i

Winter 1996-97 • Number 93

Journal of The Churchill Center &The International Churchill Societies

FINESTHOUR

r®

CONTENTS

•P9?

Winter 1996-97

FINEST HOURJournal of the International Churchill Societies Number 93

13 The Many Lives of Winston ChurchillThe 13th Churchill Conference and 8th Churchill Tourby Richard M. Langworth

18 Why are We Ashamed of our Glorious Past?Great Britain is like an amnesia patient, with no under-standing of who she is and what she is for. Unless sheswiftly finds a cure, she shall be adrift in a world onlytoo ready to take advantage of her weakness—and thisdoesn't apply only to Britain.by Peter Hitchens

19 The Churchill-Conover Correspondence"All that is good in the world is born in labour and tor-ment; all that ennobles, all that is generous, springsfrom the rivalries of man and of Nations." An earlystatement of Sir Winston's political philosophy in thenew Churchill Center publication.

23 Lord Randolph Churchill: Maladies et MortIt is impossible to say what killed Churchill's father.It is no longer possible to say he died of syphilis.by John H. Mather, M.D.

29 Churchill Online: Person of the Century?A Cyberspace interchange in Liftserv "Winston"

4 Amid These Storms5 Churchill Center Report6 International Datelines9 ICS Local & National News

11 Riddles, Mysteries, Enigmas21 Action This Day29 Churchill Online37 Woods Comer42 The Poet's Corner43 Churchilltrivia44 Churchill in Stamps46 New Book Service48 Immortal Words

33 Yes, Churchill Knew About the HolocaustA letter to The New York Times Magazineby Cyril Mazansky, M.D.

BOOKS, ARTS & CURIOSITIES:

34 Richard Langworth joins author Matthew Wills inconsidering Harry Hopkins "the one indispensableman"...Anthea Morton-Saner takes an insider's look atthe new biography of Randolph Churchill...GeorgeRichard recommends searching out a rare title onChurchill and Ireland...Woods Comer runs down thetextual history of Great Contemporaries...Douglas Hallcontemplates Aquascaping on a Churchillian Scale.

39 Churchilliana: Commemoratives Calendar Part 3The field of memorabilia exploded between 1939 and1941, when a good likeness of the PM was considereda morale booster by the authorities. Also: the lastOsprey Corner, a rare and odd Yalta figure, BaytreeNurseries Churchill displays, and the simply unbeliev-able prices people pay for autograph Churchilliana.by Douglas }. Hall

42 The Poet's Cornerby D. Peter Ford

Cover: Lord Randolph Churchill, a brilliantpolitical light of the late Victorian Era, iscelebrated today only as the father of Sir

Winston, often excoriated by certain modernbiographers as a political mountbank and, toboot, a syphilitic, who died a horrible death.The revisers are going to have to find some-

thing else to hang onto, at least regarding thetrue cause of Lord Randolph's demise.

Whatever it was, it was almost certainly notsyphilis. Dr. John Mather's definitive articlebegins on page 23. Portrait from Society, 24March 1883, courtesy Mark Weber, London.

FINEST HOUR 92/3

FINEST HOURISSN 0882-3715

Barbara F. Langworth, PublisherRichard M Langworth, EditorPost Office Box 385Hopkinton, New Hampshire03229 USA Tel. (603) 746-4433E-mail: Malakand@aol.com

Senior EditorJohn G. Plumpton130 Collingsbrook Blvd.Agincourt, OntarioM1W 1M7 CanadaE-mail: Savrola99@aol.com

News EditorJohn Frost8 Monks Ave, New Barnet,Herts. EN51D8 England

Features EditorDouglas J. Hall183A Somerby Hill, GranthamLines. NG31 7HA England

Editorial AssistantGail Greenly

ContributorsSir Martin Gilbert, United KingdomGeorge Richard, AustraliaStanley E. Smith, United StatesRon Cynewulf Robbins, CanadaJames W. Muller, United StatesDavid Boler, United KingdomWm. John Shepherd, United States

FINEST HOUR is published quarterlyfor Friends of the InternationalChurchill Societies, which offer severallevels of support in their respectivecurrencies. Membership applicationsand changes of address should be sentto the appropriate national offices onpage 2. Permission to mail at non-prof-it rates in the USA granted by the USPostal Service, Concord, NH, Permitno. 1524. Copyright 1997. All rightsreserved. Designed and produced forThe Churchill Societies by Dra-gonwyck Publishing Inc. Printed byReprographics Inc. Made in U.S.A.

; AMID THESE STORMS |

THE record British turnout at the 1996 Churchill Conference (page 13)was due in part to the menu-style price structure. Registration, in-cluding all the displays, panels and seminars, cost £35; considering

how much concentrated wisdom that bought, from six visiting professorsto Lord Deedes, it was a bargain. Many Friends of ICS, UK, who did not re-quire black tie dinners, were pleased to absorb all of what was on offer dur-ing the day. Another good value was the day at Chartwell at £17.50. Thisincluded lunch, the immeasurable advantage of a private booking on a"closed" day, expert gardeners who showed us the grounds more thor-oughly than ever before, and the company of Lady Soames, Celia Sandysand administrator Carole Kenwright. The veritable grand-daddy of bar-gains was the £10 it took to book a walking tour of "Churchill's London"with the official biographer himself, Sir Martin Gilbert, which included aprivate tour of the archives exhibit at the Public Record Office. To enjoy allthree of these events cost only £115 per couple.

It is this kind of pick-and-choose registration that encourages highturnout, and it was no surprise to us to learn a week or so before that allevents were sold out. Well done.

#• Hardbound volumes of the official biography, Winston S. Churchill, byRandolph Churchill and Sir Martin Gilbert, are slipping out of print in theEnglish edition (the American ones are long gone). Heinemann, which haskept them in print until now, has stopped reprinting Volumes 5 and 8. Oth-ers are sure to disappear soon. The price of the full work, already from$1500 to 3000 for all twenty-three biographic and companion volumes, willinevitably begin to rise. Just the eight biographic volumes in first editionwill soon approach $1000. There is an alternative, which costs $610 and pro-vides a set of twelve handsome leatherbound volumes (the original Vol-umes 5-8 are divided into two parts): the Easton Press limited edition.

Easton Press has done ICS a lot of favors over the years. Theyreprinted The World Crisis at only $260—a tremendous service—along withThe Second World War and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples at similarattractive prices; and they've dropped ICS brochures into their shipments.So I'd like to do them a good turn by recommending their leatherbound 12-volume official biography, an excellent buy while it lasts—and limited edi-tions don't last forever. Anyone interested may telephone Easton at (800)367-4534, extension 241-FH, between 8AM and 6PM Eastern StandardTime. Have credit card information ready; overseas orders will cost extra toship. (We have no commercial interest in these sales.)

#• We are in a season of death. No sooner did we learn of the loss of SirWinston's last bodyguard, Edmund Murray, than the Churchill Center forlost another Founding Member, my mother Harriet, who died suddenlyDecember 21st. We thank the many people who knew Harriet who thought-fully sent Barbara and me kind words. On top of all that, we have justlearned of the passing of senior editor H. Ashley Redburn, OBE, author ofthe as-yet-unpublished Bibliography of Works about Churchill, a 1996 Blen-heim Award winner, and the finest book reviewer we have ever had. A trib-ute to Eddie Murray appears herein. I shall try to write what I think aboutAshley Redburn in the next number. Of Harriet I have written privately.

But there is really nothing to say when a friend dies. There is just agreat big hole where there was once someone you loved. All the talk in theworld won't change that. Everyone who knew Eddie, Harriet and Ashleymisses them. And that's one crowd I'm proud to be a member of.

RICHARD M. LANGWORTH

FINEST HOUR 93 /4

Tke Cnurckill Center Report: Winter 1996-97The mission of the Churchill Center, in Washington, D.C., is to encourage international study of the life and thought of Sir

Winston Churchill; to foster research about his speeches, writings and deeds; to advance knowledge of his example as a states-man; and, by programmes of teaching and publishing, to impart that learning to men, women and young people around theworld. Programmes include course development, symposia, standard and electronic libraries, CD-ram research, an annual

Churchill Lecture, visiting professorships, seminars, publishing subventions, fellowships, and publications.

Ethel Pont, grandson Michael James Gregory Peck, Parker Lee, Nov. 20th

THE MANARD E.PONT SEMINARAPRIL 18TH

The Center isgrateful to Found-ing Member EthelM. Pont, majorbenefactor of ourfirst student semi-nar, named in honorof her late husband, the distinguished physicianManard E. Pont. This seminar brings fifteen stu-dents and professors of history or political sciencetogether at Stanford for a discussion of Churchill'smost readable books, My Early Life and Thoughtsand Adventures. Local Friends will receive invita-tions; if you wish to attend from outside the area,please contact Mr. Lee (address on page 2).

CONOVER CORRESPONDENCE IN PRINTYoung Winston's letters to Christine Lewis

Conover, dating from 1899 to 1943 (page 23), gath-ered in a 40-page booklet, is being sent to Found-ing Members of the Churchill Center, and contrib-utors to the 1995 Heritage Fund. If you are notamong these, copies are available for $15 payableto the Churchill Center. Order from the editor.

1997 BUDGET SETThe Board of Governors, meeting in Boston in

early November, approved a budget of $174,760for calendar year 1997. Trus excludes a $50,000contribution, matched by%cn, equal contributionfrom ICS United States, to establish the ChurchillCenter's Endowment Fund at $100,000. The fundsavailable include about $45,000 in 1996 carryoverfunds and $70,000 in pledges to date. ExecutiveDirector Parker Lee has reported to the Governorsthat the Center is only about $27,000 shy of com-pletely funding its working budget for 1997.

GREGORY PECK TAPES CC VIDEOOn 20 November, Parker Lee met Academy

Award winner Gregory Peck at a studio inHollywood Hills to tape Mr. Peck's narration of

the ChurchillCenter video, whichwill be ready soon.In process are theprinted materialswhich will accom-pany the video.

Being "easily sat-isfied with the best"in WSC's phrase,

Mr. Peck listened carefully to each "take," neverhesitating to tape it over until he was satisfied.After such a generous donation of time we wereproud to present Gregory Peck with a FoundingMember certificate. He joins over 600 people whoanswered Lady Soames's call by providing theseed money for the Churchill Center.

MAKE YOUR GIFT COUNT TWICEOn January 1st the Center began receiving con-

sultant services from Founding Member AnthonyGilles, JD, who directs the Office of PlannedGiving, University of Tennessee Agriculture Dept.Mr. Gilles gave an impressive presentation to ourDevelopment Committee in Washington last year,illustrating how American taxpayers can present agift of cash or real property to the ChurchillCenter while protecting its value for their heirs, ineffect doubling the value of their legacy free oftax. Mr. Gilles is now at the disposal of ChurchillCenter supporters for estate and tax planninginvolving any gift of any kind.

We are also grateful to several founding mem-bers including one of our Governors, JacquelineDean Witter, who with her husband Malcolmhave twice made gifts of securities to aid theendowment campaign. Gifts of securities may bemade directly from the donor's brokerage accountto The Churchill Center's brokerage account byusing the following delivery instructions: deliverto DTC #740, for the account of Legg MasonWood Walker, Inc., for the account of TheChurchill Center, account number 690-4957. Ortelephone our Executive Director for assistance:Parker H. Lee III, (908) 758-1933. ft

FINEST HOUR 93/5

INTERNATIONAL DATELINES

QUOTE OF THE SEASON" T A Je live in an age in which science has perfected the telescope

V V and, looking up, has discovered the universe of the infinitelylarge; which has invented the microscope and, looking down, has exam-ined the universe of the infinitely small. We live in an age which in thearts have seen the most exquisite expression of music through theimprovements in orchestration, and the most execrable monstrosities inpainting and sculpture in the decorations of St. Paul's Cathedral. Thiscentury has witnessed the spreading of a generous sentiment of humani-tarian sympathy—arid has also seen the creation of engines and machin-ery of destruction of monstrous and devilish perfection." . •

WSC, SPEECH TO THE MIDLAND CONSERVATIVE CLUB, BIRMINGHAM, 1 JUNE 1899

Pol Roger has recently produced a limited edition: 1000 Jeroboams of the fabulous SirWinston Churchill Cuvee 1988. President Directeur General Christian de Billy presents theowner's certificate for Jeroboam no. 0001/1000 to ICS/CC Patron The Lady Soames, DBE.

EFFERVESCENT NEWSEPERNAY, FRANCE, OCT. 31ST—TheInternational Wine Challenge 1996proved a triumph for Churchill'sfavorite Champagne house. Not onlywere each of Pol Roger's cuveesawarded a medal or commendation,but PR has been selected as the over-all "Sparkling Wine Producer of theYear": L'elite de l'elite!

Pol Roger owns around 85hectares of vineyard land in the Val-lee de la Marne near Epernay and on

the Cote des Blancs, representingabout 40% of the small company'sannual crush. Its current stock ofaround 6.5 million bottles constitutesone of the more modest holdingsamong the grandes marques. The1988 vintage was supreme this year,its haunting, toasty concentration juststarting to hint at the glorious maturi-ty to come. The "PR" vintage 1988, acuvee sourced from grand cru sites,garnered a Silver Medal, as did thehazelnutty Cuvee Blanc de Chardon-

nay 1988. A bronze medal for theWhite Foil and a Commendation forthe still-youthful Rose 1988 complet-ed the impressive tally. From $25 upin the USA, but rather more in Eng-land, any "PR" is a Churchillian liba-tion. We salute our friends Christiande Billy and Christian Pol-Roger.

ANOTHER REASON TO REJOICE:1996 HERITAGE FUND

The just-concluded year-end Her-itage Fund campaign by ICS UnitedStates was the most successful in his-tory. ICS/USA treasurer GeorgeLewis reported over $30,000 in contri-butions at the close of businessDecember 31st—a record for the Her-itage Fund and 50% more than in1995. At a meeting of the ICS/USAExecutive Committee, it was deter-mined that the Society in 1997 willsupport all publications and otheroperating expenses through subscrip-tions; therefore, ICS/USA will be ableto apply all of the Heritage Fund pro-ceeds to educational activities con-ducted by the Churchill Center. Thisis the first time we have been able todo this. We are sincerely grateful toall who have made it possible, whosenames will appear in our next issue.

HOLD THE DATE: TORONTO,OCT. 16-19TH, 1997 IN 'THE TRUENORTH STRONG AND FREE"

All Churchillians are invited tojoin us in singing these words fromthe Canadian national anthem plusthe British, American and Australiananthems, in Toronto, Ontario, Canadanext October 16th-19th. Our Confer-ence includes a visit to Niagara Fallsfor dinner and the spectacular views

FINEST HOUR 93/6

INTERNATIONAL DATELINES

which Churchill first observed in 1900and revisited in 1929 and 1943.

In Banff you had a taste of the"Hits from the Blitz." In Toronto youwill get the full show in the ImperialRoom of the Royal York Hotel. WhenChurchill spoke in the Royal York in1929 the crowds were so. large thatloudspeakers had to be placed in thestreets—over 3,000 people heard him.We can't accommodate quite thatnumber but we can accommodateyou. So reserve October 16-19th, forthe 14th International Churchill Con-ference. For information, contactRandy Barber, Conference Chairman,at (904) 881-8550 or John Plumpton,Program chairman, at (416) 497-5349.(P.S. You might even be able to gettickets to watch the Blue Jays win theWorld Series, again!)

NEW BUDGETS,NEW PRIORITIESBOSTON, NOVEMBER 9TH—The Exec-utive Committee of the InternationalChurchill Society (USA) and theBoard of Governors of the ChurchillCenter approved 1997 calendar yearbudgets totaling $329,000, and jointlyestablished a $100,000 permanentendowment for the Churchill Center,the academic institution designed topromote and perpetuate Churchillstudies worldwide. Equal contribu-tions of $50,000 from 1996 funds ofboth organizations created theendowment, whose goal is a mini-mum of $5 million to fund perma-nently all major Churchill Center pro-grams: symposia, seminars, studentsupport, publication subventions, vis-iting professorships and aiji annualChurchill Lecture. The ICS r^udget is$130,000, while the ChurchilTGenterbudget of $200,000 (higher than ICS'sfor the first time) must come almostentirely from new contributions.

Notable among Churchill Centeractivities in 1997 are the first studentseminar, next April at the HooverInstitute at Stanford; the first annualChurchill Lecture; commissioningpapers for the third Churchill Sympo-sium, "Churchill's Life of Marlbor-ough," at Blenheim Palace in May1998; and two $1500 scholarships for

American and Canadian studentstraveling to Edinburgh University forthe new postgraduate course, "Win-ston Churchill: The Making of a WarLeader," under Profs. Paul Addisonand David Stafford. (FH 92, page 7).

Initiated by Dr. Cyril Mazanskylast May, both bodies have now heldextensive strategic discussions for thefuture role and relationship of eachorganization, and have developed thefollowing strategic posture:

ICS (USA) and the Churchill Center aretwo organizations which loosely definedrepresent a unified bundle of "Churchill

actixnties." We will promote the continua-tion of an administrative consolidationthat will better utilize the financial and

manpower resources of ICS and the Cen-ter, eliminating confusion, duplicateoffices and functions, and facilitating

fundraising efforts.

Commencing 1997, all fundraisingwill be undertaken by the ChurchillCenter while ICS will be responsiblefor Finest Hour, the biannual Proceed-ings, other publications and supportfor the international conferences.

MANCHESTER UPDATE:"PUIS LA VICTOIRE!"WINTER 1996-97— Honorary memberWilliam Manchester has published anexcerpt from the third and final vol-ume of his Churchill biography, TheLast Lion: Defender of the Realm in Mili-tary History Quarterly. Entitled (from aChurchill remark in 1940) "AnotherBloody Country Gone West," itdescribes Churchill's actions andreactions during the Fall of Francebetween 10 May and 16 June 1940. Aswe read the familiar story, it took ona new, starker and yet more terrifyingimage in Manchester's brilliant prose:

"Suddenly all England was toldthat the Nazis were 140 miles behindthe Allied lines in Belgium—andheading for the Channel ports. Thecrisis brought the war effort someunlikely converts. Bertrand Russellwrote a friend that he had renouncedpacifism, declaring that if he wereyoung enough to fight, he wouldenlist."

Churchill's famous but unrecord-ed speech at Tours, at his last meetingwith the French, is magnificentlysummarized: "His mouth was work-ing; he sought the words, foundthem, and spoke warmly and deeply,French and English phrases tumblingover each other...England would fight'on and on and on, toujours, all thetime, everywhere, partout, pas de grace,no mercy. Puis la victoire!'"

We have no date of publication toannounce, but when excerpts startappearing it is a good sign. We willcontinue to keep readers informed.

DELETERIOUS DUKETALKLONDON, DECEMBER 3RD (Reuter) —The Duke of Windsor, who gave upthe English throne sixty years ago thismonth to wed American divorceeWallis Simp-son, was repri-manded byChurchill for"defeatist andp r o - N a z i "views, it wasrevealed today."Germans ex-pect assistancefrom the Dukeand Duchessof Windsor,the latter desiring at any price tobecome queen," said a terse note inone file. The Germans had askedCharles Bedaux, a naturalised Ameri-can, to ask the Duke if he would beKing of England in the event of a Ger-man victory, but Bedaux haddeclined because he was no longerfriendly with the Windsors.

Thousands of pages of secret doc-uments throw new light on officialattitudes to the Duke's often embar-rassing views and the whiff of pro-German intrigue that surroundedhim. An interview he gave while hewas Governor of the Bahamas in 1941drew a frosty telegram fromChurchill, who feared the Duke'sremarks would contribute to keepingthe United States out of the war. "Icould wish indeed that Your RoyalHighness would seek advice before

CONTINUED OVERLEAF >»

Churchill and the thenPrince of Wales, 1919

FINEST HOUR 93 / 7

INTERNATIONAL DATELINES

ERRATA, FH #92:Page 2: Stalin-like, we liquidated

ICS Canada President Randy Barber,replacing him with Mr. Shields, whois actually the new President of theWSC Society of Vancouver. This hasbeen fixed on page 2 of this issue.

Page 20, footnote 8: for "GaryGrayson" read "Cary Grayson."

Page 23: With embarrassmentRobert Rhodes James and the editoradmit we misdated Churchill's firstspeech as Premier. Though quotedcorrectly, it was on 13 May 1940, not4 June. Thanks to Robert Wallis forbeing first to catch the gaffe.

making public statements of thiskind," wrote the Prime Minister. Inanother paper, Churchill said theDuke had become an embarrassmentto the Government, and although hisloyalties were "unimpeachable," hewas dogged by "a backwash of Naziintrigue which seeks to make troublefor him."

