, and convinced that he is right. Churchill never
puts a foot wrong and is described as
almost God-like. This is exactly the
type of worshipper who sets Churchill
up for ambushers like Christopher
Hitchens (see pages 14-15).
We begin with Churchill in 1940
at "the House of Parliament," changing
his country's mind about fighting Germany. Fears says that the French and
Belgians had surrendered, "not because
the soldiers wouldn't fight but because
of a collapse at the top." (Wasn't it
both?) If Churchill had taken a poll in
May 1940, he would have found that
80% of Britons thought Britain should
negotiate with Hitler. (Where is the evidence of that?)
A shining moment is Fears's comparison of Churchill with Pericles and
Lincoln, who together, he says, comprise history's "three outstanding statesmen." A statesman has "bedrock principles, a moral compass, and a supreme
vision"; a politician has none of the
above. Unfortunately this is accompanied by veiled references to Bill Clinton, which date the performance.
All this is by way of introduction
to the first lecture, which is all about
John Duke of "Marlburrow" and the
Spencer-Churchills—which I fast-forwarded when I started to learn how Sir
Winston was related to Princess Di.
There is none of the interpretation one
is entitled to expect—e.g., about how
the writing of Marlborough influenced
Churchill's World War II actions and
speeches, or the salient lessons that
book offers for our time.
Lecture #2 is about Lord Randolph and Jeanette Jerome ("Jenette").
Fears, who has read all the chatter, believes Jenny "slept with 200 men." She
is at Blenheim, seven months pregnant,
when her labor begins: "They married
in April" (wink-wink, nudge-nudge).
She doesn't make it to her bedroom because "the library at Blenheim is the
longest room in England" (longer than
the "House of Parliament"?).
Lord Randolph is "a powerful
man with a huge drooping moustache," which put me more in mind of
Jack London's Wolf Larson than the
slight, stooped Randolph. I quit the
first tape when Lord Randolph's "Tory
Democracy" was described as a veritable Victorian New Deal, complete with
"social security, unemployment insurance, health care, and pension plans."
If only Franklin Roosevelt had studied
Tory Democracy, he wouldn't have had
to hire all those whiz kids in 1932.
I skipped ahead to the two World
Wars where, hiking up his trousers,
NEST HOUR 114/30
Prof. Fears launches into a kind of altostaccato. He correctly notes that Kitchener, who at first approved and later refused the Army's help at the Dardanelles, "set up Churchill at the cost of
213,000 lives"; that Lloyd George was
partly responsible for Churchill's 1915
overthrow; that Fisher first promoted
the Dardanelles attack and then resigned over it; that there was nothing
wrong with Churchill defending himself in a book (today politicians do that
all the time); and that Churchill was
disliked in part because "genius invokes
distrust," and because he was too impetuous and lacked political antennae.
But Fears spoils it with a string of
errors: Jenny died in 1922; Churchill
served in the "calvary"; he drank
"strong, robust scotches" (actually he
drank scotch-flavored water); he built
the Chartwell lakes "with his own
hands"; and he wrote eleven books and
400 articles (it was over forty and 1000
respectively).
In the 1930s, Fears goes on,
Hitler refused to meet Churchill because WSC was politically finished.
The "whole Nazi regime would have
collapsed" had the Allies opposed its
occupation of the Rhineland. Halifax,
Baldwin and Chamberlain were not
decent men; they were politicians in
the most odious sense, interested only
in power. A map showing the 1939 assault on Poland indicates it all went to
Germany (actually Russia got a big
piece) and shows a "front" where none
existed. Robert Rhodes James's book (A
Study in Failure) is dismissed as insufficiently admiring; it tries to explain why
WSC was "ultimately a failure." (The
book only goes to 1939.)
My problem is that I'm too close
to the subject, too critical and too cynical. The world is full of slapdash portraits of Churchill, from the sloppy critiques of left-wing revisionists to the
hagiography of the right. Others may
see qualities in this production that I
fail to see. But so help me, any one of
the last twenty speakers at Churchill
Center events could have done a better
job. If the publishers of such material
would call upon experts to vet the stuff
before publication, it wouldn't start off
life flawed.
$
become still more of a battleground."
Magnum opwwtfh The
computerized catalogue of the papers has been completed and the entire
microfilmed and digitalized archive
gems de haut en has will
eventually become available to
John G. Plumpton
Churchill: A Biography, by Roy
Jenkins. New
York: Farrar
Straus &
Giroux, 1002
pages, illus. in
b&w and color,
regular price
$40, member
price $27.
"' I ^here are times," wrote the great
_L Cambridge scholar, Sir Geoffrey Elton, "when I incline to judge all
historians by their opinion of Winston
Churchill—whether they can see that
no matter how much better the details,
often damaging, of man and career become known, he still remains, quite
simply, a great man."
Sir Geoffrey would have likely
judged the new Churchill biography by
Roy Jenkins favourably. The octogenarian Jenkins, a biographer of Attlee,
Asquith, Baldwin and Gladstone,
among others, and a political colleague
of Labour leaders since World War II,
concludes with a startling admission:
"When I started writing this book I
thought that Gladstone was, by a narrow margin, the greater man...I now
put Churchill, with all his idiosyncrasies, his indulgences, his occasional
childishness, but also his genius, his
tenacity and his persistent ability, right
or wrong, successful or unsuccessful, to
be larger than life, as the greatest
human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street."
As good as this biography is,
Jenkins's is not the final, definitive
view. In his Churchill: A Brief Life,
Piers Brendon, a former Keeper of the
Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, England, predicted that
"Churchill's place in history is about to
Mr. Plumpton is a FHsenior editor.
scholars throughout the world. Since
only ten percent of the papers are now
in print, the result of this digital revolution will be, according to Brendon,
"an explosion in Churchill studies."
The torrent of Churchill books
continues even while we await this explosion, and students of Churchill's life
should approach each new book asking
what new facts or insights can be
gleaned from yet another addition to
the towering pile. The answer to readers of Jenkins is: not many new facts,
but a great deal of new insights.
Jenkins does not appear to have
delved into the archives himself. He relies on the classics, particularly
Churchill's autobiographical works,
Hansard, and the primary research of
Sir Martin Gilbert. Mary Soames's
Speaking for Themselves has become an
invaluable resource to biographers.
Jenkins uses the full diary of Lord
Alanbrooke and he has profited from
the splendid study by Geoffrey Best.
He has a thorough knowledge and
makes judicious use of the prolific
diary material. Unfortunately, we have
only one reference to the diary of his
father, Arthur Jenkins, a parliamentary
private secretary to Clement Attlee
during the war and a junior minister in
the 1945 Churchill coalition government. I suspect that there are many
more diary comments by the senior
Jenkins that would greatly interest us.
The most important thing Jenkins brings to this book is Roy Jenkins
himself. There are many parallels between the lives of Jenkins and
Churchill: writer, politician, cabinet
minister, longevity of production.
Jenkins is one of the few remaining
students of Churchill's life who observed him in the House of Commons.
A Member of Parliament for the last
sixteen years of Churchill's career, he
recalls that "It was like looking at a
giant mountain landscape, which could
occasionally be illuminated by an unforgettable light but could also descend
into lowering cloud, from the terrace
of a modest hotel a safe distance away."
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Jenkins's most useful insights relate to Churchill's political career.
Throughout the entire account we are
reminded that Churchill was first and
foremost a politician: "Throughout his
long marriage [Clementine] was to experience no more than the most mild
and infrequent gusts of feminine rivalry. But she was nonetheless up
against a most formidable competition
for his attention, and that was his attachment to what was always to him
the great game of politics."
One strong feminine presence was
Churchill's lifelong friend, Violet Bonham Carter (nee Asquith). Lady
Soames, the former Mary Churchill,
encouraged Jenkins to write by saying,
"I would much like another Liberal
study of my father." Although Jenkins
seems to have taken up the task with
alacrity, he was also aware of the challenge. He calls Bonham Carter's Winston Churchill as I Knew Him "one of
the best and most perceptive of the
many Churchill books."
Bonham Carter's book ended in
1916 so Jenkins's could be considered
something of a sequel. His handling of
Churchill's Liberal years and continuing Liberal connections is deft and balanced. He writes that Churchill freely
accepted "a role as [Lloyd George's]
number two in a partnership of constructive liberalism, two social reforming New Liberals who had turned their
backs on the old Gladstonian tradition
of concentrating on libertarian political
issues and leaving social conditions to
look after themselves."
Having faced the same life and
death decisions as Churchill in the office of the Home Secretary, Jenkins was
particularly impressed by the attendance of Home Secretary Churchill at
John Galsworthy's proselytizing play
"Justice," with its "indictment of the
dead hand of penal policy." Most >»
Churchillhy Jenkins...
noteworthy to Jenkins is that Churchill
took the chairman of the Prison Commissioners with him in order to influence the development of a more liberal
and humane penal policy.
As much as Churchill sympathized with the deserving poor, Jenkins
reminds us that he did not get too
close: "Churchill's approach, although
liberal, was high patrician—he did not
pretend to understand from the inside,
merely to sympathize from on high."
Nor did WSC forget his aristocratic
origins: "He was pleased but not dazzled by becoming a senior minister at
the age of 33. He thought it, if not exactly his birthright, at least a proper reward for his individual talents building
upon an hereditary propensity to rule."
Churchill's comment to King
George V that there are "idlers and
wastrels at both ends of the social ladder" not only reflected a complex relationship with the Royal Family; it also
said much about his views on Britain's
social structure. "[Although he] was an
instinctive and somewhat romantic
monarchist," writes Jenkins, "Churchill
was essentially a Whig in his attitude to
monarchs. He believed himself to be
fully their social equal."
As strong as he is on the early
years, Jenkins does not ignore the later,
better known years and issues. Instructively, he titles the chapter on the India
Bill "Unwisdom in the Wilderness."
He clearly thinks that Churchill was
wrong on India and that he should
have known better than to take on the
party leadership on that issue, because
it separated him from supporters like
Eden, Macmillan and Duff Cooper.
Jenkins analyzes Churchill's tactical errors with regard to the Committee of Privileges and subsequently to
the Commons after Sir Samuel Hoare
and Lord Derby were exonerated of exerting improper influence over India
on the Lancashire cotton manufacturers. What he does not do, and should
have, is to tell us that, notwithstanding
the tactical misjudgments, Churchill
was right: Hoare was, quite simply,
guilty of a gross abuse of office.
