Journal of the International Churchill Society

Quarterly Journal of the International Churchill Society Established 1968 Number 51 • Spring \986

THE INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETY

A non-profit association of scholars, historians, philatelists, collectors andbibliophiles, the Society was founded in 1968 to promote interest in andknowledge of the life and thought of Sir Winston Churchill, and to preservehis memory. ICS is certified as a tax-free charity under Section 501(c) (3) ofthe US Internal Revenue Code, is Affiliate #49 of the American PhilatelicSociety, and is a study unit of the American Topical Association. Finest Hoursubscriptions are included in a membership fee of $15 US, $20 Canadian, £13Sterling, $22 Australian, or $19 US elsewhere. Membership applications andchanges of address welcomed at the business office listed on page 3. Editorialcorrespondence: PO Box 385, Contoocook, NH 03229 USA. Permission tomail at non-profit rates granted by the United States Postal Service. Producedby Dragonwyck Publishing Inc. Copyright © 1986. All rights reserved.

PATRON OF THE SOCIETY

The Lady Soames, DBE

HONORARY MEMBERS

The Marquess of BathWinston S. Churchill, MPSir John Colville, CB, CVOMartin Gilbert, MAGrace Hamblin, OBEGovernor the Hon. W. Averell HarrimanThe Duke of Marlborough, DL, JPSir John MartinAnthony Montague Browne, CBE, DFCThe Rt Hon The Lord Soames, GCMG, GCVO, CH, CBEThe Rt Hon The Earl of Stockton, OMThe Hon Caspar W. Weinberger

In Memoriam:The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 1900-1979The Baroness Clementine Spencer-Churchill of Chartwell, 1885-1977Randolph S. Churchill, 1911-1968Dalton Newfield, 1918-1982Oscar Nemon, 1906-1985

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Australia: Peter M. JenkinsCanada: Arthur Cload, Ronald W. Downey, John Plumpton,

W.J. Sterling Sunley, George E. TempleNew Zealand: R. Barry CollinsUnited Kingdom: Peter Coombs, Geoffrey J. WheelerUnited States: W. Glen Browne, Derek Brownleader, Sue M. Hefner,

Richard M. Langworth, George A. Lewis, David Marcus

COVER

A remarkable photograph of Winston S. Churchill during his visit to Alberta,Canada in 1929, located for us by Sterling Sunley of Edmonton, courtesy ofthe Provincial Archives of Alberta: Pollard Collection P5302. The photographshows a pensive Churchill, early in the so-called "Wilderness Years." Ster-ling conjectures: could he be thinking of the letter he had just written to hiswife? . . . "Darling, I am greatly attracted to this country. [Perhaps Ishould] clear out of politics and see if I cannot make you and the kittens a littlemore comfortable before I die. Only one goal still attracts me, and if that werebarred I shd quit the dreary field for pastures new." Fortunately, he didn't.

Produced by Dragonwyck Publishing Inc. Vi

FINEST HOUR

Editor: Richard M. LangworthPost Office Box 385, Contoocook, New Hampshire 03229 USA

Senior Editor: John G. Plumpton130 Collingsbrook Blvd, Agincourt, Ontario, Canada M1W 1M7

Bibliographic Editor (Works by Churchill): Ronald I. Cohen5 Murray Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, Canada H3Y 2X9

Bibliographic Editor (Works about Churchill): H. Ashley Redburn7 Auriol Drive, Bedhampton, Havant, Hants. PO9 3LR, England

Cuttings Editor: John Frost8 Monks Ave, New Barnet, Herts., EN5 1D8, England

Contributors:George Richard, 7 Channel Hwy, Taroona, Tasmania, Australia 7006Stanley E. Smith, 155 Monument St., Concord, Mass. 01742 USASidney Altneu, 2851 NE 183rd St., N. Miami Beach, Fla. 33160 USA

Composition by C&R Composition, Pittsfield, New HampshirePrinting by Hazen Printing Co., Penacook, New Hampshire

FEATURES

Your Invitation to Vancouver: October 4-6,1986 5The I.C.S. International ConventionWith James C. Humes & William Manchester

Mark Grimsich is "Young Winston" 6An Accurate Portrayal by a "Young Member"by David Druckman

"Let Us Command the Moment to Remain" 7Churchill as Father and Family Manby The Lady Soames, D.B.E.

The Writing of "Lord Randolph Churchill" 14An Immense Literary Valueby John G. Plumpton

Churchill in Stamps: Part 9 18Interlude in Africaby Richard M. Langworth

Books: The Revisionists Revised 20Neilson and Thompson: Birds of a Feather?by George Richard, Tom Sherman & Stanley E. Smith

"Winston As Fraud, Fakir and War-Monger" 23Absorbing "The Most Virulent Criticism"A Collection of Political Cartoons

DEPARTMENTS

Editorial/3 International Datelines/4 Woods Corner/12 Review-ing Churchill/17 Action This Day/24 Riddles-Mysteries-Enigmas/35 Despatch Box/25 Book Service/25Coming Events/26 Members Classified/26 ICS Stores/27Immortal Words/28

•\J Copyright ©19X6 1-inosl Hour

BUSINESS OFFICESAustralia: Peter M. Jenkins

8 Regnans Ave., Endeavour Hills, Victoria 3802

Canada: George E. Temple20 Burbank Dr., Willowdale, Ontario M2K 1M8

New Zealand: R. Barry Collins9 Millstream Place, Warkworth

United Kingdom: Geoffrey J. Wheeler88A Franklin, Tadley, Hampshire RG26 6EU

United States; Derek Brownleader1847 Stonewood Dr., Baton Rouge, La. 70816

Chairman of the Board: Richard M. LangworthPutney House, Contoocook, NH 03229 USA

CHAPTERSCanada/New Brunswick: Celwyn P. Ball

1079 Coverdale Rd. RR2, Moncton NB E1C 8J6

Canada/Toronto: P.A.H. Cassels10 Woodmere Court, Islington, Ont. M9A 3J1

UK/Central England: Peter Coombs1 Pound Close, Yarnton, Oxon. OX5 1QG

USA/New England: Jon R. Richardson47 Old Farm Road, Bedford, N.H. 03102

USA/NY Metro: Paul Biba23 Crestview Dr., Bernardsville, N.J. 07924

USA/North Texas: David A. Sampson5603 Honey Locust Trail, Arlington, Tex. 76017

USA/Tennessee: Dennis Johnson4817 Shadecrest Drive, Nashville, Tenn. 37211

USA/Washington: Kirby A. Wilbur13411 78th Place N.E., Kirkland, Wash. 98034

AFFILIATED REPRESENTATIVESCanada/Vancouver: Norman Faiers, Pres.

Sir Winston S. Churchill Society of Vancouver2450 Mathers Ave., W. Vancouver, B.C. V7V 2H8

SPECIAL OFFICERSGeneral Treasurer: George A. Lewis

268 Canterbury Road, Westfield, N.J. 07790 USA

ICS Stores: Sue M. Hefner134 N. Woodlawn, Lima, Ohio 45805 USA

Legal Advisor: Wallace H. Johnson9905 Devonshire Dr., Omaha, Neb. 68114 USA

Commemorative Covers: David Marcus221 Pewter Lane, Silver Spring, Md. 20904 USA

Biblographic Affairs: Ronald I. Cohen5 Murray Ave., Westmount, P.Q. Canada H3Y 2X9

STOP PRESS! WILLIAM MANCHESTER AND JAMES HUMES ARE OURSPEAKERS AT THE 1986 ICS INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION IN VAN-COUVER, OCTOBER 4-6TH. Please turn to page 5, and follow the directionsto register and book your hotel accommodations. The fee of US$98 covers twofirst-class dinners with wine, a band, all convention and speaker costs —everything. It's a bargain. Vancouver is a nice place anytime — but in earlyautumn, with Expo '86 as well, it offers you an ideal holiday or weekend away.Please join us.

* * *A characteristic of Finest Hour since its 1981 revival — both frustrating and

encouraging — is lack of space. We never have enough to handle all the thingswe think ought to be in each issue. This time the victim is our center pull-outhandbook section, which will resume next time with an illustrated checklist ofChurchill local stamps and labels.

* * *Exciting news on page 22: Ronald Cohen advises that a whole new

bibliography, which replaces rather than modifies "Woods" — is certain, withSections A and B vastly extended. Our "official bibliographer" is on a roll!

* * *Our promise to make Finest Hour a more scholarly journal, and thus to en-

courage more original research on our major subject, could not have been keptwithout the contributors to two significant features herein. Senior editor JohnPlumpton, of Agincourt, Ontario, offers us on page 14 a new look at thewriting of WSC's first great biography, Lord Randolph Churchill: the flaws andstrong points, as seen then and now, with an educated conjecture on theauthor's motivations. John has also taken the same work as subject for hisregular column, "Reviewing Churchill," (page 17).

George Richard of Tasmania, Australia; Tom Sherman of Kansas and StanSmith of Massachusetts, USA, combine to review quite another type of work,or works: two of the most contentious "revisionist" books about WSC. It is safeto say that these fairminded commentaries are more than either "The ChurchillLegend" or "Churchill and Morton" received upon publication.

* * *As we were halfway through the layouts for this issue, we received a

telegram from Martin Gilbert asking that we not publish his after-dinner talkabout "Churchill's London" for technical reasons, expressing his regret andhoping to do something else of an original nature for us shortly. Somethingelse was duly suggested.

There is no lapse, however, in this issue's ration of fresh insights into SirWinston from those best able to provide them. We are proud to publish LadySoames' third contribution to this journal: her own rich remembrances of herfather as a father, as only she could relate them. We are grateful to our NorthTexas Chapter, and in particular to Naomi Gottlieb and David Sampson, forproviding Lady Soames with the opportunity to deliver this most movingaddress at their meeting last February.

* * *Lady Soames' address is especially appropriate to this issue, since we are

deeply honored to announce that she has accepted the position of Patron of theSociety, vacant since the death of Lord Mountbatten in 1979. She writes thatshe hopes to act as a kind of "God-mother" to us by contributing to our deci-sionmaking processes, which is certainly an understatement. We are veryproud to welcome Lady Soames to this new position and know we shall derivemuch from her guidance.

"Immortal Words" has been transferred to the back cover. RML

"THAT DEAR & EXCELLENT WOMANLondon — Further to our announcement lastissue that the grave of "Nanny Everest" isnow beautifully restored, we are pleased toshow you the lovely result, via the adjacentphoto.

The headstone was paid for by Winston andJack, and for many years Sir Winston paid anannual sum for upkeep of the gravesite. Theheadstone reads: "Erected in Memory ofElizabeth Ann Everest, who died 3rd July1895, Aged 62, by Winston Spencer Churchill— Jack Spencer Churchill."

Mrs. Everest was engaged as nanny to theyoung Winston in 1875 and stayed with thefamily until 1893. She was nicknamed"Woomany" or "Woom" by her youngcharges, whose affection for her lastedthroughout their lives.

In My Early Life, Sir Winston describedMrs. Everest as "my dearest and most in-timate friend" during his first 20 years. Heused her as the model for the housekeeper tothe eponymous hero of his novel, Savrola. Herepitaph he took from the autobiography of Ed-ward Gibbon, who wrote of his old nurse:

"If there be any who rejoice that I live, tothat dear and excellent woman their gratitudeis due."

— Geoffrey J. Wheeler

Above: Tom Thomas snapped this lovely warmemorial parade by former Royal Navy andFree French members; the Cross of Lorraineis at extreme left, next to B.L. and R.N.A.standards. Right: While traveling through theCotswolds near Chipping Norton, after"Churchill's England" last fall, the editorfound a delightful potential world headquartersfor ICS, and several estate agents have beennotified . . .

WATCH PBS-TV JUNE 18TH:ROBERT HARDY/WSC RETURNSToronto, Canada, April — Douglas McLeod,George Temple, and 10 other members of theICS Toronto Chapter attended a filming ofRobert Hardy, alias Siegfried Farrjum, aliasWinston Churchill (of "All Creatures Greatand Small" and "The Wilderness Years"),which will be shown on USA public television18 June. Tune in! Mr. Hardy, to whom wehave extended ICS membership, was inToronto in his brilliant role as WSC, for a90-minute presentation produced by DavidSusskind. The script was written by "ourown" James Humes, who plays a pretty fairChurchill himself. Watch your televisionlistings for announcements.

CHURCHILL AIRPORT?Redhill, Surrey, UK — A request for GatwickAirport to be renamed the Winston SpencerChurchill Airport has been made by the Guildof British Travel Agents. It has a certain ringto it, we say.

GEORGE WILL'S PIN-UP WAS WSCWashington, DC, 25 April — Syndicatedcolumnist (and ICS member) George F. Willsays he has been wearing bow ties since the1960s, when "men's ties became fat andugly" and because he likes the look of them."Besides," he says, "most of my pin-upswere of Churchill."

Will says red is the color for Washingtonpower ties. "If you want to be a serious personin Washington, you wear red." Asked ifRepublicans and Democrats dress the same, heanswers, "They actually think the same too,but we're not allowed to say that . . . "

— The Washington Post

NORWOOD AT CANBERRACanberra, ACT, Australia, April 25th — ICSmember Norwood Keeney of Washington, anaide of Representative Judd Gregg (from ourown District in New Hampshire), arrived inCanberra weighed down by a small gift forAdmiral Ian Richards and the ChurchillMemorial Trust: a complete file of FinestHour, going back to that thin, typed No. 1 westill remember cranking out on an unplain-paper copier (to a press run of 25) in 1968. Asmall token of our esteem for the fine work be-ing done by the Australian Trust was longoverdue, and we thank Norwood for assumingburro duties.

Continued on page 6

YOUR INVITATION TO VANCOUVER:OCTOBER 4-6, 1986

The I.C.S. International ConventionWith James C. Humes & William Manchester

REGISTER EARLY — SEATS LIMITEDThe Sir Winston S. Churchill Society of

Vancouver and the International ChurchillSociety request the honor of your presence atthe 1986 ICS Annual General Meeting, onSaturday-Monday October 4th-6th, at the Har-bourside Holiday Inn, Vancouver.

Master Registration of only $98 (US), $135(Can) or £68 (UK) covers all activities for allthree days.

A stunning and memorable program hasbeen planned for your enjoyment, with ourguests of honor, speaker and author James C.Humes, and William Manchester, author ofThe Last Lion/Winston Spencer Churchill, andmany other biographies including those ofDouglas Mac Arthur and John F. Kennedy.

Our convention is built around BritishColumbia's 1986 World Exposition, andgroup discounts will be available. (Even theregular admission is only $15.) The tentativeschedule . . .

Saturday, October 4th: A mid-day welcom-ing reception at our hotel. Meet and minglewith our workers, officers and directors, withlunch following at your own option.

At 2PM, a seminar on Churchillophilatelyand collectible Churchilliana, conducted byseveral ICS experts. Display items welcome— contact the editor.

At 7PM, a cocktail hour followed by a five-course banquet with wine, and James Humes'famous presentation, "An Evening With Mr.Churchill." Humes, one of the world'sforemost students and impersonators of WSC,has been acclaimed "Churchill himself," andwas so much enjoyed at Boston last year thatwe invited him to join us again. Everyonefinds his humorous and warm remembranceof the Great Man unforgettable — and moving.

Sunday, October 5th: Because many willwant to visit Expo '86, this day is left free offormal activities, but there will be an oppor-tunity to get together at our reception suite andlook over various exhibits. There will also be ameeting of the ICS Board of Directors, towhich all members are invited.