While in Lisbon before moving tothe Bahamas in 1940, the Dukefuelled speculation about his loyaltiesby staying in the house of a Por-tuguese bank manager said by theSecret Service to be in close touchwith the German Embassy. Thepapers released by the Public RecordOffice range from secret servicememos to letters between members ofthe public "intercepted" by the secu-rity forces. One such letter made clearjust how enraged some sections ofBritish opinion had been by theDuke's decision to give up the thronein order to marry the twice-divorcedWallis Simpson.

The Windsors also got into troublesoon after arriving in the Bahamas in1940, when the Duke asked for largesums of money to refurbish his offi-cial residence. It was pointed out tohim by London that such requestswere open to criticism duringwartime, when "the money couldhave been used to buy a fighter." TheBritish government also struggledunsuccessfully to prevent the luxury-loving Windsors from leaving theBahamas and visiting the UnitedStates, where it was feared they

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

Vivre a jamais dans V esprit des gens...EDMUND MURRAY, 1917-1996

E!f DDES Murray,Sir Winston

I Churchill'sbodyguard from 1950to 1965, was as bornthe same year as JohnF. Kennedy, andunderwent similarhair-raising adven-tures in the same war.The news of his pass-ing is no less shockingto me than would be

JFK's, had the latter lived a normal span. Eddie was a few months short of his80th birthday, and the golden anniversary of his marriage to Beryl, the charm-ing Swiss lady who shared his life since 1947.

Born in County Durham, Murray joined the French Foreign Legion soonafter leaving school. After a rather exciting war, he joined the MetropolitanPolice and in 1950 was seconded to Chartwell to take up protection dutieswith the Leader of the Opposition. He recorded the story in his book, I WasChurchill's Bodyguard, later expanded in a series of 1995 tapings for the Imperi-al War Museum. He stuck out a trying job to the end. I will never forget thewords he uttered at the Churchill funeral: "Who is there to talk of now?"

I met Edmund Murray on the first Churchill Tour in 1983, when he heardwe were stopping at Bath and joined us for lunch. At first he struck me asLawrence had struck Churchill, "a very remarkable character, and very carefulof that fact." Eddie was not inclined to hide his light under a bushel, and whathe most loved to talk about was Winston Churchill. Over the years, I observeda certain mellowing in his manner. He certainly grew more pixieish. QuotingSir Harold Wilson's reference ten years before to "Sir Winston's detective, nowdead," Eddie remarked: "By my presence here I offer you undeniable proofthat no one can trust the pronouncements of politicians."

Over the next few years his talks became more polished, more rounded.Perhaps all his appearances, so many at ICS events, and before youngsters,whose company he particularly loved, allowed him to sit back and take a 'longer look at the experiences fate had so uniquely placed in his way.

I do know this, and I know it as a certitude: that Eddie's speech at the 1992Churchill Conference in England was one of the finest ever made about SirWinston Churchill, ranking with the words, at other Churchill gatherings, ofLord Mountbatten and Alistair Cooke, Martin Gilbert and Robert Hardy:'

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Churchill I knew was the epitome of all thatwas ever good and fine in our island race and he was always proud of hisAmerican heritage. Yes, he made mistakes, but then only those who do noth-ing do not. Always his aim was to make Britain great, and to join all Europeancountries together as one in peace and freedom...We all have a job to do andindeed the tools to do it are in your hands. Vivre a jamais dans l'esprit desgens, n'est-ce pas l'immortalite? There is the heritage he left us: la raison d'etreof the International Churchill Societies. May we all be worthy of his trust"-Richard M. Langworth

Edmund Murray's final contribution to Finest Hour runs in our next number- we inviteany reader who would like to add a few words of remembrance to write the'editorimmediately. The text of his 1992 speech is available in the Proceedings of the Internation-al ChurcMl Societies 1992-1993, available from Churchill Stores (address on pT

FINEST HOUR 93 / 8

would attract unwelcome publicity.At one point, in the face of hostile

news reports, the Duke was forced todefend himself against claims that hewas behaving frivolously while menwere dying in the war. "The Duchessand I have not darkened the door ofany night dub in New York," he said.-Giles Elgood

HOOVER VOL. Ill IN PRINTS. HADLEY, MASS., OCT. 15TH— FinestHour congratulates longtime Friendof the Society George H. Nash uponpublication of the third volume of hisseminal biography, The Life of HerbertHoover. The 672-page tome, subtitled"Master of Emergencies 1917-1918,"is published by Norton at $45. TheNew Book Service will be happy toorder copies of "Master of Emergen-cies" for anyone who writes to theeditor within three weeks of receivingthis issue. The ICS price is $36 + $4 toship; order from the editor.

BRONZE STATUE OFFEREDTAUNTON,SOMERSET,DEC. 1ST—Tony Ellardof ICS, UKsends usdetails of alimited edi-tion (50)solidbronzeChurchill-ian figure,80cm high,on 4 marbleplinth,sculpted byhis son. On

orders received from Friends of ICS,Tony will donate £20 to the ChurchillSociety of the buyer. The price is £495in the UK, £510/$860 elsewhere,including postage, packing and insur-ance. Despatch will be eight to twelveweeks from receipt of full payment.Please be sure to mention the Interna-tional Churchill Society if you order.Contact Kinetica Models, CanonHouse, Canon Street, Taunton, Som-erset TA11SW, England.

INTERNATIONAL DATELINES

Local and National Events

DETROITDEARBORN, MICH., JULY 17TH—Thirty-two Friends of ICS, somefrom 150 miles away, gathered atthe Dearborn Inn for the firstDetroit-area meeting in severalyears. After a Churchill film and .review of Churchilliana on display,Fred Farrow recalled his meetingChurchill during the General Strike,a repeat performance of his fasci-nating talk at the 1995 BostonConference. Four times during themeeting, we stopped and gaveaway a total of fifteen pieces of col-lectible Churchilliana.

Detroit Friends plan regular meet-ings in the future. To pitch in, pleasecontact Gary or Beverly Bonine, 9000E. Jefferson Avenue #28-6, Detroit MI48214, telephone (313) 823-2951.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Hon. Member Caspar Weinberger and BritishAmbassador Sir John Kerr with Churchill-edited

manuscript at the Washington Club.

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 14TH—Former Secretary of Defense CasperWeinberger argued that America'sdeclining military readiness expos-es the nation to potential dangers itmay not be able to face at the annu-al meeting of the WashingtonSociety for Churchill, held at theWashington Club tonight. MrWeinberger, an honorary memberof ICS, cited Winston Churchill's

frequent warnings during the 1930sas evidence of the folly of failing toma in t a in a nat ion 's s trength ofarms. Ivtr. Weinberger recently co-authored a book, The Next War, onthis subject, and was kind enoughto autograph copies for many pre-sent. British Ambassador Sir JohnKerr introduced Mr. Weinberger tothe thirty Friends of ICS and sixtymembers of the English SpeakingUnion , which cosponsored theblack-tie dinner.

The Washington Society forChurchill meets regularly. Contact RonHelgemo, 2037 Wethersfield Ct.,Reston VA 22091 or telephone in theevenings (703) 476-4693

NORTH TEXASDALLAS, NOVEMBER 22ND—Twenty-five Friends and guests cel-ebrate d the anniversary of SirWinston Churchill's birthday at aChampagne Soiree at the home ofRichard and Anne Hazlett. Thetoast was proposed by EarlNicholson. The speaker was Lt. Col.James R. Brown, whose topic was,"The I ron Curtain Speech—AReview Fifty Years Later."

Col. Brown's presentation includ-ed videos showing^jiews clippingsfrom tine events at Fulton in 1946and t h e 50th Anniversary "TheSinews of Peace" ChurchillConference held at WestminsterCollege in 1996. The speaker alsogave an interesting comparison ofpoints raised in the original IronCur ta in Speech and the speechgiven by Lady Thatcher at Fulton.

The Colonel's talk was precededby a lively description by PaulaRestrepo of the ChurchillConference and Tour in the U.K. inOctober which several from Texasattended.

For latest information on meetingsin the Dallas area contact NathanHughes, 1117 Shadyglen Circle,Richardson TX 75081, tel. (214) 235-3208.

FINEST HOUR 93 / 9

TENNESSEENASHVILLE, NOV. 26TH— Friendsgathered in Nashville at the homeof Dick Knight, who reviewed SirMartin Gilbert's book, In Search ofChurchill. Calvin Pastors, a formerCIA officer, discussed the sharingof information between the USAand UK during Churchill's secondpremiership. He also described see-ing Churchill in the 1950s.

Area Friends will meet in May tomark the first premiership. This will bea dinner meeting and guests are invit-ed. -Richard H. Knight, 167 CharlestonPark, Nashville TN 37205.

ALASKAANCHORAGE, NOV. 30TH—AlaskaChurchillians held their annualblack tie birthday dinner for SirWinston S. Churchill on a snowySaturday evening at the HotelCaptain Cook, with forty in atten-dance. The focus was Churchill'sreflections on modern science,democracy, and the future in his1931 essay "Fifty Years Hence."Chairman James W. Muller intro-duced the subject after dinner, andthe featured speech was by MeadTreadwell, who essayed a Chur-chillian glimpse into the future byimagining the world of 2046. In aninteresting presentation entitled"Enemies of the Future," he exhort-ed us not to turn our backs on thespirit of adventure that WinstonChurchill exemplified.

The traditional toast to the mem-ory of Sir Winston was delivered byPeter Gamache, and diners weregrateful to Brooke Marston for gen-erously ensuring they did not haveto limit themselves to the singleglass of champagne recommendedby Churchill in his youth.

Once again guests joined insinging Harrow School songs,including one—"The TwentiethCentur-ee"—written in the sameyear as Churchill 's essay. Theywere led by the Canaries—CraigCarlson, James Muller, MichaelPadden, and Mark Wohlgemuth—to the piano accompaniment ofPeter Strandjord. We also bade

INTERNATIONAL DATELINES

farewell at the dinner to John andNesta Morgan, who are returning toEngland after John's eventful threeyears at the helm of BP Exploration(Alaska), presenting them with thebook Adventure in Oil, which, with aforeword by Churchill, describesthe founding of BP.

For Alaska event information pleasecontact James Muller, 1518 AirportHeights Dr., Anchorage AK 99508.

NEW ENGLANDCAMBRIDGE, MASS. NOV. 30TH—Despite conflicts with theThanksgiving weekend, over thirtyFriends of the Churchill Centerdined at the Hyatt Regency Hotel tomark Sir Winston's 122nd birthday.After a social hour and a delectabledinner, we had the pleasure of lis-tening to Professor Paul Rahe,chairman of the History Depart-ment at the University of Tulsa, anICS academic advisor, discussChurchill's second book, The RiverWar. Not only was the content edu-cational and the presentation eru-dite, but the audience was heldspellbound. Prof. Rahe quotedextensively from the book and hisdelivery was most eloquent. As Ilistened to Churchill's picturesquedescription of an African sunset,having marveled at this very specialsight many thousands of timesmyself, his written and spokenwords accurately brought back tome this magical experience.

We also had the opportunity tohandle and examine some beautifulcopies of The River War broughtalong by Richard Langworth, whothen updated us on the accomplish-ments and future plans of theChurchill Center. -Cyril Mazansky

Next meeting: Saturday May 3rd, aluncheon at the Wayside Inn, Sudbury,Mass, with Marianne Almquist ofArizona, who will present her slide lec-ture, "Clementine Churchill." NewEngland friends will receive invitationsby mail as usual. Meanwhile, hold thedate. To help with this and futureevents please contact Cyril Mazansky,50 Dolphin Road, Newton Center MA02159, tel. (617) 527-0522 evenings.

ILLINOISCHICAGO, DECEMBER 1ST— IllinoisChurchillians held their tribute tothe 122nd birthday of Sir WinstonChurchill with thirty-two in atten-dance at the Ballroom West. Awarm atmosphere of holiday cheerand goodwill prevailed and carolscould be heard in the background.The program presentation washailed by all as outstanding.

Douglas Russell, a Governor ofthe Churchill Center and author ofthe ICS book, The Orders,Decorations and Medals of Sir WinstonChurchill, discussed Churchill'smedals, followed by Nick Carter,who read in Churchillian style thestirring essay by Virginia Carter:"How Churchill Used the EnglishLanguage." Truly grand!

Commander Joseph Troiani,USN, reported on the U.S. GuidedMissile Cruiser Sir WinstonChurchill, to be launched in 1998.The group agreed unanimously thatall should attend the christening,which will be at the Bath, MaineIronworks—stay tuned to FinestHour for the details. An internation-al flavor prevailed, with J. WillisJohnson from San Angelo (Republicof Texas) and Bill and MarjorieWilliams, from St. Catharine's,Ontario, all of whom were with Joeand Judith Just on the 1996Churchill Tour. Bill reported on ICSCanada's plans for the Toronto con-ference in 1997. We played the"WSC Quote Game," arguing overthe origin of various Churchillquotes, or non-quotes—DougRussell won, and his prize was thetoll money back to Iowa!

The Churchill birthday cake wascut, loyal toasts were sung, and weadjourned feeling good about SirWinston and each other. Those whocould not attend sent regrets overmissing a great experience. Per cus-tom, we adjourned with a Churchillquote from Joe Just: "History iswhat the winners say it is."

Future events information: contactJoe Just, 16 W. 251 S. Frontage Rd,Suite 25, Burr Ridge, IL 60521, tel.(630) 654-3500. $

FINEST HOUR 93/10

Send your questions (and answers) to the Editor

Riddles, Mysteries, Enigmas

i"The'Strand"

o'fA^pril 1949mentions thatChurchill savedhis cigar bandsso they couldbe sent to thosewho wrote ask-ing for them. Ihave some ci-gar boxes withhis figure, butno bands. Areany available? -]ames Blewitt,Colchester,Essex, UK

A I have often seen cigar bands,XX well chewed butts and wholecigars claimed to have been the prop-erty of Sir Winston. In many casesthey were accompanied by a "letter ofauthenticity," whatever validity thatmay have. It is a matter which the col-lector must consider carefully beforeparting with his or her money.

"Churchill" has long been a stan-dard cigar size, and many cigar man-ufacturers have adopted Churchill'sname and/or picture as a brand ortrademark. In virtually every case theconnection is completely spurious,but some bands from these cigars arequite colourful and collectable. Ienclose a few examples from a Dutchmanufacturer whose range illustratedChurchill wearing twenty-four differ-ent hats! (See FH #79, p22.) Collectingthese requires an outlay measured inpence rather than pounds. If youremain determined to track down oneof the cigar bands mentioned in the"Strand" article I wish you luck! DJH

Coincidentally, it hap-pens that a reader is

offering an authenticatedcigar band; see letterscolumn on next page,

lower right.

QPresident Kennedy, in presentingChurchill with honorary American

citizenship, said, "He mobilized theEnglish language and sent it into battle."Who actually originated this line?

A Edward R. Murrow, in hisxXColumbia LP recording entitled"I Can Hear It Now" (and possiblyelsewhere) actually coined the phrase.JFK borrowed it without attribution,but then again, Churchill often didthe same with lines that appealed tohim. The full quote: "Now the hourhad come for him to mobilize theEnglish language, and send it intobattle, a spearhead of hope for Britainand the world. We have joinedtogether some of that Churchillianprose. It sustained. It lifted the heartsof an island of people when theystood alone."

I attended a seminar yesterday fea-1hiring former presidential Chief of

Staff Howard Baker,former Secretary ofState Lawrence Eagleburger, and formerNational Security Advisor BrentScowcroft, held at the University of Vir-ginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs.During the discussion, Gen. Scowcroftquoted Winston Churchill's memoirs —something to the effect of "And so the warended, and men were free to return to thefollies that had nearly cost them theirlives." I was hoping you could help metrack down the quote and from whence itcame. —Dan Heuchert, Inside UVA

AThe "theme of the book" for Tri-umph and Tragedy (1953), the

sixth and last volume of The SecondWorld War, is: "How the GreatDemocracies Triumphed, and sowere able to resume the follies thathad almost cost them their life." Itcertainly seems highly relevant today.

Q l was wondering if you could giveme a bit of genealogical information.

1 am curious to discover the relationship

between Winston Churchill and Henriet-ta Mary Spencer-Churchill. She is thedaughter of the current (11th) Duke ofMarlborough. Abo, what is her relation-ship to Diana (Spencer), Princess ofWales? -Ronalda Baldwin<dagobertii@infohouse.com>

A I know nothing about genealo-x x g y . Churchill was a first cousinof the 9th Duke, the present Duke'sgrandfather, so perhaps you can piecetogether the relation. Diana Spencer isof the Spencer family, a branch ofwhich married into the Churchills.Will a reader please elaborate? (Per-haps Mr. Steward—see next page.)

J have recently finished reading'Winston Churchill: The Struggleurvival 1940 to 1965 by Lord

Moron and thoroughly enjoyed it. Afriend has since advised me that Clemen-tine Churchill found aspects of the bookdisagreeable and that it has also been crit-icized by various Churchill scholars. Iwas surprised by this information becausethe book appeared to be very pro-Churchill. Why was Lady Churchillangered by this book and why wereaspects of it challenged by others?

A The family objected because theyxVbelieved Moran violated his doc-tor's oath of patient confidentialityand gave a skewed portrait, since heonly saw Churchill when WSC wasunwell. (Action This Day, edited byJohn Wheeler-Bennett, NY and Lon-don 1968 was a direct response toMoran's conclusions, with a pointedforeword by Lady Churchill.)

Moran claimed, offering no proof,that he obtained WSC's sanction towrite as he did. Churchill was notori-ously nervous about colleagues andstaff "writing," as he put it, especiallyafter Alanbrooke's Memoirs appear-ed in 1959. Moran's veracity is ques-tionable. For instance, he told friendsthat Clementine Churchill "editedout" vast portions of certain parts ofhis text. In fact, Lady Churchill wasshown no part of the book beforepublication, and would cheerfullyhave deep-sixed the entiremanuscript. RML ®

FINEST HOUR 93/11

GB IS NOT UKI enjoyed issue 92. A minor point

the map on the cover suggests thatGreat Britain includes Northern Ire-land. Great Britain is an island com-prising England, Scotland and Wales.The United Kingdom comprisesGreat Britain and Northern Ireland.STEVEN R. WOLF, WASHINGTON, PA.

Editor's Response: You are quite rightand we apologize. This is what comes ofcollecting stamps, which invariablyequate GB with UK.

WSC-FDR RELATIONSHIP ANDORIGINS OF THE "MANHATTAN"

With regard to "Riddles" in issue91 (page 11), Churchill was related toRoosevelt, but Conklin Mann's articleto which you refer appears incorrecton Churchill's descent from John andSarah (Cooke) Warren.

In 1933, George A. Moriarty sug-gested that Daniel Willcox (Jr.) wasthe son of Daniel Willcox (Sr.) by anunknown first wife, rather than byDaniel Sr.'s second wife, ElizabethCooke, daughter of John and Sarah(The New England Historical andGenealogical Register 87: 73-74; furtherexpanded in The American Genealogist[1942-43]: 27.) The 3rd and currentedition of Mayflower Families inProgress: Francis Cooke of the Mayflowerand His Descendants for Four Genera-tions" (1994), pp. 11, 3, accepts Mori-arty's reasoning. (FDR has twodescents from the Cookes, throughElizabeth's sisters Esther [Cooke]Taber and Sarah [Cooke] Hathaway.)

Sir Winston and FDR were relat-ed in other ways. They were 8thcousins twice removed through thebrothers John Howland (of theMayflower) and Arthur Howland, andseventh cousins once removedthrough the sisters Mercy (Glover)Mansfield and Hannah (Glover) Ash-ley (Record Th charts on 161,162).

On the origins of the "Manhat-tan" cocktail, the Leonard JeromeHouse at 32 East 26th Street, NewYork City, was leased to the Manhat-tan Club some time after Mrs. Jeromeand her daughters moved to Paris in1867. (In 1886, the University Club

DESPATCH BOX

was located at this address.) Therental income of $10,000 (£2000) wasassigned to Jennie Jerome as her join-ture when she married Lord Ran-dolph Churchill in April 1874.Ladies, in 1874, did not frequent gen-tlemen's clubs, and it would havebeen inconceivable, as Mrs. Ruoffsurmises, for Miss Jerome (or LadyRandolph) to go to the bar of theManhattan Club to order a drink.The Jerome connection to the Man-hattan Club is clear enough that nofurther explanation seems necessary.

SCOTT C. STEWARDCO-EDITOR, NEXUS

NEW ENGLAND HISTORICGENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, BOSTON

HALCYON DAYSWhat a delight to receive Finest

Hour #92 with Cyril Mazansky'sexcellent article about Halcyon Daysenamels. I am extremely flatteredthat you hold our designs in suchhigh esteem and it is marvellous toleam of the goodwill engendered bysuch approval. Thank you very muchindeed for your kindness.