But the India issue was not
merely political tactics. India was a
matter of principle for Churchill, as il-
lustrated in a letter that Jenkins cites as
Churchill's "total rejection of the optimism, which was a feature of both
Gladstonian and Asquith Liberalism.
Thomas Hobbes has replaced John
Locke as the presiding philosopher."
The letter included this comment by
Churchill: "In my view England is now
beginning a new period of struggle and
fighting for its life, and the crux of it
will be not only the retention of India
but a much stronger assertion of commercial rights."
While considering the larger national issues Jenkins is never far from
the political, including Churchill's constituency problems at the time. He
points out a potential irony: had
Churchill won on the issue of Edward
VIII, "he might have found it necessary in 1940-41 to depose and/or lock
up his sovereign as the dangerously potential head of a Vichy-style state."
Due consideration is given to the
Churchill-Halifax dispute over negotiating with Hitler in May 1940, but
Jenkins is equivocal about "Professor
Lukacs's two most important assertions—Chamberlain sat on the fence,
and, Churchill, at least momentarily,
thought that he had to make some
kind of concession to Halifax. The balance of likelihood however seems to be
on Luckas's side on both statements."
Jenkins is particularly good on
Churchill's relationship with political
colleagues both foreign and domestic.
Churchill's appraisal of Eisenhower (as
President) was hostile; he had a
guarded ease with Roosevelt; for Truman he probably had the most respect
of the three Presidents. Among his
British colleagues, Nye Bevan never
commanded Churchill's admiration or
liking; with Amery he was instinctively
impatient; Ernest Bevin and Attlee
were treated with a wary respect; Eden
and Sinclair, being closest to him, received the most rebukes.
The fact that Beaverbrook and
Bracken had far too much influence,
often on issues they knew nothing
about, led to a famous letter of remonstrance (often ignored by other historians) from Clement Attlee on the conduct of the government. Only the sage
advice of others prevented a major rupture between the two party leaders.
HOUR
114/ 32
All of these people were treated
with less attention than was the House
of Commons. Churchill's self-description, "I am a child of the House of
Commons," continued throughout the
most trying days of the war. "What was
also noticeable," writes Jenkins, "was
the extent to which he applied himself
to some at least of the routine business
of leadership of the House. He did not
cocoon himself in the raiment of a remote war leader who could only make
epic pronouncements."
While Jenkins's similar experiences significantly enhance his account
of Churchill's political activities, there
are too frequent references to personal
and later non-Churchill events. It is
unlikely, for example, that the January
1945 correspondence between Attlee
and Churchill over the conduct of government benefits from our being told
that in the middle of it Attlee was attending Jenkins's wedding. Nor is it apposite to compare the military's reaction to a Churchill speech in 1914 to
the Conservative party response to a
Michael Portillo speech in 1995. The
comment that Churchill's weapons of
choice were knives and forks is useful,
but does it matter that Champagne
and oysters at Chartwell and the Savoy
Grill foreshadowed Harold Wilson's
beer and sandwiches approach at Ten
Downing Street? Since one reviewer
compared this book to Toscanini writing about Beethoven, perhaps this criticism (and other nit-picking) focuses
too much on individual notes and
misses the melody.
Like many other readers, I suspect, I had to make frequent referrals
to a dictionary in order to understand
the "fissiparous nature of the opposition" or how Jenkins varied "the fructiferous metaphor." He also has a fondness for Latin and French phrases,
which with Churchillian hauteur he assumes all his readers understand; but
that certainly does not prevent this biography from being a magnum opus
with wonderful gems de baut en has.
With one anecdote Lord Jenkins
puts these quibbles into perspective.
Churchill returned from America in
1943 to face domestic criticism. He
said that press criticism reminded him
of the "tale about the sailor who
Jenkins, continued...
jumped into a dock, I think it was at
Plymouth, to rescue a small boy from
drowning. About a week later this
sailor was accosted by a woman who
asked, "Are you the man who picked
my son out of the dock the other
night?" The sailor replied modestly,
"That is true, ma'am." "Ah," said the
woman, "you are the man I am looking
for. Where is his cap?"
The book has a couple of notable
features I particularly liked. There is a
glossary of parliamentary terms that
will be useful to many readers and, in
addition to the usual photographs, it
has a splendid collection of photographs of Churchill paintings.
Andrew Roberts, a master biographer himself, thinks that "it will be a
brave, if not to say foolhardy, author
who will attempt to write another life
of Churchill for at least a decade, perhaps longer." With the explosion forecast by Piers Brendon, I expect that we
are likely to witness many intrepid
souls eager to engage on the Churchill
battleground. (Aspiring biographers
take note: Churchill, The Liberal Years
still needs to be written.) Future biographies will be better because of Roy
Jenkins, who here stands on the shoulders of Sir Martin Gilbert, Violet Bonham Carter, Lady Soames and Sir Winston himself.
Because, as Elton said, Churchill
"remains quite simply, a great man"
and, in the words of Isaiah Berlin, "the
largest human being of our time,"
there will never be an end to assessments of his life. May they all be as
good as this one.
<i
the BBC program (to be seen in the
U.S. on PBS), so this is an assessment
of the book in its own right.
Leon J. Waszak
Whatever medium proves to be
more noteworthy in the long scheme
of things, Mr. Berthon (who is also the
producer of the BBC series) has found
Allies at War: The
the stuff of great drama to mold in this
Bitter Rivalry
Second World War setting, against the
among Churchill,
larger-than-life personalities of WinRoosevelt, and de
ston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and
*«Km.wsrat.««ij Gaulle, by Simon
Berthon. New York: Charles de Gaulle. His study reveals
not only their celebrated leadership
Carroll & Graf,
abilities in waging a successful coalition
354 pages, illus.,
war,
but their clashing interests and
published at $26,
egos,
with a hint of pettiness and mumember price $23.
tual distrust.
The title deliberately conjures up
became acquainted with Simon
the duality of the principal actors, who
Berthon's book at the Chartwell
are as much at war with one another as
Bookshop, while rolling through the
English countryside last summer with a they are with the Axis. As far as I can
tell, Berthon is the first to deal with
group of like-minded friends. The
this trilateral relationship. After much
British edition, which first caught my
of the initial curiosity over the
attention, appeared to be a companion
Churchill-Roosevelt relationship had
book to complement a BBC2 docubeen explored, followed in the early
mentary series of the same name. The
1980s by Francois Kersaudy's Churchill
recently published American edition,
and de Gaulle and Raoul Anglion's Rooby contrast, is currently being marsevelt and de Gaulle, this new work
keted as a stand-alone work. I am not
should either make the cycle complete
fully aware of the book's utility vis-a-vis
or give the proverbial dead horse a few
more lashes.
Dr. Waszak is Assistant Professor of History at
Glendale College and the author of Agreement
The author's claim, however sinin Principle: The Wartime Partnership of Gen- cere, that "never-before-seen" archival
eral Wladyslaw Sikorski and Winston Churchill. information is being utilized for the
Trilateral Indisposition
ALLIES
AT WAR
I
FlNHSTllOUR 114/33
Trilateral Indisposition...
book, is hard to confirm, given the lack
of footnotes. Berthon does, however,
provide the reader a somewhat vague
chapter-by-chapter summary of sources
in back pages of his book.
I draw from his bibliography that
he has consulted many of the standard
works that are familiar to readers of
this journal, who will note that
Berthon visited most of the relevant
archival repositories in the United
States and Great Britain. He plumbed
the Roosevelt Library, and collections
relating to Churchill's wartime government at the Public Record Office in
London, and various other manuscript
and diary collections. Only one French
archival source is cited, the private diaries found in the Leon Jon Teyssot Estate in Paris.
Yet despite what seems to be a
work based on primary documents, it
strikes me as a rehash of previously
raised points of discussion by Berthon's
predecessors in the field, together with
a generous supply of personal swipes,
or insults, as quoted in the book.
Churchill appears, as usual in this
particular triangle, the man in the middle, torn between the increasingly exasperating de Gaulle, whom he supports
with rhetoric, money and political capital as a symbol of French resistance,
and President Roosevelt, whose nation's
might and manpower are needed to
win the war. It might surprise some
readers to see FDR's image taking more
of a beating than those of the others.
De Gaulle, for all his ravings
against the treachery of the "AngloSaxons" and his acknowledged egoisms, appears the victim who justifiably
feared a secret Anglo-American deal to
drive him off center stage. The strange
U.S. relationship with the collaborationist Vichy government (which the
United States recognized officially as
legitimate, while snubbing the Free
French completely) was at the core of a
long list of "betrayals" that hardened
de Gaulle's personal resentment. De
Gaulle's long memory of these, argues
the author, would carry over into the
postwar era. Churchill's initial admiration for the French leader wore thin
too, but rather than blame de Gaulle
the Prime Minister's Cressida-like >>>
Trilateral Indisposition...
maneuverings are seen as equally damaging to the relationship.
One of the interesting twists to the
story—indeed an example of role reversal for Churchill and Roosevelt visa-vis de Gaulle—was over how the Free
French should be utilized in Operation
Dragoon, the invasion of southern
France. In this instance Roosevelt is
portrayed as more supportive than
Churchill in helping the Free French
take an active role: Churchill protested
that this would harm British strategy in
Italy by creating an unnecessary distraction. According to Berthon, FDR's
support was critical in "restoring
France as a military power, whereas, if
Churchill had his way, this would, at
the very least, have been delayed."
It seems that after D-Day, Roosevelt's sparring with de Gaulle ended,
or at least was mitigated somewhat, by
French leader's de facto legitimacy
amongst the French. Roosevelt, who
once ridiculed and despised him, now
had to recognize the French leader's
status. Churchill, by contrast, as the
war in Europe was ending, referred to
the once-admired de Gaulle as "one of
the greatest dangers to European
peace" in a letter to Roosevelt's successor, Harry Truman—this after the
French leader had to be forced out of a
zone of occupation in northern Italy
which he had refused to leave.
If Berthon's book is not quite the
in-depth study that we might expect, it
remains thoroughly entertaining and a
worthy introduction to the PBS documentary series. Certainly it is well written. Those unfamiliar with the subject
might appreciate the easy-to-read prose
as useful in negotiating the political
complexities that these key wartime
personalities embodied. If the television production is anything like the
book, it should have a successful run.
Admirers of Churchill might not
find Berthon's analysis to their liking,
but neither would partisans of FDR.