Monday, October 6th: Bibliophiles will en-joy our seminar today on Churchill books,with Ronald Cohen and Richard Langworth onhand to answer your questions and providepersonal appraisals of any rare editions. Do

bring these with you, so all can see them. Wewill discuss the new Cohen Bibliography, (seep!2 this issue), and promise to answer virtuallyany question you can throw at us (we are veryconfident) — about values, history, press runs,availability and relative importance of anybook by or about Sir Winston. Depending onsupply, we hope to conduct a book sale aswell, to benefit the Literary Foundation.

This evening, the highlight of our conven-tion: a formal dinner banquet with wine, andbrandy later, for guest speaker William Man-chester. (Ours is the only invitation he has ac-cepted while still in the midst of Volume II ofThe Last Lion.)

Our hosts are the members of the ChurchillSociety of Vancouver, who plan all the tradi-tional pomp and circumstance of their annualdinners: a military band, regimental music,the Loyal Toast, national anthems. Black tie oruniform is recommended, and decorationsmay be worn.

Best-selling biographer William Manchesteris Adjunct Professor of History and Writer-in-Residence at Wesleyan University in Connec-ticut. His 14 books, which have been pub-lished in 18 languages as well as Braille, in-clude The Death of a President, The Arms ofKrupp, The Glory and the Dream, AmericanCaesar and Goodbye, Darkness. Join ustonight as Professor Manchester discusses hisbiographic adventures in Volume II (1932-65)of The Last Lion.

All this in the splendor of magnificent Van-couver, with a World's Fair at the same time,and one of the ideal times of the year — howcan you plan to be anywhere else but with theInternational Churchill Society?

HOW TO REGISTERSimply send US$98, CAN$135 or the

equivalent, for each person attending, togetherwith their names and addresses, to:Sir Winston S. Churchill Societyc/o Norman Faiers2450 Mathers AvenueVancouver, B.C.CANADA V7V2H8

You will receive registration materials andfurther details later this summer.

HOTEL RESERVATIONSYou are responsible for making your own

reservations. However, the Harbourside Holi-day Inn is holding a block of 50 rooms for ICSmembers. Telephone them at 604-689-9211and please mention ICS.

Your special rates as an ICS member are:harbor-view singles US$87, CAN$120;doubles US$98, CAN$135; city-view singlesUS$76, CAN$105, doubles US$87,CAN$120.

DO IT TODAY: WE ARE ANXIOUS TOSEE YOU!

MARK GRIMSICH IS "YOUNG WINSTON'

Chicago, March 8th — Anyone who missedICS member Mark Grimsich's solo perfor-mance of "Churchill: The Early Years" at theRed Lion Pub this March may only hope tocatch the next engagement — wherever it maybe. Grimsich's expert one-man act was sopopular that it was held over two weeks.

The Red Lion, on North Lincoln, is a small,narrow, intimate lounge, decorated withBritish memorabilia. Prior to the perfor-mance, excerpts from Gilbert and Sullivan'sHMS Pinafore were playing.

Grimsich was dressed in striped trousers,waistcoat, evening coat and, of course, spotted

inMark off-duty.

bow tie. Brandishing a large cigar, he spokefor an hour. His reminiscences traveled fromhis first Latin lesson ("But why 'O Table'?")to the famous Nancy Astor-WSC exchange("If I were your husband, I'd drink it.")Grimsich has a strong, rich voice which belieshis diminutive physique; his hair and complex-ion closely match contemporary photos of the"Member for Oldham."

His hand movements and gait, I thought,were typically Winstonian (WSC in turn pat-terned them after Lord Randolph — thefamous cocked elbow with hand at the waist).Most of the dialogue was adapted from My

Early Life, and presented conversationally.Several guests were sure young Winstonhimself had magically materialized.

Grimsich told me after the performance thatthe audience had increased since his debut.When I was there, the room was full, everytable taken. The manager would have beenwise to extend his stay longer.

Mark and his well-researched act should beconsidered by any ICS chapter, and we hopehe will also be part of a future annual meeting.He may be contacted at 910 W. Addison, Apt2R, Chicago IL 60613 USA.

— David Druckman

Our hard-working UK directors, Peter Coombs (L) and Geoffrey Wheeler, represented the Societyat an impressive Churchillian Exhibit, by invitation of the Cabinet War Rooms in Londonlast November. We thought you would like to connect the faces to our many references.

The Cabinet Room the Defence Committee-directing Britain's war effort

Winitor, Churctiilt. Prime Minnof Dvfencc

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Above: An old New Jersey artist-neighbor, SalAsaro, presented the editor with this handsomeexercise based on a Halsman photo of WSCfrom the jacket of the American edition ofTheir Finest Hour (1949). We are delighted toadvise that Sal has now agreed to contributean original painting to our forthcoming editionof "The Dream" for the Churchill LiteraryFoundation, showing Lord Randolph's 1948"reappearance" in WSC's studio.

"Let Us Command the Moment to Remain"

Churchill as Father and Family Man

AN ADDRESS BY THE LADY SOAMES, D.B.E., TO ICS/NORTH TEXASLOEWS ANATOLE, DALLAS, 19 FEBRUARY 1986

Mr. Chairman. Ladies and Gentlemen. I am so excited andhonoured to be here at the very first gathering of the NorthTexas International Churchill Society, and if I've hadanything to do with people wanting to come then I am in-deed proud and happy. You will realise how deeply movingit is for me to see how revered, even 20 years after his death,is my father's memory — which the International ChurchillSociety does so much to keep fresh and green. It makes meindeed proud and happy that you have all come here todayto meet me. I hope that you are the founding mothers,fathers, brothers and sisters of a lively and active chapter ofthe International Churchill Society. And as you are settingout on your way, may I venture to say to you what I hope theInternational Churchill Society does? It does a lot of things,as you will see from Finest Hour. There are stamps and booksand recollections of my father — every kind of thing. Butperhaps we are looking at it from a rather partisan point of

view.I hope that the International Churchill Society, wherever,

whatever chapters are formed, will continue to take a par-ticular care and pride in keeping the record straight. Thereare a lot of stories told about famous people, and I find thatas time goes on it is rather like the lens of a camera becomingout of focus. Virtues become out of focus, and faults comeout of focus. Inaccurate statements said in some paper orbook are copied light-heartedly, and reproduce themselvesall over the place. Few people take the trouble to go back tothe source, and find out if that really was what happened. Ilike to hope that the International Churchill Society chapterswill, among all the other things that they do, regardthemselves as the guardians of the true picture and tryalways to bring that camera back into true focus.

Sorry to give you a little lecture but I do care about ittremendously, and the only time I've ever — I think I can saythis; Mr. Langworth who is the real founding father wouldforgive me for saying so — the only time I've ever fallen outwith him a little bit was when I saw a really horrible effigyof my father being advertised in Finest Hour, and I wrote hima furious letter! [Laughter, all of it on me. Ed.] Any othersociety, of course, could trade anything they liked — it's afree world, a free country — but the Churchill Society, whichis there to keep the record straight should be careful whatthey reproduce, what they use, because you are, you can be,the repository of the true story and the true image. Naturally,as his daughter, I care very much about that.

Your chairman has suggested that you would like it most ifI were to recall for you my father as a family man, and I shalldo so with great joy as well as some nostalgia. But it alwaysgives me happiness when I have an opportunity to reviveboth myself and for others the vivid personality, the warmth,

Mary with her father at Chartwell, 1924, and addressing the North TexasChapter at Dallas, 1986.

.

and the humanity of my great and beloved father in theglow of whose memory I shall ever live. Of course, it was hisfamily and close friends who were the principal beneficiariesof his warm-hearted, and in the main genial temperament.But those who knew Winston Churchill best in public and inprivate have often testified to the oneness of his character.His public face was not that much different from the privatecountenance we all knew. He was a most natural, almostuninhibited person with an engaging frankness of expressionand candour of mind which were most refreshing to en-counter. His spontaneous enjoyment of so many things inlife and his many interests and talents made him a very en-thralling companion, as those who worked closely with himhave often recounted.

And I'm so glad that some of you had the opportunity to-day to meet for a brief moment Sir John Colville and his wife.Sir John has just written an excellent book which has justcome out called Fringes of Power. He was my father's privatesecretary from the beginning of the war on and off rightthrough the war, and then again when my father was PrimeMinister for the second time. He started as a young man withmy father, having been in Neville Chamberlain's private of-fice. He started with a real anti-Churchill outlook, and it is tome moving and touching to see, as the days go by and themonths go by, that he became a candid and deep admirer, aloyal servant, and a true friend. Long after my father left of-fice, he and Margaret Colville were frequent visitors towherever my parents were, and in the last days of my

father's life, they were among the people who came to bidhim farewell. You will see, if any of you get the book —which I do most strongly recommend to you — the engagingand private side of my father's life: how he liked to talk to hisprivate secretary on duty (which was often Jock Colville),and his naturalness. Well, anyhow, I do think you ought tryand get it. He's not very nice about me but we have remainedfriends all the way. [Laughter.]

To have been my father's child was an enrichment, asperhaps you can imagine, beyond compare. And from myearliest years I found myself admitted to a grown-up world ofinterest, variety, excitement, and great fun. My childhood

Naomi Gottlieb, Lady Soames, David Sampson made the day.

Lady Soames inscribes a book for Mr. & Mrs. Sampson. Sir John Colville stopped by, to our great delight.

DALLAS COMMANDS THE MOMENTDallas, Texas, 19 February — The NorthTexas Chapter of the International ChurchillSociety sponsored its first function in theelegant Jade Room of the Loews AnatoleHotel today. The luncheon was held in honorof The Lady Soames, D.B.E., youngestdaughter of Sir Winston, who was in Dallasfor the presentation of the Churchill Award toDallas businessman and civic leader H. RossPerot. H.R.H. The Prince of Wales presentedthe award to Mr. Perot the previous eveningduring a banquet held in Mr. Perot's honor atthe Loews Anatole. Also present at the Inter-

national Churchill Society luncheon were SirJohn Colville, Sir Winston's private secretaryduring the war years and again in Sir Wins-ton's second administration, and Sir John'swife, Lady Margaret.

Lady Soames was a charming and delightfulguest of honor. During the reception whichpreceded the luncheon, she greeted the 60guests and signed copies of her books. Afterthe luncheon, she spoke on "Churchill asFather and Family Man," a subject aboutwhich she is uniquely qualified to discourse.

During her opening remarks, Lady Soamesmade a moving appeal for the guests to

become members of the International Chur-chill Society and support the important workI.C.S. does in "setting the record straight andkeeping the camera lens in focus" some 20years after her father's death.

As a direct result of the luncheon and LadySoames' remarks, the North Texas Chapter ofthe International Churchill Society has grownfrom nine to over 30 members in a little over amonth. A Board of Directors has been ap-pointed, and the Chapter is anxiously lookingforward to future events. Arrangements forthe elegant luncheon were made by longtimeDallas I.C.S. supporter Mrs. Naomi Gottlieb.

8

memories of my parents are chiefly centred around life atChartwell, which I believe quite a number of you in thisroom have visited. Chartwell was where my father loved bestof all to be in the whole wide world. He used to say, "A dayspent away from Chartwell is a day wasted." And there I, byfar the youngest of his children, was brought up from myearliest days.

Of course, no account of Winston Churchill as a familyman can exclude his beloved Clementine, whose abidingbeauty, distinct personality, steadfast love, and — last but notleast — good housekeeping, made the constant backgroundto her husband's tumultuous career. Many years after theywere married he was to write in one of his wonderful lettersto her: "My greatest good fortune in a life of brilliant ex-perience has been to find you and to lead my life with you."What a tribute! And for 57 years they lived together, througha period as tumultuous and changing as surely as any in ourhistory. Together, they faced the ups and downs of politicallife. And for nearly all their lives, they were in the eye of thestorms which have rocked our civilisation.

We children were early on to learn the tides and seasons ofParliamentary sessions — the overriding responsibilities ofpublic life which governed our parents' lives, which took noaccount of school prizegivings, family feasts, or carefullyplanned treats and holidays. Even when we were quite small,we learned to sense and to respond to the tension of thecrisis. My father used to say gravely, "We must all rise to thelevel of events." An austere dictum for the young, but I havecome to be grateful for it in my life. Public dramas penetratedto the nursery floor. In 1915, at the height of the DardanellesCrisis which resulted in grievous loss of life and dramaticrepercussions, Diana, then aged six, was heard by her nannyto pray with fervour, "Oh God, please bless the Dardanelles,whatever they are."

For me, clear consecutive memories of my father beginwith the opening of that decade which in the term ofWinston Churchill's life has come to be called "TheWilderness Years": 1929-1939. In 1929, he had ceased to beChancellor of the Exchequer, when Stanley Baldwin's Con-servative government was defeated. For ten years after thathe was to be out of office. Winston was now in his mid-fifties, Clementine ten years younger, and myself eightish,trailing along well behind the big ones, Diana, Randolph, andSarah. Winston was of course still a member of Parliament,and politics kept my parents much in London. But in theThirties, Chartwell, which had been bought in the earlyTwenties, became more and more the centre of their lives.

Looking back with a perspective which one doesn't have atthe time, I think what strikes me most about my father at thatperiod, is what a prodigious worker he was. Our domesticlife was geared around his program. Chartwell was averitable factory. The lights from his upstairs study gleamedlate into the night while, padding up and down that longroom with its raftered ceiling, he dictated to his secretary hourafter hour. His speeches, whether on platforms up and downthe country or from his place below the gangway in theHouse of Commons, received infinite pains in their prepara-tion. Newspaper articles for both home and abroad pouredforth.

His political activities alone would have filled a busy life,

but apart from all this, he made time for his work as anauthor and as an historian. It must never be forgotten that hewas not a rich man. He kept us all by his pen. His literaryoutput in those years was truly amazing. Apart from collec-tions and speeches, articles and essays, his major works be-tween the two world wars were The World Crisis in sixvolumes (which told the story of the 1914-1918 war and itsaftermath), and his monumental Life of his great ancestor,the Duke of Marlborough. The outbreak of the Second WorldWar found him hard at work on his four-volume History ofthe English Speaking Peoples — a vivid, panoramic tapestry,from which he broke off to contribute with his own lifeand actions more memorable pages to that history.

After the Second World War he was to complete this work,but only after the six volumes of his war memoirs. Someonehas compared him to Caesar, who waged wars and wroteabout them. All the while he was involved in politics, leadinghis party from the humiliating defeat of 1945 back to poweronce more. Winston Churchill was 77 and still going strongwhen he became Prime Minister again in 1951. And if wenow recall him chiefly as statesman and world leader, wemust remember that it was for literature that Winston Chur-chill was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1953.

Life was not all toil. Far from it! If midnight oil was con-sumed by the gallon, daylight and sunshine hours were filledwith a multitude of occupations: building walls and cottages,making dams, turning peninsulas into islands, constructingswimming pools, and devising complicated waterworks sothe little rivulet that ran in at the Chart Well splashed 'rounddown through the valley and was pumped up again to startcrashing down the hill again. During the winter of 1934,when my mother was away on a long sea voyage, a friendstaying at Chartwell wrote to her to keep her in touch. Shewrote, "Winston has so many irons in the fire that the day isnot nearly long enough, what with the new wall and themechanical digger that does the work of 40 men, rebuildingthe chauffeur's cottage, films, the crisis in India, and whenthere is nothing else, Marlborough. Well, you see, we arebusy."