SUSAN BENJAMIN, MG. DIR.,HALCYON DAYS LTD., LONDON

1996 CONFERENCECongratulations for a superb

Conference. Taking a child to anadult event like that is not usually agood idea, so we were hesitant tobring Owen with us, and limited ourparticipation to certain events. Notsurprisingly, though, he picked upquite a bit of new information. Fromthe banquet at Blenheim on, the Con-ference was great fun. The day atChartwell was a treat, but the presen-tations Saturday were my favorite. Ihave learned so much about Chur-chill when listening to others sharetheir knowledge. And we enjoyedWhitehall with Sir Martin Gilbert.

Following the conference, wevisited the Guildhall with its magnifi-cent statue of Churchill, and foundanother statue of FDR and Churchillon Bond Street. We took the Under-ground out to Woodford to see that

area and the statue on the greenthere. We also returned to Blenheimwith a stop a Bladon, and saw a terrif-ic display of pictures, clippings, etc. atthe Marlborough Arms in Wood-stock. It was an exciting time and weplan to return in early 1998.FRED HARDMAN, SPENCER, WV, USA

'51 CAMPAIGN PINS FOR SALE

John Mather and Robert Hardy (duringthe 1996 Churchill Tour) are sporting thenew "Send for Churchill" red, white andblue lapel pin replicated from the 1951Election. These pretty pins cost $10/£6postpaid from the Washington Society forChurchill, c /o Ron Helgemo, 2037Wethersfield Ct, Reston VA 22091 USA.

PRINTS & CIGAR BAND FOR SALEA member of Sir Winston's staff

gave me three gifts: a cigar band (seepage 11 -Ed.), intact and about 1"wide; and two Churchill paintingprints in colour: "Bottlescape" (above;16x20" not including border, shinyfinish) and "The Blue Sitting Room,Trent Park" (7x5" including whiteborder, actually the top of a card).Should these pieces be of interest, Iwould be receptive to bids.

LARRY BOWMAN, 340 E. 4TH AVE.,PRINCE RUPERT, BC, CANADA V8J1N6

TEL. (604) 627-8866 $

FINEST HOUR 93/12

THE MANY LIVES OF WINSTON CHURCHILL

t lour

<erBY RICHARD M. LANGWORTH

PHOTOS BY DICK BANKS, BILL BEATTY, BARBARA LANGWORTH, PARKER H. LEE III & BILL WILLIAMS

ABOVE: BLENHEIM, LIT FOR CHURCHILUAN VISITORS, 2 OCTOBER • CHARTWELL, WITH THE HEAVENS SMILING, 4 OCTOBER

BELOW: ASHDOWN PARK, HQ ON 5 OCTOBER • THE BACK OF 10 DOWNING STREET, LONDON, WITH THE DOOR WSC OFTEN USED.

IN 1996 the International Churchill Societies came fullcircle to convene again in England which—not widelyknown—was the site of the very first international

meeting twenty-four years ago. tow turnout was expect-ed when UK chairman Jack Symonds announced the con-ference in the Board Room of the British Philatelic Societyon 6 May 1972—it was Cup Final Day. But Jack soonlearned that the Board Room would not be large enough,and moved the meeting to the Charing Cross Hotel,where all but one UK member attended. Later we learnedfrom Sir Martin Gilbert the historic nature of our venue:Lord Fisher hid here after resigning from the Admiralty

and causing Churchill's ouster in 1915! ICS has been nostranger to Britain since, having convened in England in1983, 1989 and 1992, and toured "Churchill's Britain"seven times since 1983. But the impressive '96 effort byICS United Kingdom, under the leadership of chairmanDavid Boler, made this year's events the largest, mostambitious held in Great Britain.

The programme attested to the diversity of interestwhich coalesces around Churchill's saga. He lived whatwould be at any time an extraordinary life. Fortunedecreed that he live it during the greatest upheavals in amillennium, from the charge of the Twenty-first Lancers

FINEST HOUR 93 /13

at Omdurman to the charge of Mankind into space; fromthe palmy days of Queen Victoria and the Pax Britannicato the carnage of two World Wars and the long, ultimate-ly successful struggle with the last surviving internationaltyranny. Those ninety years, and the vigor with which helived them, gave rise to a diversity of thought and studywhich surrounds no other figure in 20th century history.

He was born at Blenheim, so the Palace was an idealbeginning of four days of Conference activities on Octo-ber 2nd. We dined in splendor in the Great Hall, present-ing the Duke of Marlborough with a Blenheim Award forhis life's work in preserving and maintaining Blenheimfor the nation and the world. Our debt to Wylma Wayne,vice-chairman of ICS/UK, can never be repaid; throughher effort and diligence this event proved to be the "greatclimacteric" we hoped it would be.

AT Chartwell, Winston Churchill taught us howto live and work, converting a vast and derelictproperty to a literary factory and a gathering

place for the movers and shakers of his time, from home-grown giants like Lloyd George and F. E. Smith to distin-guished foreigners like Bernard Baruch and Harry Tru-man; from lighthearted entertainers like Charlie Chaplinto sombre, sequestered, secret visitors bearing the latestnews from Nazi Germany, and exiled Europeans withfear in their eyes, having just experienced Blitzkrieg. Andyet, as his daughter Lady Soames will tell us, he madeChartwell a home anyone would envy. There, as hewrote, "with much to amuse me, [and] with my happyfamily around me, I dwelt at peace within my habita-tion." Thus ChartweU's administrator, Carole Kenwright,and her staff guided us through the house and its gar-dens, planning our schedule on a Friday so as to have theproperty to ourselves for a prolonged visit. Grace Ham-blin, Chartwell's first Administrator, received anotherBlenheim Award, for her years of service to theChurchills and ChartwelL

Churchill's youth, exemplified by his granddaughterCelia Sandys's book, From Winston with hove and Kisses,reads like a Henty novel. Our traditional conference bookdiscussion focused on this period, as distinguished aca-demics—James Muller, Paul Addison, Piers Brendon,Kirk Emmert and (from the audience) John Ramsden—considered his first book, The Story of the Malakand FieldForce. Then there is his long political career, to which webrought special insight through Jonathan Aitken, MP,who provided a firsthand account of his experiences withSir Winston, and his great uncle, Lord Beaverbrook.

Churchill's achievement as Prime Minister was welldocumented, with Sir Martin Gilbert to show us thefamous and obscure sights of "Churchill's London," Pro-fessor David Stafford to discuss the crucial part played byChurchill's wartime intelligence, and Lord Deedes to dis-

cuss his peacetime Premiership of 1951-55. After an activecareer that had seen him the only statesman in high officeduring both World Wars, Churchill spent his decliningyears in writing, painting and contemplation; WendyReves, so many times his hostess, testified to that portionof. his life from firsthand experience in a wonderful tape.We were sad that illness prevented her from joining us.

Churchill's relations form another fascinatingadjunct to the saga; John Mather focused on his father,exploding the myths surrounding Lord Randolph's finalillness (see also this issue). We even examined the notablefilms and actors who attempted to capture Churchill'sessence, through an analysis of their work by Glynne andBev Jenkins. And, as testimony to the invaluable archiveChurchill left to occupy scholars for another century, thePublic Record Office held over an exhibit of ChurchillPapers especially for us to see while in London.

THAT was the Conference. There was also theEighth Churchill Tour, which included all of theConference, plus more: four days of exploring

genealogical sites in Dorset and Devon, capped by a Gar-den Party at the Wiltshire home of Celia Sandys and KenPerkins, with guests including Lady Soames, Peregrineand Yvonne Churchill, and our favorite Churchillianactor, Robert Hardy. The latter had come all the way fromScotland to deliver a stump speech urging ICS to keep ondoing what it is doing, following a scrumptious lunchpunctuated by bubbly courtesy of Bill Gunn, Pol RogerUK and Christian Pol-Roger, who also provided Cham-pagne at two other Conference events.

Seventy passengers, the largest group ever, requiredgroup dinners most nights, and this in turn gave usnumerous guest speakers. Among these were Finest Hourfeatures editor Douglas Hall, down from Derby to displayand discuss Churchilliana; our third Blenheim Awardreceipient, Ashley Redburn, honored—just in time, as wehave sadly learned (see page 4)—as Senior Editor of FinestHour and for his Bibliography of Works About Churchill (firstedition $10 from Churchill Stores; a much larger, com-pletely revised edition is seeking a publisher). Our owntour party produced Jill Kendall, aged 17, who hadresearched the role of music in Winston Churchill's life;Donald Webb, who offered a lively and amusing reviewof the Churchill wit; and this writer, who gave an updateon his own forthcoming Guide to the Books of Sir WinstonChurchill.

The West Country tour, carefully arranged for us byElizabeth Snell (author of The Churchills: Pioneers andPoliticians), was a fast-paced, four-day round robin of pri-vate homes associated with the Marlborough andChurchill families for five or six centuries, includingMinterne, the Digby family estate; Round Chimneys,birthplace of the first Sir Winston; Muston Manor, home

FINEST HOUR 93/14

The Conference:LEFTHAND COLUMN:

(1) THE FISH POND AT CHARTWELL SPARKLED IN THE SUN.(2) THE GREAT HALL AT ASHDOWN PARK, CONFERENCE HQ.

(3) TOURGUIDE SIR MARTIN GILBERT AT HORSE GUARDS PARADE.RIGHTHAND COLUMN:

(1) THE DOORS THAT HAVE SEEN SO MANY FAMOUS GUESTS WERETHROWN OPEN FOR US AT CHARTWELL.

(2) CHARTWELL ADMINISTRATOR CAROLE KENWRIGHT AND CELIA

SANDYS AT THE NEMON STATUE, CHARTWELL(3) CHAIRMAN BOLER HOLDS FORTH, OCTOBER 5TH.(4) PROFESSORIAL PUB LUNCH ON THE LONDON TOUR: DAVID

STAFFORD, MARTIN GILBERT, JAMES MULLER.

FINEST HOUR 93/15

of the Dorchester Churchills; Little Churchill Farm, wherethe family traces its earliest beginnings; Great Trill, a pos-sible birthplace of the First Duke; and four other privatehomes and churches in Devon and Dorset. At each, wewere welcomed like visiting royalty, often with superbhigh teas.

We also had two days in Oxford, from which wepaid calls to beautiful Ditchley Park (where Churchillstayed during moonlit wartime weekends); and Bladon,where we left a wreath on his grave. Thanks to Jack andRita Darrah and Gerald Lovell, we were gloriously wel-comed at Bletchley Park, where Jack has created a shrinein the Churchill Rooms (see FH 91) and the BletchleyPark Trust has begun to preserve the now-famous code-breaking center of Britain's war effort. And, thanks to Mr.James Massey, the tour party had a look at "Lullenden,"the Churchills' first country home, near Ashdown Park inEast Grinstead.

IT is hardly surprising that Churchill continues toinspire more books, articles and arguments than anyother world figure this century. Such a life, lived with

such exemplary zest, replete not only with controversybut with boundless achievement as a statesman, orator,writer and historian, could hardly do otherwise. ICSUnited Kingdom, as host of the 1996 International Con-ference, refracted the enormity of that achievement inthose few days, amplifying our knowledge, and servingfurther to pursue the goal laid down by our Patron: toexalt his memory, and to honor his deeds.

PATRON OF THE SOCIETIES THE LADY SOAMES, DBE,JOINED US AT THE SANDYS HOME AND CHARTWELL

FINEST HOUR 93/16

CHURCHILL CENTER AND ICS TRUSTEE CELIA SANDYS HOSTEDTHE TOUR AT HER HOME AND ATTENDED THE CONFERENCE

The Churchill Societies are deeply grateful to allwho helped make the 13th Churchill Conferenceand Eighth Churchill Tour such successes: The UK

Conference Committee of David Boler (chmn.), IanMaxwell-Scott, John Cook, Joan Harris; the BlenheimDinner Committee (Wylma Wayne, Garry Clark, RichardLangworth); Elizabeth and James Snell and Jaimie SnellMendoza; Wendy Reves; Lord and Lady Digby; B.E.J.Rich and family; Mr & Mrs. O.B.N. Paine; Jill Kendall;Don Webb; Poole Pottery; Stephen & Fiona Wilkinson(Little Churchill Farm); Kfflerton House; Pamela Thomp-son (Great Trill); Celia Sandys; Ken Perkins; RobertHardy; Lady Soames; Peregrine & Yvonne Churchill;Robert Hardy; Parker & Barbara Lee; Bill Gunn of PolRoger UK; Christian Pol-Roger; Paul Duffie and theBlenheim Staff; Town & Country Caterers; Douglas Hall;Rita & Jack Darrah, Gerald Lovell and the Bletchley ParkTrust; Carole Kenwright and the staff of Chartwell; JamesMassey of "Lullenden"; Professors David Stafford,'JamesMuller, Paul Addison, Kirk Emmert and John Ramsden;The Rt. Hon. Jonathan Aitken MP; Piers Brendon andAlan Packwood of the Churchill Archives; Glynne Jenk-ins; John Mather; Sir Martin Gilbert; Willie Rushden;Simon Fowler of the Public Records Offfice; DitchleyPark; Graham Robson; Gail Greenly.

Special thanks to the Gold Card registrants, withoutwhose generosity this conference could not haveprovided all that it did. They received an oil-on-can-

vas replica of Churchill's "A Distant View of Venice,"produced by Wylma Wayne, as a small token of thank;:Stephen and Anne Black, David and Diane Boler, Robertand Bonnie Castrey, James and Billie Henry, J. WillisJohnson, Joseph and Judith Just, Gerald and JudithKambestad, Parker and Barbara Lee, Charles and LindaPlatt, Christy and Andrew Ness, Jack and Jerre Shinne-man, John and Kathleen Utz, Donald and Renee Webb,The Hon. William and Mrs. lind Marshall Wright. $$'

L: PEREGRINE (SIR WINSTON'S NEPHEW) AND YVONNE CHURCHILL AND WYLMA WAYNE, OCTOBER 1ST. CENTER: WENDY REVES PRESENTEDTHE EMERY REVES AWARD TO JONATHAN AITKEN FOR NIXON. R: CEUA AT THE GRAVE OF THE BALI DOVE, CHARTWELJL

The Tour:RIGHT; DITCHLEY PARK, OXFORD. BELOW LEFT:

MINTERNE, OUR FIRST GENEALOGICAL STOP, LADYDIGBY AT RIGHT WITH ARMS FOLDED. RIGHT: ROBERTHARDY WITH CHURCHILL CENTER EXECUTIVE DIRECTORPARKER LEE ATTHE SANDYS'S, OCTOBER 1ST.

BOTTOM LEFT TO RIGHT: JACK DARRAH WELCOMES USTO BLETCHLEY; THE SANDYS GARDEN PARTY; BARBARALANGWORTH PLACES FLOWERS AT BLADON; LORRAINEBEATTY WITH MR & MRS PAINE AND WEST COUNTRYTOUR HOSTESS ELIZABETH SNELL (3RD FROM RIGHT),MUSTON MANOR DORSET, SEPTEMBER 27TH.

FINEST HOUR 93/17

ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES

Why Are We Ashamed of our Glorious Past?Great Britain is like an amnesia patient, with no understanding ofwho she is and what she is for. Unless she swiftly finds a cure, sheshall be adrift in a world only too ready to take advantage of her

weakness—and this doesn't apply only to Britain.BY PETER HITCHENS • ILLUSTRATION FROM THE DAILY MAIL, 30 MARCH 1953

IMAGINE yourself coming round in a hospital casualtydepartment, your memory a blank and your pocketsempty or your handbag gone. Perhaps you can still

read and count, perhaps not. In this world of scatteredfamilies and long-distance travel, how will you find outwho you are? And what use will you ever be again, toyourself or anyone else?

More and more, Britain islike just such a patient, a coun- 4try lost in amnesia, a peoplewho have suffered a collectiveblow on the head which haswiped out our understandingof who we are and what weare for. Unless we swiftly finda cure, then we will be adrift ina world only too ready to takeadvantage of our weakness. Thestrange thing about this is that wehave submitted so willingly to this mental castration thatsome of our own people have keenly sought to blot outthe real past, and reshape our history into a grey mush ofsocial reform and gender studies.

When communism tried to steal the history ofPoland in the Sixties and Seventies, furious parents riskedtheir liberty to set up "flying universities" where thenation's real history was taught in secret. Yet our greatfree universities, our publishing houses and above all, •our schools, participate with fierce joy in the extirpationof the true history of this country.

The latest episode in this chapter of nationalshame is the dropping of the British Political History syl-labus by examination boards because it does not makeenough profit for them. Before that, many of the mostmomentous episodes in the history of this country were

Mr. Hitchens is a columnist for the International Express, fromwhose issue of 26 June 1996 this article is reprinted with permis-sion. "English-Speaking Peoples" is a periodic opinion series onthemes of interest to the English-Speaking CommunityChurchill loved; comment pro and con is always welcomed.

quietly squeezed from the curriculum by the clever trickof making them optional. How many teachers, schoolsand pupils are going to opt for the longer course, the

tougher exam, the more detailed read-ing? Those who do seek the truth

will find literature which offers acarefully doctored version of thepast. The Oxford Children's Ency-clopaedia, for example, constantlysoft-pedals the giant civilisingachievements of Britain and itsEmpire, while offering sympa-thetic and apologetic biographiesof communist leaders. A main-stream history textbook offered

to British secondary schoolsreprints a communist anti-war pro-

paganda painting about the horrorsof the Blitz, representing the opinion of a

microscopic, defeatist minority at the time.

ASCHOOL video produced last year on the Fortiesbarely gives a walk-on part to WinstonChurchill, a man who is being steadily written

out of modern history because he does not fit the fashion-able myth that the Tories sympathised with the Nazisand the Socialists were the only people who opposedHitler. This fairytale, very different from the truth, hasbeen one of the great engines behind the bombardment ofill-advised "reform" imposed on everything from ourcurrency to our penal system.

Labour's role during the rise of Hitler was con-sistently to vote against the rearmament measures whichnarrowly saved Great Britain from slavery in 1940. Stal-in's orders to the German Communist Party, to refuse tocooperate with the Social Democrats, ensured the Naziswould come to power in 1933. This would be mirrored,six years later, in the joint victory parade staged by Naziand Red Army troops in the then-Polish city of Brest, andthe efficient supply of Soviet oil to Germany whichfuelled the Nazi blitzkrieg and the bombers which tore >

FINEST HOUR 93/18

the heart out of London. But millions of supposedly edu-cated people know nothing of this, and are unaware thatthe one country which behaved with honour and couragewhen the fate of the world was being decided wasBritain. The reason for this lies in a long history of inde-pendence and defiance, in which we repeatedly over-came the most astonishing odds to survive and triumph.

If the British people of 1940 had known nothingof Drake and Marlborough and Nelson, of Elizabeth Iand William Pitt, of Waterloo and Trafalgar, they wouldnot have imagined for a moment that they could standalone against the Third Reich. And Churchill's greatspeeches, decisive in crushing all suggestions of a peacetreaty during the pivotal summer of 1940, were foundedon his deep knowledge of that past. Just as important,they were couched in a high-octane language whichwould have been beyond anyone who had not beenschooled in Shakespeare, the King James Bible, Milton,Wordsworth and Tennyson—now almost as unfashion-able as proper history.

Could another Churchill, worth thirty squadrons

of Spitfires, grow up in the Britain of today? Would sucha person know the facts, let alone the mighty rhythms ofthe English language, necessary to keep us off our knees?Those who have made a modern Churchill impossibleknew what they were doing. Their continental ideas—state control, regimentation, bureaucracy, governmentinterference in the smallest parts of life—were blocked inthe past by what they called "prejudice": the determinedopposition of the voters.

This is one of their favourite words, designed tosuggest that people who hold commonsense opinions areboneheaded oafs, mental cavemen who resist change outof tribal instinct or plain stupidity. But what they derideas "prejudice" is often nothing of the kind. On the con-trary, it is the accumulated wisdom of the ages, the fruitof that rich store of experience we call history. It is ourowners manual, our map, our index and our dictionary.Without it we can barely lace our shoes.

Amnesiacs, of course, have no prejudices. Indeedthey have nothing else, save the ideal qualifications toserve as slaves. IS

JUST PUBLISHED:

The Churchill-Conover Correspondence"All that is good in the world is born in labour and torment; all thatennobles, all that is generous, springs from the rivalries of man and

of Nations/7 Sir Martin Gilbert offers an early statement of SirWinston's political philosophy in a new Churchill Center publication.

THE Churchill Center has published aunique 40-page booklet of correspondencefrom Winston Churchill to Christine Lewis

Conover, a lady he met on the ship returningfrom India in 1899, which spans the incredibleperiod 1899 to 1943. This work captures the con-tents of a unique archive, wiDed to the ChurchillSociety by the late David Conover, Christine'sson, and conveyed to ICS by the kind offices ofMichael McMenamin in Cleveland.