De Gaulle comes off looking better
only because his character flaws were
part of an overall mystique; and there
is not much more that the author
could add to change drastically our
perception of the French leader, one
way or the other. The net effect is nil.
It all comes at the expense of Churchill
and Roosevelt.
To those to whom it matters, there
are minor differences between the editions. The British edition has no index,
the American edition does. The hardcover binding on the U.S. version is
sewn with a cloth spine, the British
edition (also a hardcover) is glued or
pressed with cardboard covers and
spine. Although the British edition appears heftier in appearance than its
American counterpart, they are identical in size, page count, photos, and
typeface. The paper shade in the U.S.
edition is easier on the eyes and the
dust cover is nicer. Readers of Finest
Hour will therefore be pleased to know
that the U.S. edition is the one being
offered by the CC Book Club.
M>
Praise without Criticism
Richard M. Langworth
Eisenhower and
EISENHOWER Churchill: The
AND
Partnership
CHURCHILL That Saved the
World, by
James C.
Humes. New
York: Prima
Publishing,
2001. A Forum
Book, with a
foreword by
David Eisenhower. 268 pages, published at $25. Member price $19.
M
any books have been published
on Churchill and the military—
Fisher, Alanbrooke, de Gaulle, Montgomery, the Admirals, the Generals. It
is surprising that a book on Churchill
and World War II's supreme commander, flung together as they were by circumstance and geography, has been
long in coming. There was, of course,
Peter Boyle's The Churchill-Eisenhower
Correspondence (FH69:27 and 71:26);
but until now there has been no book
on the two individuals.
This is not a detailed analysis of
the byplay between two key leaders,
like Kersaudy's Churchill and de Gaulle
or Kimball's Forged in War on
Churchill and Roosevelt. Rather it is a
paean to both, juxtaposing their biographies up to 1942, then delving
into their relationship in the supreme
ordeal of World War II.
David Eisenhower's foreword establishes the rationale: "No two men
did more than Winston Churchill and
FINEST HOUR I I4 / 34
Dwight Eisenhower to combat the
twin evils of tyranny: fascism and communism.. .if Churchill was the voice of
freedom, Eisenhower provided the implementing tools." Fair enough, as far
as it goes, but the subtitle still seems
excessive. If there was any partnership
that "saved the world" it was that of
Churchill and Roosevelt, who made
the plenary decisions—Eisenhower in
WW2 may have formulated tactics,
but strategy was that of the Presidents
and Prime Ministers. Even then, what
they saved was the West—as Norman
Lash put it in his Churchill-Roosevelt
book, and as Churchill and Eisenhower
later sadly admitted. Ask the Romanians, the Poles or the Estonians about
saving the world.
By way of full disclosure, this
writer has been a friend of James
Humes for a quarter century; if I
pulled my punches, critics would claim
a buddy system. So I will not, knowing
that Mr. Humes will perfectly understand what I trust is constructive criticism. The book lacks, above all, that
very quality: criticism—not that such
works need always be critical. But
when two protagonists come down on
opposite ends of an issue, as Churchill
and Eisenhower often did between
1942 and 1956, one of them must be
right and the other wrong; so a book
about them really requires judgments.
The great issues that separated
Churchill and Eisenhower, at least
when equals (as world leaders in 195256) get little space here. The 1956 Suez
Crisis, shortly after Churchill left office, gets barely a paragraph. It deserves
a chapter, since it involved Churchill's
last act as a world statesman. Sir Winston's eloquent letter to Eisenhower,
imploring the President not to sacrifice
Anglo-American rapport over "Anthony's action in Egypt," was first revealed in Macmillan's memoirs in 1971
(see next page). Macmillan believed
that this, and Ike's reply, began the
process of rapprochement that he had to
complete when he became Prime Minister in 1957. This exchange deserves
to be pondered by any book about
Churchill and Eisenhower.
Likewise, many of Eisenhower's
earlier letters to Churchill as Prime
Minister are almost painful to read;
Humes should have offered an appreciation, from his vantage point as a Presidential speechwriter, of how much they
represented Ike's views, and how much
the Dulles State Department's. Eisenhower's considerate treatment of
Churchill on WSC's final extended
visit to America in 1959 should have
had more ink. There is almost nothing
about the cut and thrust of Churchill's
post-Stalin efforts to reach what he
called a "final settlement" with Russia,
Eisenhower's adamant refusal, and the
irony by which Eisenhower reversed
himself just as Churchill was despondently retiring. Nor is there anything
here on why Churchill privately preferred Eisenhower's opponent in 1952
and 1956—why he remarked after the
1952 American election, "I am greatly
disturbed. I think this makes war much
more probable." The history of all this
remains to be written.
Humes devotes considerable space
to the war and ably outlines the issues
over which Churchill and Eisenhower
agreed and argued during 1942-45.
The chief arguments were over the invasion of the south of France ("Dragoon"), Roosevelt's Teheran promise to
let the Red Army enter Berlin first, and
the sidelining of the Italian campaign
so as to devote maximum resources to
the Normandy invasion ("Overlord").
On each of these issues Ike was in
favor, Churchill against—though
Humes provides several statements suggesting that Eisenhower was as cleareyed about Soviet intentions as
Churchill. If that is so, the book needs
exonerating evidence to show how Ike's
preferred policies and strategies were
overruled by his superiors.
T
here are some eye-openers in this
book that you may not expect, including several excerpts from Ike's letters professing devotion to his absent
wife. "Lots of love—don't forget me,"
went one letter, when it has been fairly
well established that he (temporarily, to
his credit) forgot her. Another is Eisenhower's apposite and eloquent speech
at the ceremony Churchill arranged for
him at the Guildhall in June 1945.
Like Churchill, Humes notes, Eisenhower wrote that speech himself, and
The Times compared it to the Gettysburg Address, which certainly sounds
un-Timesian. The speech was a model
of humility and of Anglo-American
brotherhood, and one rarely reads such
words by Britons to Americans, except
by Winston Churchill.
There are a lot of real clangers.
Among these are the assertions that
Chartwell had been sold during the
war; that Churchill spurned the postwar honors of Norway, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands; that WSC
wanted the North African landings instead of Normandy; that one of the DDay beaches was called "Neptune";
that de Gaulle's military rival was
named Gen. "Gerow." Earlier chapters
claim that Lord Randolph Churchill
would not have entered politics had he
not been snubbed by the Prince of
Wales in the Aylesford affair, and that
he died of syphilis; that Churchill was
born in the palace of the Ninth Duke
of Marlborough; that as Minister of
Munitions in World War I, Churchill
"flew to France every day to examine
where supplies were needed"; that
Eisenhower named Camp David after
his father; that the Democrats regained
control of Congress from the Republicans in 1956; and that Churchill's Dardanelles debacle in World War I was a
disappointment comparable to Eisenhower's "never getting to go to France
and see battle."
Every one of these assertions is
demonstrably wrong—as is the old canard that Churchill planned his own
funeral, which Humes calls "Operation
Hope." The funeral was planned by the
"Hope Not Committee," presided over
by the Duke of Norfolk, and never included Churchill.
The book is bedizened with
Churchill quotations, most of which
are said to have been made to Eisenhower when they patently were not. "I
both drink and smoke and am 200%
fit" was said privately in WSC's first
meeting with Montgomery. Another
quip about Monty—"In defeat, indomitable; in advance, invincible; in
victory, insufferable"—was certainly
not said to Eisenhower. If said at all
(there is some dispute) it was likely expressed with a smile to Monty himself,
when its stark frankness had lost the
ability to wound.
Other quotations are misquoted so
as to come out worse than the original.
Churchill did not tell Ike, in the war,
"Well, General.. .You are speaking to
the result of an English speaking
Union." What he said was in reply to
Adlai Stevenson after the war, when
Stevenson asked if he had any message
for the English-Speaking Union: "Tell
them you bring them greetings from
an English-Speaking Union."
When Wilfrid Paling, MP, called
Churchill a "dirty dog," WSC did not
reply, "My reaction to his charge was
that of any dirty dog toward any palings." It was: "Does the Hon. Member
know what dirty dogs do to palings?"
Churchill's famous remark when
someone (but not Lady Astor) referred
to Chamberlain as "The Prince of
Peace," was not, "I thought the Prince
of Peace was born in Bethlehem, not
Birmingham, England"—WSC was
too good for such wordy rejoinders.
What he said was: "I thought Neville
was born in Birmingham." Why edit
the great man's words when it invariably renders them less effective than
the way he expressed them?
The book provides an illuminating
look at the remarkable parallels in the
early lives of Churchill and Eisenhower. It focuses on Eisenhower's
homespun, plain spoken honesty, and
argues convincingly that the General
may have known there was more to
Churchill's strategic concepts late in
the war than Ike's superiors would >»
Churchill and Eisenhower...
admit—always assuming, of course,
that the reader agrees with Churchill.
But it needed proofing by someone
conversant with the saga to comb out
inaccuracies and fix the quotations. <
Suez: The Churchill-Eisenhower Letters
"Dear Winston" researched by Daun van Ee for Craig Horn
Churchill to Eisenhower, 23 November
1956, in Macmillan, Riding the Storm
(London, 1971), pp. 175-76:
My Dear Ike,
There is not much left for me to
do in this world and I have neither the
wish nor the strength to involve myself
in the present political stress and turmoil. But I do believe, with unfaltering
conviction, that the theme of AngloAmerican alliance is more important
today at any time since the war. You
and I had some part in raising it to the
plane on which it has stood. Whatever
the arguments adduced here and in the
United States for or against Anthony's
action in Egypt, it will now be an act
of folly, on which our whole civilization may founder, to let events in the
Middle East come between us.. .and it
is the Soviet Union that will ride the
storm. [They are] attempting to move
into this dangerous vacuum, for you
must have no doubt that a triumph for
Nasser would be an even greater triumph for them.. .1 know where your
heart lies. You are now the only one
who can so influence events both in
UNO [United Nations Organization]
and the free world as to ensure that the
great essentials are not lost in bickerings and pettiness among the nations.
Yours is indeed a heavy responsibility
and there is no greater believer in your
capacity to bear it or well-wisher in
your task than your old friend,
Winston S. Churchill.
Eisenhower to Churchill, 27 November
1956 (excerpts). Daun van Ee is a Historical Specialist in the Manuscript Division, The Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Dear Winston:
I agree fully with the implication
of your letter that Nasser is a tool, possibly unwitting, of the Soviets, and
back of the difficulties that the free
world is now experiencing lies one
principal fact that none of us can afford to forget. The Soviets are the real
enemy of the Western World, implacably hostile and seeking our destruction.