And then, of course, there was his painting. I do hopeperhaps some of you will have the chance to go up to yourwonderful Dallas Museum of Art and to see there among verygreat works of art, a small exhibition of my father's pictures.Some of them I'm very proud of, and think are very good. Ihope you will perhaps take the chance to go and see them.He took up painting literally as occupational therapy whenhe was over 40, in the traumatic aftermath of the Dardanellescatastrophe; and from that grim summer of 1915 for over 40years more, my father found hours of pleasure and occupa-tion in painting. He himself wrote, "Happy are the painters,for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace andhope, will keep them company to the end or almost to theend of the day." Those were prophetic words, for he con-tinued to enjoy painting up to within just a few years beforehis death. I am indeed fortunate to live surrounded by someof his best pictures. They are so full of light and colour, andevoke for me many happy hours spent watching him paintor having picnics while he was painting. They evoke notonly the many seasons of Chartwell and the brilliant light ofthe south of France, but they reflect also the hours of concen-

A

The Jade Room was a fine setting for our luncheon. Lady Margaret Colville chats with Lady Soames.

Meeting North Texas ICS members.

trated pleasure, and oblivion from dark worries, which hederived from painting them.

One of my father's salient characteristics was his readinessto forgive. Somebody said about him, "Winston is a very badhater." When I was a child, I often heard him quote theBiblical injunction, "Let not the sun go down upon yourwrath," and it was a precept he practised both in his publicand his private life. He indeed was a quick forgiver, and oftenit was he who made the first steps across the bridge, to makeup quarrels — whether in matters great or small, whetherwith mighty grown-ups or his own silly, tempestuouschildren. And in his public life, he preached and practisedreconciliations and magnanimity in victory to his country'sfoes.

No recollection of my father could ignore the wit andwisdom and joviality of his company. Early admitted to ourparents' table as we children were, some of my most vividchildhood and teenage memories are the mealtimes at Chart-well. Much of the splendour of conversation, of course, sailedover my head in the earlier years. I think I may have possiblybeen more preoccupied about whether there were going tobe enough cupcakes for me to have a second helping. But Ithink sometimes I didn't miss all of the firework displays andeloquent argument. And as time went on, I began to followand to feel inspired by the great issues of those days.

But most of all, I remember with delight when our com-

pany was joined by some of the muses — the muse ofhistory, of song, and poetry sacred and heroic. Led by myfather, we would recite verse after verse from Macauley'sLays of Ancient Rome, his and our favourite being the glorioustale of how Horatio kept that bridge in the days of old. Andthe rollicking Edwardian musical songs he had enjoyed somuch as a young man; and Rudyard Kipling in all hismoods; and Rupert Brooke; and of course, Shakespeare.What a prodigious memory my father had, reaching far backto his school days at Harrow. And from him, too, I learned asa child that throbbing, thrilling, glorious "Battle Hymn of theRepublic," "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming ofthe Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes ofwrath are stored." Perhaps those long ago, triumphant dayswere in our minds when we chose that hymn to be sung athis great state funeral at St. Paul's Cathedral.

With all these diversions, mealtimes sometimes prolongedthemselves into three-hour sessions, often to my mother'sdespair. And so eventually she would make to move. And Iso well remember my father looking at her down the table,lovingly and ruefully, and saying, "Oh, Clemmie, don't go. Itis so nice. Let us command the moment to remain." Ofcourse, one never can. But today I've tried to command someprecious moments that I remember to remain. And as I haverecalled these things and that extraordinary man in yourcompany, it has made me very happy.*

10

CHARTWELL

Bold Rockwork

and Falls

DESIGNED AND

CONSTRUCTED FOR

The Right Hon.

Winston S.Churchill

O.M., C.H., M.P.

tnGAVIN JONES NURSERIES LIMITED • LETCHWORTH • Herts

Above: Cuttings Editor John Frost (New Barnet, UK) found this 1950 ad by the gardeners who helped WSC design and build his Chartwellrockeries in the 1930s, as mentioned by Lady Soames. What we can't fathom is how John keeps coming up with these gems!

Below: Sarah Churchill helps her father campaign, 1929. Mary, 13, with her parents enroute Westminster Hall for the loyal addresses, 9 May 1935.

11

Woods Corner Ronald I. Cohen, Editor5 Murrray Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, Canada H3Y 2X9

An Ongoing Forum of Additions & Corrections to the Woods Bibliography of Works by Sir Winston Churchill

To Come: An Entirely New Churchill BibliographyI have spent most of the last six months in Europe, princi-

pally filming in Yugoslavia but also visiting England, France,Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, Czechoslovakia andHungary. During that time, I have had the opportunity to doconsiderable research regarding the foreign language editions.(Some of the results of that work ran in the last issue of FinestHour. I intend, in a coming issue of FH, to talk about how Ifound what I found. There appear to be several typographicalerrors in foreign names and titles in the last column. Thesewill be corrected in a forthcoming issue.)

I have also had the time to reflect further on the structure ofthe Churchill Bibliography, both the present one by Woodsand that which I am in the process of preparing. This WoodsCorner will be devoted to that subject.

First, I think that it is clear that Woods did an extraordinaryjob in tracking down the wealth of material which comprisedthe first edition of the Bibliography (in 1963). Many of theworks were even unknown to, or unremembered by, the Chur-chill family, and the Bibliography provided a significantfoothold for scholars and collectors attempting to scale theChurchillian mountain of written and spoken/written words.

The matter does not, however, end there. Changes whichusers were entitled to expect between the first and the latest(1975) edition did not occur. There are many gaps and errorsin Sections A and C, as I have pointed out in previous issues ofFH. But the Bibliography has worse problems — structuralones. In generally accepted bibliographical terms, Woods hasmissed the point of Sections B and D. Let me explain.

The general purpose of a bibliography is to trace for thescholar, or of course the collector, all of the first appearancesof all material written by the author. Whether fiction, poetry,history or speeches, the point is the same. Each section of abibliography is designed to participate in this exploration offirst appearances, and this in a pretty standard format.

Section ACustomarily, the scope of any " A " section is broader than

Woods' Section A. In a standard bibliography, that sectioncontains all books, pamphlets and broadsides wholly orsubstantially by the author.

Thus, there is no reason for excluding from Section A theGrabhorn Press edition of Addresses, D(a)5, or the W.H.Smith Bombay War Speeches, D(a)7(a) and (b), to choose ex-amples of works wholly by Churchill (and assuming that theW.H. Smith publications, which I have not examined, containfirst appearance material). Nor for forgetting the Proceedingsat the Unveiling of the Memorial to Lawrence of Arabia,D(b)50(b), Churchill in Ottawa, D(b)62, and Churchill's Visitto Norway, D(b)74, to select examples of works writtensubstantially by Churchill. There is more of a problem withthe Grabhorn Broadcast Addresses, D(a)8, since none of thesix speeches published there appear for the first time in volumeor pamphlet form.

The Chelsea House-Bowker Complete Speeches (1974)would also be included in Section A in a normal bibliography.So, too, would co-authored works where Churchill was one ofthe two authors. Thus, the recently published Churchill-Roosevelt Correspondence (Princeton University Press) andthe Loewenheim Roosevelt and Churchill: Their Secret War-time Correspondence (1975) would also be present. WhetherB57, which includes the correspondence of numerous"authors," namely, Stalin, Roosevelt, Truman, Churchill andAttlee, should be in Section A is a matter of judgment.

Section C(I will skip Section B for the moment.) Section C is the

repository of all first appearances in periodical publications,whether magazines or newspapers. This is straightforward,although Woods mistakenly allocates numerous C-items toSection D — see, for example, D(b)23/1, D(b)24, D(b)25/1,D(b)36. Bibliographers and their publishers are foreverjousting about the appropriateness of including subsequent ap-pearances of articles in this section, but that may be little morethan a consideration of space.

Section BSection B should list all titles in which any material by the

author appears for the first time in book or pamphlet form.This is not limited to prefaces, introductions or chapters writ-ten expressly for the work in which they appear. It includesany first published appearance, whether of a letter serving as apreface, as in the case of The Epic of Malta, B38, or The Battleof the Narrow Seas, D(b)64, or of a letter within the body of awork, such as Jean, D(b)55/3 or Edward Marsh, D(b)l 15/2,or of a speech as in the case of King and Country, D(b)52 orthe Harvard Commencement Ceremonies, D(b)59.

It also includes first appearances in volume or pamphletform where the material has previously appeared in aperiodical. Thus The Bravest Deed I Ever Saw, Bl, qualifies,notwithstanding the appearance of The Doctor and the Soldier,C30, previously in V. C. But Coming Men on Coming Ques-tions, B2, will not qualify, since the first appearance was inpamphlet, not periodical, form (see A7/1).

Section DThis also means that Woods' Section D will be emasculated,

for his entries there either belong in Section A, B or C or not inthe Bibliography at all, as in the case of Fifty Stories Strangerthan Fiction, D(a)3, or The Trumpeter of St. George,D(b)55/1, since both reprinted excerpts were first published inother pamphlets or volumes.

Editor's note: Many decisions will have to be made between now andthe publication of a new Bibliography. Ronald Cohen invites your com-ments and suggestions. Please write him at the address shown at top.

12

The NewIn the new Bibliography, Sections A and B will clearly be

more substantial than in Woods. In keeping with generalbibliographical practice, all editions of each work in Section Awill be given an identifying number; each will be describedwith title page transcription and details of the contents. ThusA12, My African Journey, will include the British edition, the1919 Hodder & Stoughton paper edition, the HollandPress/Neville Spearman edition, the Icon Books paperbackand the New English Library paperback. Separate issues suchas the Hodder & Stoughton British card wraps issue of 1908,the Hodder & Stoughton and Doran American issues, and theBriggs 1909 Canadian issue will also be mentioned anddescribed (although not as separate editions).

Since the scope of the material to be covered is far largerthan what Woods had in mind, Section B will be considerablyexpanded. In order to keep the overall size of the volumemanageable (and hence not too pricey), I intend (in keepingwith standard bibliographic practice) to include title pagetranscriptions, but not contents descriptions.

Section C will be larger because of the large number ofWoods' omissions (see FH 45 and 46 for those found up toJanuary 1985). It will also be presented in a more consistentand simpler way, chronologically, and with a separate identi-fying number for every article, even if part of a so-called series(see e.g. C15, C16 or C153), unless the articles together com-prise a single volume serialization, such as that of My AfricanJourney (C35) or Savrola (C14).

Foreign language editions are also customarily present inany bibliography. Woods unfortunately limited their presenceto a reference (under the major British entry) to the languagesinto which the work had been translated (for those volumeswhere he believed there had been a translation). That is of littlehelp or interest to the researcher or collector and I intend to in-clude the foreign language title, publisher, date and city ofpublication, name of the translator and a brief reference tosubsequent editions or printings.

There are several other sections generally present in

Bibliographybibliographies (where appropriate to the author) which Ibelieve should be included here.

First, a section, probably Section AA, will be devoted tocollections of the author's work(s) which do not includematerial by the author first published in that particular collec-tion. The Library of Imperial History's 34-volume CollectedWorks would be included here (although the four-volume Col-lected Essays would undoubtedly be included separately inSection A.) Frontiers and Wars — see the reference in Woodsunder Al(a) — would be here as would A Churchill Anthology,D(a)21/1 and its American counterpart Great Destiny (how didthe latter become D(a)21/5/l?). Verification is necessary butthe "wit and wisdom, maxims and reflections" books andother such Churchill collections and anthologies would likelybe here as well. Not here, however, will be any anthologies ofother compilers/editors including a chapter or contribution byChurchill previously published in volume or pamphlet form(thus qualifying as a Section A item). See e.g. Men at War,D(a)ll or the later Arco edition, Time To Be Young, D(a)13,and so on.

While interviews could qualify as Section C items, they dopartake of a different nature and are often the meat of aseparate section.

Blurbs on the dust jackets or wrappers of works by otherauthors also generally merit a separate section.

Phonorecordings,. not new to the Churchill Bibliography,would remain. They are, after all, the spoken word.

I am very tempted to add a section on film and televisionprograms commercially released, whether on 16 mm, 35 mmor videocassette, since they also represent the spoken word inits 20th century form, and the medium by which our author hasprobably come to be generally perceived as the greateststatesman in history, whether of this or any other century.

The implementation of these changes will provide Churchillscholars, dealers, collectors and researchers with a far morecomplete and rationalized framework, and most important,one which is in keeping with standard bibliographical practice. •

Some oddments relating to A37(b); Left, what may well have been the inspiration for the US title, Henty's 1900 novel (WSCalso used title as Chapter I, Ian Hamilton's March.) Center: a Scribners advert for A Roving Commission, 1930.

A ROVING COMMISSION

OH THROUGH THE

BLACK INSURRECTION OF HAYTI

G. A. HENTY

tONDONBLACK H5 k SON, Lwni \ » OLD BAILIT, 1.0.

OUSOOW AKD D0BUH

I "More exciting than any novel."— London Times.

J\ KoringCommission

My Early Life

author oj "The World Crisis,- etc.

"Like a beaker of champagne," says a reviewer inthe London Observer of Mr. Churchill's 2estfulvolume of recollections, and continues: "I amjure that as long as there are young men andwomen they will thumb with delight the tale ofadventure told by Mr. Churchill with the skill of

ft is packed with excitemenglowing with life, this nar-

re of hairbreadth 'scapesin South Africa, wartimeadventures in E^ypt, India,and Cuba, red-hot political

impaigns and amusingyouthful scrapes at home.Moreover, it is an incompat-ible picture of the shaping

Profusely illustrated$3.50

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, NEW YORK

Reproduction Jackets for your Valuable A37s:The editor has printed enough exact color repro

jackets for the first edition My Early Life and A RovingCommission to paper the walls. Postpaid: $4 each ($5Canada, £3 UK/airmail). When the costs are met, wewill donate all proceeds to ICS. PO Box 385, Con-toocook, New Hampshire 03229 USA.

13

John G. Plumpton

The Writing of "Lord Randolph Churchill"An Immense Literary Value

British historian E. H. Carr's dictum to study the historian before westudy his history is particularly appropriate in the case of Winston Chur-chill's biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill. One cannotfully appreciate either the biography or the biographer withoutunderstanding the relationship between the father and son. VioletBonham Carter, a close friend of young Winston's tells us that

. . . it was the image of his father which dominated and obsessed hisbeing . . . and even the icy detachment and indifference of Lord Ran-dolph failed to destroy the proud and passionate allegiance of his son. . . Until the end he worshipped at the altar of his Unknown Father.1

In his own writings Winston provides us with considerable evidenceof filial hero-worship. In Thoughts and Adventures, he writes:

The greatest and most powerful influence in my early life was of coursemy father. . . . I conceived an intense admiration and affection for him;and, after his death, for his memory. I read industriously almost everyword he had ever spoken and learnt by heart large portions of hisspeeches.2

In My Early Life, he relates that his father "seemed to own the key toeverything or almost everything worth having."3 If Lord RandolphChurchill had lived a normal lifespan, he might have smothered hismore illustrious son's political career in its infancy but, as it was, thefather's premature death was a major motivating factor in Winston'sdecision to "pursue his [father's] aims and vindicate his memory."