Included are Mrs. Conover's reminiscencesof her relationship with Churchill; seven holograph lettersby Churchill, an eighth letter in another hand, and aninth, typed letter, all signed; five photographs, of whichChurchill inscribed three; and three books, two of theminscribed, including an 1899 Silver Library Edition of theMalakand Field Force signed "Winston Spencer Churchill":a rare item indeed. The collection will be housed in theChurchill Center and displayed from time to time atChurchill Conferences.

COKKl'SPOKDfcNCi:

3 t

Entitled Correspondence: Winston S.Churchill to Christine Lewis Conover, this booklethas been sent to all Founding Members of theChurchill Center and respondents to the 1995Heritage Fund appeal who qualified to receiveit—in other words, about half our mailing list. Ifyou have not received a copy by mid-March, itis available from the editor for $15/£10 payableto the Churchill Center. We strongly recom-mend this charming piece of Churchilliana, alook into the private life of young Winston.

In the process of compiling his Foreword to thiswork, official biographer Sir Martin Gilbert foundChurchill advising the then-Miss Lewis to check theMorning Post "for plenty of my performances." He alludesto a speech, delivered 1 June 1899, to the Midland Conser-vative Club in Birmingham, which had just madeChurchill its President. Sir Martin characteristically pro-vided the full text of this speech, which appears in theCorrespondence for the first time in its entirety. Only a brief

FINEST HOUR 93 /19

excerpt may be found in the Complete Speeches which,however admirable, are not complete.

THE speech offers a political philosophy fromwhich Churchill never deviated: lack of faith inthe collective "peace process" through large delib-

erative bodies. He preferred his own brand of personaldiplomacy. Here he refers to the First Hague Conference,convened by the Czar of Russia in 1899, to set rules gov-erning the conduct of war, thus hopefully preventing it.

I have not myself much belief in the Peace Conferencenow assembled at The Hague. It is only the greatest instance ofthe growing reaction against the spirit of competition. The Inter-nationalism which has hitherto been preached only by Socialistsand Communists is now proclaimed by the most autocraticSovereigns. The idea is that we shall all pull up and agree totake a rest; that Nations shall cease to strive against each otherfor supremacy, that the desire to prevail over others—the wishto win—should be deemed in itself a crime. That is the philoso-phy of the Peace Conference. And what dreams lie beyond it.Fair and beautiful visions of tranquillity and relaxation risebefore the weary eyes of toiling millions.

You have cheered the sentiment. It is a fine prospect—at a distance. But I, for my part, fear that road. We are not meantto find peace in this world; the spirit of life cannot exist withouteffort. Destroy the rivalries of man and of Nations and you willhave destroyed all that makes for betterment and progress onearth. I see the high temple of universal concord, the lofty tow-ers taller than St Peter's of the Parliament of Man. Within thosewalls dwell peace and quietness. Yet, I say, avoid them, for thepeace is the peace of the tomb, and the silence is the silence ofdegeneration and decay. (Cheers.)

Recall the lines I quoted to you just now. What wasthe conclusion to which they led? The Nations quietly slumber,lapped in universal law. Quietly slumber! Is that a philosophyfor Englishmen? Is that an ideal that appeals here tonight toyou, the citizens of this busy, thriving, pushing Birmingham?Surely not Certainly it does not attract me. All that is good inthe world is born in labour and torment; all that ennobles, allthat is generous, all that is manly, springs from the rivalries ofman and of Nations. The wheels of the great machine of compe-tition revolve, grinding and crunching many wretched peopleas they do, but through their movement progress and prosperi-ty are evolved. We human atoms are stirred together andimpressed one on another as pebbles are churned by the wavesof the sea until they become smooth and round and polished;and I ask you, is it not far better to be stirred and swayed by theclear blue ocean of natural human feelings than to lie forevermotionless and inert at the bottom of a stagnant pool of Interna-tional agreement? (Cheers.)

I do not wish for war. There is still in my mind thehideous memory of the battlefield of Omdurman, with morethan ten thousand corpses strewn, twisted and distorted on the

ground. If the Hague Conference should result in making warsless frequent or less terrible, no one can deny that the world willhave reason to rejoice. But I do not hesitate to say that if the ideaof brute force as an ultimate possibility were removed from theminds of men, much that is essential to human improvementwould be removed as well. (Cheers.)

Duelling, it is said—the war of individuals—haspassed entirely out of our English life, and it may be argued thatthe wars of Nations will one day be missed as little. I do notadvocate duelling, but we have lost as well as gained by theabolition. What do you prefer, fifty duels or five hundreddivorces? That is just a matter to think over. Physical force is agreat corrective, and there is this difference between war andduelling, that whereas in duelling the man who was in the rightoften got killed, in war the better Nation nearly always wins.

Was it not for the good of the world that the Greeksshould triumph over the Persians, or that Rome should crushCarthage? Did not the victories of the Germans over the FrenchEmpire in 1870 mean the triumph of a healthier school ofthought? Take the most recent instance: was not the destructionof the Dervish rule on the whole a benefit to mankind? But I donot want to preach a gospel of war. I am only trying to putbefore you a side of the question which has been very muchignored in all the discussions that have taken place. (Cheers) Ionly contend that all the virile virtues spring from competition,and from fierce competition. Without these virtues you cannot'evolve, or even preserve, a fine race of men, and I see no use orsense in trying to make angels in this world. Depend on it that,though we may, perhaps, develop into first-class men, we shallonly succeed in making very second-class angels. (Laughter.) Infact I know a good many people who would only qualify forthird-class, and only for third-class provided that there was nota fourth. (Renewed laughter.)

CHURCHILL then delivers our Quote of the Sea-son: "We live in an age which in the arts haveseen the most exquisite expression of music

through the improvements in orchestration...the spread-ing of a generous sentiment of humanitarian sympathy,and...the creation of engines and machinery of destruc-tion of monstrous and devilish perfection."

When we posted this speech on the Internet, Pro-fessor Paul Addison, author of Churchill on the Home'Front, remarked that it certainly proved that Churchillhad read Darwin. One recalls also his fatalistic viewabout war in his 1946 short story, The Dream: "We havehad nothing else but wars since democracy took charge."Certainly nothing has occurred in the last hundredyears—late examples: Bosnia, Zaire and the MiddleEast—to disprove young Winston's musings. Yet is hardto believe he spoke those words ninety-seven yearsago...and easy to understand why, some twenty yearslater, he would tell a colleague that mankind is "unteach-able from the cradle to the grave." $

FINEST HOUR 93/20

ACTION THIS DAY BYJOHNCPLUMFTON

One hundred years ago:Winter 1896-97 • Age 22"The University of my Life"

Churchill always regretted thathe did not have a universityeducation but he covered this

disappointment with his famous wit.He once noted that he had receivedmany more degrees than he hadpassed examinations. Also, he was ex-tremely well-read. That process beganwhile he was in India, a period whichhe called "the university of my life."

His reading was prodigious. Inthe intense Indian heat he devouredGibbon's eight-volume Decline and Fallof the Roman Empire and twelve vol-umes of Macaulay. He thought thatMacaulay "is easier reading than Gib-bon and in quite a different style.Macaulay crisp and forcible, Gibbonstately and impressive. Both are fasci-nating and show what a fine languageEnglish is since it can be pleasing instyles so different."

He was, however, shaken byMacaulay's indictment of his famousforebear, the First Duke of Marlbor-ough. In My Early Life, Churchillrecalled how he had been misled byMacaulay: "There was no one at handto tell me that this historian with hiscaptivating style...was the prince ofliterary rogues, who always preferredthe tale to the truth, and smirched orglorified great men and garbled docu-ments as they affected his drama."

Reading "three or four books at atime to avoid tedium," young Win-ston read Schopenhauer, Malthus,Darwin, Aristotle (on politics), HenryFawcett's Political Economy, WilliamLecky's European Morals and Rise andInfluence of Rationalism, Pascal's Provin-cial Letters, Adam Smith's The Wealthof Nations, Bartlett's Familiar Quota-tions, Liang's Modem Science and Mod-ern Thought, Rochefort's Memoirs andHallam's Constitutional History. Heread no novels.

To supplement this list he askedhis mother to send him all one hun-dred volumes of the Annual Register,the record of British public events,founded by Edmund Burke. He want-ed to know "the detailed Parliamen-tary (debates, divisions, parties,cliques and caves) of the last one hun-dred years."

Because of the cost, Jennie senthim only the volumes covering theyears since his birth. In them he madedetailed notations of his views on thevarious issues. He was building up "ascaffolding of logical and consistentviews which will perhaps tend to thecreation of a logical and consistentmind. Of course the Annual Register isvaluable only for its facts. A goodknowledge of these will arm me witha sharp sword. Macaulay, Gibbon,Plato etc. must train the muscles towield that sword to the greatesteffect."'

Seventy-five years ago:Winter 1921-22 • Age 47Toward the Irish Treaty

C P. SCOTT reported in hisdiary that Harold Laski

• had found Churchill, whohad begun negotiating the IrishTreaty, full of threats against Irishextremists, arguing that Britain hadutterly broken rebellion in the 16thcentury, so "why not now with ourvastly greater power?" "Yes," repliedLaski, "but the condition of Irelandtoday is the fruit of our policy then."

Clementine pressed moderationupon her husband: "Do my darlinguse your influence now for some sortof moderation or at any rate justice inIreland. Put yourself in the place ofthe Irish. If you were ever leader youwould not be cowed by severity andcertainly not by reprisals which falllike the rain from Heaven upon theJust and upon the Unjust....It always

makes me unhappy and disappointedwhen I see you inclined to take forgranted that the rough, iron-fisted'Hunnish' way will prevail"

Churchill played a key role innegotiating an acceptable treaty withthe Sinn Fein delegates, Arthur Grif-fith and Michael Collins. Griffithwarned the English that although hewould sign the treaty there would begreat difficulty getting it approved inIreland. As for Griffith's colleague,Churchill later wrote, "MichaelCollins rose looking as if he was goingto shoot someone, preferably himself.In all my life, I have never seen somuch passion and suffering inrestraint."

Basically, the treaty gave IrelandDominion status similar to that ofCanada, Australia and New Zealand.The more radical, led by. De Valera,opposed it, demanding complete sep-aration from Britain. The treaty

FINEST HOUR 93 / 21

ACTION THIS DAY...also left the destiny of the six Ulstercounties for future resolution.Churchill believed that eventuallyUlster would join Southern Irelandbut that the decision would have tobe Ulster's.

Given the responsibility forguiding Irish legislation throughthe House of Commons, Churchillwith his rhetoric was an importantfactor in winning its acceptance.Speaking of the role of the Irish inBritish politics and the role of theIrish nation abroad, he told theHouse: "It is a curious reflection toinquire why Ireland should bulk solargely in our lives. How is it thatthe great English parties are shakento their foundations, and even shat-tered, almost every generation, bycontact with Irish affairs? When didIreland derive its power to driveMr. Pitt from office, to drag downMr. Gladstone in the summit of hiscareer and to draw us who sit herealmost to the verge of civil war,from which we were only rescuedby the outbreak of the Great War?"

Churchill siso became Chair-man of the Cabinet Committee onIreland which met regularlythroughout December. His activi-ties give credence to the suggestionthat he is the founder of the modernIrish State. Churchill left for south-em France the day after Christmas,hoping to rest, play and work onhis Great War memoirs. Clementinewas to join him but she was held athome by the illness of all of her chil-dren, a situation which broughtabout her own collapse. From herbed she wrote, "I wandered in themiserable valley too tired to readmuch and all the sad events of lastyear culminating in Marigold pass-ing and re-passing like a stageArmy through my sad heart...."

Winston replied, "Whatchanges in a year! What gaps! Whata sense of fleeting shadows! Butyour sweet love and comradeship isa light that burns. The stronger asour brief years pass."

Fifty years ago:Winter 1946-47 • Age 72"A Year of Recovery"

On his seventy-second birth-day, Churchill declared,"we are the past, and that is

done with. Mary is the future."But he wasn't quite the past yet.

From the Opposition benches hehammered the government on itspolicies toward Palestine and India.In the former, he thought they weremoving too slowly; in the latter, tooquickly. He spent most of a bitterlycold winter at Hyde Park Gate andChartwell, working on his SecondWorld War memoirs with BillDeakin and a battery of secretaries.Lord Ismay also provided consider-able assistance. Lord Moran record-ed that Churchill's "spirits haverisen and his vigour has come back.He has put vain regrets away; oncemore there is a purpose in life. He isvery happy at Chartwell, farmingand painting and dictating hisbook. In short, it has been a year ofrecovery."

February was a peak and a val-ley emotionally for the Churchills.The peak was Mary's marriage, atSt. Margaret's Church in Westmin-ster, to Christopher Soames, assis-tant military attache at the BritishEmbassy in Paris. He had been aCaptain in the Coldstream Guardsand served from Cairo through theWestern Desert to Tunis, beforejoining an Intelligence unit in Italyand France. Churchill took to hisnew son instantly and "their friend-ship grew into a most warm andmoving relationship." Clementinewas slower in her acceptance, butshe also began to appreciate hernew son-in-law, whom they affec-tionately called "The Chimp." Yearslater Christopher joked withClementine about her original lackof confidence and liking: "Yes, dar-ling, but I've made up for it since,"she responded, patting his hand.

The valley was the death ofChurchill's brother Jack. "Therecouldn't have been a more perfect

relation between two brothers,"wrote Eddie Marsh. Churchill saidthat "the only thing Jack worriedabout was England. I told him itwould be all right."

Observing the Nuremberg tri-als, Churchill commented to LordIsmay, "It shows that if you get intoa war it is supremely important towin it. You and I would be in apretty pickle if we had lost."

Twenty-five years ago:Winter 1971-72

Aquartercenturyago, ICS

was gearing forthe Centenary ofC h u r c h i l l ' sbirth. "We arebuilding our fileof postal depart-ments to which we can suggest a1974 WSC issue," wrote editor DalNewfield, suggesting Great Britain,Guernsey, Israel and the Nether-lands. Only the first of those placesthat owed him so much camethrough. We recorded the death ofthe 10th Duke of Marlborough, anda comeback by Sarah Churchill, 57,"now forming a company to puttogether an hour-long TV special:Puggy Wug, the only song Churchillever wrote (he sang it to his chil-dren) will be publicly heard for thefirst time." The Society also plannedto produce a unique commemora-tive cover, congratulating LadyChurchill on her 87th birthday.

Newfield admitted to "a feelingof satisfaction" at the Society'sprogress over the past year. "Ourlast roster indicated 55 members,while this one lists 134, and wehave been honored by the additionof Lord Mountbatten to our list ofHonorary Members...But we cannotrest on our laurels. While we havenever aspired to immense member-ship, in fact wish it were possible toremain quite small, we must some-how achieve about 500...." M

FINEST HOUR 93 / 22

Lord Randolph Churchill: Maladies et MortIt is impossible to say at this late date

what killed Sir Winston Churchill's father.But it is no longer possible to say that he died of syphilis.

BY JOHN H. MATHER, M.D.

Lord Randolph Churchill working on a State paper, c.1885. Portrait by Edward Ward, reprinted by permission of Chartwell.

THE decade of the 1880s "saw the meteoric rise andcatastrophic fall of the brilliant Lord RandolphChurchill."1 An intense personality of shining wit

and piercing sarcasm propelled him to great politicalheights, but before he reached the pinnacle, his careerwas instantaneously extinguished when he resigned asChancellor of the Exchequer. Then the spark of life itselfwas snuffed out. His death at age 45, reportedly fromsyphilis, cast a pall over his early fame. Now that pall

Dr. Mather directs inspection and assessment of United States veter-ans health services, is a director of ICS/USA and a governor of theChurchill Center. The medical paper on this topic is projected to bepublished in the journal of Medical Biography during 1997.

may be lifted. Lord Randolph Churchill's main symp-toms are much more consistent with a less titillating butfar more logical diagnosis.

Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill, younger son ofthe 7th Duke of Marlborough, was born 13 February1849. like other young men of his time, he joined in themerry life of the Marlborough House set, where the tonewas set by his friend the Prince of Wales.2 In 1874 at age25, he married Jennie, the beautiful second daughter ofLeonard and Clara Jerome of New York. He was electeda Member of Parliament for Woodstock and embarkedupon a tumultuous political career.

Not all of Randolph's time was spent in the House

FINEST HOUR 93 / 23

of Commons. He took to the turf and traveled widely: asfar afield as South Africa, from whence he returned inJanuary 1892, sporting a beard. The next year he visitedRussia and Germany to relax at spas with Jennie. Againsttheir doctors' advice, Lord and Lady Randolph made aworld tour in 1894 which was cut short by his rapidlydeteriorating health. He returned to England in late 1894,"as weak and helpless in mind and body as a little child,"according to his son and biographer.

EVEN as a young man, Randolph's health had beenprecarious. He was a heavy smoker, sufficiently soas to "burn his tongue"; friends and physicians

advised him to quit smoking and moderate his drinking.He was a very hard worker, with a frenetic energy thatWinston described as "of a temper that gallops till itfalls."^ Periods of intense activity led to exhaustion, fol-lowed by bouts of profound fatigue and melancholia.Lord Randolph was seriously ill in 1890, with palpitationsassociated with exhaustion. His family physician, Dr.Robson Roose, prescribed belladonna, laudanum anddigitalis. The following year, he experienced an episodeof severe confusion, which suggests acute high bloodpressure. Earlier, in 1882, he had had an extended illnesswhich Lady Randolph's diary refers to as tiredness andfevers. Later, in mid-1893, Dr. Roose told Jennie, whowas distraught over her husband's illness, that Ran-dolph's heart condition had, nonetheless, been cured. Butaround this time, Randolph began to have speaking diffi-culties which were associated with hearing and balanceproblems.

Over the next two years until his death in 1895, LordRandolph complained of dizziness, palpitations, andintermittent numbness in his hands and feet. His speechbecame more slurred, and during one of his last parlia-mentary speeches, he hesitated on the text. His friendLord Rosebery later recorded that "he was the chiefmourner at his own protracted funeral, a public pageantof gloomy years. "5 He eventually became quick-tem-pered and combative. Finally, he died in a coma, withpneumonia and, probably, kidney failure.

His biographers, including his son Winston, weredivided on the nature of Lord Randolph's medical prob-lems and the cause of his death. They have generallyattributed his deterioration and death to syphilis (Win-ston in conversation though not in print) and its lateeffects. Some have suggested other neurological condi-tions, such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophiclateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), chronic alco-holism or a brain tumor.*"

The dramatic deterioration in his health and the vari-ous descriptions of his behavior in his last three yearsmight support a diagnosis of dementia paralytica in lateor tertiary syphilis, which affects the brain and appears

ten to twenty years after the primary infection. Thiswould likely have affected Jennie and their twosons, Winston and Jack. But if a diagnosis of advancedsyphilis is to be accepted, there must have been an initialinfection.

There has been considerable speculation about whenRandolph might have become "infected." The most noto-rious account is by journalist Frank Harris in his 1924autobiography, My Life and heroes, who recounts a storytold by Louis Jennings, Randolph's friend and politicalcolleague, who had published Randolph's 1880-1888speeches. After a drunken party, Jennings said, fellowstudents put Randolph with an "old hag." The nextmorning he woke, discovered his situation, threw moneyat the woman and fled. He was immediately treated by alocal doctor with disinfectant. Eventually, "a little, round,very red pimple appeared...on his peccant member."(This is not the description of a primary syphilis chancre,but of herpes.) A doctor supposedly treated him withmercury and warned him off alcohol.7

Jennings's story is questionable for several reasons.First, the chance of contracting syphilis in one sexualencounter is less than one percent. Also, Jennings, who

FINEST HOUR 93/24

PAGE OPPOSITE: Jennie and Randolph at the time of their marriage in1874. BELOW: Winston aged ten (right) with his younger brotherJack. The close resemblance between the brothers is obvious.Photographs courtesy Peregrine S. Churchill from his book, ]ennie,Lady Randolph Churchill: A Portrait with Letters, with Julian Mitchell,written for the television documentary starring Lee Remick, pub-lished by Thames Television & St. Martin's Press, 1974.

was dead when Harris recounted the story, had an axeto grind: he had angrily deserted his friend when Ran-dolph attacked the Tory party and several of its membersin 1893. Jennings's account as reported by Harris hasnever been corroborated. By 1924, Harris himself hadfallen out with Winston Churchill, for whom he had beena literary agent. Harris seems to have had a preoccupa-tion with syphilis, having made the same assertions con-cerning Oscar Wilde, which were incorrect, and Guy deMaupassant.