When Nasser took his highhanded action with respect to the
Canal, I tried earnestly to keep Anthony informed of public opinion in
this country and of the course that we
would feel compelled to follow if there
was any attempt to solve by force the
problem presented to the free world
through Nasser's action. I told him that
we were committed to the United Nations and I particularly urged him, in a
letter of July thirty-first, to avoid the
use of force, at least until it had been
proved to the world that the United
Nations was incapable of handling the
problem
Sometime in the early part of October, all communication between
ourselves on the one hand and the
British and the French on the other
suddenly ceased. Our intelligence
showed the gradual buildup of Israeli
military strength, finally reaching such a
state of completion that I felt compelled
on two successive days to warn that
country that the United States would
honor its part in the Tri-Partite Declaration of May, 1950—in short, that we
would oppose clear aggression by any
power in the Mid-East. But so far as
Britain and France were concerned, we
felt that they had deliberately excluded
us from their thinking; we had no
choice but to do our best to be prepared
for whatever might happen....
The first news we had of the attack
and of British-French plans was gained
from the newspapers and we had no recourse except to assert our readiness to
support the United Nations, before
which body, incidentally, the British
Government had itself placed the whole
Suez controversy.
Nothing would please this country
more nor, in fact, could help us more,
FINEST HOCR 114/36
Gettysburg, 1959. (DwightD. Eisenhower Library)
than to see British prestige and
strength renewed and rejuvenated in
the Mid-East.. .All we have asked in
order to come out openly has been a
British statement that it would conform to the resolutions of the United
Nations. The United Nations troops
do not, in our opinion, have to be as
strong as those of an invading force because any attack upon them will be an
attack upon the whole United Nations
and if such an act of folly were committed, I think that we could quickly
settle the whole affair.
This message does not purport to
say that we have set up our judgment
against that of our friends in England.
I am merely trying to show that in this
country there is a very strong public
opinion upon these matters that has, I
believe, paralleled my own thinking. I
continue to believe that the safety of
the western world depends in the final
analysis upon the closest possible ties
between Western Europe, the American hemisphere, and as many allies as
we can induce to stand with us. If this
incident has proved nothing else, it
must have forcefully brought this truth
home to us again. A chief factor in the
union of the free world must be indestructible ties between the British
Commonwealth and ourselves...
So I hope that this one may be
washed off the slate as soon as possible
and that we can then together adopt
other means of achieving our legitimate objectives in the Mid-East. Nothing saddens me more than the thought
that I and my old friends of years have
met a problem concerning which we
do not see eye to eye. I shall never be
happy until our old time closeness has
been restored.
With warm regard and best wishes
for your continued health,
As ever, Ike
$
INSIDE THE JOURNALS
Before the Fall, 1939. The Chamberlain
War Cabinet. Seated, left to right: Lord Halifax,
Sir John Simon, the Prime Minister, Sir Samuel
Hoare, and Lord Chatfield. Standing, left to
right: Sir Kingsley Wood, Winston Churchill,
Leslie Hore-Belisha, and Lord Hankey.
Wko Really Put
Ckurckill in Oikice?
Abstract by David Freeman
Witherell, Larry L, "Lord Salisbury's
Watching Committee and the Fall of
Neville Chamberlain, May 1940." English Historical Review, November 2001:
pp. 1134-66.
I
n early 1940 the 4th Marquess of
Salisbury (son of the late Prime Minister) established a self-styled "Watching Committee" to monitor the domestic political scene and press for the
creation of a true National Government. While the existence of this committee has long been known, it has received insufficient scholarly attention.
The collection of Committee materials
in the Salisbury and Emrys Evans papers provides the first detailed examination of its formation, membership
and activities, and establishes that Salisbury's Committee played an essential
role in the political drama of 1940.
The principal figures responsible
for the Committee's formation included Lord Salisbury; his son Viscount Cranborne (known as "Bobbety"
and subsequently the 5th Marquess);
Robert, Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
(brother of the 4th Marquess); and Viscount Wolmer (later the 3rd Earl of
Selborne and a nephew of the 4th Marquess). Thus, the core of the Committee consisted entirely of Cecils, one of
England's oldest and most respected
aristocratic and political families.
Prof. Freeman earned his Ph.D. in Modern
British History from Texas A&M University,
and presently teaches at California State University Fullerton.
The Cecils had been among the
few calling for British rearmament in
the late 1930s. In the days prior to
Munich, Salisbury characterized
Chamberlain's foreign policy as flawed,
dangerous and morally repugnant.
After Munich, the rhetoric became
harsher, with Lord Cranborne sarcastically asking, "Where is the honour?" in
the Prime Minister's "peace with honour." Following the German invasion
of Czechoslovakia, Lord Cecil of Chelwood denounced Chamberlain for sacrificing the Czechs. The Prime Minister replied by raging against those
whom he called the "glamour
boys...particularly Bobbety Cranborne,
who is the most dangerous of the lot."
Chamberlain did bring Churchill
and Eden into the Government, but
this also had the effect of decapitating
the two main dissident groups within
the Tory ranks and muzzling their leaders. Salisbury then feared that Chamberlain would fall back on his unacceptable policies. As the autumn of
1939 wore on, the Cecils began to attract other malcontents, and Cranborne proposed to organize their activity by establishing "a small committee...of very respectable Conservatives...who would exercise pressure on
the Cabinet." Numerous respected
Conservatives were quickly recruited.
The Watching Committee held its
first meeting on 4 April 1940 and requested that Salisbury, now elected
chairman, impress upon the Prime
Minister their desire to reform and reconstruct the cabinet along lines set
out by Leo Amery: a small War Cabinet of non-departmental ministers to
formulate and supervise policy unencumbered by the burden of administrative responsibilities. The energetic
Richard Law, son of the late Prime
Minister, set the Committee's focus: "I
submit we ought to continue [to attack
the Government] The more we
weaken the Government, I honestly
believe, we strengthen England."
Chamberlain met with Salisbury
on 10 April and rejected the Committee's proposed reform of the War Cabinet, commenting that "if people did
not like the administration of the present Government they could change
it." Salisbury reported the disappointing results to his colleagues, who were
soon joined by other leaders outside
the Committee. Clement Davies, Liberal MP for Montgomeryshire, provided the Marquess with a sweeping
but penetrating assessment of the Government's conduct of the war. Davies
also believed in the need for a truly
National Government which included
Labour and added: "I think the situation demands a change even of the
Captain of the Team."
Next, Salisbury arranged to meet
with Churchill on 19 April. The First
Lord of the Admiralty, however, was
"resolutely opposed to any change
which would deprive him of this great
position of authority and usefulness in
order to be a mere chairman without
power." Salisbury explained that his
Committee contemplated no diminution of Churchill's authority and
>»
INSIDE THE JOURNALS
Churchill in Office....
prophetically warned that "if the Allies
met with a reverse in Norway, that
would be fatal to the Government."
Salisbury then headed a delegation
to the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax,
on 29 April to present their grievances.
Halifax remonstrated, but as another
attendee (Amery) recorded, "the evercourteous Salisbury" replied bluntly:
"we are not satisfied."
Faced with the adamant refusal of
the Government to reform its policies,
the Committee now was forced to address the issue of Chamberlain's premiership. An unsigned document
found among General Spears's Watching Committee papers expresses the
recognition that since "the Conservative Party made the present Government only the Conservative Party can
destroy it." As the Committee met on
30 April, the Government was preparing to evacuate troops from Norway.
Nicholson recorded the "general impression is that we may lose the war."
As the date for Chamberlain's
statement to the House on Norway approached, Salisbury designated a
agroup of hard-liners to be ready to
meet on short notice should exigencies
require their "special attention."
The group consisted of Amery,
Viscount Cecil, Hastings, Home,
Lloyd, Macmillan, Spears, Swinton,
Trenchard, Emrys Evans, Wolmer,
Cranborne and Salisbury—all unsympathetic to Chamberlain. After the
PM's disappointing presentation in
Parliament, discussions about alternative ministries began. But all the names
contemplated managed to raise objections in some quarter. Nicholson
lamented: "We always say that our advantage over the German leadership
principle is that we can always find another leader. Now we cannot."
Efforts continued. Davies was now
serving as intermediary between Salisbury's Committee and the Labour
Party leaders. The issue was whether
there was "a sufficient possibility of
agreement for a joint move to replace
Chamberlain." Davies solicited
Labour's front bench to force a no-confidence vote during the Norway de-
bate, but Attlee and Greenwood lacked
faith that Conservative rebels could be
relied upon to vote against their Prime
Minister and feared an attack would
merely provoke Tory backbenchers to
rally round the Government.
In fact, the Watching Committee
had effectively collected Conservative
discontent in one group and provided
a constructive outlet for members' energies and ideas. When their reform
proposals had been brusquely rejected,
their frustration intensified. The Norway Debate would provide them with
their first opportunity to challenge the
Prime Minister directly.
The debate went badly for the
Government. Committee ally Admiral
Sir Roger Keyes delivered a melodramatic but effective attack in full-dress
uniform. Committee zealot Amery followed with the Cromwellian cry, "In
the name of God go!" These performances, and the continued representations by Davies, convinced Attlee to
force a vote of confidence.
Meeting early on 8 May, the Committee agreed to support a "change of
Government," i.e., the departure of
Chamberlain. The question was
whether members should vote directly
against the Government or merely abstain in the confidence vote. They
agreed to vote against the Government.
When the House divided on the
evening of 8 May, the core Conservative opposition came from the Watching Committee: Amery, Cooper, Emrys
Evans, Keeling, Law, Macmillan,
Nicholson, Spears, and Wolmer. They
were joined by close friends and allies,
including Keyes, Lady Astor (wife of a
Committee member), H.J. Duggan,
Quentin Hogg (son of Lord Hailsham,
another Committee member), Mark
Patrick, and Ronald Tree. This enlarged group then brought along seventeen more Conservative backbenchers,
including several in uniform, leading
to a total of thirty-three Tory votes
against the Government, while another
sixty-five Conservatives abstained.
Chamberlain still prevailed but by the
vastly reduced margin of 281-200,
which left his followers in disarray.