In a cogent study of Churchill's personality, psychoanalyst AnthonyStorr offers a psychological theory for understanding Winston's hero-worship of his father: "Children whose emotional needs have beeninsufficiently satisfied react to the lack with idealization on the onehand, and hostility on the other."4 Winston Churchill's life was an ex-ample of that paradox. His aggression, stubbornness, resentment ofauthority and rebelliousness were apparent early in his life and con-tinued throughout a tumultuous political career, culminating in the 1940cry of "we shall never surrender." On the other hand, his filialidealization was obsessive and his early life was devoted to exoneratinghis father politically.

The political careers of father and son followed similar paths.Winston adopted much of his father's political philosophy and pursuedthe same capricious and independent relationship toward the disciplineof political parties. One of his proudest moments occurred when he tookthe oath as Chancellor of the Exchequer, wearing the same robes wornby his father in that office.

Early in his career he performed an essentially cathartic exercisewhich helped ". . .to know my father, which would have been a joy tome." That exercise was to write the two-volume biography, Lord Ran-dolph Churchill (Woods A8). With the help of Lord Rosebery, Winstonpersuaded his father's literary executors to entrust the task of producingthe official biography to him. Rosebery, a close friend of Lord Ran-dolph's and a valued counsellor of Winston's, perceptively noted that

. . . the plan was beset with difficulties. A son, who hardly knew hisfather as a public man or not at all, writing his father's life; the storyonly ten years old and full of delicacies and resentments; many sur-vivors of those times whose toes it was impossible to avoid treadingupon, still in existence. . . . And the author had normal animosities byleaving the party, and had to write with delicacy about both parties inview of past and present connections. . . .5

Winston's position within society and political circles gave himunique access to his father's political friends and foes, most of whomstill lived. Notwithstanding Lord Rosebery's caveat, a number of those"toes" assisted the author, Joseph Chamberlain provided immeasurableassistance. Arthur Balfour, then Prime Minister, offered to help in 1902but, two years later, he wrote an apology for providing nothing andclaimed he had conducted an unsuccessful hunt for correspondence. He

The Balfourian Parliament (1906)Cartoon by E. T. Reed, 1901

did, however, ask Winston to delete a passage about his involvement inan exchange between Salisbury and Gladstone in 1885 over thepossibility of granting some measure of self-government to Ireland.Churchill agreed but the substance of the incident remained in the book.Lord Salisbury, with little time left to live, and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, gave Winston access to their correspondence with Lord Ran-dolph. W. St. John Brodrick, Secretary of State for India, allowed theuse of state papers on India but suggested that Winston obtain the per-mission of King Edward VII to use papers and letters on Lord Ran-dolph's correspondence with and about members of the Royal Family.Churchill agreed and subsequently received permission to use the rele-vant documents.

Winston had hoped that his greatest assistance would come from theEarl of Rosebery. He later wrote in My Early Life:

I used to go to see Lord Rosebery in the later years of his life becauseapart from the respect I bore this distinguished man, I loved to hear himtalk about my father. I had the feeling of getting nearer my father when1 talked with his intimate and illustrious friend.3

But Winston's relationship with Rosebery was not always smooth. Am-bivalent about the entire project, Rosebery reneged on some of his pro-mises and engaged in a "tiff" with Winston over the use of the word"scug" in a planned introductory essay to the biography. "Scug" wasan Eton slang term that Winston considered derogatory and unsuited tothe biography written by a son. Rosebery's essay was subsequentlypublished as a separate volume.6

On publication in January 1906, Lord Randolph Churchill receivedconsiderable attention as might be expected of a work by a rising youngpolitician with an established literary reputation about one of the most

14

remarkable leaders of the previous generation. Readers were eager toknow whether filial bias would distort the author's judgment andwhether Winston's own political jousts with Balfour and JosephChamberlain would distort his perspective.

The biography was both admired and denounced because it showedLord Randolph participating in the game of politics for the sheerpleasure of it. Admiration was extended for the clear and frank por-trayal of its subject's extravagent behavior, but the biography's claimthat Lord Randolph made the Conservative Party more democratic andpopular was challenged. To many readers Lord Randolph was a cynicalpolitician who believed that the gyrations of political parties had valuefor their own sake. "Had he been in America, he would have provedhimself a 'boss' among ward-politicians."7

American reviewers liked the inside story aspect of the book — how itexplored the way in which a nation is governed, and how it was basedon letters and documents unavailable to the public. Winston was givencredit for using the documents honestly and with openly portraying hisfather's faults and errors. It was, to many observers, one of the greatpolitical biographies of the age.

From the perspective of time, however, scholars have been less en-thusiastic. British historian J.H. Plumb has charged that Churchilldeliberately doctored the evidence in order to whitewash Lord Ran-dolph's actions, that he quietly suppressed some documents and madelittle effort to obtain documents in the possession of others, and that hesmothered Randolph's prose in order to place his father in a betterlight.8

Although Winston claimed that "there is nothing more to tell," manyfeel that the biography lacks balance because it dwells so much on thepolitical machinations and touches too lightly on the personal andpsychological aspects of Lord Randolph's life. This approach is quiteconsistent with the tradition of 19th century historians, who werechroniclers and not primarily interpreters of psychological factors. Italso results from Winston's propinquity of time and status to the eventsand persons involved. Many protaganists in the story were still alive andactive, and belonged to the society in which Winston moved. Indeed,Balfour was Prime Minsiter and Edward was King!

Churchill's interpretation of specific events are open to challenge.The entire story of the snubbing of Randolph by the then-Prince ofWales is passed off with: "Lord Randolph incurred the deepdispleasure of a great personage." It is also claimed that while

. . . this misfortune produced in Lord Randolph characteristics whichafterwards hindered or injured his public work, it was also his spur.Without it he might have wasted a dozen years in frivolous and expen-sive pursuit of a silly world of fashion; without it he would probablynever have developed popular sympathies or the courage to championdemocratic causes.9

While modern historians agree that the incident left Lord Randolph witha contempt for "society," they hesitate to accept the argument that itconverted him into a champion of democratic causes.

A modern reader, who requires the historian to ask the question"why," will note that there are many areas into which Winston did notdelve. He did not consider why his father's behavior was so at variancewith Lord Randolph's claim that "public life has not great charm forme, as I am naturally very quiet, and hate bother and publicity." He didnot attempt to reconcile the paradox of the newly-enfranchised masses,working-class men on the edge of poverty, voting for the party ofaristocrats, landowners and bankers. Nor did he study the steadygrowth of Toryism in radical Birmingham.

He did, however, deal with a number of issues in detail and the readercan evaluate the book's worth through consideration of some of theseissues in light of more recent evidence. There is little disagreement withWinston over his father's contributions in popularizing the ideas of"Tory Democracy." Although critics are less kind regarding the meritsof the Fourth Party, they do agree that Lord Randolph's personalpopularity caused the Tories to become more acceptable to the masses.

While Churchill cites the Dartford speech of 2 October 1886 as areliable source of his father's commitment to a Tory Democratic pro-gram, others have had difficulty in delineating any integrated politicalphilosophy from Lord Randolph's speeches. Robert Blake is one of themost critical commentators:

The truth is that Churchill had no real policy. He talked about ToryDemocracy and the importance of the working-class Tories, but heshowed no sign of having any program for them.10

Regarding the most traumatic event in Lord Randolph's politicallife, his resignation from the Cabinet, Winston cites irreconcilablephilosophical differences between his father and Tory leader LordSalisbury, a cynical willingness by Salisbury to sacrifice his opinions toget his way, and tactical miscalculations by Lord Randolph as the prin-cipal causes. Winston believed that his father could not have invited thesupport of potential allies like Joseph Chamberlain because "so strictlydid he interpret the idea of Cabinet loyalty." But Winston must haveknown that Lord Randolph was in secret communication withChamberlain on budget items. Why did he not divulge this information?

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach was an influential member of the Salisburygovernment, so powerful, according to Winston, that "had he madecommon cause with Churchill, the Ministry would surely have fallen."But Winston makes no attempt to deal with Randolph's failure to ap-preciate the potential influence of his friend. What may have been afatal miscalculation by Randolph was a major omission by hisbiographer. Its exclusion may have resulted from the fact that in theevent of a withdrawal by Lord Rosebery, Hicks-Beach would have been

Arthur Balfour (below) and the legen-dary Joe Chamberlain (right) gaveWSC significant assistance, althoughboth had been political opponents.

Rosebery later published his own "Lord Randolph"

15

the final arbitrator in any dispute between Winston and his father'sliterary trustee.

The nature of Lord Randolph's final illness is a contentious issue.Some clain that he suffered from syphilis. If that is the case, didWinston know the nature of his father's plight? He wrote his mother:

I persuaded Dr. Roose to tell exactly how Papa was. . . . He told meeverything and showed me the medical reports. I have told no one. . . . "

Winston's biographers say only that he knew the true facts. In LordRandolph Churchill, Winston treats his father's final illness verydelicately, calling it "a very rare and ghastly disease."

The true value of Lord Randolph Churchill as work of history has lit-tle to do with the career of its subject. It has the enormous advantage ofthe personal intimacy between author and subject and author andsources, but the bias of kinship is very strong. The emotional needs ofthe writer prevented him from producing an objective study. This factwas recognized by his contemporaries but the biases of family andfriends caused them to react in different ways. Winston's cousin, theDuke of Marlborough (Sunny), while full of admiration for thebiography, lamented

. . . your anxiety to be impartial to the main figure in your story has ledyou I think to lean towards the side of the stern critic. I wish I hadlooked through the mass of letters from which you have made yourselection. I do not think that RC's letters are quite happily chosen.Some of them display too much the cynical and flippant frame of mind,which characteristics were exceptional rather than permanent in him.The reader forms the idea that levity playe'd too large a part in hisnature. . . ,12

Frank Harris, who negotiated the sale of the manuscript to Macmillan,later wrote that the volumes were

. . . an admirable official Victorian biography distinguished by theremarkable fairness used to explain every incident in his politicalcareer, a politician writing of a politician. But of the man himself,his powers, his failing and his quiddities, hardly a soul-revealing word;yet Winston might, nay, probably would have written a real life, hadnot Randolph been his father, and had he not had his own political careerto consider. However, it must be confessed that the sympathy betweenfather and son was very slight. Winston told me once that time andagain when he tried to talk seriously on politics, or indeed on anythingelse, his father snubbed him pitilessly. "He wouldn't listen to me orconsider anything I said. There was no companionship with him possibleto me and I tried so hard and so often. He was so self-centered no oneelse existed for him. My mother was everything to me."11

In 1930 Winston Churchill reflected on the career of his father. Thisreflection and his own experiences brought him to the realization thathis father had been a victim of his own flaws, and their relationship tothe peculiar needs of the times in which they lived. The following ac-count shows a more mature and objective Winston than the originalauthor:

I can see my father now in a somewhat different light from the dayswhen I wrote his biography. I have long passed the age at which hedied. I understand only too plainly the fatal character of his act ofresignation. He was "the daring pilot in extremity." That was his hour.But conditions changed with the Unionist victory of 1886. Quiet timeswere required and political repose. Lord Salisbury represented to thenation what it needed and desired. . . .

Young Winston after writing Lord Randolph Churchill, from apostcard in the collection of Tom Thomas, Surrey, UK. The card issepiatone in the Rotary Photographic Series and bears a stamppostmarked Dundee (WSC's constituency from 9 May 1908), dated"Jy II 08." Above left: Lord Randolph in his prime, by E. Ward.

Moreover, from the moment Lord Randolph Churchill became Chan-cellor of the Exchequer responsible in large measure for the affairs ofthe nation, he ceased in vital matters to be a Tory. He adopted withincreasing zest the Gladstonian outlook . . . and in all social andlabour questions he was far beyond what the Whig and middle-classLiberal of the epoch could have tolerated. . . . He was not the man totake his decisions from party caucuses. When he was faction-fightinghe fought to win, seizing anything that came along. But when respon-sible, his contribution to public affairs was faithful and original. Henever sat down to play a cold, calculated game. He said what hethought. It was better so.14

In 1952. the biography was reissued by Odhams. It is regrettable thatit was not a "revised edition." Its merits today are in its immenseliterary value because few writers could tell a political story with themajesty of Winston Churchill. The author, not the subject, makes thereading of Lord Randolph Churchill a rewarding endeavor. •

'Violet Bonham Carter, Winston Churchill As 1 Knew Him. (London: 1965.)2Winston S. Churchill, Thoughts and Adventures. (London: 1932.)3Winston S. Churchill, My Early Life. (London: 1930.)4Anthony Storr, "Then Man" in Churchill Revised, A Critical Assessment.(New York: 1969.)'Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, Volume II, Young Statesman,1901-1914. (London: 1967.)'Lord Rosebery, Lord Randolph Churchill. (London: 1906.)1Blackwood's Magazine, February, 1906.8J. H. Plumb, "The Historian" in Churchill Revised, A Critical Assessment.'Churchill, Lord Randolph Churchill, Volume 1.1 "Robert Blake, The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill. (New York:1970.)"Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, Volume 1, Youth, 1874-1900.(London: 1965.)l2Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, Companion Volume II, Parti.(London: 1967.)l3Frank Harris, My Life and Loves, Volume II."My Early Life.

16

Edited by John G. Plumplom130 Collingsbrook Blvd. Agincourt, Onl, Ml W1M7

LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL BYWINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL,M.P. AUTHOR OF 'THE STORY OF THEMALAKAND FIELD FORCE, 1897,''THE RIVER WAR,' 'LONDON TOLADYSMITH VIA PRETORIA' ETC. INTWO VOLUMES. LONDON: MAC-MILLAN AND CO. LIMITED. NEWYORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY,1906. 8,000 copies published on 2 January1906, prices 36s. both volumes.

Times Literary Supplement, 5 January 1906.

With a single exception, Lord RandolphChurchill's rise to the first place in the Houseof Commons is the most dazzling personaltriumph in English Parliamentary history. InJanuary 1781, Pitt was only a proud boy whohad inherited the greatest of all politicalnames. Three years later he was PrimeMinister. In 1881 Lord Randolph Churchillwas the leader of a party of four, and he andhis party were the established practical joke ofthe day. In 1886 he was the leader of theHouse of Commons with every eye fixed onhim as the man of the future. But there, exceptfor the brevity of the two lives the parallel endsaltogether. Lord Randolph's fall was evenswifter than his rise. And it was final.

It is a pleasure to be able to say that a life sowell worth writing has been admirably writ-ten. Sons have not always proved the mostjudicious of biographers and Mr. WinstonChurchill's warmest admirers would not askus to think him the most judicious of men. Buthere is a book which is certainly among thetwo or three most exciting political biog-raphies in the language. The book is a son'sbook, of course, written from a particular

British and US (gilt top edges) Firsts.

point of view; and there are, of course, thingswhich might be said against Lord RandolphChurchill, but are not said here. That is in-evitable; but the worst kind of biographer isnot he who has a point of view but he who hasnot — and certainly Mr. Winston Churchillhas not unduly obtruded his. One hears theson's voice . . . but the voice of a politicianone hardly ever hears.

Good taste has not generally been con-sidered the strong point either of thebiographer or of his father; nor has either ofthem been conspicuous for self-restraint. Butthe severest critic will find very few lapses oftaste in this book; and for those few it is not thewriter's pen, but the subject's tongue, that isresponsible.

And as for self-restraint, who could havebelieved that Mr. Winston Churchill couldwrite a book that is full of Mr. Chamberlainand not altogether empty of Mr. Balfour andyet write it like an historian, and not at all likea man on a party platform? But he has.