Dr. Claude Quetel sheds further light on Harris: "Hewith whom [de Maupassant] became friendly in 1880,and who also had a one-track mind, tells of Maupassant'ssexual vigor and boasting; the strange thing is that he wasprouder of his amorous exploits than of the stories he hadwritten."8

Lord Randolph's nephew, Shane Leslie, and Shane'sdaughter Anita, both concluded that Harris's "old hag"story was incredible, and offered their own scenarios.Shane Leslie alleged that Randolph was infected by achamber maid at Blenheim Palace around the time ofWinston's birth.^ He also asserts that Winston's brotherJack was not fathered by Randolph, but by John Strange,

later Lord Roden, who at that time was the same age asJennie's father-in-law, the Duke. There is no substantia-tion for this and pictures of Winston and Jack togetherbelie the suggestion.1^

Anita Leslie theorizes that Randolph had a Frenchmistress who had syphilis.11 She infers this from com-plaints by Jennie to the Duchess of Marlborough aboutRandolph's coldness toward her in 1886. But correspon-dence between Jennie and Randolph at that time begins"Dearest," possibly indicative of a sudden reconciliation.Was this the year Randolph first became aware of a dete-rioration in his health? While it would be another fiveyears before the appearance of severe symptoms, did hisphysician Dr. Roose now suspect that late syphilis was areal possibility, and suggest he abstain from physical inti-macy with Jennie?

The spirochete responsible for syphilis was not to bediscovered until 1905 and the definitive blood test wasnot available until a couple of years later. Since the initialand secondary manifestations of syphilis are highly con-tagious, Dr. Roose would have been mindful of the cur-rent medical practice, requiring him to determine if Jennieand the two boys were infected. A contemporary medicaltext states: "When the patient is a married man the healthof his wife and children will form a guide in enabling usto arrive at a correct diagnosis."12 Roose would also haveinquired into any history of secondary syphilitic featuressuch as a rash over much of the body. There is no recordof any such problems.

There is no indication that Lady Randolph or hersons were infected with syphilis. If it is accepted, asreported, that both boys were born prematurely, this wasmore likely to have been due to a weak opening to thewomb than to the disease. If the boys were not born pre-maturely, that would cast even greater doubt on a diag-nosis of syphilis. Neither son was born with the infectionsthat resemble secondary syphilis, nor did they have latehereditary syphilis, commonest between the ages of 7 and15, manifested by deafness, partial blindness and/ornotched teeth.13

There is likewise no evidence that Jennie's subse-quent husbands, or the many lovers she is alleged to havehad, ever contracted syphilis. Although unlikely, thismight have included the Prince of Wales, who wrote herafter Lord Randolph's death: "My dear Lady Randolph,the sad news reached me this morning that all is over...& Ifelt that for his and your sakes it was best so...There was acloud in our friendship but I am glad to think that it islong been forgotten by both of us."14

IN the late 19th century, there was a dear predisposi-tion toward syphilis in clinical diagnosis. In 1889, Dr.William Gowers, a well-respected neurologist,

emphasized this overdiagnosis of neurologic syphilis

FINEST HOUR 93/25

when he delivered the Lettsomian Lecture to the MedicalSociety of London. He chose as his topic "Syphilis and theNervous System."15

In mid-1893, Dr. Roose conferred with Dr. Gowers'scolleague, Dr. Thomas Buzzard. By then, Lord Randolphwas experiencing intermittent problems with speech,concentration, depression and more frequent outburstsof violent temper. Dr. Buzzard was an expert in manag-ing neurosyphilis, or late syphilis of the brain. It washis opinion that 95 percent of his patients had thedisease.16

Dr. Roose's and Dr. Buzzard's preoccupation withdementia paralytica, sometimes referred to as "generalparalysis" of the insane as an explanation for Lord Ran-dolph's illness is understandable. There was then nodefinitive blood test, no effective treatment, no sophisti-cated neurological testing, and no imaging techniques,such as CAT scans and MRIs. Untreated syphilis, particu-larly dementia paralytica, manifests itself in many ways,and may be confused with other diseases without carefuldiagnosis.

The 19th century preoccupation with syphilis wasnoted again later by Dr. F. M. R. Walshe, a mid-20th cen-tury neurologist, who said: "The belief that syphilis is thecommonest single cause of organic nervous disease dieshard. It is a legacy from the text books of the end of thelast century, in virtue of which syphilis of the nervoussystem occupies the place of honor, as though 'by meritraised to that bad eminence,' in most accounts of diseaseof the nervous system."1'7

It seems likely that Lord Randolph had been con-vinced by his doctors that he had a severe degenerativeneurological condition, possibly syphilis, as early as 1886.But this is not clear because Dr. Roose uses the term "gen-eral paralysis" to refer to a condition caused by thedisease, and to a condition caused by "exhaustion." Heonce commented, "Chronic inflammation of the brainattacks persons of exhausted habits, brought on byexcesses and irregular living. The patient has frequentheadaches and gradual loss of health, and then gets aperversion of most of the senses, as of sight, taste, smell,etc., and in fact, all the symptoms of the incipient mania.The only treatment is to try and combat the various mor-bid symptoms as they arise and improve the generalhealth in every way; but, in two or three years, generalparalysis is almost sure to occur."18 Here the term "gen-eral paralysis" is clearly associated with exhaustion—notsyphilis.

Lady Randolph Churchill may have been apprised ofher husband's condition during a secret visit to his doc-tors in 1892, which provoked a fearful row. Winston mayhave learned from the doctors about the seriousness of hisfather's illness in 1894. He wrote a distraught letter to hismother while his parents were on their world tour. But it

is not certain whether he understood Randolph's illnessto be syphilis. ̂

At the end, it was evident that Drs. Roose and Buz-zard were convinced that Randolph had "general paraly-sis," which many people have taken to be a code word forsyphilis of the brain. Dr. Buzzard, in response to aninquiry from the Prince of Wales's physician, explained inDecember 1894 that "Lord Randolph is affected withGeneral Paralysis, the early symptoms of which in theform of tremor of the tongue and slurring articulation ofwords were evident to me at an interview two years ago.In Lord R's case the physical signs—tremor, faulty articu-lation, successive loss of power in various parts of theframe, have been much more marked than the mentalones which have hitherto been of comparatively slightcharacter, grandiose ideas, however, not being absent attime & on some occasions violent of manner."20

ARE there diagnoses other than syphilis thatexplain the reported changes in Randolph's per-sonality, the problems with speech, and the evi-

dence of neurological and other deterioration? Could thechanges simply have been the evidence of "exhaustion,"as may have been Dr. Roose's notion? "At the present day'want of tone' is the characteristic feature of disorders ingeneral and in none is it more obvious than in thosewhich peculiarly affect official and professional menworking at high pressure. Excessive smoking, too muchalcohol, tea, and coffee, often resorted to by overworkedpersons, are frequent causes of sleeplessness," wrote Dr.Roose two years after his famous patient's death.21 LordRandolph's personality appears to have been intense, andone psychiatrist has concluded that he was a manicdepressive. Brilliant in many ways, Lord Randolph wasalso brisk and impatient. Much of his behavior during hislast five years seems to be no more than an accentuationof his prior personality.22

Lord Rosebery described Lord Randolph in compara-ble terms: "His wit, his sarcasm, his piercing personalities,his elaborate irony, and his effective delivery, gave aston-ishing popularity to his speeches. His slim, boyish figure,his mustache which had an emotion of its own, his roundprotruding eyes, gave a compound interest to his speech-es and his conversation."2^

Another friend, George Smalley, commented, "LordRandolph had...an imperious temper, an intellectual dis-dain of natures from which intellects had been omitted,moods of black despair late in life, but all through lifeacted to win his battles without much thought of thecost—all these he had, and no one of them nor all ofthem broke or impaired the spell laid upon those abouthim."24 And A.L. Rowse, the Churchill historian andbiographer, asserted, "Though a very quick and piercingjudge of a situation, Lord Randolph Churchill's judg-

FINEST HOUR 93 / 26

Jennie inSan Francisco in 1x94

ment was not really reliable. He was self-willed andimpulsive, above all impatient. If he had only hadpatience all the rest would have come into line. But hehad the defect of an artistic temperament, what we in ourday of psychological jargon diagnose as the manicdepressive alternation—tremendous high spirits and rac-ing energy on the upward bound, depression and dis-couragement on the down. "35

It is necessary to say, however, that Lord Randolph'suncontrollable rages were an ̂ embarrassment to him. In1892, Winston inadvertently annoyed his father by firinga shotgun under his window; his father lost his temper,then quickly made amends. "Understanding that I wasdistressed," Winston wrote, "he took occasion to reassure

26 There were other similar incidents, for whichme.Lord Randolph was immediately apologetic.

Lord Randolph had always had a slight speechimpediment, and as a youngster he had had hearingproblems, so it is difficult to single out problems with hisspeech, once thought to be a clear and common symp-tom of syphilis in its late stage affecting the brain. In thesame sense, the muddled thoughts, memory lapses and

profound confusion, all features of syphilis's dementiaparalytica, were absent from Randolph's writings almostuntil his death. He wrote more lengthily, and his scriptbecame shaky, but it was never unintelligible. Until thelast, when he was in a coma, his thoughts expressed inwriting were rational; they include a cogent letter to Win-ston while on the world tour in August 1894.27

In a letter to his mother on 8 October 1894, Lord Ran-dolph describes how he cured the numbness in his handsand feet by putting them in hot water.2^ If he had beensuffering from dementia, he would not have been able towrite such a cohesive letter. A likely explanation for thelongstanding problem with his circulation is his chain-smoking. Spasms in the arteries reduce circulation whichcauses numbness and pain due to lack of oxygen in thetissues.

His speech problems caused Randolph great frustra-tion. "I know what I want to say but damn it, I can't sayit," he told his friend Wilfrid Blunt in May 1894.29 At sev-eral times he expressed similar anxiety over the difficultyof articulating his words. These fugue states, or "psychicseizures" are strongly suggestive of a variety of epilepsyfound in the deep parts of the brain, dose to the speecharea. The progressive march of the disease process strong-ly suggests an expanding lesion or mass.

Consistent with his right handedness is the possibili-ty that Lord Randolph developed a left side brain tumor,for which no surgery was available. This would also beconsistent with the circulation problems in his hands,which in turn would be related to his intermittent heartfailure and arterial spasms from nicotine in cigarettes.Even Dr. Buzzard might have agreed when he said"...intense pain in the head, when it is coupled withamaurosis (or prostration) is very suggestive of the pres-ence of an intra-cranial tumor...If instead of atrophy of thediscs we had found optic neuritis, this condition, whentaken in connection with the intense severity of the painin the head, would have gone far towards enabling us topronounce a somewhat confident diagnosis of intra-cra-nial tumor."30

If Dr. Buzzard had been convinced that Lord Ran-dolph Churchill had advanced syphilis, he would certain-ly have treated him with mercury and with potassiumiodide, which he strongly espoused for all neurosyphiliticpatients.31 But Buzzard makes no mention of such treat-ments in any of his papers during Randolph's illness—and, had Randolph taken these two, their toxic effectswould have been evident.

Indeed, the only medications Lord Randolphreceived that can be documented were for pain (lau-danum) and heart failure (belladonna and digitalis). Dr.Buzzard's reference to "general paralysis" in Randolph'scase is not diagnostic of syphilis, although it suggests thiswas his eventual conclusion. While syphilis may have

FINEST HOUR 93/27

been a reasonable diagnosis in the absence of moderntechniques, the patient's temperament, combined with hismain symptom of speech and articulation problemsand absence of dementia, is more consistent with atumor deep in the left side of his brain. It is not possibleto be certain; but it is more likely to be the proper diag-nosis.

HIS father's illness impressed Winston Churchillwith a strong sense of impending mortality. Hefrequently remarked that he needed to accom-

plish his goals before his forties, and his resultant activitycaused observers to refer to him as a "young man in ahurry." Presumably he was happily surprised at hislongevity. But he long accepted the common rumorsabout his father's death. Late in life he told his private sec-retary, "you know my father died of locomotion ataxia,the child of syphilis."32

When did Churchill pick up this story? The likelytune seems to be 1924, when Frank Harris's book waspublished, precisely when Winston had left the LiberalParty and reverted to the Conservatives. The Tories wereincensed and attempted to blacken his name, calling hima drunkard and saying that he was infected with syphilis.This same year, his 11-year-old nephew was confrontedby a classmate at Summer Field Prep School, Oxford, whocharged, "My daddy says all you Churchills have revolt-ing diseases and are quite mad."-"

Winston survived the Tory attacks and becameChancellor of the Exchequer, the greatest cabinet positionhis father had held. Now, his father's reputation can alsobe vindicated. $

AcknowledgementsIt is three years since Wylma Wayne and Celia Sandyschallenged my original belief that Lord RandolphChurchill ever had syphilis. I was encouraged in myresearch by Peregrine Churchill and Sir Robert RhodesJames. Mark Weber secured several essential books tosupport my research and Linda Woodbury provided edi-torial aid. -JM

Footnotes1. F.H, Hinsley, editor, Vol XI, "Progress and World Wide

Problems, 1870-1898" in The New Cambridge Modern History,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962, pp389.

2. See Herbert Tingsten, "Meteor and Mountebank: LordRandolph Churchill," mVictoria and the Victorians, London:George Allen and Unwin Ltd. 1972, pp334-350.

3. Winston S. Churchill, Lord Randolph Churchill, London:Odhams Press Ltd. 1952, p76.

4. Ibid, p50.5. Lord Rosebery, Lord Randolph Churchill, London: Arthur

L. Humphreys 1906, pl81.6. See T.H.S. Escoft, Randolph Spencer-Churchill,. As a Product

of His Age, London: Hutchinson and Co.1895; Robert Rhodes

James, Lord Randolph Churchill, London: Weidenfeld and Nicol-son 1959; and R.F.Foster, Lord Randolph Churchill: A Political Life,London: Oxford University Press 1981.

7. Frank Harris, My Life and Loves, New York: Frank HarrisPublishing Co. 1925, republished in one volume, New York:Grove Press Inc.1963, pp482-485.

8. Claude Quetal, History of Syphilis, Baltimore: The JohnsHopkins University Press 1990, pl28.

9. Personal communication, Peregrine Churchill. See alsoShane Leslie, "Randolph Churchill 1849-1895" in Men Were Dif-ferent, London: Michael Joseph Ltd. 1937, pp68-75.

10. See "Winston and Clementine: A New GatheringStorm?," Finest Hour 67, Second Quarter 1990, pp30-31 andFinest Hour 91, Summer 1996, p8.

11. Anita Leslie, Jennie: The Life of Lady Randolph Churchill,London: Hutchinson and Co Ltd., 1969, plO8.

12. Thomas H. Tanner, The Practice of Medicine, London:Lindsay and Blakiston 1866, p314.

13. See discussion in Alfred Fournier, The Treatment and Pro-phylaxis of Syphilis, New York: Rebman Co.1907. English transla-tion of Syphilis and Marriage, published 1881.

14. HRH the Prince of Wales to Lady Randolph, 26 January1895, Lady Randolph Churchill Letters, Churchill Archives,Cambridge.

15. Mulholland R.C., "Historical Perspective: Sir WilliamGowers, 1845-1915," SPINE Vol. 21, No. 9. ppll06-1110. See alsoW.R.Gowers, A Manual of Diseases of the Nervous System,Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son and Co.:1988.

16. Thomas Buzzard, Clinical Aspects of Syphilitic NervousAffections, Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston 1874, p l l .

17. F. M. R. Walshe, Diseases of the Nervous System, London& Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 6th Edition 1949, pl63.

18. E. C. Robson Roose, Remarks Upon Some Diseases of theNervous System, Brighton: Curtis Bros, and Townes 1875, pl2.

19. Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, CompanionVolume 1 Part 1 1874-1895, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.1967,p531.

20. Ibid. p544.21. E. C. Robson Roose, The Waste and Repair in Modern Life,

London: John Murray 1897, p29.22. Anthony Storr, "The Man" in Churchill: Four Faces and

the Man, London: Cox and Wyman Ltd.1969, pp203-246.23. Rosebery, op. cit., ppl02-103.24. George W. Smalley, "Chapter XXXTV. Lord Randolph

Churchill—Being Mostly Personal Impressions" in Anglo-Ameri-can Memories, London: G.P.Putnam's Sons 1911, p332.

25. A. L. Rowse, The Later Churchill's, London: Macmillan,1958, pp227-228.

26. Winston S. Churchill, My Early Life, London: ThorntonButterworth 1930, p31.

27. Randolph Churchill, op. cit., Companion Volume 1, Part 1,p515.

28. Lord Randolph to the Duchess of Marlborough, 8 Octo-ber 1894, Lord Randolph Churchill Letters, Churchill Archives,Churchill College, Cambridge.

29. Wilfred S. Blunt, My Diaries 1888-1914., London: MartinSacker 1919, pl75.

30. Thomas Buzzard, Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Ner-vous System. London, J. & A. Churchill 1882, pl47.

31. Thomas Buzzard, op. cit., Syphilitic Nervous Affections,ppl33-138.

32. Anthony Montague Browne, Long Sunset, London: Cas-sellLtd,pl22.

33. Peregrine S. Churchill to the author.

FINEST HOUR 93 / 28

CHURCHILL ONLINEINTERNET EXCHANGES ON SIR WINSTON

The Churchill Homepage: http://www.winstonchurchill.org

THE CHURCHILL WEBSITE:Aim your web browser at the aboveInternet address and the Churchill Pageshould appear. Press any of the red buttonsto be led to the latest Churchill Center -Churchill Society information. The "FinestHour" button produces the earliest publi-cation of the next issue. If you experienceany difficulty please email John Plumpton:<Savrola99@aol.com>

The InternationalChufchil I Societies'

GRABBING THEYOUTH VOTEFrom: Merrill37@aol.com(Merrill Philip Malkerson):

The problem of intriguing theyoung with history in general and Churchill in partic-ular is a daunting one and a person should not be tooeasily discouraged. My vantage point is as a highschool teacher of English—not Social Studies—andperhaps thereby hangs a tale. I could never under-stand my grandfather's fascination with history whenI was young. I wrote off the past as a vague, emotion-less something that had nothing to do with a passion-ate present. Now I find myself reading about the pastas a series of energy-charged events which have pro-pelled us like cannonballs into a present in which weare dramatically engaged.

Yet, even when I rejected history as dull, I lovedhistorical films with their pomp and drama. I show mystudents "Young Winston" siatring Simon Ward, andthey enjoy it. I think the fact that it portrays a youngman helps. Youth identifies with youth and it is oftenhard for students to identify too much with an olderadult, although many young people at the timeseemed to find Reagan an inspiration, so perhaps pub-lic enthusiasm and optimism also count for something.In this context, Sir Winston's ability to be "jazzed" bythe darkest, most overwhelming challenges might bepresented to the young.

Another stumbling block in this day and age is the"back seat" reading so often takes as a leisure pastimeto more vivid sources of information and forms of

LISTSERV "WINSTON":To subscribe free to the worldwide ChurchillInternet community, send an email message

saying "subscribe" to:<Listserv@VM.Marist.edu>

You will receive email confirmation andmay then send and receive all messages to

the Churchill Online by entailing to:<Winston@VM.Marist.edu>

If you experience any difficulty email:<Jonah.Triebwasser@marist.edu>

entertainment. While I was watchingmotion pictures as a kid I was alsoreading books, and having them readto me. That doesn't happen so oftenas it should in our own time.Nonetheless, the school library where

I work is usually well populated by the student bodyand one current, in-print book every such libraryshould contain is Severance's Winston Churchill:Soldier, Statesman. Artist, available from the New BookService (see page 47).

A final thought—students enjoy simple, dramaticpoems on historical events. I've taken to reading andexplaining the significance of older works on dayswhich relate to their creation, such as "The StarSpangled Banner"—some know the third verse; doyou know the second, and the fourth?—and "PaulRevere's Ride." I don't want to argue their relativemerit as literature, but as a way to engage students inboth history and literature, they're successful. Thestyle of the past is a kind of hook into the past. It was astyle Sir Winston himself found engaging, and, I'msure, it helped to shape his own later inspirationalspeeches.

MAN OF THE CENTURYDisney and other entities are running polls on the

"Person of the Century." While Churchill is certainly-nominated, and receives his share of votes, the Disneyslate at least contains some alternatives that don'tstrike us as exactly in his league: Michael Jackson,Elvis Presley, and a spate of politicians and "activists"from across the political spectrum. >»

FINEST HOUR 93 / 29

CHURCHILL ONLINE continued

When the subject came up among the ChurchillOnline community, we pointed out the difficulty ofachieving such a proclamation (who would make it,besides Time magazine?) and the array of sordid,embarrassing or otherwise unsuitable "rivals" withwhom Sir Winston must compete in the public sweep-stakes. It made no difference to our freewheelingonliners: Email messages flew thick and fast, to thedegree that we decided this subject is of interest to allFinest Hour readers, and we are reprinting all the emailherewith. Thanks to Jonah Triebwasser for the digitalcompilations.