The Watching Committee had
INEST HOUR I U / 3 8
pushed the PM into a corner, and with
Labour unwilling to serve under him,
his options became ever more restricted. After presiding over his Committee on the morning after the vote of
confidence, 9 May, Salisbury met with
Halifax to convey its terms to the Government: "Neville should now resign
and either Halifax or Winston form a
real War Cabinet on National lines."
Halifax actually concurred, and
they discussed a successor. The Foreign
Secretary stated that "he himself is the
obvious first choice...he looked upon
himself as fully responsible for all Mr.
Chamberlain's policy, and secondly
that Mr. Churchill must if he himself is
Prime Minister, be the leader of the
House of Commons. Such a combination would turn out to be impracticable with the Prime Minister nominally
in the Lords."
Although Salisbury politely disabused Halifax of such a conclusion,
the meeting nevertheless ended with
Halifax firmly excluding himself as
Chamberlain's successor.
When word arrived on 10 May of
the German invasion of the Low
Countries, Salisbury promptly summoned a meeting of the Watching
Committee to consider both this news
and the ongoing political crisis. Shortly
afterwards Law, Nicholson and Emrys
Evans learned that Chamberlain now
intended to remain in office "until the
French battle is finished." Emrys Evans
telephoned Salisbury, who declared
that the Committee must maintain its
resolve: Chamberlain must go, and
"Winston should be made Prime Minister during the course of the day."
Chamberlain was warned that the
Committee would not allow him to
hang on and delay reconstruction because of the invasion. The Committee
insisted that the House approve a new
government by 13 May. Later the same
day Salisbury twice met with the King's
private secretary, emphasizing that the
Committee was adamant about Chamberlain's immediate departure.
The outmaneuvered Prime Minister submitted his resignation that afternoon, and Churchill was promptly
summoned and charged with forming
INSIDE THE JOURNALS
a new government. The following day,
11 May, Davies learned that Churchill
was considering Chamberlain for
Chancellor of the Exchequer. He
passed this to Amery, and asked Lord
Salisbury to intervene with the new
Prime Minister. The Committee had
previously agreed that Chamberlain
ought not to remain in government.
But Salisbury pressed through a compromise whereby the disgraced Conservative leader would remain a
symbolic member of the Government as Lord President of
the Council.
Lord Salisbury had not
, «
sought the overthrow of
Neville Chamberlain when he
first began to assemble "a
small body of consultative
counselors." He had
merely complied with the
obligation to public service long shouldered by his
family. This, however, is not
to deny what they judged to be
the lack of Chamberlain's abilities and
the failure of his policies. By establishing the Watching Committee and selecting its membership, Lord Salisbury
provided substance, leadership, legitimacy and energy to a previously lethargic if not impotent faction of Conservative critics.
But the Committee was more. It
represented a synergistic coalition of
political talent intentionally assembled
for the purpose of influencing the Government and enhancing Britain's security. When, however, the Committee's
constructive efforts were summarily rebuffed, the laws of political motion necessitated a new objective: the removal
of Chamberlain from office. The Committee waited only for the requisite opportunity, which they found in the
Norway debate. While the final push
required the collaboration and voting
strength of the Labour opposition, the
Watching Committee—the advance
guard—nevertheless prevailed.
Opinions
Prof. David Freeman:
Professor Witherell sheds new
light on our understanding of how
Churchill became Prime Minister. The
traditional view has been that, in the
end, Labour made Churchill Prime
Minister by refusing to serve under
Chamberlain. Additionally, according
to Churchill's memoirs, Halifax took
himself out of the running at the last
minute in a meeting with Chamberlain
and Churchill on the morning of 10
May. Now we learn that Halifax had
already done as much the day before,
and for the same reason, in a
meeting with Lord Salisbury.
Halifax may, nevertheless, have hesitated to
speak on 10 May (Churchill
recalls a "very long
pause") in a last-ditch
hope that Churchill
might still defer to
him. But even if
Churchill had not
outlasted the Foreign
Secretary during that
historic moment of silence,
it seems clear from Salisbury's recollection that the Watching Committee
chairman's insistence on the 9th that
either Halifax or Churchill become
PM was merely pro forma. When Halifax excused himself, the "ever-courteous" Salisbury made a further pro
forma statement to the effect that
being a Peer was no bar to being Prime
Minister but also perfunctorily ended
the conversation because Halifax had
arrived at the "right" choice. The conclusion that I reach from this article is
that, while Labour did serve as the
mechanism for replacing Chamberlain
with Churchill, the real driving force
was the cabal of true-blue Conservatives led by Lord Salisbury.
Churchill's elevation to the premiership depended on many variables
beyond his own control for his destiny
to have been inevitable. But there is no
rule that says history had to happen the
way it did. Nor is there any requirement that the best qualified person will
always—or indeed ever—be selected for
the position of supreme leadership.
After the war, with Churchill a national hero, everyone wanted to claim
proprietary interest in his success. For
the Conservatives this was easy. ChurFlNIiSTHOUR 1 1 4 / 3 9
chill remained their party leader for almost fifteen years. Labour had a strong
claim as well: its leaders had served
with distinction in the Churchill coalition. But after the generation of war
leaders had passed from the scene, it
became more politically expedient for
Labour to assert that it was their party
that had come to the rescue in May
1940 against the intransigent Tory establishment, in effect "liberating"
Churchill from the shackles of his own
party.
This interpretation cannot be sustained. In reality, well-entrenched leaders of the Conservative establishment
had been the driving force behind the
Great Change. As General Spears
recorded: "The Conservative Party
made the present Government [and]
only the Conservative Party can destroy it." Labour's interest remains
rooted, not only in the war service of
its leaders, but in the millions of rankand-file Labour supporters. We need to
remember what Churchill told the
cheering crowds of London on V-E
Day: "This is your victory!"
Prof. John Ramsden:
Professor Witherell's paper is important testimony to the patriotic role
of Salisbury and his Committee. I tend
to agree with those who have considered that this new information is somewhat less than revolutionary, and so
more or less does Witherell. His paper
tells us quite a bit about how Chamberlain fell, but much less about how
Churchill, rather than someone else,
came to replace him. It's particularly
weak in suggesting that Salisbury and
his committee ensured that Chamberlain did not become Chancellor of the
Exchequer in the Churchill Government, since Churchill gave him a bigger job instead, as effective deputy
Prime Minister and supremo of the
home front, something he could not
have done if Chamberlain had been
drowning in the financial detail of treasury work. While Larry Witherell has
made a fine contribution to our understanding of the events, I don't believe
he would wish us to exaggerate the importance of his revelations.
M>
KEEPING THE MEMORY GREEN.
LEADING CHURCHILL MYTHS
(3) "Churchill let Coventry burn to protect his secret intelligence."
PETER J. MdVER
F
or twenty years, most recently in a piece by Christopher Hitchens in The Atlantic Monthly, it has become a matter of accepted fact that on the night of
14-15 November 1940, rather than compromise a decisive source of intelligence, Winston Churchill left the city
of Coventry to the mercies of the German Air force.
This story has appeared in many books, articles and
letters to the press, but its origins date back over a quarter
century to three books, by F. W. Winterbotham, Anthony
Cave Brown, and William Stevenson.
The originator of the "prior warning" theory was
former RAF Group Captain F. W. Winterbotham in The
Ultra Secret (New York: Harper & Row, 197'4). This was
the first book to reveal that the Allies had broken the German codes—a fact that was until then a closely guarded
official secret.
According to Winterbotham, who wrote entirely
from memory, the name Coventry came through in clear
type on a decrypt of German messages (codenamed "Boniface," later "Ultra") at 3PM on 14 November, the afternoon before the raid, and Winterbotham himself immediately telephoned the news to one of Churchill's private secretaries in Downing Street {The Ultra Secret82-84).
Much the same tale was told by Cave Brown in his
two-volume work, Bodyguard of Lies (New York: Harper
& Row, 1974). But Cave Brown wrote that Churchill had
the message a full two days ahead of time. The Coventry
raid, he wrote, was one of three under the code name
"Einheitopreis," against Midlands cities coded "Umbrella"
for Birmingham, "All One Piece" for Wolverhampton,
and "Corn" for Coventry {Bodyguard of LiesT.38-44).
Picking up on these 1974 books, William Stevenson in A Man Called Intrepid {New York: Harcourt, Brace,
Jovanovich, 1976), wrote that the Germans sent the order
to destroy Coventry in the second week of November.
Unlike previous "Boniface" messages, which had always
given the name of the target in code, this message gave the
name "Coventry" in clear type. Thus, wrote Stevenson,
within minutes of the order being given, it was placed in
front of the Prime Minister. Faced with the prospect of
leaving the people of Coventry to die or evacuating them,
Mr. Mclver, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, penned this article eighteen
years ago in Finest Hour 41. We have brought it up to date by adding
or quoting additional, more recently published material.
:
Churchill turned to Sir William Stephenson ("Intrepid"),
who advised that "Boniface" was too valuable a source of
intelligence to risk. By evacuating the city, the Prime Minister would expose the source and endanger its usefulness
in the future—so "Intrepid" told Churchill to leave
Coventry to burn and its people to their fate.
While at first glance all three writers seem to agree,
there are considerable differences between them. For example, Winterbotham claimed that he telephoned the information to Downing Street, while Stevenson said the
news was given to Churchill by "Intrepid." Cave Brown
asserted that Churchill knew about the raid forty-eight
hours in advance; Winterbotham said Coventry was identified as the target only a few hours before the attack.
A
ll three authors cannot be correct, though as I will
show, all are certainly wrong. Cave Brown's account has several errors independent from the differences with the other writers. The code name for the
Wolverhampton raid was "All One Price," not "All One
Piece." Its significance was not lost on the Air Ministry,
which quickly realized that it referred to the "Everything
at One Price" sales slogan of Woolworth & Co.—ergo
Wolverhampton. "Umbrella," the Ministry concluded,
meant Birmingham because Neville Chamberlain, a famous carrier of umbrellas, was a former mayor of Birmingham. But nothing connected "Corn" with Coventry.
By mid-November the Air Ministry had learned
that the Germans were having difficulties with their
Knickebein radio direction beam, used to direct bombers
to their targets; it seemed likely that they would use the
more accurate X-Gerat system installed in Luftwaffe unit
K. GR100, which would act as a pathfinding fire raiser for
less experienced pilots. The Air Ministry reached this conclusion from reports that the Germans had been attacking
isolated targets in England with flares instead of bombs.