A biography is more as well as less than ahistory; its business is not merely to relateevents but to paint a portrait — what sort ofportrait of Lord Randolph is it that this bookultimately leaves in the memory? In some re-spects, that of a more complex personalitythan has generally been believed. The rudestman, perhaps, who ever sat on the frontbenches had in private ' 'an old world courtesyof manner" and was called by Gladstone "themost courtly man I ever saw."

The man who in four years completely trans-formed a great party, and prepared it for twentyyears in power, will not be forgotten so longas English parties exist and English politicalhistory is read.

The Eindburgh Review, No. 417, July 1906.

Whatever judgment men may pass on thecareer of Lord Randolph Churchill, no one candispute the great literary talent shown by hisson in the brilliant biography he has given tothe public. However important historically theevents which he describes, he has known how tomake the personality of his father always the pre-dominating interest of the book. It is biog-raphy, not history, at which the author has aimed.

The story is told, if not without partiality,yet with very commendable frankness and withlittle attempt to keep back from the public ex-travagances of behaviour and language which inhis own day, if they delighted a large sectionof the democracy, certainly estranged fromhim no small portion of the steadier elementsin the community. Mr. Churchill has succeededin painting a striking and we believe on thewhole a true portrait of a very remarkableman.

Mr. Winston Churchill has evidently in-herited many of his father's great gifts and hisown life has enabled him to understand and ap-preciate the varied experiences of Lord Ran-dolph's career. The son has trodden in hisfather's footsteps and if in addition to the greatgifts which he has inherited Mr. WinstonChurchill proves that he possesses certainqualities in which Lord Randolph was lacking— the capacity to work and cooperate withother men even when they are not his subor-dinates, and the power of inspiring the publicwith confidence in his character as well as withadmiration of his cleverness and courage — itis not easy to set limits to the height to whichthe son's abilities may yet raise him.

Mr. Winston Churchill is naturally a littleinclined to overestimate the work done by hisfather in restoring in a few years the Conser-vative Party to the position of prolongedascendency over its Liberal and Radical rivals.But he has told the story of the Fourth Partywith brightness and verve.

Mr. Churchill also estimates too highly hisfather's services in popularizing or demo-cratizing the Conservative Party and he greatlyexaggerates his influence in bringing aboutthat alliance between Conservative andLiberal-Unionists which provided the majorityof the House of Commons.

A man of moods, with fixed principles, can-not be expected to give steady guidance to theState. To excel in the party game will not suf-fice. Lord Randolph Churchill was greatlygifted, but it was not possible for him to playthe part, or leave behind him the reputation,of a great statesman.*

17

Churchill in StampsBY RICHARD M. LANGWORTH

PAGES 49-54: INTERLUDE IN AFRICAChurchill's exciting African journey of late 1907 offers

endless opportunities for philatelic biographer* with the ICS listof "Churchill-related" stamps — and none to those who stickonly to normal Churchill commemoratives. (Send $4 for yourC-R list, payable fCS. to the editor.) The rules are few: selectthe most illustrative stamps you can find (most of them are very-cheap), keep the copy brief, and create imaginative layouts.Remember, every layout-person will tell you that subjects shouldpoint inward, not outward, if they face one way. Catalognumbers are Scott (U) ami Gibbons (sg).

49. Stamp-related maps always fascinate .spectators or album-readers. I culled this one out of a grubby copy of the OfficialBiography (Vol II). handy for providing illustrations, and easyto find at low cost. The Edward VII East Africa and Uganda#31/9, sg ?) are contemporary to WSC's visit, while the K-U-Tset (#63/73. sg 110/20;. K-U-T map (#118-19) and Sudan stamppoint out sights WSC saw. Kenya #67 depicts the type of trainWSC rode out of Mombasa — seated on its cowcatcher!

50. The famous photo of WSC with his Burchcll's whiterhinoceros is set off by stamp-illustrations of animals he men-tioned. Rhodesia #254&7 and SWA #251-2 show rhinos andelephants: Kenya's set #20/35 provides others; Sudan #152shows all of them. Stamp choices are infinite, but you have toread My African Journey or the Biography to pick the animals.

51. Churchill's imagined hydro-electric dam at Owens Falls,which came true in 1954. is handily documented by any fromthe Uganda set #79/82 (sg 95/98), the ••before" view, andK-U-T #102 (sg 167). the "after" view. The upper stamps arepart of K-U-T #63-73 (sg 110-20) showing Ripon Falls, whichWSC also noted.

52. Sudan's handsome 1950 airmail set, #C35-42 (sg 7) couldhave been much elaborated on. with quotes from WSC's bookon these sights, notably his Nile riverboat descriptions. MyAfrican Journey also mentions ibex, the Nubian variety beingon Sudan #98 (#99-104 are the same design) at lower left.

53. This page represents a gaffe, and one way to fix it. I suddenly-realized that I'd completed page 46 on Cyprus 1907 but failed touse Cyprus #48-51 (sg 52-4). which I'd collected with this inmind; and also that I was long past 1906. when WSC first wentto Malta (#28-9, sg 45-6; #77-8. sg 105-6). In the Biography Ifound that he was in Malta on several subsequent key occasions.I bunged the whole lot into this catch-all page, which fallsreasonably well anywhere between 1906 and 1912.

54. The only "stamp" showing Lloyd George is a Bardsey non-postal local/label, but it is essential at the juncture where WSCgoes to the Board of Trade and later to the Home Office. At lasta real Churchill issue rescues us: Isle of Man #49 (sg 55) showshim as Home Secretary. Italy #909 illustrates the LloydGeorge/Marconi scandal, while the Home Rule fight isrepresented by Eire issues: Countess Markievicz (#246/7, sg243/4). Roger Casement (#214/5, sg 221/2) and John Redmond(#157, sg 164).

A continuing series

"MY AFRICAN JOURNEY"

Ln 1907, Churchill convinced Lord Elgin to let him go look overFiritain's new protectorates in East Africa and Uganda. He arrivedin Mombasa in late October, and set off up the line toward LakeVictoria, thence through Uganda and the Soudan past Omdurman,where he had fought eight years before, arid on up the Nile toAlexandria. Braving flies and fauna (his servant Scrivings fellvictim to sleeping sickness), WSC sent voluminous messages tohome and the Colonial Office about his safari. From Gondokorohe telegraphed home: "sofari so goody."

49

WSC AS WHITE HUNTER

'I wish I eld find time to write to you full accounts of all thislost interesting journey...From the railway one can see literallyivery animal in the Zoo.-.We saw a rhinoceros quietly grazing...re started to sally out against Behemoth & do battle with him...: fired at the big one with a heavy 450 rifle & hit her plum in;he chest...You cannot resist a feeling that these brutes are.nvulnerable & will trample you under foot however well you shoot,lowever, all's well that ends well..."

—WSC to his mother, 6 November 1907

50

Sane of the animalsmentioned byWinston in hisletters home.

AFRICAN VISION KEYNOTES AT MALTA

Churchill seemed throughout his life to turn up at critical timin Malta, which he anyway regarded as key to the Mediterranean.As Secretary of State for the Colonies, he recommended both Cypand Malta for self-government. Africa-bound in 1909, he paid apreoccupied visit to Malta when his wife was expecting their fichild. In 1912, he attended a critical conference there.

51

That "littlemasonry" provedto be Owens FallsDam, which tooksix years to buildand cost £22 mil-lion. Still, thefact that such adam did get builttestified toWSC's vision fivedecades before.

When the damopened in 1954,The Queen wiredWSC, "Your visionhas becanereality."

Stamps show theFalls and theDam, "before"and "after."

SHU

•

is*

Pi

53UG AN DA!

in June 1912, aconference withKitchener andHaldane at Maltaproduced WSC'srecommendationsfor "a strongflotilla" tocounteract anypossible combi-nation of op-posing navalforces in thattheatre.

Churchillproposed self-government forCyprus andMalta as earlyas 1906. Maltareceived it in1922.

ASCENDANCY

CHURCHILL'S TRAVELOGUE

While in Africa Churchil l received an offer from Lhe Strand fora s e r i e s of a r t i c l e s about his t r ave l s for £ 150 each, and thejourney ul t imate ly turned an unexpected p r o f i t when Hodder andStoughton paid £500 for the book r i g h t s . His only t r ave l book,MY AFRICAN JOURNEY had cleared 40,000 copies worldwide by 1919,and was s t i l l in p r in t as l a t e as the mid-1960s.

LIBERAL REFORM, HOME RULE

Churchill's politics were radical for those days* he pitiedthough he could not personally relate to, the jobless and thepoor. As President of the Board of Trade (1909-10) he set upthe first Labor Exchanges. As Home Secretary (1910-11) heimproved conditions in British prisons.

,52

"The remainderof our journey[north ofKhartoum] lay intourist lands,and the comfor-table sleepingcars of theDesert Railway,and the plea-sant passengersteamers of theWadi Haifa andAswan reachsoon carried usprosperously anduneventfully toUpper Egypt;and so to Cairo,London and therest."

—WSC,MY AFRICANJOURNEY, 1908

54

WSC's earlymentor, whomhe worshipped,was the greatWelsh MP,David Lloyd-George . Dur-ing a scandalover L-G's'conflict ofinterest1 asa holder ofMarconistocks, WSCdefended him.

Churchillfavored IrishHome Rule,for whichCasement diedand Markieviczcampaigned.Home Ruleadvocate JohnRedmond praisedhis efforts onbehalf ofIreland.

k

Books: The Revisionists RevisedNeilson and Thompson: Birds of a Feather?BY GEORGE RICHARD, TOM SHERMAN & STANLEY E. SMITH

' 'Revisionist history,'' as it is politelycalled, has been going on, vis-a-vis SirWinston, for a long time. As early as 1949Francis Neilson began the attack with hisreviews of The Second World War, compiledin volume form as The Churchill Legend (Red-burn 275, 1954). Neilson kept at it, with fourmore works (R276-79), culminating in areprint of his 1954 book with the sub-title,"Churchill as Fraud, Fakir and War-Monger. " You rather comprehend the natureof Neilson's views from that one.

More scholarly but equally devastating wasR. W. Thompson who, on the strength of longcorrespondence with Desmond Morton, set outto "humanize" Churchill with The YankeeMarlborough (R351, 1963). After Morton'sdeath, Thompson revealed his chief sourcewith Churchill and Morton (R354, 1976).

Curious trivialities: Thompson also got intouch with: Francis Neilson — whom hedescribed to Morton as ' 'an ancient. '' (IndeedNeilson then claimed to have known Churchilllonger than anyone alive, back to the old"Khaki Election" of 1906.) Ironically,Neilson was still publishing his fulminations in1979, long after Desmond Morton was in hisgrave.

To review these fascinating works, we arepleased to draw upon George Richard ofTasmania, Australia, and Tom Sherman ofKansas, USA, who review Churchill and Mor-ton; and Stanley Smith of Massachusetts, USA,for the first of a multi-part review of The Chur-chill Legend. — Editor

"Churchill and Morton" by R.W. Thomp-son. Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1976.

This is a very different book in the sense thatthe reader is taken through the gestation periodof an entirely separate book, The YankeeMarlborough. This work is concerned pri-marily with the author's research for the latter,through the offices of Sir Desmond Morton,longtime friend and confidante of WSC.

For a war correspondent and military authorof note, and one who practiced his arts duringChurchill's greatest years, Thompson seemscomparatively uninformed about his subject. Itis the quest for requisite information thatforms his text: the correspondence between abiographer seeking material and an erstwhileintimate of his theme.

Although the Thompson-Morton correspon-dence was exchanged between 1960 and 1962,the reader could gain the impression that WSCwas already dead, so frequently is past tense

apparent in their letters. The approach of bothparties, the more so of Thompson, is detachedalmost to the point of being insensitive.

Sir Desmond Morton was a friend of Chur-chill's from 1917 until the end of the SecondWorld War, but perhaps the period of hisgreatest influence and importance was in theyears immediately preceding that war. In thisperiod when WSC was in the political wilder-ness — a veritable pariah to many politicians— Morton was involved with the Industrial In-telligence Centre. He was privy to vital infor-mation relating to German rearmament,statistics which indicated not only how rapidwas their build-up but also the paucity of theBritish armed forces and armaments industryby comparison.

Morton realized the urgent need to appriseChurchill of the evidence he possessed, whichwould vindicate WSC's efforts to alert Britainto her looming peril. That he was able to dothis is fairly well known; what is not so wellknown is that in so doing he had the blessing ofthe three British Prime Ministers in the im-mediate pre-war years, Mac Donald, Baldwinand Chamberlain. An intriguing scenario isthus revealed: leaders of a nation surreptitiouslysupplying their leading critic with preciselythe ammunition he needed to launch his manysalvoes!

As well as throwing different light ontomany aspects of Churchill's personality,writings and wartime premiership, this volumebrings to life the otherwise somewhat shadowyfigure of Sir Desmond. He would not allow his

20

name to be quoted in relation to WSC duringhis own lifetime, and destroyed his personaland private papers shortly before his death.To the Churchill scholar, therefore, Churchilland Morton is invaluable as an insight intoMorton the person, as contrasted with Mortonthe official.

Morton the person is of course able to speakhis mind in a manner his official alter egocould not have countenanced. In addition to hiscomments on WSC, he deals at some lengthwith other political figures of the day — Eden,for example, receives considerable attention— and with British military leaders of the Sec-ond World War. This latter feature isbolstered by the inclusion of correspondencefrom and between several of them.

The work is not uncritical of WSC althoughsuch criticisms as do appear, primarily fromMorton, seem to have been made objectivelyand from an association unique in its variousfacets.

For the student of WSC the Thompson-Morton exchanges ought to be requiredreading, not only for some original proposi-tions (Morton compares the character of WSCwith that of Henry VIII) but for the views,some perhaps iconoclastic, expressed by bothparties.

In summation, a very readable, instructiveand unusual book worthy of inclusion in anyChurchill collection.

— George F. Richard

My reactions to and appraisal of this bookmust be understood in the context of whatmany of us have experienced: my early yearsspent growing up through the period of WorldWar II. The perception of a "war," even at adistance, makes very deep impressions on themind of a young boy. I can recall in somedetail that Sunday evening at the supper tablewhen our family heard the radio announce-ment of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Beforethat, the sounds of Big Ben, ack-ack, andEdward R. Murrow's "This . . . is London."I kept a scrapbook of newspaper reports fromthe various theatres of war. The picture orname of Winston Churchill appeared fre-quently and, a few times, a transcript from oneof his speeches would be broadcast.

So it was that a composite picture of WSCtook shape in my mind through those years,much of it, I am sure, a product of the prop-aganda mill of the Anglo-American press.Realistically, that picture has had to changeduring the last 40 years. The flood of official

and unofficial histories, memoirs, diaries,journals and biographies has served to bluredges, fill in empty spots and generally addcolor and balance to what had been, in allprobability, a wartime necessity.

I will admit to some surprise when I re-ceived R.W. Thompson's Churchill and Mor-ton. I had seen mention of it as a secondarysource in Christopher Thome's Allies of aKind, and had rather expected a narrative ormemoir. What I found was interesting andprovocative — but disappointing. I had hopedto find something instructive about the longrelationship between WSC and Desmond Mor-ton. There was some of that, but in a way onlyincidental to the format of the book — a seriesof letters between the author & Morton over aperiod of 20 months relating the author's prog-ress in the writing of what would be TheYankee Marlborough. Thompson professed tobe searching for the "real Churchill" to offsetthe "mythical" or "legendary" man that hebelieved most writers had foisted on thereading public. I have not yet had the oppor-tunity to read Yankee Marlborough, so myopinion may be premature and ill-informed,but if the thrust of this book is an indication,then Thompson is only partly successful. He isattempting to complete a structure fittedaround a framework of preconceived opinionsand suppositions. I learned many years agothat historical methodology is generallylimited by two extremes — one by thehistorian who researches all relevant facts andarranges them with no apparent attempt to in-terpret them; the other by the historian whoconstructs a framework for his thesis and usesonly those facts which agree and fit into thatframework.