Send your comments to the editor either by mail,fax or email. The specific questions before the houseare: (1) Should ICS and the Churchill Center make aneffort to have Sir Winston Churchill proclaimed"Person of the Century"? (2) If so, by whom? (3) Don'tjust say yes—how should we go about it? Finest Hourreserves the right to edit for length; be brief.

From: Steve_Walker@mmacmail.jccbi.govI like the suggestion about the "Greatest Person"

poll. Of course, we wouldn't want the results to turnout to be Michael Jackson, as a similar poll in the '80'sdid. -Steve Walker

From: jahvah@empirenet.comThis may be an opportunity to begin some lobby-

ing efforts. Of course, the only organization that every-one recognizes which does this sort of "Person of theYear" pronouncement is Time magazine. [Time namedChurchill "Man of the Half Century" in 1950 -Ed.] Soduring the next four years, what about a concertedeffort lobbying Congresses and Parliaments for a dec-laration in the autumn of 1999, and some high-levelsuggestions to Time/Life that they make a similar dec-laration? ICS and the Churchill Center have enoughrenowned members with good contacts in London andWashington that this might not be an unreasonablegoal. It's not enough that we declare Sir Winston theMan of the Century. But if the kudos are external tothe organization—with a little prodding from within—then the accolade will be taken seriously.-Alexander Justice

From: TRonnei@aol.comA lobbying effort to have Congress or Parliament

name Winston Churchill as Person of the Centuryseems to me like a waste of our time and resources.First, I believe the "honor" would be no more impor-tant than other pronouncements from our esteemed

legislators such as "National Poultry Week." Whowould pay any attention? Who would care, besidesus? Someone is bound to reply that it would remindthe public of Churchill's greatness. My response is:isn't that what the Churchill Center is supposed to do?I'm sure the Churchill Center will be a much moreforceful advocate of our man's legacy and I believe itshould be the focus of our efforts to make sure thegeneral public remembers him and what he stood for.Second, what is the likelihood that the US Congresswould pass such a resolution for an Englishman? Thisisn't 1963. Some ignoramus is sure to step in front ofthe C-Span cameras and denounce it as "a misguidedeffort to honor a foreigner while plenty of Americanslike [fill in the blank] are surely more worthy of theaccolade." Sorry to be such a wet blanket. Rebuttalswelcome. -Todd Ronnei

From: jahvah@empirenet.comFrom what I understand, the Speaker of the House

is a student of history and an admirer of theParliamentary system, so I should think the chancespretty good. Although that would then open the ques-tion, do we want Churchill's name pronounced by oneof the least popular politicians in the USA? I shareTodd's enthusiasm and hopes for the ChurchillCenter. -Alexander Justice

From: Blenheim74@aol.comI would have to agree with Todd. It would be

"casting pearls before swine." Does anyone have influ-ence with the committee which selects speakers toaddress The Commonwealth Club in California? Theirbroadcasts always command a wide and diverse audi-ence. Perhaps those who have never given our manmuch thought would be inspired and enlightened.-Bob Martin

From: 72124.3656@compuserve.comI hope the word "person" (of the century) was was

meant as a joke. Because that is just what anyone notlocked in by the ideological straight jacket of deepfeminism would think of such a contest. But then, I'mnot much in favor of such a "contest" anyway. To bemeaningful it would have to be international in scope.(Who cares or would be surprised if Britain'sParliament nominates Churchill?). That would be aproblem precisely because the stakes would then be sohigh: those in favor of Churchill would be making astatement about the positive worth of WesternCivilization. And can you imagine the howls andwhines that would set off in something like the UnitedNations?-Jeff Wallin >»

FINEST HOUR 93/30

From: SteveJNalker@mmacmail.jccbi.govProfessor Wallin makes a good point about

internationalizing the "Greatest Man." Thus Chinacould nominate Mao Tse-tung (or, to truly take thelong view, Sun Yat-sen); Russia could name Lenin(especially if the communists are back in power bythen); the USA might nominate Roosevelt, Wilson,or even Kennedy (although many good historianswould have trouble in coming up with a sufficient listof what JFK actually did to earn such an exaltedrank). France would probably nominate de Gaulle.It's hard to tell whom the Germans would nominate.However, since Lady Thatcher is a Churchillian, and,with the number of prominent politicians in the USAwho are Churchill aficionados, I think there's achance that the US Congress might consider that,given his whole career, Churchill qualifies more thanany homegrown candidates. -Steve Walker

From: jahvah@empirenet.comThe clear choice for Germans should be Konrad

Adenauer. And I think Sir Winston would, today,replace the outmoded "man" with the more appeal-ing "person." He was always able to identify an ideawhose time had come. On the "poll," there is noneed to go to Congress, or Parliament, but to educatepeople on great ideas and great people. Churchillprovides a vehicle to do so. -Alexander Justice

From: Malakand@aol.comBefore PC, Time would simply identify its Human

of the Year as "Man" or "Woman." Why not nomi-nate one of each, avoiding the need for dreadfultrendyspeak like "person"? -Richard Langworth

From: Merrill37@aol.comI agree in general with the feelings Todd Ronnei

expressed last Saturday. Individuals like Churchill areunique, and whether from happenstance or the exis-tence of some grand design!, emerge upon the stage ofhistory like a Shakespearea^ character when theactor is given his cue. It's not the reviews whichcount; it's the performance. Winston Churchill didreceive meaningful accolades during his lifetime,unlike some starving artist whose contributions arerecognized only after his demise. And encouragingthe continuation of Churhillian statesmanship willno doubt go far in preserving his distinguished placein the history of this century. -Merrill P. Malkerson

From: d-myers@genie.comI must suggest that your apparent view that the

Speaker of the House as the least popular politician

in America is, to say the least, a personal view. Iwould suggest that if there were a poll taken, itwould show that there are many others far less popu-lar than he. 29% still beats 10%. -Dan Myers

From: jahvah@empirenet.comWho at Time does this nominating? Perhaps ICS

can appoint its lobbying committee. I presume theonly real competition is the most unworthy BillGates. In the meantime, IGS members and academicadvisors can begin a support campaign for the ICSlobbying committee by writing to the Time commit-tee (editors, presumably). -Alexander Justice

From: Andy GuilfordFor the record, here is my list (There is some jest

involved, and the obscure reference to Mrs. Everestbetrays prejudice—I think William Manchesternoted that she may have saved Europe by providing amother's love to a boy in serious need of it.) 1.Winston Churchill; 2. Albert Einstein; 3. MartinLuther King, Jr.; 4. Dwight Eisenhower; 5. MikhailGorbachev; 6. Margaret Thatcher; 7. MahatmaGandhi; 8. The Roosevelts (Franklin, Eleanor,Theodore); 9. Boris Yeltsin; 10. Henry Ford; 11.Thomas Edison; 12. Jonas Salk; 13. G. BernardShaw; 14. Konrad Adenauer; 15. Pope John XXIII;16. C.S. Lewis; 17. Billy Graham; 18. LouisArmstrong;19. Mother Teresa; 20. Mrs. Everest, andmy parents.

From: roncohen@magi.comTo the extent that the question is what Time maga-

zine's choice should be (rather than that of an inde-pendent entity) it should be remembered that, whenTime made its choice in 1950, the two RooseveltPresidents, at least, had completed their contribu-tions; yet neither was seen to measure up toChurchill as "Man of the Half Century." Nor hadChurchill's influence on Britain and the world endedat that moment.

It is hardly necessary to reiterate here his post-1950 achievements, including publication of themajor part The Second World War, of which well overone million individual copies were sold; publicationof A History of the English-Speaking Peoples; winning theNobel Prize for Literature; a second term in office,and so on.

For me, the question is whether any person in thesecond half of the century has measured up to Time'schoice for the first half, since I believe Time oughtnot to reopen the debate on 1900-1949. Our per-spective on those same world players fifty years later

FINEST HOUR 93 / 31

CHURCHILL ONLINE continued

would be judged with different eyes and minds. I forone believe that the second half of the century hasnot produced an individual who merits the designa-tion more than Time's choice for the first half of thecentury. -Ronald I. Cohen

From: Pradera@aol.comWouldn't Roosevelt be a worthy person to be on

the list (both Roosevelts)? -Raymond Lavine

From: Sheperw@CUA.eduPlease, no Roosevelts or Kennedys. Working at

an academic institution in DC, I am overburdenedwith the hero-worship of these people. In any event,does the "man of the century" have to have been apositive force or simply significant? In the lattersense, Lenin or Hitler would have to rank up there.Of course, I much prefer Churchill, and leave it at that.-William John Shepherd

From: Angluclan@aol.comBoth Roosevelts? Try all three! As a team, the

three (Theodore, Franklin, Eleanor) place abouteighth on my list. I am intrigued wondering which ofthe three you left out—only one 20th CenturyAmerican is on Mount Rushmore... Ron Cohen is socorrect in reminding us that Time magazine hasalready decided the issue for 1900-1949.1 prefer touse the standard that limits candidates to those thatare not evil (unlike Time), but Churchill wins for thecentury by any standard. -Andrew Guilford

From: Rshephrd@aol.comI don't see anything wrong either with John

Kennedy or for that matter Winston Churchill, interms of greatness. Were they human? Mortal?Flawed? There's a danger in all hero-worship. Werethey as great as Lincoln? Isn't there a danger in allthis comparison?

As to the term "Person of the Century," what isthat? A term now meaning maybe next to sainthood?It's acknowledged that America after FDR was utterlytransformed from what it was before. However, mostof the so-called unprecedented innovations he intro-duced were not at all that new. The British antedatedthe American New Deal by nearly thirty years. Anystudent of Winston Churchill (and Lloyd George, andAsquith, etc.) will know that. So these two goodfriends, each "former naval persons" in his respectivecountry, could lay claim to ground-breaking sociallegislation.

Kennedy was indeed a true hero, but in terms ofconcrete accomplishments, there were not many. ButKennedy had something that was to inspire thosewho survived him—vision, hope and a dream of abetter future. Kennedy had another foible. He was anunabashed admirer of Winston Churchill. I recall adiscussion which compared the rhetorical style ofKennedy with that of Churchill. The author claimedto be able to trace a stylistic resemblance betweenthem. -Bob Shepherd

CHURCHILL & MOUNTBATTENFrom: normanc@pacific.net.sg

I found the Churchill webpage most interesting. Iam currently working on my master's thesis onMountbatten and the South East Asia Command. Asyou know, Mountbatten was Churchill's protege andhe would not have risen to such heights duringWorld War II without Churchill's patronage.

My query is related to Mountbatten's appoint-ment as Supreme Allied Commander, South-EastAsia. Though Leo Amery had suggested Mountbat-ten, he was not Churchill's first choice. Others, likeSholto Douglas and Oliver Leese, were consideredinstead. In fact, not until the Quadrant Conference,while Churchill was on the Queen Mary enroute toCanada, did Churchill decide on Mountbatten. Ithink I have exhausted all available literature on thematter but I have yet to find a satisfactory answer onhow Churchill arrived to this decision. Did he hesi-tate because of Mountbatten's involvement in theDieppe disaster? Was it, as Brooke believed, anattempt to remove Mountbatten from the Chief ofStaff Committee? Even Mountbatten, in a conversa-tion with Ismay, thought he was being poleaxed; infact he was, because Churchill never really consideredthe Burma campaign as his main priority. In general,I am very curious about the relationship betweenChurchill and Mountbatten.-Norman Chua Ching Poo, Republic of Singapore

From: Savrola99@aol.comMany Canadians not only wonder how

Mountbatten got the Southeast Asia Command butalso the Dieppe assignment, which cost us so manyof our compatriots because of his inexperience andoverweening ambition. It would appear thatChurchill admired his aggressiveness, thinking hewould turn southern England from a defensive bas-tion into a springboard into Europe, but also recog-nized that Lord Louis was a protege of Beaverbrook(until Dieppe) and that he was the darling of >»

FINEST HOUR 93 / 32

Yes, Churchill knew about the Holocaust; and contraryto popular belief, he tried to do something about it.

A LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE BY DR. CYRIL MAZANSKY

JN the December 22nd New York Times Magazine,William vanden Heuvel -published an article, "The Holo-caust Was No Secret," subtitled: "Churchill knew, we all

knew, and we couldn't do anything about it—except win thewar."

Quoting a forthcoming book, The Myth of Rescue, byWilliam D. Rubenstein, which he claims is "the most signifi-cant new contribution to the history of the Holocaust," van-den Heuvel asserted that "no one plan or proposal made any-where in the democracies by either Jews or non-Jewish cham-pions of the Jews after the Nazi conquest of Europe couldhave rescued one single Jew who perished in the Holocaust."

Dr. Mazansky's letter to the Times Magazine refers to"Churchill and the Holocaust," a speech by Sir MartinGilbert at the 1993 Churchill Conference, ICS Proceed-ings 1992-1993, available from Churchill Stores (addresspage 2):

THAT Winston Churchill was aware of the Holo-caust is certainly not news. Mr vanden Heuvelindicates that the recently released intercepts of

the British Military Intelligence provide the publicwith information that makes it aware for the first timethat the Allies knew of the onset of the Holocaust.This is incorrect. . - . • • . • .-_..: . ,•:

In a speech to the International Churchill Society .at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inlate 1993, Sir Martin Gilbert gave an impressive

Dr.Mazansky heads the Radiology Department at CarneyHospital, Boston. He is a director of the International ChurchillSociety and a governor of the Churchill Center.

overview of Churchill's knowledge of the Holocaustand of his personal efforts to ameliorate it. This speechhas been published in the Proceedings of the InternationalChurchill Societies 1992-1993, pages 38-61. In it SirMartin provided the details of these intercepts.

MR. vanden Heuvel points out correctly thatChurchill was a champion of the Jewishcause, but it is inaccurate to state that the

only way Churchill could have helped was by winningthe war. Certainly in magnitude and significance thiswas obviously the most important thing to do, butChurchill did not let it rest there. He made multipleand varied attempts, both on a small and large scale,to try to mitigate the effects of the Holocaust. Specificendeavors were proposed or projects actually institut-ed, often in opposition to the wishes and policies ofthe British civil and military bureaucracy and even ofthe American administration earlier on. Many suchexamples were quoted by Sir Martin. These exampleswould also, therefore; be a rebuttal of ProfessorRubenstein's argument.

. We must await the publication of Martin Gilbert'sbook, Churchill and the Jews, to get the complete pic-ture. As Churchill's official biographer, as a leadingauthority on the Holocaust, and as one of the twenti-eth century's preeminent historians, Gilbert will .undoubtedly provide more than sufficient evidenceattesting to Churchill's lifelong efforts in support ofthe Jews and particularly his unrelenting human rightsefforts during World War II to save even a small frac-tion of them. 15

CHURCHILL ONLINE, concludedPresident Roosevelt, who loved the British aristocra-cy. Mountbatten was an upstart to the General Staff.He breached many of their procedures for his ownpurposes. His rapid rise and behaviour at Dieppecaused General Sir Alan Brooke to questionMountbatten's competence in the presence ofChurchill, Ismay and others at a dinner party atChequers in December 1942. The role of Brooke inChurchill's decisions about Mountbatten should beexplored.

There is evidence in the Ismay papers thatChurchill was prepared to be quite critical ofMountbatten in his war memoirs but submitted topressure from the younger man, who would perhapsblame Churchill himself, and so the former PrimeMinister eventually accepted Mountbatten's com-plete rewriting of the account of Dieppe. ConsultBrian Loring Villa's Mountbatten and the Dieppe Raid.It has some interesting insights into the Churchill,Mountbatten and Brooke situation.-John Plumpton 15

FINEST HOUR 93 / 33

BOOKS, ARTS

& CURIOSITIES

The One Indispensable ManRICHARD M. LANGWORTH

LORD Mountbatten recalled therelish with which WinstonChurchill once conducted the

"aye" team at an Oxford Uniondebate: "Resolved, the time is not ripefor a Labour Government." One canimagine the joy with which Churchillwould have conducted a debatebefore publishers: "Resolved, a prop-er tribute to Harry Hopkins is longoverdue."

Of course, Hopkins has had twogood and full biographies (both enti-tled Harry Hopkins, by Henry H.Adams, 1977; and George Mcjimsey,1987). But nothing specific on hisWorld War II missions has been pub-lished, save references in Robert Sher-wood's brilliant Roosevelt and Hopkins,and Sherwood's book is almost fiftyyears old. Since then, numerous newsources have come to light andMatthew Wills, a Friend of ICS, hastracked them down. Included amonghis primary sources are Robert Hop-kins, Harry's son, with whom Willsspent many hours in conversation;and retired Flight Lt. David C.McKinley, DFC, RAF, Hopkins's piloton a perilous and crucial flight toRussia in 1941.

Though this book is comprehen-sive, the type is small, resulting in amodest page count. A function of thecompact text is a very reasonableprice: low enough that there is noexcuse for not acquiring a copy. Themany photographs are excellent, andmost of them will be new to readers.In sum, it is as important a work forthe Churchill library as Alanbrooke'sdiary, Ismay's memoirs, and JockColville's three books of recollections.If you wish to know the Churchill of

World War II, you must know yourHarry Hopkins.

Without Hopkins none can tellhow the Churchill-Roosevelt relation-ship would have developed. Small instature, pale and almost always ill,Hopkins seemed an unlikely ambas-sador between these two giantswhose tremendous presences were

Wartime Missions of Harry L. Hopkins,by Matthew B. Wills, Raleigh, N.C.:Pentland Press, 92 pages, illus.Bookshop price $17.95, ICS New BookService price $15. To order this bookplease telephone (603) 746-5606, fax(603) 746-4260 or contact the Editor.

always accompanied by ample dosesof bonhomie, and egos matching theirgreatness. When Hopkins flew toLondon for his first meeting with thePM in January 1941, Brendan Brackenfound him curled up on the plane,"appearing sick and shrunken, tooexhausted to get out of his seat." Onewonders if this was because of a

rough flight, or the assignment heknew he had from Roosevelt.

But Bracken, that canny judge ofpeople, soon realized there was moreto Hopkins than met the eye, inform-ing Churchill that this worn out trav-eler was the most important Ameri-can visitor Britain had ever had. Withthat kind of introduction Churchillwould have treated anyone with def-erence, but to his delight he found inHopkins a soulmate. Wills quotes thePM's private secretary, Jock Colville,on their first lunch together: "theywere so impressed with each otherthat their tete-a-tete did not break uptill nearly 4:00."

Hopkins was likewise im-pressed with his English host."Churchill is the gov't in every senseof the word/' he wrote Roosevelt"—he controls the grand strategy andoften the details—labor trusts him—the army, navy, air force are behindhim to a man. The politicians andupper crust pretend to like him. I can-not emphasize too strongly that he isthe one and only person over herewith whom you need to have a fullmeeting of minds."

Hopkins himself was the oneand only person to walk the trickyline between two great personalitieswho, however indispensable theywere to each other/had potentiallyconflicting political agendas. On theone hand was Roosevelt of the FourFreedoms, champion of home rule,feeling as a surety that empires,Britain's included, were the root ofthe world's troubles; on the other wasChurchill of the Marlboroughs, a roy-alist convinced of the British Empireas a civilizing boon to the humanrace: two navy men, devoted to theirrespective navies, yet, after Pearl Har-bor, not necessarily sharing the iden-tical strategic vision for the war inwhich they had found themselvesallies.

Hopkins was indispensable. Hisfirst key act was to convince Roo-sevelt to ignore the advice of hisambassador in London, Joseph P.Kennedy, who said Britain was fin-ished. Britain did have the will to win,Hopkins reported, and under

FINEST HOUR 93 / 34

Churchill there would be no repeat ofthe French debacle. Hopkins's mis-sions led to Lend-Lease, often pannedtoday by young historians who arevery wise after the fact—but whichChurchill characterized as "the mostunsordid act" of one nation towardanother. Hopkins was at Argentia tosmooth the communique of theAtlantic Charter, no easy task giventhe dichotomy of view between WSCand FDR over subjects like colonial-ism. Hopkins's pacifying influencewas pervasive throughout the war. In1944, he avoided a looming rupturein Anglo-American relations by con-vincing U.S. Admiral Leahy to cancelAdmiral King's order to the U.S.Navy to cease supplying the British inGreece, where Churchill had unilater-ally intervened against the ELAScommunist rebels. Wills believes thatthis was potentially the most seriouswartime breech between the twoallies. f

Nor did Hopkins's influenceend with the death of RoVsevelt;indeed, he was not dose to him dur-ing the last year of FDR's life, and hiscontributions only reached their earli-er level under Truman, who sent himto Moscow in June 1945. His missionwas impossible: try to get Stalin toadhere to the Yalta commitmentguaranteeing Polish democracy.