On 11 November the Air Ministry decoded a German message referring to a raid codenamed "Moonlight
Sonata." This was the message in which the word "Corn"
first appeared. Because of where the word appeared in the
message Dr. R. V. Jones, one of the Air Ministry scientists,
concluded that "Corn" referred not to a target but to the
appearance of radar screens when jamming was present.
According to Jones's book, Most Secret War, aka The Wizard War (1978, 201), the code name "Moonlight Sonata"
IN(;STllO('R 114/40
.AND THE RECORD ACCURATE
was believed to mean that the raid would take place on a
night of a full moon, indicating the period 15-20 November. "Sonata" suggested a three-part operation; based on
their knowledge of Luftwaffe guidance systems, the Ministry concluded that the first part would be a fire-raiser,
the other two parts normal bombing raids (Public Records
Office AIR2/5238).
No one at the Air Ministry believed that "Sonata"
referred to three separate nights. The 11 November decrypt referred to four targets, and mentioned that Marshal
Goering himself had been involved in the planning, an
indication of how important this particular raid was
viewed in Berlin.
In an appreciation of this message, considering not
only Goering's involvement but other intelligence, the Air
Ministry concluded that the four targets were in the south
of England, particularly London. The other intelligence
included a captured German map which marked four target areas, all in the south; and an interview with a prisoner
of war suggesting that the Midlands cities were targets for
a future raid unconnected with "Moonlight Sonata"
(P.R.O. AIR2/5238).
In the early hours of 12 November, Dr. Jones received a decrypt of a new German message which indicated that there was to be a raid against Coventry, Wolverhampton, and Birmingham. But there was nothing in this
new message to connect it with "Moonlight Sonata," and
no such connection was made (P.R.O. AIR20/2419). As
early as the morning before the raid, the Air Ministry were
still expecting a raid on London.
What of Winterbotham's alleged telephone call to
Downing Street at 3PM the afternoon of November 14th?
Dr. Jones, who was given copies of all "Boniface" decrypts at
the same time as Winterbotham, states that there was no such
message. In his book, Jones recalled traveling home that night
wondering where the raid was actually going to be!
What did Churchill know and when did he know
it? The most succinct summary came from one of
Churchill's private secretaries, John Colville, in his book,
The Churchillians (London, 1981), page 62:
All concerned with the information gleaned from the intercepted German signals were conscious that German
suspicions must not be aroused for the sake of ephemeral
advantages. In the case of the Coventry raid no dilemma
arose, for until the German directional beam was turned
on the doomed city nobody knew where the great raid
would be. Certainly the Prime Minister did not. The German signals referred to a major operation with the code
name "Moonlight Sonata." The usual "Boniface" secrecy
in the Private Office had been lifted on this occasion and
during the afternoon before the raid I wrote in my diary
(kept under lock and key at 10 Downing Street), "It is obviously some major air operation, but its exact destination
the Air Ministry find it difficult to determine."
That same afternoon, Thursday 14 November 1940,
Churchill set off with [private secretary] John Martin for
Ditchley, Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Tree's house in Oxfordshire, generously made available to the Prime Minister
once a month when the moon was full and the PM's official residence, Chequers, was vulnerable. Just before
Churchill left, word was received that "Moonlight
Sonata" was likely to take place that night. In the car he
opened his most recent yellow box and read the German
signals in full. He immediately told the chauffeur to turn
round, and went back to Downing Street.
On arrival he decided that due precautions must be
taken, for he assumed the operation to be aimed at London and to be a more massive assault than had ever been
made before. He ordered that the female staff be sent
home before darkness fell. He packed John Peck and me
off to dine and sleep in a sumptuous air-raid shelter prepared and equipped in Down Street underground station
by the London Passenger Transport Board. They made it
available to the Prime Minister as well as to their own executive. Churchill called it "the burrow," but used it himself on only a few occasions.
John Peck and I dined apolaustically in "the burrow." I
commented, with a blend of gratification and disapproval,
"Caviar (almost unobtainable in these days of restricted
imports); Perrier Jouet 1928; 1865 brandy and excellent
Havana cigars." Meanwhile Churchill, impatient for the
fireworks to start, made his way to the Air Ministry roof
with John Martin and saw nothing. For on their way to
Coventry, the raiders dropped no bombs on London.
There is not even the thinnest shred of truth in Group
Captain Winterbotham's story of Coventry. It is to be
hoped that neither this incident nor a score of others with
which Mr. Stevenson's book about "Intrepid" is gaudily
bedizened are ever used for the purpose of historical reference. To dispel such an unacceptable hazard is my excuse
for this long digression.
C
olville was not the first to reveal the truth. Former
private secretary, John Martin, who had been with
Churchill in London on the fateful night, awaiting the bombers that never came, recalled the facts in The
Times on 28 August 1976, when the charge was first circulating. A quarter century later, Christopher Hitchens in
The Atlantic wrote that no Churchill defender has ever
challenged the story. Historians Norman Longmate,
Ronald Levin, Harry Hensley, and David Stafford are just
four historians who as early as 1979 explicitly dismissed
the Coventry story for the nonsense it is.
Colville's hopes were in vain. The Coventry lie
hardily endures, probably forever, periodically resurrected
and solemnly proclaimed by those who have convinced
themselves of Churchill's perfidy.
$
FINEST HOUR ii4/41
C
EMINENT
CHURCHILLIANS
Nancy Canary ana Craig Horn:
The Center's Secretary ana Treasurer
N
ancy Canary is
an attorney
alternatively
operating out of
Cleveland, Ohio and
Delray Beach, Florida.
She has long been an
admirer of Winston
Churchill and has read
many of his writings.
Many of her clients over
the years have been veterans of World War II, including a Canadian whose father
served in Churchill's wartime Government.
Nancy joined The Churchill Center five years
ago after hearing a speech by Michael McMenamin (center above right), fellow Cleveland attorney, contributor
of Finest Hours "Action This Day" column, delivered at
Cleveland's Rowfant Club. After discussing with Michael
her admiration for Churchill, he suggested she join the
Center and attend meetings of Northern Ohio
Churchillians, of which he was and still is President. The
following year she attended her first conference in
Williamsburg, Virginia, where she met our Patron, Lady
Soames and Trustee, Celia Sandys. It was here that
Nancy learned of Celia's intention to take a group of
Churchillians to South Africa in June of 1999. She
inquired about the trip and in fact was one of the last to
sign up before the list was sold out. She also attended
the pre-South African trip through parts of England
hosted by Barbara and Richard Langworth, which culminated at the 16th International Conference in Bath,
England. During this trip she came to know the
Langworths and was later asked by Richard to consider
serving as a Governor of The Churchill Center. In
January 2002, Nancy relieved John Mather as executive
secretary of the Center, which also places her on the
Executive Committee—that portion of the Board
charged with handling day to day operations between
meetings of the Governors. Her fellow Governors are
pleased to welcome Nancy to the team.
raig Horn,
57, was
elected to
the Churchill
Center's Board of
Governors in 1998,
and became our
treasurer two years
later. Craig is also a
member of the governing board of our
DC affiliate, The
Washington Society
for Churchill.
Craig Horn, left, with Michael McMenamin ("Action This Day") and Barbara
Langworth, San Diego Conference, 2001.
Involvement with The Churchill Center is a
family affair. Lorraine Horn is the Center's volunteer
administrator, overseeing day-to-day activities and assisting in membership, financial and record-keeping chores.
Craig & Lorraine also played large parts in the 1998
International Churchill Conference in Williamsburg,
Virginia, in 1998, and in the theme conference,
"Churchill and Eisenhower at Gettysburg," in 1999.
They work in a variety of capacities on upcoming events
and Craig is program chairman for the 2002 edition,
"Churchill and the Intelligence World," at Lansdowne
Resort, Leesburg, Virginia on September 19-22th.
Born in Iowa, Craig joined the United States
Air Force in 1962. Following Russian language schools
at Indiana University and Syracuse University, he served
both in Europe and the Middle East as a linguist in
Security and Intelligence work from 1963 to 1969.
Craig began his career in the food business in
1969 with Oscar Mayer & Co. In 1972, he entered the
food brokerage business, and in 1978 became vice president and founding partner of HSH Sales in Maryland,
one of the largest food service brokerage companies in
the USA, with about seventy employees.
Elected to the city council in Laurel, Maryland
for three terms and twice elected president of the city
council, Craig has held leadership posts in civic, political
and professional organizations. He is past president of
the Laurel Lions Club and an honorary member of the
world champion Laurel Volunteer Rescue Squad.
Craig has lived in Maryland for over 30 years.
He and Lorraine have four grown children and seven
grandchildren. Like Winston Churchill, Craig has an
abiding interest in the American War Between the
States. He has a large collection of civil war memorabilia
and books, and is a member of various round tables of
military history. It was his study of the American Civil
War that led Craig to a profound interest in the life,
writings and leadership of Winston Churchill.
M>
FlNliST HOHR 114/42
Recipes irom No. 10: Madras Eggs
by Georgina Landemare, the Churchill family cook, 1940s-1950s,
updated and annotated for the modern kitchen by Barbara Langworth
([email protected]).
0
CC
1 nly a very short letter
'this.
t, Here I am in
camp at this arid place—bare as a plate & hot as
an oven. All the skin is burnt off my face and my complexion has assumed a deep mulberry... "
—WSC to his mother Rajankunte Camp, Madras, India,
21 January 1897 {Winston S. Churchill, Companion Volume I,
Part 2, edited by Randolph S. Churchill, London: Heinemann,
1967, p. 726; also available from Churchill Archives,
http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/Churchill_papers/
MADRAS EGGS (SERVES FOUR)
4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
6 small tomatoes, skinned, seeded & sliced
4 oz. chopped cooked ham
2 small shallots, finely chopped
6 Tb curry sauce*
4 oz. cooked rice
Salt and pepper
Butter
Curry is
not one
spice but a mixture of many. I was amused by author
Brent Thompson's explanation on the Curry House website: "The term curry itself isn't really used in India, except as a term appropriated by the British generically to
categorize a large set of different soup/stew preparations
ubiquitous in India. [It] nearly always contains ginger,
garlic, onion, turmeric, chile, and oil (except in communities which eat neither onion nor garlic, of course)
which must have seemed all the same to the British,
being all yellow/red, oily, spicy/aromatic, and too pungent to taste anyway."