Thompson's stated purpose was an assess-ment of Churchill and his impact on our times;to "discover the man." Yet he seems con-sciously or otherwise to have attempted topsychoanalyze him. WSC was neither a per-fect human being nor a "mere mortal," but Ido not consider Thompson or Morton qualifiedto subject him to psychoanalysis. Never-theless, at one point Thompson arrives at theconclusion that WSC's self-centeredness, hisneed to dominate, was the result of havingbeen ignored by both his parents during hisformative years. There are other references byThompson and Morton to a dream that Chur-chill had and had written about, concerning hisearly soldiering career. They interpret thedream to explain WSC's egotism, pride andlack of consideration of others. At yet anotherpoint, Morton shows that Churchill's char-acter made him incapable of complete friend-ship with any other man . . . unless he couldconsider that man inferior and of use to him.And now, Thompson: "His aim was survivalat any cost. His values would not be consistentwith honour in the extreme." And again, Mor-ton: "Of course he was a great man, as theworld counts greatness. So were Henry VIIIand Ivan the Terrible.'' Morton also states thatWinston's nearest approach to a mutual friend-ship in recent years was Brendan Bracken,Bernard Baruch and possibly, Beaverbrook.One would be led to believe that, in light ofsome of those opinions of his character, Chur-

chill would have been fortunate indeed to havehad any friends at all.

There are a number of opinions relating toWSC's wartime leadership, or lack of it.Thompson states that 1941-42 was a vitalperiod when Churchill realized power, abusedit and virtually lost it in terms of the Allies. Hedoes not immediately expand on this theory,but I consider that an astonishing remark tomake in view of the conditions leading up tothat time, over which he had no control. GreatBritain was still "paying the price" in terms ofproduction, manpower and shipping for hav-ing not listened to WSC's warnings in the lateThirties. Churchill may have misjudged themilitary and political situation in the Far Eastbadly through that time, but he was not alonein that respect.

Thompson and Morton criticize and ques-tion Churchill's personal and military judg-ment. Morton does absolve WSC of any blamefor the Dardanelles failure during WW I, buthe suggests that tactical and strategic errors inWW II made by WSC helped greatly in contri-buting to England's loss of power and positionin the world. The 1940 Norwegian campaignis described as badly timed and ill-conceived.Churchill is made responsible for the stagger-ing losses in the Far East, Middle East,Balkans and various setbacks in the Mediter-ranean, North Africa and, ultimately, the lossof Eastern Europe. The implication is left thatWSC was a one-man band with a bad conductor.Churchill is continually pictured as refusingadvice and forcing his decisions on all and sun-dry. Morton disapprovingly accuses Churchillof gathering information from sources otherthan the Chiefs of Staff. In light of Morton'sfunction vis-a-vis WSC in the 1930s, it seemsa rather questionable point.

One of the most damning remarks in thebook is made by Morton in reference to therelief of Gen. Wavell in North Africa: "Thefirst time I ever deeply disliked Winston andrealized the depths of his selfish brutality waswhen he told me why he was sacking Wavell."He quotes WSC as muttering over and overagain, "I wanted to show my power." Mor-ton's analysis was that Churchill heartilydisliked anyone whom he had to respect, butcouldn't dominate.

That he had the authority to sack Wavell isunquestioned. That he made the correct deci-sion is probably arguable either way. That hemade it for the reason Morton states is totallyunacceptable. I'm sure that Morton believedthat was what WSC said. I simply do not.

Another of the more serious charges againstChurchill, in Morton's opinion, relates to theaims and objects of Stalin. He tells Thompsonthat "until the war was over and Churchill wasout of power, he never would grasp the truthabout Stalinism. Winston didn't realize thatStalin was a reincarnation of all the worstCzars. His entire concentration was on win-ning the war and he gave no reasoned thoughtto anything else whatsoever."

Subsequent developments might seem to sup-port that view, but I believe that he begs thequestion. Churchill was aware, as early as1918, of the depths of brutality of whichLenin's Russia was capable. Stalin's rise to

21

power from that time certainly could not haveleft any illusions. British Intelligence, throughvarious means, had been able to keep accuratetabs on Russian military capabilities as early asDecember 1942. The British also were awareof the Russian psychological/political need forbuffer states on their borders. Churchill'smoves to assuage that need may have gone toofar, but in the last 18 months of the war therewas very little else that could have been done.There was still the need to keep the coalitiontogether to defeat Germany. Even Mortonseems to concede that WSC hated the deci-sions that were "more or less imposed on himby Roosevelt at Yalta."

Thompson even appears to deny Churchillhis other accomplishments in writing and paint-ing. He told Morton that "none of this waswork in the true sense of the word — the workthat leads to scholarship." His pettiness alsoincludes Trumbull Higgins and Herbert Feis:"Research and facts are sound, but theyshould be, with university and foundationbacking, support and whole teams of researchworkers."

My feeling is that the book fails in the at-tempt to find the ''whole man.'' It is singularlyunbalanced against Churchill. It can best besaid by Gen. J.F.C. Fuller, "we are writinglone impressions, much more of what we thinkand feel." Or, by Morton: "Any sort ofhistory contains a greater or less element offiction . . . but rising above that the element of'Art' can give a far truer impression of prob-able historical fact than a catalogue of merefacts." Witness some of Thompson's subse-quent books, apparently written using thesame approach and method: Churchill & theMontgomery Myth, Montgomery the FieldMarshal, Churchill Revised, GeneralissimoChurchill. I realize that Thompson is one ofthe better revisionist historians, and that thereare criticisms to be made of Churchill.Relentless flattery is not appropriate ordesirable. But I much prefer Martin Gilbert'scatalogue of the facts.

— Tom Sherman

The Churchill Legend, by Francis Neilson;Nelson, Appleton, Wis. 1954

Reviewing a review is a delicate task, but aworthwhile one if the original work reviewedis of particular interest or importance. WinstonChurchill's The Gathering Storm is unques-tionably such a work. It covers the years bet-ween the close of the First World War andChurchill's ascension to the Premiership in1940, and is reviewed by Francis Neilson inthe appendix to his 1954 work, The ChurchillLegend.

Neilson is highly critical of The GatheringStorm, just as his other writings are highlycritical of Churchill himself. The greatpreponderance of his criticisms, however,stem from a curious misunderstanding of thenature of the work. The Gathering Storm isavowedly a memoir, a personal perspective,and makes no pretense of being a thorough andimpartial history of the period. "I do notdescribe it as history," Churchill states, "forthat belongs to another generation. But I claim

with confidence that it is a contribution tohistory which will be of service to the future."

Neilson acknowledges Churchill's explana-tion of the nature of the memoirs early in hisreview, but ignores this fundamental under-standing and criticizes The Gathering Stormfrom standards applicable to an objectiveperiod history. This is especially so in hischiding of Churchill for not presenting allsides of the crucial Parliamentary debates ofthe period, and for occasionally allowing atleast a hint of nationalistic feeling to creep intothe narrative. These would be plausible criti-cisms if the work pretended to be a balancedand purely objective history, but are hardlyrelevant to a personal memoir.

Was Churchill correct in choosing a per-sonal approach? Viewing his narrative of theSecond World War as a whole, one mustanswer in the affirmative. The reasons arenoted by Churchill himself in the preface toThe Gathering Storm. Since he occupied aposition of supreme power for nearly the en-tire duration of the war, an account of his per-sonal experiences, heavily supplemented bydocuments, offers a unique and absolutely in-valuable contribution to history.

It must be acknowledged that the personalapproach is less effective in The GatheringStorm than in the subsequent volumes, becauseit is the only volume that covers a period ofyears in which Churchill was not PrimeMinister — nor even, for many years, in officeat all. Since he was not then the mover andshaker he later became, his personal perspec-tive in that work is less central to the vital deci-sions of the period discussed than in the rest ofhis memoirs. The immense value and advan-tage that Churchill's personal approach lendsto the remainder of the war narrative,however, more than compensates for anyslight relative weakness in that regard to befound in The Gathering Storm. Even thisweakness is largely dissipated in the secondhalf of that volume, in which Churchill is FirstLord of the Admiralty and, as such, already amajor force in the war effort.

Stanley Baldwin, probably the dominantBritish political figure in the years between thewars, naturally figures prominently in TheGathering Storm, particularly as an antagonistof Churchill in the debates on national policyof the 1930's. Neilson argues that Churchillemphasizes his disagreements with Baldwinbecause he was bitter over being excludedfrom office "since 1925." (In fact, the yearwas 1929.) The years in the political Wilder-ness were unquestionably frustrating for Chur-chill, but to attribute his disagreements withBaldwin entirely, or even largely, to personalresentment, is simply absurd. Neilson himselfquotes a passage in which Churchill states that"in all these years and later I never had anunpleasant personal interview or contact withhim, and at no time did I feel we could not talktogether in good faith and understanding asman to man."

Far from being substantially personal innature, Churchill's quarrels with Baldwin overIndia and national defense were based on fun-damentally differing convictions about theproper state and course of national and Im-

perial policy. Even the passage cited byNeilson about Baldwin using "the last flickerof his power" against Churchill relates asdirectly to vital national issues as, in this in-stance, to Churchill's personal political for-tunes. The context of the passage is Baldwin'sappointment of Sir Thomas Inskip as Ministerof the Coordination of Defense, an importantand newly-created post for which Churchillhad generally been considered a prominentcandidate. The appointment of the unknown(and, some might argue, ill-qualified) Inskipproduced intense astonishment. Moreover,Churchill later describes his rejection for thepost as a personal blessing in disguise, as itprevented him from being in any way asso-ciated with the disastrous policies of the late1930's.

Neilson says the quarrel between Churchilland Baldwin is given chapters when it shouldbe given a page or. two. Were it merely a mat-ter of personal political recrimination, thiswould be true. It is the decade-long series ofdebates and actions over vital national issuesbetween prominent British statesmen that isgiven chapters, however. And it deservesthem.

In the section on Lloyd George, Neilson ex-presses amazement that Churchill fails to ar-ticulate the criticisms of his policies by hisParliamentary opponents of the 1930s. Again,the duty of presenting all points of viewbelongs to the impartial historian rather thanthe memoirist. In fact, however, Churchilldoes quote both Lloyd George and LordLothian at the time of the German reoccupa-tion of the Rhineland and on other critical oc-casions. Churchill also fully acknowledgesthat the pacifistic views of these men werewidely shared by the public, as is shown in thepassage from pages 77-78 quoted by Neilson.

It need hardly be said that the quotationsgiven by Neilson of Lloyd George and Lothiantoday bear a strange and pathetic ring. Onemay concede Neilson's indignant claims thatthese men imagined they had reliable sourcesof information and that they were devoted toGreat Britain's interests. One may also pointout that their imaginations were wrong andtheir pronouncements completely misguided,as subsequent events amply demonstrated.Those who so wanted peace adopted policiesthat led directly to its dissolution. In light ofthis, Neilson's claim that the public and itsleaders at the time "knew a lot more about af-fairs than [Churchill] thought they did" is dif-ficult to understand.

In an unbelievable aside, Neilson wonders ifChurchill was in accord with Hitler in his con-tempt of free institutions. Churchill's entirelife was a repudiation of such a comparison,and such a suggestion from an author makesone suspect the presence of a stubborn andunreasoning prejudice against Churchill.Though never a pure democrat — constitu-tional monarchy was the form of governmenthe loved best — Churchill's record in defenseof free institutions is exceeded perhaps only byLincoln's.

Neilson next devotes a section to an ex-amination of Churchill's evolving views onHitler. He claims that Churchill underwent a

"spiritual earthquake" in 12 months, andturned from praise of Hitler to condemnationof him. This is untrue on two counts: (1) Themildly complimentary passages were writtenin 1932-39, while the "maniac of ferociousgenius" appeared in The Gathering Storm(1948). Thus the change in emphasis occurredover a span of nine to sixteen years, not one.Even Mr. Neilson would be hardpressed todeny that the entire world attained a muchclearer and more thorough understanding ofHitler's character and purposes in the courseof those years, to its terrible and bitter cost.

In the second place, Neilson misunderstandsthe nature of Churchill's earlier praise ofHitler's achievements. Churchill did not praiseHitler's character or ultimate aims, whichwere then ambiguous at best to most observers.He noted Hitler's personal magnetism, whichwas undeniably powerful and a great elementof his rise to authority. He cited as remarkablethe transformation of Germany from a defeatedstate to a powerful nation under Hitler. Andremarkable it was — even though Germany'snewly-regained power was eventually put todark and terrible uses. He praised Hitler's loveof his country, and expressed the hope thatEngland, if defeated, would also find a cham-pion to restore her to power, and this is nothingmore than an expression of Churchill's senseof patriotism. In none of this can be found anendorsement of Nazism, a panegyric on Hitler,or even a trace of implicit trust in Hitler's vir-tue or wisdom. Indeed, by saying that " . . .the world lives in hope that the worst is over. . . " (Great Contemporaries), Churchillclearly indicated, as is well-known, that hismisgivings about Hitler arose early in the ruleof the Fuehrer.

Neilson similarly attempts to show a gapinginconsistency in Churchill's views on Ger-many and the German people by citing aspeech given in 1908 and a passage written in1948. Even aside from the incalculablechanges wrought in Germany and throughoutthe world between those years, the analysis isfaulty, because the passages are taken out ofcontext. Neilson concludes from the 1908speech that Churchill saw Germany at thattime as "a prey to European intrigue and adrudge amongst the nations of the Continent."In fact, the speech plainly shows that Churchillsaw the German people as having risen fromthat state and having "won themselves aforemost place in the front of civilization.".This was at a time when the German nationhad shown its genius but not the extent of itscapacity for atrocity, and Churchill wishedthem well in continuing along enlightenedpaths.

The second passage, written two world warslater, was penned as part of an explanation ofFrance's apprehensions about Germany. Assuch, it cannot be read as a repudiation ofChurchill's earlier hopes and good wishes forthe civilized well-being of the German people.

Neilson goes on to raise a number ofspecific but minor and mostly irrelevant itemsin the narrative in support of his attack. Mostof these, however, are simply not consistent.He begins by attacking Churchill's descriptionof Germany as the "head and forefront" and

22

"prime cause" of World War I, and sayseveryone knows that Germany was not"wholly responsible." Of course not all othernations were free from blame, but Churchillnever said that Germany was wholly responsi-ble. He said Germany was primarily responsi-ble, which is very different. Neilson here issimply setting up a Churchill straw man toknock down, and not for the first time.

Similarly, he criticizes Churchill for callingWorld War I a war of peoples, and says that,in fact, few members of Parliament or thepublic fully understood the causes of the war.This may or may not be so, but it is completelybeside the point. Whether or not the peopleunderstood the causes of the war, they believedthey were in the right, and they sacrificed,fought, bled, and died in profusion for it.

The remainder of Neilson's review dealswith the British guarantee to Poland in 1939.In it, he tries to paint two contradictory por-traits of Churchill and his view of theguarantee — one calm and laudatory and theother raging and frustrated. Once again, acareful examination of the passages and theircontexts dispels any imaginary contradictions.