One of the special values of thisbook is its thorough description ofwhat Hopkins and the Allies were upagainst. "These unprecedented meet-ings with Stalin failed to save Poland

from four decades of communistrule," concludes Wills, "but it is hardto believe that anyone could haveobtained a genuine commitment fromStalin to allow free elections in thatcountry."

Harry Hopkins died on 29 Jan-uary 1946, the world he fought to cre-ate still unachieved. "We reallybelieved in our hearts," he said, "thatthis was the dawn of a new day wehad all been praying for and talkingabout for many years." Yet no onehad contributed more than he to theGrand Alliance that had broughtwithin reach the "broad sunlituplands," which Churchill was confi-

dent in finding one day.Revisers of history are inclined

to minimize the role of Harry Hop-kins—to write him off as a Roosevelttoady who led Churchill away fromthe realpolitik of disengagement withHitler, toward a Britain shackled tothe United States. None of them werethere at the time. At the time thingslooked different. "No one at the timeknew we were going to win," LadySoames once said. "No one who wasnot there could fully appreciate theimpact [Hopkins] made," reflectedPamela Harriman, "especially on thegreat war leader who would becomehis friend."

Randolph: Another ViewANTHEA MORTON-SANER

Randolph, his cousin Johnny, Winston andUncle Jack, Calgary, 1929. (Broadwater Collec-tion, Churchill College Cambridge.)

IT is unlikely that anyone wouldhave written, let alone wanted toread, a biography of Randolph

had he not been the son of Winston S.Churchill. He was a minor politician,a journalist and the author of a dozenor so books, most significantly thefirst two volumes of the Official Biog-raphy of his father. Yet it is preciselybecause he is the son of Sir Winstonthat his life is so intriguing.

The notion of the burden ofparental expectation is commonplace,but the history of the Churchill familysuggests an alternative. Sir Winstonhimself felt a desperate need to beworthy of his own father's praise andadmiration. Even in old age herecords a dream in which he is justi-fying himself to Lord Randolph. {The

His Father's Son: The Life of RandolphChurchill, by Winston S. Churchill, MP,London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 514pages, illus. Bookshop price £20. ICSNew Book Service price $38.

Dream, available from ChurchillStores. -Ed.) Imagine what it is like tobe his son. Inevitably, whatever Ran-dolph did with his life, he would feelthe shade of failure, but his father'sdominant character gave him anambitious energy, rather than, as onemight suppose, the easy acceptance ofprivilege.

We all know the history andthink that we know the characters.Randolph's son does not try to hidehis father's drinking, gambling andoften boorish behaviour—it is a"warts and all" portrait—but bydrawing on previously unpublishedfamily papers, the reader gets aninkling of understanding of this gen-erous but insecure human being, andis provided with a unique insight intohistory as seen from the dinner asopposed to the Cabinet table.

Reviews continue overleaf >»

Editor's note: If it seems like you're read-ing a second review, you are: our friendAnthea Morton-Saner, a literary agent atCurtis-Brown, London, sent us thisreview before we published our own inthe last issue, and we misplaced it.

FINEST HOUR 93/35

Old Titles Reviewed:

"The Dreary Steeples of Fermanagh and TyroneGEORGE RICHARD

ALTHOUGH it is three decadesold, Mary Bromage'sChurchill and Ireland is useful

for anyone who wants to knowwhere Churchill stood on Ireland andits social and political convolutions—or who simply cannot understand theinter-necine "Troubles" which havebeset Ireland in the 20th century—this volume is ideal.

Churchill's involvement withIreland and its sad, tragic story, beganin the 1870s when his father and fam-ily spent some three years in Dublin.From there, Mary Bromage followsChurchill's Irish participationthrough the Great War, the foundingof the Irish Free State in 1921, WorldWar II, and his retirement.

Throughout, one constant tenetof Churchill's political creed vis-a-visIreland was the well-being of Britain;any change in the political structureof the Emerald Isle should be permit-ted only if such change can be shownnot to be detrimental to the integrityof the United Kingdom as a whole.

Churchill and Ireland, Mary C. Bro-mage, South Bend, Indiana: TheUniversity of Notre Dame Press1964, 222 pages. Redbum 184. Frequen-cy: scarce.

This approach, for someone inChurchill's position, is natural andindeed quite correct; a politician, par-ticularly a member of the Govern-ment, who wittingly made conces-sions which weakened his own coun-try would be most unlikely to havemuch of a future in politics. Never-theless this fundamental belief has tobe borne in mind when consideringany of Churchill's actions in relationto Ireland and its politics, its economyand its seemingly interminable fratri-cide.

Mr. Richard writes regularly for FinestHour from Tasmania, Australia.

' ' T remember on the eve of the Great War we were gathered together at a Cabinet•L meeting in Downing Street, and for a long time, an hour or an hour and a half,

after the failure of the Buckingham Palace Conference, we discussed the boundaries ofFermanagh and Tyrone. Both of the great political parties were at each other's throats.The air was full of talk ofcivil war. Every effort was made to settle the matter andbring them together. The differences had been narrowed down, not merely to thecounties cf Fermanagh and Tyrone, but to parishes and groups of parishes inside theareas of Fermanagh and Tyrone. And yet, even when the differences had been so nar-rowed down, the problem appeared to be as insuperable as ever, and neither sidewould agree to reach any conclusion.

"Then came the Great War. Every institution, almost, in the world wasstrained. Great Empires have been overturned. The whole map of Europe hasbeen changed. The position of countries has been violently altered. The modes ofthought of men, the whole outlook on affairs, the grouping of parties, all haveencountered violent and tremendous changes in the deluge of the world.

"But as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short, we see the drearysteeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again. The integrity of theirquarrel is one of the few institutions that has been unaltered in the cataclysmwhich has swept the world.

WSC, SECOND READING OF THE IRISH FREE STATE BILL,HOUSE OF COMMONS, 16 FEBRUARY 1922

Lord Randolph Churchill's 1886words, "Ulster will fight and Ulsterwill be right," referred to the questionof Home Rule for the whole of Ire-land. When in 1912 his son, in Belfast,quoted his father's words, he wasreferring rather to the partition of Ire-land into a Catholic South and aProtestant North. Not all agreed:Winston and his wife were peltedwith rotten fish as they boarded theirship for the return trip to England.

The next thirty years led to thedivided Ireland we know today. Theboundaries controversy alluded toabove by Churchill subsided duringWorld War I, but quickly reemerged,and in 1920 the Government of Ire-land Act offered partition as a fact oflife. The following year, the Anglo-Irish Treaty created the Irish FreeState. One of the Irish leaders withwhom Churchill dealt over the IrishTreaty was Michael Collins, the IrishRepublican Army gunman turnednegotiator who was assassinatedshortly afterwards by his own com-

FINESTHOUR93/36

rades for his efforts. On his deathbedhe said, "Tell Winston we could havedone nothing without him."

In the 1930s a border treatywas signed, and in 1937 the IrishFree State wrote itself a new consti-tution, changing the country's nameto today's Eire. Nineteen thirty-eightsaw completion of Anglo-Irish agree-ments which, inter alia, meant therelinquishment of Irish ports uponwhich Britain had depended inWorld War I. For much of this peri-od Churchill was out of office, but inor out of power he maintained hisinvolvement and interest in Ireland.His sense of history and of justicemade him strive to ensure that anychange in the status quo did notunduly prejudice either Ulster orEire. In particular he believed theLoyalists of Northern Ireland shouldnot be coerced into unwantedreunion with their former compatri-ots in the South, although he didbelieve that unification would comeby free will one day. >»

Churchill and Ireland...

With the outbreak of World WarII the Irish ports assumed evengreater significance. Churchill by thenwas back in the Government and in aposition to become actively involvedin negotiations. Queens-town andBerehaven in particular, being in thesouth coast, were ideally situated forrefuelling purposes by the RoyalNavy, extending the range of theships used to escort trans-Atlanticconvoys and reducing the chance ofloss to U-boats.

A darker side of the ports ques-tion was the possibility of their use bythe German Navy. Though Irelandhad proclaimed neutrality, there wasa real risk of the ports falling intoGerman hands, either as the result ofinvasion or by action by the IRA.Aware of the danger, Churchillworked hard to gain some concession

from the Irish leader Eamon DeValera, but was only partially suc-cessful. His approaches on the sametopic to Franklin Roosevelt similarlymet with limited success. It would ofcourse have been quite possible forBritain to have seized the ports, butwhen this was suggested Churchillrefused even to consider such acourse, saying that this was just thesort of thing he was fighting against.

In the event, the lack of Irishports was overcome by the combina-tion of using ports in Ulster, reroutingconvoys and improving ship designand construction. If World War II sawthe peak of Churchill's career, thenthe ports in the south of Eire wereperhaps the crux of his dealings withthat country.

On Ireland as on so many sub-jects Churchill's consistency ofapproach emerges: that of an English-man who is also a politician. He

endeavours to deal fairly with a com-plex issue, sometimes with peopleless than congenial to him, but withthe overriding requirements of thesecurity and good of Britain herself.The sheer length of time over whichhe was connected either intimately orperipherally with the "Irish Ques-tion" and the "Troubles" shows thatChurchill was unique among Britishpoliticians in this as in so many otherthings.

I was in Dublin in September1969, just after the present "Troubles"began. Enroute to town from the air-port I asked my taxi driver's opinionon the renewed terrorism. Hethought for a bit then said, "They'reall bloody mad." He didn't say any-thing else for the rest of the trip, anddidn't need to; he'd said it all quitesuccinctly. It is not inconceivable thatChurchill may have had at times asimilar opinion. $

WOODS CORNERA BOOK COLLECTOR COLUMN, NAMED FOR THE LATE BIBLIOGRAPHER, FRED WOODS

THE CULLING OFGREAT CONTEMPORARIES

WHEN Churchill first pub-lished his collection ofessays on the great per-

sonages of his time, he included twofeisty columns on Russians. Thecounterrevolutionary Boris Savinkov,who was lured back to Russia anddestroyed by Stalin, Churchilldescribed as "that extraordinaryproduct—a Terrorist for moderateaims." The Bolshevik Trotsky) WhomStalin had assassinated soon after thepublication of Churchill's book, wasrepresented as "a skin of malicestranded for a time on the shores ofthe Black Sea and now washed up inthe Gulf of Mexico."

In 1938 Churchill produced arevised and extended edition, inwhich he introduced FranklinDelano Roosevelt, whom he des-cribed in diffident terms, questioningparts of the New Deal: "There cannever be good wages or good

employment for any length of timewithout good profits, and the soonerthis is recognized, the sooner the cor-ner will be turned."

Events conspired to revise GreatContemporaries. After Hitler invadedRussia in June 1941 and the PrimeMinister found himself Stalin's ally,he concluded that it would beimpolitic to continue the essays onStalin's old enemies. Accordingly,when the London Reprint Societyand World Books issued new editionsin 1941, Savinkov and Trotsky wereexpunged from the contents. InDecember 1941 Japan bombed PearlHarbor and Roosevelt too becameChurchill's companion in arms. Sothe Macmillan edition of Great Con-temporaries, issued early in 1942, delet-ed FDR as well as the Russians.

By war's end Churchill presum-ably concluded that these diplomaticniceties were superfluous, and withthe new Odhams Edition of 1947,Roosevelt, Trotsky and Savinkovwere all reinstated. They remain inevery edition of Great Contemporaries

FINEST HOUR 93/37

published to date, along with theother three, less controversial charac-ters added to the 1938 edition.

An odd discovery concerns theMacmillan issue of 1942. I recentlynoticed that the white dust jacket(wrapper) to this smallish book hastwo states. The first state fails to omitRoosevelt from the front flap copy.The line reads, "...George BernardShaw, Lawrence of Arabia, KingGeorge V. [including the period] andRoosevelt." The back face promotesthis same Great Contemporariesamong three other works availablefrom Macmillan.

We must conclude that Roo-sevelt was a last minute deletion,probably in the wake of Pearl Harbor.The second state jacket reads..."...Lawrence of Arabia and KingGeorge V." Also, on the back face,Thoughts and Adventures has replacedthe blurb for Great Contemporaries.

There is no difference in flapprices (8/6) nor any difference in thebooks underneath, FDR being ofcourse excluded from both. I am con-fident the djs were always on thesebooks. Please check your copies andlet us know if you confirm this thesis.RML $

Aquascaping on a Churchillian Scale:

"77ns is an Orfe-ful Place1/'DOUGLAS J. HALL

CONTEMPLATING the desola-tion of my garden pond dur-ing the drought of 1995,1 was

reminded of the words of Capt.Robert Scott, the polar explorer, writ-ten at the South Pole in 1912: "GreatGod! This is an awful place!"

The summer of 1995 broughtthe longest drought experienced ineastern England for over thirty years.The flow of water in the stream feed-ing my pond gradually diminishedand finally dried up altogether. Suchan event had been unknown in livingmemory—and living memory aroundhere includes several nonagenarians.

Without the sustaining streamthe water level in the pond droppedrapidly. For a few days I tried toavoid disaster by running a hose-pipefrom the garden tap into the pond,but even with the water meter spin-ning expensively I was making noheadway. The Golden Orfe withwhich I'd stocked my pond resistedbeing netted—although where couldone find alternative accommodationfor more then two dozen fairly largefish? Inevitably the oxygen level inthe depleted volume of water becametoo low. My hapless colony of Golden

_Orfe were gasping for breath and lifewhilst I watched equally haplessly. Itwas a mournful task to recover thebodies of almost thirty of these beau-tiful fish from the depressing detritusof the dried-up pond.

My Golden Orfe project hadbegun fourteen years previously. Onmoving house to Grantham, Der-byshire, I acquired a small streamwhich rises from a spring on the sideof Somerby Hill to flow through mygarden towards the River Witham inthe valley below. The garden is not, ofcourse, on the Chartwell scale—it isin fact 250 times smaller. Still, bydamming the stream I could create a

Mr. Hall is FH's Features Editor.

Ofre at play, c.1988. The plastic hoop marks thedining room; the fish quickly learn where tocongregate for meals. It has the advantage thatuneaten food can be netted off, preventingwater pollution from the decaying matter.

lake; or if not a lake, at least a res-pectable pond. In that pond I couldestablish a colony of Golden Orfe atleast as magnificent as those atChartwell. Then, with the pond plant-ed all around with every examplefrom that vast range of shrubs andflowers which have been named inhonour of Sir Winston Churchill, Icould add an exciting dimension tomy indoor collection of Churchillmemorabilia: an outdoor exhibit of"Churchilliana Live."

I took up my project with greatenthusiasm. Much digging,damming, wall building and rockeryconstruction ensued over severalmonths. With the transformationalmost complete, a sudden heavythunderstorm turned the normallygently flowing stream into a ragingtorrent which comprehensivelydemolished my proud creation.Bloodied but unbowed I began again,and this time built everything twiceas strong. The following winter, aftera period of heavy snow, the meltwa-ter turned the placid stream into aneven greater torrent. Rocks which Ihad barely been able to lift weretossed several yards downstream. Inow know why the rocks atChartwell are so large...

Never Despair! I studiedhydraulics and fluid mechanics. Iworked out an ingenious systemwhereby the normal flow of thestream could be allowed to tricklethrough the pond but any greater del-uge of water would be diverted alonga deep and heavily fortified overflowchannel. The pond surrounds wereplanted and water lilies and otheraquatic species established to providean environment suitable for fish.When all was ready the first six Gold-en Orfe were carefully transportedfrom the local Water Garden Centreand introduced to their new home.Although only 4-5 inches long, theywere an instant delight as theywhipped through the water and read-ily rose to take pelleted food.

Soon the Golden Orfe were hap-pily sharing the pond with families offrogs and toads and within two yearshad grown to 8-9 inches. They werenow of breeding age but showed noinclination to multiply. I discoveredthat Golden Orfe will rarely breed inan outdoor pond in the northerncounties of Britain. So I added anoth-er batch of fry bought from a com-mercial breeder and did the sameeach year for a few years. In time myfamily of Golden Orfe ranged in sizefrom 3-4 inches up to 20-24 inches. Iintroduced a breeding pair of Com-mon Goldfish, and another of GoldenRudd, which added some variety tothe life in the pond as well as theprospect of some spawning activity.The fish coexisted quite peacefullyand their different lifestyles addedgreatly to the enjoyment of pond-watching. Then came the trauma of1995.

I remember Churchill's adviceto the Boys at Harrow School in Octo-ber 1941: "Never give in, never,never, never, never...." Those wordshad often fortified me over the years.They did so again. The water in thestream is now flowing again. Thepond has been cleaned out, replantedand restocked. The newly introducedfish are smaller, but they will grow.All I need now is a few years' free-dom from another drought... ®

FINEST HOUR 93/38

DOUGLAS HALL'S C H U RC HILLIANA

Churchill Commemoratives Calendar Part 3:1939-1941

THE first two years ofWorld War U saw aflood of Churchill

ceramics from potteries largeand small, famous andunknown. This was in spite ofthe fact that most of the pre-war producers of decorativepottery had switched a consid-erable part of their output tohighly specialised ceramic

. wares essential to the wareffort: laboratory porcelain,porous diaphragms, electrolyticcells, sparking plugs, electricalinsulators and many othercomponents to replace itemsformerly made of metal, rub-ber or other materials in shortsupply.

IT was recognised that anoutput of patriotic items,morale-boosting icons, also

had an important part to play.During the early part of theperiod wartime restrictionsprohibited the production ofdecorated china for the UKmarket (although colouring forexport, notably to the UriitjedStates, was permitted). How-ever, the embargo was soonpartially lifted when it wasrealised that the national espritde corps would benefit if the"Churchills" on everybody'ssideboard were coloured ratherjust plain white. This selectionrepresents just a few of themany pieces producedbetween 1939 and 1941.

LEFT: A1939 character jug from Shorter's, six inches tall, first to celebrateChurchill's reappointment as First Lord of the Admiralty: rather inaccuratelyand unsympathetically painted. Fielding's (Crown Devon) produced a similarjug using the same mould but with altogether superior paintwork. Some of theFielding's jugs had a clockwork musical movement. Last sighting on the UKsecondary market, £225. CENTRE: The 1939 "Colossus Churchill," makerunknown. Churchill stands astride "HMS Winston." Very rare. About £40when last seen. RIGHT: The third of the 1939 trio and undoubtedly the bestEmbassy Ware from Kirkland's. This uncoloured version is very rare, about£145 in the UK and (Carmichael Catalogue) $300 in the USA. I also have anexceedingly rare coloured version, the only one I have ever seen.

LEFT: Wilton Pottery, 1940, seven inches tall, backstamped "Never was somuch owed by so many to so few." Wilton also produced a coloured versionwith different facial moulding and a cigar in Churchill's mouth. This variationis very rare: UK value £100+. CENTRE: Also from Wilton Pottery and made in1940, with the same backstamp as above. This piece is quite nicely coloured—the George Robey eyebrows look much worse on the photograph then on theactual jug. Rare—no recent UK sightings. RIGHT: ModeUed by Frank Potts forMeakins, 1941. Issued in two monochrome colours and all-white. Value todayis around £120 in the UK

FINEST HOUR 93 / 39

LEFT: John Beswick, 1941 (part of the Royal Doulton Group since 1973). Alsobackstamped "Cee Pee Ware." The scroll reads, "We shall fight on the beaches,the landing grounds, in the fields, in the streets, and on the hills, we shall neversurrender—Churchill 1940." Very rare. Current UK value £200-£250. CENTRE:Superb 1941 issue by Kirklands, 101/2 inches tall. The top hat is removable.Excellent paintwork. Quite rare. UK value £150+. RIGHT: Designed in 1941 byEric Olsen for Copeland Spode. Also issued in an uncoloured version. One of apair, the other jug depicting Franklin Roosevelt. The coloured version was listedrecently in a London dealer's catalogue at £275 and the white version seen at anantiques fair for £145.

The Beswick jug remained in production until 1954. And who can forget that1941 also saw the launch of Harry Fenton's famous toby jug, in three sizes, byRoyal Doulton, destined to be in production fifty years until 1991!

Osprey* Corner, Part 5 and the Last

THIS fine biscuit tin was firstissued in 1965. It remained onsale for several years and, I

believe, was reissued briefly in 1974.It was sold in large, medium andsmall sizes (those on offer, illustratedat left, are the medium size 9 x 81 /2 x21/2 inches).

The tin carries on the lid asplendid full-colour portrait of SirWinston Churchill taken by YousufKarsh of Ottawa. Churchill is seated,wearing evening dress with the sashriband and breast star of the Order ofthe Garter, the collar badge of theOrder of Merit and a selection of hisother decorations and medals.

On the table at his left is theTown Crier's bell presented toChurchill by the Trustees of ColonialWilliamsburg on 7 December 1955.