$
Butter a one-quart fireproof dish well. Using half the
amounts place first a layer of tomato, then of eggs sprinkled with shallot, pepper and salt, next a layer of curry
sauce and of chopped ham. Repeat these layers and cover
the top with boiled rice and knobs of butter. Bake in a
moderate oven [350 °F] for 1/2 - 3/4 hour.
* Curry Sauce
3 medium-sized onions, diced
2 oz. butter
1 dessertspoon [2 tsp] curry powder
1 blade [clove] garlic
1 oz [scant 4 TB] flour
1/2 pint [10 oz.] meat stock (or broth, bouillon)
Salt and pepper
Fry onions in melted butter until soft. Add curry powder,
garlic, flour and seasoning and fry slowly until it leaves
the sides of the pan. Gradually stir in stock and cook for
30 minutes. Strain [use coarse sieve] and use as required.
FINEST HOUR J H / 4 3
Churchill
in India
(Bangalore),
1895.
WOODS CORNER
About Books
CHURCHILL AND HAYEK
G. W. SIMONDS
A
lan Ebenstein's recently published biography* of Friedrich
Hayek, 1974 Nobel price winner and possibly the 20th century's
greatest political thinker and economist, shows that he was a longtime admirer of Winston Churchill, although
best known for his influence on Margaret Thatcher. Churchill's portrait
hung over Hayek's desk for many years,
even when in later life he returned to
his native Austria to work.' Those who
believe that the four foremost conservative political thinkers of the 20th century were Reagan, Thatcher, Goldwater,
and Churchill may be interested to
know that all four were, in different
ways, influenced by Hayek.2
Frederich Hayek, born in Austria
in 1899, came to the London School of
Economics in 1931 and, with the worsening situation in Germany, later offered his "considerable knowledge of
Austrian affairs" to the Ministry of Information.3 His offer declined, he remained at L.S.E. throughout the war.
Consequently he and Harold Laski,
with Lionel Robbins, became the
prominent influences there and, when
the wartime evacuation to Cambridge
took place, he came into close contact
with John Maynard Keynes.
In the May 1945 election
Churchill made oblique reference to
Hayek,4 one presumes because of having read Hayek's 1944 book, The Road
to
Serfdom.
Ebenstein
quotes
Churchill's 1945 campaign speech: "No
socialist system can be established without a political police. They would have
to fall back on some form of Gestapo, no
Mr. Simonds ([email protected]. co.uk) is a member of the Churchill Society
(UK) in Doncascer, England. Woods Corner is
a bibliophile's department named for the late
Churchill bibliographer Fred Woods.
doubt very humanely directed in the first
instance."
This same speech excerpt is quoted
critically in Kramnick and Sheerman's
biography of Laski.5 The words in italics come from a little later in the
speech, after "No Socialist government
conducting the entire life and industry
of the country could afford to allow
free, sharp, or violently-worded expressions of public discontent"—as can be
seen from Churchill's war speech volume, Victory (1946).
Laski's biographers, and many others over the years, claimed that the
"Gestapo" remark contributed to the
election of a majority Labour Government and Churchill's loss of the Premiership. Certainly maximum use was
made of this remark by Attlee and others. Clementine Churchill, who had
read her husband's speech in draft, advised this sentence be dropped: not the
first time her instincts were correct.
This point apart, it is clear that
both Churchill and the Conservative
Central Office thought highly of The
Road to Serfdom: Hayek was offered
precious rationed paper for an abstract,
prior to the election, but it could not
be printed in time. At this time Laski,
as chairman of the Labour Party, objected to Churchill's invitation to Attlee
to go with him to the Potsdam Conference with the election as yet undecided,
saying, "the Labour Party shall not be
committed to any decision not debated
in the Party Executive." So Churchill
may have had a point.
In the first, founding meeting of
the Mont Pelerin Society, Hayek was
unwittingly and incorrectly described as
being Winston Churchill's adviser on
economic affairs.7 It may be that Attlee's riposte to the "Gestapo" speech
contributed to this misunderstanding.
In a later biographical interview
FlNHST HOCK 1 1 4 / 4 4
Hayek commented that Churchill believed at one time that cabinet secrets
had been leaked to Harold Laski, but
that this was untrue: Laski had just
guessed.^
Much later in life the young Margaret Thatcher admitted she had read
Hayek's books, particularly The Road to
Serfdom, and, during his time at the
(London) Institute of Economic Affairs
embraced him as one of her major
philosophical influences.9 Hayek is
probably now best known in Britain for
this; indeed it is believed that despite
his political leanings, Tony Blair is also
an admirer.
* Friedrich Hayek: A Biography, by Alan
Ebenstein. New York: St. Martins Press.
References below refer to Ebenstein's biography unless otherwise indicated
l . p . 316.
2. p. 209.
3. p. 104.
4. Winston S. Churchill, Victory (London: Cassell, 1946), pp. 186-92, especially the second and third paragraphs
on p. 189.
5. p. 138, footnote 37.
6. Mary Soames, Clementine Churchill
(London: Cassell, 1979), p. 382.
7. p. 144.
8. p. 182.
9. p. 291.
RACE, ISLAM
AND THE
RIVER WAR
T
hanks to Gregory Smith for
finding the powerful quotation
The River War ("Quotation of
the Decade?", FH 113:5). I have a onevolume paperback (Prion: London
1997) and cannot find it, or passages I
remember hearing on the Books on
Tape production. I must add that I re-
WOODS CORNER
main troubled by passages like this:
"The indigenous inhabitants of the
country were negroes as black as coal.
They displayed the virtues of barbarism....The smallness of their intelligence excused the degradation of their
habits." —Andy Guilford
Editor's response:
The Prion paperback edition is a
further abridgement of a previous
abridgement first published in Frontiers
and Wars. (See my Connoisseur's Guide
to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill,
page 37.) But the 1902 Longmans,
1915 Nelson, and 1933 Eyre & Spottiswoode one-volume editions also fail to
produce Mr. Smith's highly relevant
quotation. The Books-on-Tape audio
version, which is based on the same
text, also lacks this quotation.
The quotation falls in Volume II,
Chapter XXII, "Return of the British
Division," which Churchill omitted
starting in 1902. Likewise culled was
Chapter XXI, "After the Victory,"
which contains some of Churchill's
finest writing on the meaning of war for
the common soldier, particularly the
Dervishes. We republished this in Finest
Hour 85, still available for $5 postpaid
from Churchill Stores, PO Box 96,
Contoocook NH 03229.
The bad news is that unabridged
original copies of The River War (18991900) cost from $1000 up. The good
news is that an entirely new two-volume edition is coming, thanks to Professor James Muller and The Churchill
Center. Look for it in our new book
service in 2003.
Churchill's prejudices were those of
his time; but compare his "negroes as
black as coal" remarks to what he wrote
in My African Journey about the natives
of Uganda (Chapter 5): "...an amiable,
clothed, polite, and intelligent race
dwell together in an organized monarchy....More than two hundred thousand
natives are able to read and write. More
than one hundred thousand have embraced the Christian faith. There is a
Court, there are Regents and Ministers
and nobles, there is a regular system of
native law and tribunals; there is discipline, there is industry, there is culture,
there is peace. In fact, I ask myself
whether there is any other spot in the
whole earth where the dreams and
hopes of the negrophile, so often
mocked by results and stubborn facts,
have ever attained such a happy realization." Patronizing? Yes, but considering
today's Uganda, one is forced to wonder
what its people got in place of the
British Empire.
Churchill defies pigeonholing. In
this passage, as in his stubborn defense
of the native African in London to Ladysmith (see sidebar), he is neither racist
nor reformer. Anthony Montague
Browne said years ago that Churchill
never flinched from criticizing those
whom he thought deserved it: thus the
Zionist Churchill railed against Zionist
terrorists who blew up the King David
Hotel in Jerusalem, and with it his
friend Lord Lloyd. When Churchill saw
Africans he thought were degraded, he
said so—and vice versa. But politicians
of Churchill's stripe were as scarce in
1900 as they are in 2002.
A few eerily relevant quotes about
the original work from my book, written long before 11 September 2001...
The West and Islam
{Connoisseur's Guide, page 27, on The
River War)
Arguably the most aesthetically
beautiful of original trade editions of
Churchill's books, The River War is a
brilliant history of British involvement
in the Sudan and the campaign for its
reconquest: arresting, insightful, with
tremendous narrative and descriptive
power. Though published 100 years
ago, it is uniquely relevant to our times:
combined with Churchill's personal adventure, there are passages of deep reflection about the requirements of a civilized government of ordered liberty.
Far from accepting uncritically the
superiority of British civilization,
Churchill shows his appreciation for the
longing for liberty among the indigenous inhabitants of the Sudan; but he
finds their native regime defective in its
inadequate legal and customary protection for the liberty of subjects. On the
other hand, he criticizes the British
army, and in particular its commander
FINEST HOUR IW / 45
Lord Kitchener, for departing in its
campaign from the kind of respect for
the liberty and humanity of adversaries
that alone could justify British civilization and imperial rule over the Sudan.
Churchill and Race
{Connoisseur's Guide, page 51, on London to Ladysmith)
I often wish modern writers who
say Churchill was a racist would read
his conversation with his Boer captors
in London to Ladysmith. This was, remember, 1899, when every Englishman
alive supposedly believed in the utter
supremacy of the white race, English
branch. "Is it right," the Boer guard
asked Churchill, "that a dirty Kaffir
[native] should walk on the pavement
[sidewalk]—without a pass? That's what
they do in your British Colonies.
Brother! Equal! Ugh! Free! Not a bit.
We know how to treat Kaffirs....They
were put here by the God Almighty to
work for us. We'll stand no damned
nonsense from them. We'll keep them
in their proper places."
Churchill remarks: "What is the
true and original root of Dutch aversion
to British rule? It is the abiding fear and
hatred of the movement that seeks to
place the native on a level with the
white man. British government is associated in the Boer farmer's mind with
violent social revolution...the Kaffir is
to be declared the brother of the European, to be constituted his legal equal,
to be armed with political rights...nor is
a tigress robbed of her cubs more furious than is the Boer at this prospect."
After the statements of his captor,
Churchill concludes, "[he and I had] no
more agreement...Probing at random I
had touched a very sensitive nerve."