The first passage cited shows Churchill'sbelief in the vital importance of includingRussia in any effective scheme for maintainingan Eastern bulwark or, if necessary, an

Eastern front against Germany. From this per-ceptive belief he never wavered, and he wasquick to act upon it in 1941. Following Ger-many's invasion of Russia that year, hepromptly extended his hand to welcome anAnglo-Russian alliance when he could just aseasily have persuaded his hardpressed country-men to leave the despised Bolsheviks to theirfate.

The second passage, which Neilson de-scribes as an unparalleled "explosion oftemper," follows a description of the suddenand dramatic reversal of the ChamberlainGovernment from appeasement to firmnessfollowing the Nazi absorption of the remainsof Czechoslovakia. Churchill presents an elo-quent and ironical indictment, not of the Polishguarantee, but rather of the blindness ofBritish leaders in waiting until circumstanceswere desperate before displaying such prin-cipled determination. In both passages, Chur-chill displays his beliefs in prompt action andsound strategic balance, and in no way do thepassages contradict each other.

Finally, in discussing Churchill's account ofthe Norwegian campaign, Neilson expressessurprise that much of the account concernsmovements of the Fleet. Considering thatChurchill was First Lord of the Admiralty atthe time, this is hardly astonishing.

It is a pleasant relief to turn, in conclusion,from rebutting criticisms to speaking briefly ofthe pleasures of The Gathering Storm. Thoughthis largely introductory volume lacks theclosely detailed view from the summit found inthe subsequent volumes encompassing Chur-chill's Premiership, it finds compensation inthe greater freedom it affords its author. Chur-chill the narrator is here in his prime, and hesweeps along the grand landscape of the yearswith a broader and lighter touch than is possi-ble in describing the close, desperate strugglethat followed.

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of thebook is its essential magnanimity. It is a vin-dication without vindictiveness. Though amemoir, written in triumph, of years in whichthe author was long ridiculed by many only tobe proven right, it portrays the virtues as wellas the faults of the leaders of the period.Nearly any prophet, telling of his cries in thewilderness, would have set the tale entirely inblack and white. Churchill omits neither thegrays nor the smudges and, though firm in hisjudgments, is unfailingly courteous and bal-anced in rendering them. Part of Churchill'schosen "Moral of the Work" is "In Victory:Magnanimity." The work shows how deeplythis attribute was a part of Churchill himself.

— Stanley E. Smith

' ' W I N S T O N AS F R A U D , F A K I R A N D W A R - M O N G E R ' ' (title acknowledgement to Francis Neilson)

"P admire] his ability to absorb the most virulent criticism . . . " Hon. Caspar w. Weinberger, iCS/Boston 1985

Above left: Strube in the Daily Express, 13 December 1913, when WSC's Naval Estimatestopped £50 million and Lloyd George (bottom right) threatened to resign. "Mrs. Cocoa Press"says, "Come away from that window, you naughty boy, you have too many of those toysalready." Above center: Strube, same paper, 13 September 1919. John Q. Public says, "Youdid it to me with your Sidney Street — Antwerp — Gallipoli 'fluence, but not in this stunt."(WSC as Secretary of State for War was decrying "the foul baboonery of Bolshevism," sug-gesting preventive war in Russia.) Above right: And again! Strube in the Express, 1 April1914, the cartoon entitled LET THE RED BLOOD FLOW (over Home Rule), and a poem:"Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum!/I smell the blood of an Ulsterman./Be he alive or be he dead,/I'll grind hisbones for Devlin's bread." Lloyd George,another Liberal anathema to the Tory Express, is atright, labeled "For Lying" (in the Marconi Scandal). Right: Sidney Low in Labour's Star,castigating WSC for anti-Socialist stance. (The banner is held by Nortchliffe and Beaver-brook, always a favorite of cartoonists. Baldwin is the soldier with the pipe.) Heavy going!

23

> 76, 60 & 26

Edited By John G. Plumpton

SPRING 1886: Age 11The highlight of young Winston's year was the visit of his

nanny, Mrs. Everest (Woom), and his brother Jack, to hisschool at Brighton. Despite many pleadings Lord and LadyRandolph had declined to visit their son at school, but whenthe young boy's life was seriously threatened by pneumoniathe parents rushed to his bedside. The constant attention ofDr. Robson Roose, the family physician who came downfrom London, may have been the critical factor in savingWinston's life. Both Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, andthe Prince of Wales enquired about the boy's health.

In April Lord Randolph made an infrequent visit to hisrecovering son and presented the delighted boy with a toysteam locomotive.

Lord Randolph's political life was as anxious as his personalaffairs. Joseph Chamberlain and other Liberals split withGladstone over Home Rule for Ireland. Throughout the spring,feverish activity dominated the Houses of Parliament asthe dissident Liberals negotiated with both the Prime Ministerand the Tories.

Gladstone pleaded for support for his Bill for the BetterGovernment of Ireland: "Think, I beseech you, think well,think wisely, think not for a moment but for the years that areto come. . . . " But Home Rule was defeated.

Lord Randolph's contribution to the defeat was private andbehind the scenes. He was the emissary with Chamberlain.But before a crowd in Manchester he coined the phrase"Unionist Party" to cover the divergent groups opposed toHome Rule, principally the Tories and the dissident Liberalsunder Joseph Chamberlain.

SPRING 1911: Age 36Expecting their second child (dubbed "the Chumbolly"),

the Churchills celebrated Easter at Blenheim. On 28 May ason, Randolph, was born at their home on Eccleston Square,London.

Shortly after, Winston attended his annual camp with theOxfordshire Yeomanry at Blenheim. On 22 June they at-tended the first of three coronations they would see duringtheir lives. Clementine was not expected to attend but,through the kind offices of King George V, a royal carriagewas sent for her and returned her to the hungry Randolph im-mediately after the ceremony.

Along with Home Office duties, Winston piloted the Parlia-ment Bill through the House of Commons. When the Houseof Lords amended it out of recognition, it was obvious thatthe final battle was at hand. Meanwhile, the Governmentsearched for a solution to the perennial Irish problem.

The acrimony created by these political battles wassomewhat mitigated by the creation of The Other Club. Thegenesis of The Other Club is unclear. Some claim that Parlia-ment was the first club but The Other Club's official historiansuggests that the founders, Winston Churchill and F.E.Smith, started it in response to their failure to secure electionto The Club, in Oxford. The first dinner was held on 18 May1911 and The Other Club still meets in the Pinafore Room ofthe Savoy Hotel.

SPRING 1936: Age 61Britain's relations with the great powers of the continent

dominated Churchill's political and literary attention.His work on the third volume of Marlborough (Woods

A40) was aided by the arrival of a new research assistant, BillDeakin. Deakin later attributed Churchill's ability to write inthe midst of international crises to his "ruthless partition of theday, the planning of things all the time. There was never awasted moment. He had intense control."

His concerns with defense were outlined in a series of ar-ticles serialized in the Evening Standard and subsequentlypublished in Step by Step (Woods A45).

Some friends, impressed by Hitler, tried to change his mindon Germany. His cousin Lord Londonderry wrote: "I shouldlike to get out of your mind what appears to be a strong anti-German obsession because all these great countries are re-quired in the political settlement of the future . . . "

Churchill replied that he was not obsessively anti-Germanand that he did not think that war between England and Ger-many was inevitable but "British policy for 400 years has beento oppose the strongest powers in Europe by weavingtogether a combination of other countries strong enough toface the bully. Sometimes it is Spain, sometimes the Frenchmonarchy, sometimes the French Empire, sometimes Ger-many. I have no doubt who it is now. But if France set up toclaim the over-lordship of Europe, I should equally en-deavour to oppose them. It is thus through the centuries wehave kept our liberties and maintained our life and power."

Similar foreign policy objectives had motivated his ancestorand subject of his biography, the Duke of Marlborough.

SPRING 1961: Age 86In early March Sir Winston joined Aristotle Onassis' yacht

at Gibraltar for an unhurried tour of the Caribbean and the UScoast. On the day the first Russian cosmonaut went intospace, Churchill arrived in New York Harbor for the finaltime.

Among the luncheon guests on the Christina was UN Am-bassador Adlai Stevenson, who later commented to re-porters: "This is a very great man, who has been the con-science of freedom in his time, and who now is in the sunsetof his life and entitled to the privacy that he has earned inthose years of endeavor."

After lunch, Sir Winston observed the departure ofthe Queen Mary, the Cunard ship which had conveyed himto his wartime meetings with Franklin Roosevelt. At dinner hewas joined by his longtime friend, 90-year-old BernardBaruch, who told the press: "It will be good to be with him.He's a wonderful young man at 86." During dinner he re-ceived a telephone call from President Kennedy, who offeredto send a special plane to bring him to the White House for avisit. But the old man was too infirm. Besides Lady Churchillwas in hospital and he wanted to get back to her. Althoughpleasantly surprised, he declined the invitation but accepted"for some other time."

On 14 April on Pan American Flight 100, Sir WinstonChurchill left his mother's homeland for the last time.

24

Q. Can you determine if Churchill said thefollowing, and if so, when and where he saidit: "To be a reservist is to be twice a citizen."A. This quote was given us by a Florida ArmyReserve Company, and despite extensive dig-ging we could not find it. Can anyone help?Please write the editor.

Q. Can you determine the place and date ofthis Churchill quote, used by Kay Halle in "Ir-repressible Churchill" (1966, p. [vi]). . . "Inmy belief, you cannot deal with the mostserious things in the world unless you alsounderstand the most amusing."A. This was asked of us and Fulton by theReader's Digest. Once again, we tried andfailed, and request your help.

Q. Does any stamp show Churchill as HomeSecretary c. 1910?A. Yes: Isle of Man's 1974 Centenary com-memorative set includes a 4'Ap value so de-picting WSC, Scott 49, S-G 55. See also"Churchill in Stamps" this issue and ICSChurchill Collectors Handbook, Seel, p. 1.8.

Q. I just purchased for $85 a copy ofMalakand Field Force from a bookseller inNew York City. It is the Silver Library Edi-tion, Woods Al(b), in fantastic shape with theoriginal maps and frontispiece in extraordi-nary condition. The spine is good and sturdy,still well bound, and the cover is in great shapealso. Could you tell me anything about thatparticular edition and estimate its worth forinsurance purposes? I thought I was prettyfortunate.A. You were. Every so often even big-citybooksellers make mistakes, usually by under-rating non-first editions. [Our member was ap-prised of the value and is delighted; anymember may learn the details by writing theeditor.] The lovely maroon and gilt SilverLibrary Edition has the first "Malakand" textentirely approved by the author. In size it is anapproximate duplicate of the first edition, butthe editing is far more professional. Four im-pressions were produced. This is a very worthyaddition to any library.

Send your questions to the editor, PO Box385, Contoocook NH 03229 USA.

It was my pleasure to be with you at the din-ner on 2 November in Boston, and I am justglad that my schedule allowed me to join you.

I am glad to know that your members seemto have become inspired to start new chaptersand recruit new members, and if I was in anyway helpful, I am all the more pleased.

It was good to see you, and I will look for-ward to our next opportunity to meet andperhaps have more time to chat a bit.

— Caspar W. Weinberger, Washington

The Sir Winston Churchill Pub referred toin FH5Q was not the first. Many years ago as astudent in Paris, my colleagues and I used tofrequent the Sir Winston Churchill Pub nearL'Etoile. I have no idea whether the establish-ment still exists (your readers might be helpfulhere), but I do remember my introduction toWatney's Red Barrel. Whether WSC wouldhave approved of this concoction, again, Ihave no idea. But I am sure he would have ap-proved of how I passed my student days inParis — some 15 years ago.

— Richard D. CarrenoN. Grosvenordale, CT

I am pleased to advise that Golden Hill Fort[Hayling Island, Hants.] has been selected bythe Co-ordinator of the Defence of the RealmProject as the Isle of Wight site location andheadquarters for this Project.

The Defence of the Realm Project with itsconsiderable publicity resources will, I feelconfident, bring more overseas visitors to theIsle of Wight, which has played such an im-portant part in the nation's history, and we willdo our best to justify this selection.

—W.T. Perkins, C. Eng., MIEREHayling Island, Hampshire, UK

Thank you for your story about the limitededition of the Winston Churchill writing deskfrom Chartwell. I would like to clarify a fewpoints: the limited edition of 250 desks is notfor sale in the US only, but worldwide in all150 countries with which Britain has diplo-matic relations. The purchase price is basedon a London price of £4200. Distribution is ex-pected to be as little as one or two per countryexcept for the US and others which have alarger allocation. Information may be obtainedin the USA from us at 77 Main St., TappanNY 10983, and in England from Mrs. Broome,Administrator at Chartwell, Westerham,Kent, TN16 IPS.

—Norman Shaifer, PresidentHeritage Arts Ltd.

NEW MEMBERS

South AfricaCapetown — P.V. Mills; Port Elizabeth —

Elizabeth Nel.

Sweden

Varberg — Per Starefors, Olof Svanberg.

United KingdomBucks — Marlow/John Evans; Essex —

Malden/F. Rendell, Rayleigh/A.H. Benham.Woodford Green/Ralph Tremayne Prout, MBE;Gwent — Chepstow/K.G. Tufft; Hants — S. Ben-fleet/J.E. Morris; Lanes — Hambleton/P.M.Welsh; Mdlsx — Enfield/R.A. Smith, Northolt/V.A. Woodcock.

UK Addenda: Essex — Billericay/Norman J. Mut-chinson; Warks — Stratford/Dale Weber; Scotland— Glasgow/Bob Sutherland.

United StatesDC - Washington/Celia Hoke; 111 - Win-

netka/Douglas M. Reimer; MD — ChevyChase/Harry L. Freeman; Mass — Boston/Thos. A.Robinson; Norton/Austin C. Smith; NY — NYC/C.Austin Fitts, Donald F. Malin Jr., Mrs. J. SterlingMcClusky, Charles W. Sprague; Tenn — Hender-sonville/Tom Cope; Texas — Arlington/HomerBurks, Richard M. Flatt, Lowell Hoover, MarkMahan, Dr. Mitchell Smith, Randy Stevenson;Dallas/Dr. W. J. Bufkin, Barbara J. Girard,Margaret Koons, Daphne Baynham White;DeSoto/Ernest Gower.

*Will any recent member who has not seen his orher name on these lists since FH48 kindly notify theeditor.

Our Spring catalogue features two new books: thereissue of Kay Halle's IRREPRESSIBLE CHUR-CHILL - Woods D(a)21/5 — published @ $19.95,our price $17 postpaid.

And BLENHEIM REVISITED by H. Mont-gomery-Massingberd, a magnificent illustrated256-page documentary with profuse color photos,published @ $16.95, our price $14 postpaid.

OUR SPRING CATALOGUE 16, available by 1June, is 16 pages, lists 850 volumes by and aboutWSC, from fine firsts to paperbacks, from $2 to$750. Write for a copy if you are not on our mailinglists. Telephone bus. hrs. DST: 603-746-5606.

Churchillbooks, Burrage Road, Contoocook,New Hampshire 03229 USA.