Now it is accurately said that
Churchill's view of native Africans was
not that of, say, Martin Luther King, Jr.
half a century later. Churchill was paternalistic, and held, if not in these
pages then in the African Journey, that
immediate equality was impractical and
unworkable. But his views in the Ladysmith are in striking contrast to those of
most contemporary Britons. Of course,
whatever improvements might have
evolved in a South Africa under
>»
About Books...
pure British government, the Union of South Africa in 1910
led to something different. By combining the Boer dominated Transvaal and Orange Free State with the British Cape
Colony and Natal in a Union where only whites could vote
and Boers outnumbered Britons, Great Britain established
the Boer patrimony which the Boers had failed to achieve by
arms; and from that Union grew the policy of Apartheid. It
is interesting to find Churchill in 1899 representing the same
essential approach to native emancipation as the South
African reformers of the early 1990s—and agreeable to know
that Nelson Mandela is an admirer of Winston Churchill.
*A Connoisseur's Guide to the Books of Sir Winston
Churchill is available for $36 postpaid from the Churchill
Center Book Club, PO Box 385, Hopkinton NH 03229. $
AMPERSAND
A compendium of facts eventually to
appear as a reader's guide.
CHURCHILL'S POLITICAL OFFICES, 1906-1955
Compiled by the Editor
Undersecretary of State for the Colonies
9DecO5-24AprO8. Chief assistant to the Colonial
Secretary with responsibility for directing all colonial affairs
worldwide. Since the Colonial Secretary at this time was
Lord Elgin, Churchill was the nominal spokesman (much
to Elgin's angst) on colonial matters in the Commons.
President of the Board of Trade
24Apr08-25Octl 1. Equivalent to U.S. Secretary of
Commerce. Appointment date is the official one, but per the
rule of the day, Churchill had to refight his Manchester seat
to confirm this Cabinet office. He lost on 23 April, but was
elected MP for Dundee on 9 May.
Secretary of State for the Home Department
Febl0-25Octl 1. Responsible for police, prisons and
the state of criminal law (and some odd archaic roles such
as looking after wild birds in Scotland and determining if
English and Welsh towns are cities), but once much larger.
Roy Jenkins calls it "a plank of wood out of which all other
domestic departments have been carved," including today's
Agriculture, Environment, and Employment ministries.
First Lord of the Admiralty
25Octll-28Mayl5, 3Sep39-26May40. Civilian head
of the Navy; Secretary of the Navy in U.S.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
28Mayl5-l 1NOV15. An office unique to Great
Britain: a sinecure appointment whose only serious duty is
appointing County magistrates.
REMEMBER WINSTON CHURCHILL
Will future generations remember?
Will the ideas you cherish now be sustained then?
Will someone articulate your principles?
Who will guide your grandchildren, and your country?
There is an answer.
The Churchill Center Associates (page 2) are people who
have committed $10,000 or more, over five years, all taxdeductible, to the Churchill Center and Society Endowment
funds earning interest in the United States and Canada.
With their help—and yours—those earnings guarantee
that The Churchill Center will endure as a powerful voice,
sustaining those beliefs Sir Winston and you hold dear.
Now. And for future generations.
If you would like to consider becoming a
Churchill Center Associate, please contact
Richard M. Langworth, Chairman, Board of Trustees
(888) 454-2275 • [email protected]
Minister of Munitions
16Jull7-15Janl9. Supplying adequate ammunition to
forces at the front was so important during the Great War
that the task was given Ministerial status.
Secretary of State for War
15Janl9-l4Feb21. Civilian head of the Army;
Secretary of the Army in the U.S.
Minister of Air
15Janl9-lApr21. Civilian head of the Air Force.
Secretary of State for the Colonies
l4Feb21-Oct22. Head of the Colonial Office.
Churchill's work was largely devoted to the Middle East
and Ireland (which was not a colony), rather than traditional areas like Africa and the West Indies.
Chancellor of the Exchequer
7Nov24-30May29. Equivalent to U.S. Secretary of the
Treasury; considered to be the next office down from the
Prime Minister, housed at No. 11 Downing Street.
Minister of Defence
10May40-26Jul45, 26Oct51-5Apr55. Roughly like
U.S. Secretary of Defense but Churchill purposely left it illdefined, with war, navy and air ministers under him.
Prime Minister
Coalition PM 10May40-23May45; Conservative PM
23May45-26Jul45; Conservative PM 26Oct51-5Apr55.
Head of government (but not also head of state as with
U.S. Presidents) and leader of the majority party in
Parliament. (Trick question: how many times was WSC
Prime Minister? Technically three, not two.)
$
FlNHSTflOl.'R 1 1 4 / 4 6
CHURCHILLTRIVIA
By Curt Zoller ([email protected])
7
service on only one Mediterranean island. What island was it? (W)
'ESTyour knowledge!Most questions
1243. Who assumed the Premiership
can be answered in back issues of
upon Churchill's 1955 retirement? (C)
Churchill Center publications but it's not
really cricket to check. Twenty-four questions appear each issue, answers in the fol- 1244. On 21 March 1900 Churchill
lowing issue. Categories are Contemporarieswrote to his mother: "make sure that I
(C), Literary (L), Miscellaneous (M), Per- get £2000 on account of the royalties."
sonal (P), Statesmanship (S) and War (W). Which book was he referring to? (L)
1231. About whom did Churchill comment, "He thinks he is Joan of Arc but
my bishops won't let me burn him"? (C)
1245. How old was Lord Randolph
Churchill when he died in 1895? (M)
1232. In Roosevelt's first correspondence
to WSC, which Churchill book did FDR
say he'd enjoyed reading? (L)
1246. Anthony Bevir, who looked after
patronage matters at No. 10 Downing
Street, recommended Churchill's name
to King George VI's private secretary.
What did he recommend? (P)
1233. In 1942 Churchill's parliamentary
opponents called for a vote of no-confidence. What was the pretext for the parliamentary vote? (M)
1234. What name was originally given to
intercepted German codes? (P)
1235. Who on WSC's staff said, "We
had been at war with Germany longer
than any war power, we had suffered
more, we had sacrificed more, and in the
end we would lose more...Yet here were
these God-awful American academics
rushing about, talking about the Four
Freedoms and the 'Atlantic Charter'"? (S)
1236. During WW2 Churchill and Roosevelt were advised by what three Chiefs
of Staff Committees? (W)
1237. Who was the leading free trader in
the Edwardian Conservative Party, and
Churchill's best man at his wedding? (C)
1238. In his first dispatch from Cuba in
1895, how did Churchill describe how
insurgents destroyed sugar crops? (L)
1239. How were Churchill and Franklin
Roosevelt related? (M)
1240. What did Churchill call the
Bletchley codebreakers? (P)
1241. The priorities of Allied bombers
were Germany's synthetic oil production
facilities, oil depots, and tank factories,
which two additional target areas were
added in January 1945? (S)
1242. The Africa Star was authorized for
1247. In July 1944 Churchill asked for a
"dispassionate report on the military
aspects of threatening to use lethal and
corrosive gases on the enemy, if they did
not stop the use of indiscriminate
weapons." What was the response? (S)
1248. Who was the Major General commanding the Malakand Field Force, a descendant of a Colonel who attempted to
steal the Crown Jewels in 1671? (W)
1249. Who was the fellow subaltern who
accompanied WSC to Cuba in 1895? (C)
1250. What was Churchill's original title
for The World Crisis? (L)
1251. What military rank did Churchill
hold when he joined the Imperial Yeomanry (Oxfordshire Hussars) in 1902? (M)
1252. When was Churchill first approached by the Conservative Party to
stand as Tory candidate for Oldham? (P)
1253. Name three of the major issues
discussed during the Yalta conference by
Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt. (S)
1254. When Churchill flew to Cairo in
August 1942 he decided ;t,o replace Gen.
Auchinleck, commander of the Eighth
Army. Who was selected first, and who
finally got the job? (W)
ANSWERS TO LAST TRIVIA
(1207) Without seeking his father's approval,
Randolph ran as an Independent Conservative in Conservative stronghold Wavertree,
FINHSTHOUR
H4/47
and lost. (1208) Mr. Siwertz compared
Churchill to the British statesman and novelist, Benjamin Disraeli. (1209) Churchill received notice of his selection for the Nobel
Prize for Literature on 16Oct53. (1210)
When Churchill became a Knight of the
Garter in spring of 1953 he was addressed as
Sir Winston. (1211) Churchill stopped the
evacuation of children when the City ofBenariswas torpedoed and seventy-seven children lost their lives. (1212) Churchill commented: "No country in the world is less fit
for a conflict with terrorists than Great
Britain. That is not because of her weakness
or cowardice; it is because of her restraint and
virtues, and the way of life in which we have
lived so long on this sheltered island."
(1213) Randolph announced his intention to
put forward a candidate for Norwood, challenging the National Government's India policy. Churchill was furious and did not support his son. (1214) American historian
Henry Steele Commager abridged the original edition of Marlborough. (1215) Joseph
Grew was the American ambassador and Sir
Robert Craigie represented Great Britain
when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. (1216)
Churchill received £12,093, tax free, with the
Nobel Prize for Literature. (1217) Churchill
warned of aerial vulnerability in a speech in
the House of Commons on 7Feb34. (1218)
Churchill sent Duff Cooper to Singapore to
provide him a personal report. Unfortunately
Duff Cooper issued no warnings of Singapore's military weakness during the three
months before its invasion.
(1219) Lord Lothian was British Ambassador
to the U. S. from 1939 till his death on
12Dec40. (1220) Churchill intended to entitle his first and only novel Affairs of State.
(1221) The quote about a book "all about
himself" called "The World Crisis" is ascribed
to Samuel Hoare. (1222) Churchill was 76
years old when he again became PM in 1951.
(1223) FDR wanted to take over the defense
of Northern Ireland. (1224) The Blenheim
victory was in the 18th century, 13 August
1704.
(1225) Neville Chamberlain suggested making WSC "Ambassador to Timbucto." (1226)
The woman in Savrola is Lucile. (1227)
Churchill said: "In the present age the State
cannot control the Church in spiritual matters; it can only divorce it." (1228) About
tyranny WSC said: "It is not a question of
opposing Nazism or Communism, but of opposing tyranny in whatever form it presents
itself." (1229) In 1901 Churchill predicted
"...a European war can only end in the ruins
of the vanquished and the scarcely less fatal
commercial dislocation and exhaustion of the
conquerors." (1230) "Operation Sledgehammer," which proved unachievable, was the
plan for landing in France in 1942.
43
"The Britons are almost miraculousl\
fortunate in their present leaders. "
_
—Wendell Willkie

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