25

Gaming

20 JULY/NEW HAMPSHIREThe New England Chapter of ICS invites

you to our second English pub lunch and get-together, held again at Barbara and RichardLangworths' colonial home outside Concord,New Hampshire on Sunday, 20 July. A Chur-chill film will be shown on outdoor VCR-TV.We will be able to examine members' Chur-chilliana, books and memorabilia. A tradi-tional ploughman's lunch will be served, alongwith English and Yank beer and soft drinks.The location is 1 '4 hours north of Boston, 3hours from Hartford. To join in, send $6 peradult, $3 per child to ICS, c/o Putney House,Contoocook, NH 03229 USA. Road directionsand inn suggestions will be sent to all who planto come.

SUMMER/NORTH TEXASThe North Texas Chapter of ICS will be

meeting this Summer to plan future events,following the sell-out success of our luncheonfor Lady Soames and Sir John Colville inDallas on February 19th. To contribute ideasor learn more details please contact DavidSampson, 5603 Honey Locust Trail, ArlingtonTX 76017.

6 SEPTEMBER/LONDONOwing to business commitments I have

rescheduled the UK AGM to Sunday 6September at the Barrie Suite, Hospitality Inn,Bayswater Road, London W2, from noon on-wards. A finger buffet with wine will beserved at 1PM; tea, coffee, and biscuits will beavailable later, at the inclusive cost of £7.50per member or guest. We hope to have a guestspeaker, and will be showing the 45-minutefilm "Churchill the Man" at the close of pro-ceedings. Bookings by 1 July please, GeoffreyJ. Wheeler, 88A Franklin Ave, Tadley, Bas-ingstoke, Hants RG26 6EU.

AUTUMN/TORONTOThe Toronto, Canada chapter of ICS was

organised at a meeting of a dozen membersat the National Club on 1 May. Officers wereelected as follows: Pat Cassels, President;Murray Milne, Secretary-Treasurer; JohnPlumpton, Program Consultant. George Tem-ple's great services saw him named honorarychairman and life member.

John Plumpton reported that an ICS Awardin British History will be presented annually tostudents at both York University and theUniversity of Toronto. (More on this will ap-pear shortly in Finest Hour.) Robert Gillan of-fered to organise the Spring meeting on27 May or 5 June. If you wish to join inon our future activities, contact Pat Cassells,11 Woodmere Court, Islington, Ontario,Canada M9A3J1.

4-6 OCTOBER/VANCOUVERThe International Churchill Society's An-

nual General Meeting occurs at the Harbour-side Holiday Inn in Vancouver, B.C., Canada,on Saturday through Monday October 4th-6th.Featured are two noted speakers, a black tiedinner with band, various daytime meetingsand events, and time to visit Expo '86 in Van-couver. For registration details watch the nextissue of Finest Hour.

We strongly urge that you book your roomsat the Harbourside Holiday Inn now, Specialrates are in force for ICS. See details on page 4of this issue or contact the hotel at 1133 WestHastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. CanadaV6E 3T3, telephone (604) 689-9211.

Classified advertisements of all kinds are freeto ICS members. Deadlines for copy: Springissue, 1 April; Summer issue, 1 July; Autumnissue, 1 September; Winter issue, 1 December.The editors reserve the right to edit adver-tisements and to reject advertising that is notsuitable for Finest Hour. Send to the editor.

• Churchill Sculpture by Karin Churchill:an exact copy of the original at BlenheimPalace, limited to 400 only, of which about200 have been subscribed. This 16-inch-highwork in cold cast bronze is individually madeby the artist from the original mould, anddepicts WSC in his Garter robes. Each statueis signed, numbered, registered, and accom-panied by a Certificate of Authenticity. TheInternational Churchill Society will benefitfrom each sale. Price 1300 plus shipping.Karin Churchill Studio, The Lodge, Jam Way,Boars Hill, Oxford, OX1 5JF, England.

TRADE OR SELLSAVROLA: A lovely near-fine copy of the FirstAmerican (and world) edition, 1900. Prefer to swapup or down for similar pre-1920 Churchill works.Jack Nixon, 29 Partridge Lane, Sudbury MA01776.

WANTEDVIDEOTAPES OF WSC, especially "The FinestHours" documentary by Jack LeVien (British film,1964). Prefer to purchase, willing to rent. DouglasMarden, Box 35, Princeton, MA 01541 USA.

"THE WILDERNESS YEARS" (8-part PBStelevision series): Wish to borrow your VCR re-cording for personal duplication. All or any of the 8episodes wanted. Richard Langworth, PutneyHouse, Contoocook, NH 03229 USA.

CHURCHILL'S FREEMASONRY: Information,leads, any data desperately wanted on WSC's careeras a Freemason 1901-12 (Studholm Lodge no.1591). Masonry is NOT a secret society but anorganization with some secrets. I have materialfrom 10 years of effort which I would share, buthope to learn more. No Mason would be in troublefor revealing anything he might know, and anythingwhich should not be printed won't be. I hope topublish in Finest Hour and in Masonic papers. OtisV. Jones, Jr., Box 5366, Raleigh, NC 27650 USA.

FOR SALE — BOOKSA4: LONDON TO LADYSMITH, 1st US edn, ex-lib, ratty spine, orig top/bottom boards $60; 1st Bredn fully rebound in half-calf, ribbed sp, marbledeps & edges, water damage Iwr half top/bottomboards, Iwr crners chewed, conts clean, unfoxed$75.

A8: LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL: 1st edn,spine sunned, a good reading copy, 2 vols. $50.A12: MY AFRICAN JOURNEY, 1st US edn, veryscarce, ex-lib in lib binding, lacks tissue over fron-tis, but very difficult to find in any condition $100.AI5: LIBERALISM AND THE SOCIAL PROB-LEM, 1st edn, a very nice copy $275.A31(b): THE GREAT WAR, 3 vols in publisher'sred cloth $75; the original 26 parts (v.scarce) $200.A44(a): ARMS AND THE COVENANT, 1st edn,spine sunned, otherwise a nice copy $60.A45: STEP BY STEP, 1st edn, very nice $110; 1stUS edn in damaged but scarce dust jacket $85.A138(a): HISTORY OF E.S. PEOPLES, 1st edn,4vols, all with djs, si.chips or tears on those of vols1 and 2, a nice set $90."A142/1": THE SINEWS OF PEACE. Not inWoods. The Fulton speech publishes 1965 byHalcyon-Commonwealth, NYC, Preface by H.Truman, soft, fine $35.B27: ALL CLEAR AFT, v.g. copy $15.B47: HAPPY ODYSSEY, 2nd ptg, nice $10.B58: ADVENTURE IN OIL, 1st edn, VG $10.B60: MEMOIRS OF GEN THE LORD ISMAY:1st edn in somewhat torn dj $20; 1st US edn, goodcopy $10.C25: LORD ROBERTS, in Windsor Magazinebound vol, article fine, can be had with poorbinder's cloth (at higher postage) or separated, $40.ALSO AVAILABLE: All Canadian first edns of thewar speech vols in dust jackets $25 ea, with the ex-ception of VICTORY and S.S. SPEECHES whichare $30 ea. Without jackets $18.

Postage extra.Ronald I. Cohen, 5 Murray Avenue, Westmount,

Quebec, Canada H3Y 2X9.

26

ICS STORESSold in support of the International Churchill Society.

Orders: USA: Sue Hefner, 134 North Woodlawn, Lima, OH 45805.UK & Commonwealth members may order from their national offices.

NEW CHURCHILL NEEDLEPOINT "ACTION THIS DAY" LABELS

NEUEB61UEIN

NEW ICS CHRISTMAS CARDSAND NOTE CARDS

* #108 Reproductions of WSC's famous war-time label. Perfect for tax returns! Black &orange, 3 x 1% inches. Pad of 1Q0 postpaid:USA $3, UK £2 , Canada C$4, Australia A$5.

MIRRORPIC CIGARETTE CARPS

Beautiful original needlepoint kit created byDonna Johnson of ICS. Makes a lovely wallhanging-or a perfect throw-pillow to warnpoachers off your favorite easy-chair. WSCappears in traditional profile with bowtie,initials, dates and slogan as above. Color:black on white. Size: ll ' / i x 15 inches.

#103 Canvas alone, postpaid: USA $25,UK £18, Canada C$36, Australia A$40." #104 The full kit (yarn, needle, canvas,instructions). Postpaid: USA $39, UK £29,Canada C$55, Australia A$60.

EFFANBEE CHURCHILL DOLL' #101 In stock for immediate shipment, ahandsome, hand-crafted collector doll by thefamous New York producer, Effanbee. Sir Win-ston wears his spotted bowtie, Homburg,correct formal attire and gold watchchain,carries a cigar in one hand and flashes a V-signwith the other. Low production limited editionassures that its value will appreciate. Our supplylimited-order soon. Size: 16% inches. Listprice $100+. ICS postpaid price: USA $68,UK £49, Canada C$92, Australia A$103.(Overseas sent surface-parcel.)

• #109 Rare originals by Mirrorpic/England,full set of 50 depicts WSC life scenes, Ppd:USA $20, UK £15, Canada C$27, Aus. A$32.

WSC LIBRARY CREDO

• #113 Printed on buff parchment. Postpaid:USA $2, UK £2, Canada C$2.75, Aus. A$3.

FINEST HOUR BACK ISSUES• #114 Full set numbers 1-40 (some early onesphotocopied) postpaid: USA $98, UK £72,Canada C$133, Australia A$ 150.'Single copies: Numbers #17, 24, 26, 30-36,38 to date. Each, postpaid: USA $3, UK £3,Canada C$4, Australia A$5.

Silhouette artist Elizabeth Baverstock (see FH#48p. 6) has kindly donated her elegant Churchillsilhouette art to our UK chapter for use on thesehandsome Christmas and note cards. Each measures4x6" with the cover silhouette framed by an em-bossed border.

tt\ 15 Christmas Cards. Inside is a Christmasgreeting at right, facing Sir Winston's Christmas1941 greetings as broadcast from the White House.Packets of 10 cards and envelopes, postpaid: USA$5, Canada $6. (In UK & Australia, order direelfrom your local ICS office—see page 2 for address.These cards omit the White House greeting.)

#116 Note Cards. As above but blank inside fornotes/letters. Packets of 10. same prices as above:USA $5, Canada $6.

ICS HANDBOOK SUPPLEMENTSEach 4-page supp lement , postpaid: USA $ 1 ,

UK £ l , Canada C$1.50, Australia A$2:• Section I (Stamps) Numbers 1,2,3, &4.• Section II (Books) Numbers 1,2,3,4,5.• Section III (Membership) Number 1

Section IV (Works by WSC/Foreign Editions)Number 1

CACHETED ENVELOPES• New all-purpose ICS cachet 3Vi x 6, thermo-engraved, pack of 25.

Each pack postpaid: USA $7, UK £5,Canada C$9, Australia A$10.

PHILATELIC

ICS COMMEMORATIVE COVERS. Limited edition covers issued by ICSin the past, all of which have long been collectors items. Supplies of somevery limited. Each cover bears a special cachet, plus Churchill or C-re-lated stamps of the country of issue, and contains a descriptive insertwith information on the anniversary celebrated. Postpaid including over-seas airmail: USA $3, UK £2, Canada C$4, Aus. A$5.

#5 30th Anniv. 1st UN Conference. Washington 28 Dec 71*« 10th Anniv. Honorary US Citizenship. Washington 3 Apr 73#q~nU n V e i l i n g W S C S t a t u e > hand-drawn cachet, London 1973 (25 exist)|y Opening Centenary Exhibit, Somerset House London 10 May 74ff 10 10th Anniv. WSC's Last Visit to Commons, London 27 Jul 74fflta Hoover-Churchill Centenary, London 10 Aug 74I j; ! " O t h Ycar of WSC's Birth, hand cancel, London 9 Oct 74.#12h A a b ° V e " b u t S o m e r s e t House postmark in blue ink.#131 V e ' b U t S o m e r s e t House postmark in black ink.

#1 s i f i n l y of Centenary Exhibit, hand cancel. London 14 Oct 74#7 nn u " n i y - W S C ' S B i r t h> Washington 30 Nov 74T* -lUUth Anniv. WSC's Birth, Jersey, Channel Isles 30 Nov 74

#20 40th Anniv. El Alamein, Battleground, Virginia 4 Nov 82#20a As above but limited edition Churchill, Maryland cancel.#21 75th Wedding Anniv., Winston/Clementine, London 12 Sep 83.#22 40th Anniv. D-Day, Normandy Beach, New Jersey 6 June 84#23 40th Anniv. Battle of the Bulge, Patton, California 26 Dec 84#24 85th Anniv. Escape from Boers, 6 S. Africa stamps/cancels. 1984#25a 40th Anniv. V-E Day, Churchill. Ont. 8 May 1985#25b As above, Dominica stamps & cancel. 8 May 1985

PHILATELIC ODDS AND ENDS: Each of the following packages costsUS $3, UK £2, Canada C$4, Australia A$5, postpaid, airmail overseas:• Art Craft Churchill Maxi-Cards, thcrmo-engraved WSC portrait, witheither US or UK stamps, canceled at Fulton or London.• Isle of Man Churchill Centenary 1974 first day covers• Essex Stamp Show Churchill Centenary valid postcard June 1984• Australia Churchill Stamp on Nov 1973 cacheted covers, 2 different• Cover marking 20th Anniv. WSC's funeral, 30 Jan 1985• Cafe Royal cancel Centenary cover, octoganal machin S/Sheet• Turks & Caicos & Gibraltar Centenary cacheted envelopes, in pairs.

127

asidQSt

I speak to you tonightfor the first time as Prime Minister

in a solemn hour for our country,for our Empire,

for our allies,and above all for the cause of Freedom.

The Germans, by a remarkable combinationof air bombing and heavily armoured tanks,

have broken through the French defensesnorth of the Maginot Line,

and strong columns of their armoured vehiclesare ravaging the open country . . .

We must not allow ourselvesto be intimidated

by the presence of these armoured vehiclesin unexpected places behind our lines.

It would be foolish, however,to disguise the gravity of the hour.

Our task is not only to win the battle —but to win the war.

After this battle in France abates its force,there will come the battle for our Island —

for all that Britain is,and all that Britain means.

That will be the struggle.In that supreme emergency we shall not hesitate

to take every step, even the most drastic,to call forth from our people

the last ounce and the last inch of effortof which they are capable.

Having received His Majesty's commission,I have formed an Administration of men and women

of every Party,and of almost every point of view.

We have differed and quarreled in the past;but now one bond unites us all:

to wage war until victory is won,and never to surrender ourselves.

to servitude and shame,whatever the cost and the agony may be.

This is one of most awe-striking periodsin the long history of France and Britain.

It is also, beyond doubt, the most sublime.Side by side,

unaided except by their kith and kinin the great Dominions,

and by the wide Empireswhich rest beneath their shield —

Side by side the British and French peopleshave advanced to rescue not only Europe,

but mankind,from the foulest

and most soul-destroying tyrannywhich has ever darkened and stained

the pages of history.Behind them—

behind us—behind the Armies and Fleets

of France and Britain,lie a dozen shattered States and bludgeoned races:

the Czechs, the Poles, the Norwegians,the Danes, the Dutch, the Belgians,

upon all of whomthe long night of barbarism will descend,

unbroken even by a star of hope,unless we conquer,

as conquer we must,as conquer we shall.

Today is Trinity Sunday.Centuries ago words were written

to be a call and a spurto the faithful guardians of Truth and Justice:

"Arm yourselves,and be ye men of valour,

and be in readiness for the conflict;for it is far better for us to perish in battle

than to look upon the outrageour nation and our altar.

"As the Will of God is in Heaven,even so, let it be."

— Broadcast, London, 19 May 1940