FINEST HOUR 93/40

Churchill was the first recipient of theWilliamsburg Award. The bell isinscribed, "...for his unexampled con-tribution in our time to the historicstruggle of men to live, free and self-respecting, in a just society." Inaccepting the bell from WinthropRockefeller, the clearly delightedChurchill said, "Its silver tone is gen-tle and I shall ring it, I can assure you,whenever I feel there is duty to bedone." After the presentationChurchill left the Drapers' Hall smil-ing broadly and vigorously ringingthe bell.

Around the sides of the tinare nine cameo illustrations in red,black and gold of scenes fromChurchill's life. I have seen this tin inUS catalogues at $40-$50.1 have alsoseen it offered by a London dealerat £30.

The OSPREY reserve priceincluding shipping to North Americaor anywhere in the Commonwealth is£15, which includes a donation of £5to ICS United Kingdom funds. Twoexamples are available. Best bid(s) ator above the reserve price receivedwithin six weeks of publication of thisissue will win. Do not send moneywith bids—winning bidders will benotified. Bids in sterling preferred—those in other denominations shouldadd the equivalent of £5 to cover cur-rency conversion charges. Write tome, address on page 2. If demand ishigh I may be able to secure addition-al examples.

The Official Society for thePrevention of Rip-offs to Expatriatesand Yanks (OSPREY) was estab-lished to provide Churchilliana toreaders of Finest Hour at prices lowerthan some of the ones I have seen incatalogues and auctions. Owing tolimited response I am terminatingthis service effective this issue. Ithank those who participated, help-ing to raise a nice contribution to thefunds of ICS United Kingdom.

Help Wanted: IdentifyingRonald Smith's Yalta Triptych

ARECENT centrepiece of thewindow display in RonaldSmith's new and larger

commemoratives emporium at Cam-den Passage Antiques Market, Lon-don, is the superb white china triplefigure above. Measuring thirteeninches across and standing just oversix inches tall, the piece depicts JosefStalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Win-ston Churchill at the Yalta Conferencein February 1945.

In fact the sculptor appears tohave used as references group pho-tographs of both the Yalta Conferenceand the Teheran Conference ofNovember 1943. Stalin's high-but-toned tunic, boots and cap of a Mar-shal of the Soviet Union were in evi-dence on both occasions; the filingRoosevelt certainly appeared ^swathed in a cloak at Yalta, butChurchill's rather spurious uniformseems to derive more from his pres-ence as an Air Commodore of theRoyal Air Force at Teheran than fromanything he wore at the Yalta photocall.

This is a very finely modelledpiece but completely unmarked. Whowas the sculptor? Where and whenwas it made? Is it unique or are thereother examples? Ronald Smith

acquired thesculpture from aDanish dealer.He thinks it mayhave been mod-elled and pottedin Denmark butcannot be cer-tain. Nor can webe sure aboutthe date. Thusfar our attemptsto establish theprovenance ofthe piece havebrought noresult. "It is a

^ B I H H riddle wrappedin a mystery

inside an enigma," As Churchill said.If any reader can provide any

information about the origin of thispiece, Ronald Smith will be delightedto have it. (Write to me, address onpage 2.)

" Our England is aGarden" -Kipling

Ti•HE Baytree Nurseries GardenCentre near Spalding is thelargest establishment of its

kind in Lincolnshire, and probablyone of the largest of its kind any-where in the British Isles.

Baytree's German-born pro-prietor, Reinhardt Biehler, is anardent Churchillian. His promotionaldisplays are created by the same teamwhich is responsible for window dis-plays at top London departmentstores such as Harrods.

In 1994 the centrepiece of theGarden Centre's lavish Christmas dis-play was formed around a life-sizewaxworks model of Sir WinstonChurchill which had been obtainedon loan from the famous MadameTussaud's wax figures exhibition inLondon. The occasion was the 120thanniversary of Churchill's birth but,more than that, Mr Biehler knew thatthe image of Winston Churchillwould attract the attention of thatgeneration of Englishmen andwomen which provides the bulk ofnational expenditure on all thingshorticultural.

Sir Winston was back on dis-play at Baytree in the autumn of 1996.This time the waxworks model wasdressed in a large floppy hat andwhite smock (looking remarkably likethe Bairstow Pottery "Winston theArtist" china figure) and seated at aneasel in a woodland glade, "painting"a large poster illustrating the "SirWinston Churchill" narcissus.

Around the panorama wereseveral large, frequently replenishedbaskets of bulbs with notices invitingcustomers to pick their own selection,ten bulbs for £1, with discounts avail-able for large quantities.

Mr. Biehler explained: "SirWinston Churchill is always one ofthe ten top-selling varieties of narcis-si. I thought that a little special extrapromotion might not go amiss thisyear."

Judging by the activity aroundthe display during my visit, I wouldguess that the gardens of Lin-colnshire, and surrounding counties,will be putting on many a braveshow of these delightful tall creamy-white, orange-cupped, double flow-ers in April 1997. Afterwards, leftundisturbed, they will multiply andprovide an annual source of pleasurefor many years. ^

continued overleaf»>

FINEST HOUR 93 / 41

Price the Name—Then Name the Price

on Monday 23 July 1945. It consistedof a single piece of card foldeddown the centre to give four 8x5-inch pages. On the front were thesignatures of Winston Churchill,Josef Stalin, Harry Truman, BernardMontgomery (twice), Henry Mait-land Wilson, Andrew Cunningham,William Leahy, George Marshall,James Byrnes, Alan Brooke, ErnestKing, Hastings Ismay and HenryArnold. Discreetly and modestlytucked away on the otherwise blankback page was the signature of MaryChurchill, now Lady Soames. Includ-ed in the lot was a separate signedphotograph of General Zhukov.Churchill's signature was claimed tobe the last he had given in his capaci-ty as World War II Prime Minister,since four days later he lost the 1945election to Clement Attlee.

Christies' estimate was£10,000-£15,000 which, in the lightof the price realised in May, I ad-judged to be one of their "come-on"devices designed to attract a full sale-room. There would certainly be nopoint in my attending the sale! Thelot was sold, in the event, for aremarkable £21,375, comfortablyexceeding the previous record.

With the exception ofChurchill's, none of the thirteen sig-natures has a great value by itself.For example, a recent catalogueissued by a leading British autographspecialist listed Montgomery andWilson at £10 ($16) each, Ismay at£25 ($40) and Alanbrooke at £40($65). In this case the apparentlycompulsive attraction of Churchill'sautograph and the scarce combina-tion of signatures on a documentrelating to an interesting historicalevent evidently attracted at least twodetermined bidders. That was all thatwas needed to give Christies, and thevendor, just the result they hadhoped for. $

AT Christies South Kensing-ton in May 1995, a pagefrom the autograph album

of Chur-chill's wartime Chief Stew-ard, Mark Pinfield, came up for auc-tion. It contained the signatures ofChurchill, Roosevelt, Truman, Stalinand Attlee. The lot included five otheritems of ephemera relating to thePotsdam Conference. The price paidwas £20,250, a new record for Chur-chilliana, with some assistance fromfour other notable names of the era.

When Christies' cataloguearrived for their sale on 17 Novem-ber 1995, at the same auction room,I found that another memento fromthe Potsdam Conference was onoffer. No doubt attracted by theprice realised six months earlier, thelot had come from Russia. It hadoriginally been given to the vendorby Ella Zhukova, the daughter of for-mer Marshal of the Soviet UnionGen. Grigory Zhukov. It wasdescribed as "an important seatingplan and music programme" for adinner hosted by Winston Churchillat "10, Downing Street, Potsdam"

The Poet's Corner:D. Peter Ford

Never did any in word or deedSo many pages of history fill

As the man whom Providence decreedBy courage, fortitude and will,

With countenance of bulldog breed,As Sir Winston Spencer Churchill.

A man who stoutly stood aloneIn his country's darkest hour,.

Allegiance sworn to defend the throneAgainst the awesome Nazi power,

A lifeline to all of Europe thrown,From a man who would not cower.

Armed with little but determination,The great man spoke for all,

As he rallied an unyielding nation,Its back against the wall,

To fight for the freedom of civilisationWas the old bulldog's rallying call.

A man who realised his own worst fearAs the Luftwaffe daily came

In that precarious Battle Year,To bomb our cities, kill and maim

When the island which he held so dearTottered from Axis bomber planes.

Not screaming bomb nor incendiaryCould deter him from the fray,

His defiant spirit would never appeaseThat fearsome German beast of prey

Or see his beloved country writhe,While he held her fortunes in his sway.

He made a pledge and by it stood,Offering nought but blood and tears,

If given the tools for the job he wouldDestroy the Reich of 1000 Years,

Whose foundations were cast inEurope's blood

Deprivation, misery and fears.

No, never did any man in word or deedSo many pages of history fill,

In his country's most critical hour of needAs Sir Winston Spencer Churchill.

Sent to us by Keith Moss ofMaccles-field, Cheshire, UK, who unites: "Ishowed my friend Mr. Ford's poem toMrs. Kay oflCS, UK, who liked it andadvised me to send it to you in the hopethat it will be published in FinestHour." We are tardy in doing so, butare grateful for the contribution. $

FINEST HOUR 93 / 42

CHURCH1LLTRIVIA

EDITED BY CURT ZOLLERCurt relieves Barbara Langworth after744 questions! Our thanks toBarbara. Virtually all questions can beanswered in back issues of FinestHour or other 1CS/CC publications,but it's really not cricket to look.Twenty-four questions appear in eachissues, the answers in the followingissue. Question categories are:Contemporaries (C), Literary (L),Miscellaneous (M), Personal (P),Statesmanship (S) and War (W).

745. Who introduced Churchillon 12 December 1900 at hisspeech at the Waldorf-AstoriaBallroom? (C)

746. Which military installationdid Churchill visit in the UnitedStates on 13 Nov.1895? (M)

747 Where was Churchill takenafter being run down by a NewYork taxi on 13 Dec. 1931? (P)

748.When and to whom did WSCwrite "I pursue profit not pleasurein the States this time"? (L)

749. What does Churchill's quoteto the press, " I plead, I pray, thattime and tolerance will not bedenied," refer to? (S)

750. On what occasion didChurchill write, "I consider myselfa Democrat as far as American poli-tics are concerned"? (P)

751. Who (all) joined Churchill ona camel ride visiting the "\Pyramids on 15 Feb. 1921? (P)V

752. What was the occasion forChurchill's "We shall defend ourisland, and, with the BritishEmpire around us, we shall fighton unconquerable until the curseof Hitler is lifted from the brows ofmen"?(S)

753. General Ismay was concernedthat Churchill's staff might developinto a "Garden Suburb." What wasthe "Garden Suburb"? (M)

754. Who succeeded Churchill asFirst Lord of the Admiralty whenhe resigned in May 1915? (P)

755. Who wrote the first poemabout Winston S. Churchill? (L)

756. What is Churchill's connec-tion with A.P. Herbert's book TheSecret Battle? (L)

757. Where did Churchill writeabout heroism of the Medical Staffin action? (L)

758. Whom did Churchill identifyas "the resuscitation of the Pan-European idea"? (C)

759. What is the English title ofGrosse Zeitgenossen? (L)

760. How much money had beenallocated from the National Lot-tery to purchase the Churchillpapers from WSC's grandson? (M)

761. What is the name of the stu-dent who interviewed Churchill fora college newspaper in 1901? (L)

762. What was the slogan of theChurchill badge for the 1951 elec-tion? (L)

763. Which American general saidof Churchill, "He was unusuallywell"informed on American affairs,he showed a keen interest in ourplans and prospects"? (M)

764. How did Churchill support"continental commitment"? (S)

765. What was "Operation Dyn-amo" & who commanded it ? (W)

766. What was the PoliticalWarfare Executive and who direct-ed it? (W)

767. What was the G.C. & C. S. andwhere was it located? (W)

768. What did Churchill and LordFisher do in 1913 to increase thespeed of British dreadnoughts?(W)

ANSWERS TO LAST TRIVIA:(721) Austin Chamberlain called WSC"as cross as a bear with a sore head."(722) Blenheim is a spinoff of Marl-borough. (723) Churchill first came toAmerica on the liner Etrnria. (724)Winston's Harrow nickname was"Copperknob" for his red hair. (725)Speaking about the Soviets Churchillsaid: "There is nothing they admire somuch as strength and there is nothingfor which they have less respect thanfor weakness." (726) 14,000 Britishtroops were in Russia when Churchillbecame Minister of War in 1919.(727) Arthur Balfour was First Lord ofthe Admiralty when the Dardanellescampaign was abandoned. (728)"Writing a book is an adventure. Tobegin with it is a toy, an amusement£_then it becomes a mistress..." (729)Because of hostile crowds in Egypt,WSC rode in an armoured car and wasnot able to paint. (730) About 1.5 mil-lion documents are in the ChurchillArchives. (731) Churchill was honoredby a ticker tape parade in New YorkCity on 15 March 1946. (732) Theground floor offices above the WarRooms were known as No.10 Annex.(733) Lady Lavery started Churchill'spainting career. (734) Churchill saidthe Manchester Guardian was "the bestnewspaper in the world." (735)Churchill wrote "Finis" in the Che-quers visitors' book on 29 July 1945.(736) Clementine objected to WSC'spurchasing Chartwell because shewasn't consulted and didn't think itaffordable. (737) The 1926 GeneralStrike *.vas a consequence of returningEngland to the gold standard. (738)"It would be a great pity to stuff thePolish goose so full of food that it diedof indigestion." (739) Alanbrooke saidChurchill was "the most difficult man Ihave ever served, but thank God forhaving given me the opportunity."(740) The Unknown War was the alter-nate title for The Eastern Front. (741)Columbia was the first country tohonor Churchill on a postage stamp, in1945. (742) Glasgow University con-ferred the degree of Doctor of Laws(Honoris Causa) upon ClementineChurchill in 1947. (743) "Let us there-fore brace ourselves to our duty, andso bear ourselves that, if the BritishEmpire and its Commonwealth last fora thousand years, men will still say'this was their finest hour.'" (744)Churchill moved that the House"attend the church of St. Margaret,Westminster to give thanks for ourdeliverance from the threat of domina-tion" at the end of World War II. Hismorion duplicated that made at the endof World War I. $

FINEST HOUR 93 / 43

Churchill in Stamps:Yalta to Potsdam

BY RICHARD M. LANGWORTH

Pages 235-240: LATE WARTIME CONFERENCESCatalogue numbers are Scott (#) and Stanley Gibbons (sg). Aslash mark (/) indicates a set with a common design from whichany value is usable. Cams and Minkus catalogue numbers aresometimes used, and identified by name.

These pages are not in the chronological order we have pursued inprevious columns because they were created recently with newacquisitions, some of the stamps issued on the 50th anniversary ofthe end of World War II. (I sweat whole blood finding the DDRPotsdam stamps on page 239). The pages do, however, constitutea chronological sequence from Yalta to Potsdam, and the end ofthe period I have entitled "Apogee.:

235. Russia #666 (sg 799) offers a view of Yalta, site of thepenultimate wartime conference. This is linked to artistic (An-tigua & Barbuda 1982 Roosevelt commemorative) and photo-graphic (Nicaragua #2358, sg 1910) portrayals of the Yalta BigThree and, to illustrate Stalin's intentions for Poland, a set of Pol-ish stamps exalting the Soviet Union's style of socialism: Poland#451-53 (sg 646-48).

236. This famous photo of World War II has been used, or wasthe basis of, dozens of stamps. A 1995 souvenir sheet by St. Vin-cent & the Grenadines adapted it, inappropriately, to celebrate the50th anniversary of VE-Day. After Yalta it was fairly well as-sured that Europe was not out of the woods by any means in 1945.

237. This page devoted to the death of Roosevelt takes as itsquot'. quote Churchill's comment in Triumph and Tragedy aboutMi last meeting with the President, in Alexandria. Stamps are Do-minica #407 (sg 436), Liberia #696 (sg 1009), El Salvador#606/11 (sg 965/70) and Nicaragua #C272-76 (sglO8O-84).

238. Churchill's noble tribute to FDR is acompanied by morestamps from El Salvador's FDR set, #606/11 (sg 965/70.) alongwith a label promoting stamp collecting, Antigua & Barbuda's1982 Roosevelt issue, and Upper Volta #349. The El Salvadorstamps, by Waterlow & Sons of London, are quite magnificent.

239. A triptych from the former East Germany, DDR #1226-28(sg E1319-21) dominates this page on Potsdam. The Big Threeare Russia #1699 (sg 1833), St. Vincent Grenadines sg 56(Minkus 55) and Israel #561 (sg 595). At bottom are Austria#B 172/8 (sg 977-84) mopping up the Nazis, and Poland #B40 (sg533) promoting a Red workers conference.

240. The last two Nazi stamps issued are Germany #B292-3 (sg897-98). Another Austrian victory stamp from the set #B 172/8(sg 977-84) is linked to a recent, colorful quartet from the Mar-shall Islands showing, among other scenes, the German surrender.De Tassigny, France #B442 (sg 1876), led the French into Berlinon 8 May 1945.

(To he continued)

FINEST HOUR 93/44

235.

236.

YALTA RENDEZVOUS

Since Stalin maintained that war duties prevented him fromleaving Russia, the Big Three determined to meet at Yalta, theSoviet resort city in the Crimea on the Black Sea, where the Czarhad holidayed in bygone days.

At Yalta, theSovietheadquarterswen: In theYusupov Palace,while Rooseveltwas housed Inthe even moreelaborateLlvadia Palace.In a portent ofthe conferenceto come.Churchill andhis party wereassigned to avilla five miles

The big issuewas Poland: theplacement of herpostwarboundaries,which Stalinwanted lo ahinTar to the west atthe expense ofGermany,Russia takingformer Polishterritory In theEast Slalin abofavored thel.libllnprovisionalPolishgovernmentcomposedlargely ofCommunists,who wouldsafely direct thecountry'spostwar affairs.

gplfci: H•BSE:

Apogee

YALTA DECLARATION

•When a Polish Provision Government of National Unity has beenproperly formed, the Government s of the USSR, the UnitedKingdom and the United Staes will establish diplomatic relations,and will exchange ambassadors...The three heads of Govern-ments consider that the eastern frontier of Poland should followthe Curzon line...They recognise that Poland must receivesubstantial accessions of territory In the north and west."

The textof the YaltaAgreementgave StalinUM bordershe wanted.In exchangefor hi* pro-mise tosupport abipartisanProvisionalPolishGovern-ment. ThispromiseStalin hadno Inten-tion ofkeeping.

MAY 8. 1945-MAY 8, 1995

THE 5OTH ANNIVERSARY OT V-E DAY

LAST FAREWELL

"At Alexandria I went on board H.M.S. Aurora. Later that morningthe American cruiser Quincy steamed into Alexandria harbour,and shortly before noon 1 went on board for what was to be mylast talk with the President. He seemed placid and frail. I felt thathe had a slender contact with life. I was not to see him again. Webade affectionate farewells." -wsc. Triumph and Tragedy, 1953

The KrcatAmerican friendwith whomChurchill hadsurvived 90manyvicissitudes wasnot to witnessvictory. FranklinRoosevelt hadscarreh/ twomonths left tohtm.

Upon his ownreturn homeChurchill said ofYalta to hisprivatesecretary: "Itwaa a tragedy,because thePresident Is adying man.*

239.

Apogse

POTSDAM CONFERENCE

Churchill was anxious to meet President Truman, "a potentate withwhom my cordial relations. In spite of differences, had been establishedby correspondence." They met in mid-July 1945 In Potsdam, a suburb ofBerlin, amid the rubble of shattered Germany, where they gathered withStalin for what would be the last wartime conference. Afterwards in hisroom, Churchill remarked to Eden. "1 like him. He considers a problemand when he is determined on its solution he comes down solidly on bothfeet." With that he gave a little jump to demonstrate Truman's method.

At PotsdamStalin suggestedtransferring thetitle deeds ofPoland to theProvisional(Communist)governmentwhich, he toldChurchill, "neverrefused to holdfree elections."

Chun-hill leftPotsdam July25lh Lo receivethe results of theBritish (•eiieraJelection. Hewrote that he'had In mind toforce a show-down" overPoland when hereturned toItoUdam. hutthis was not tobe.

25 jAHRE POTSDAMER ABKOMMEN i 2

Apogee

TRIBUTE TO FRANKLIN ROOSfcVfcLT

"...The causes of human freedom and social justice, to which somuch of liis life had been given, added a lustre...which will long bediscernible among men...For us it remains only to say that inFranklin Roosevelt there died the greatest American friend we haveever known, and the greatest champion of freedom who has everbrought help and comfort from the New World to the Old."

-WSC House of Commons. 17 April 1945

240.

POTSDAM: THE RUINED ENEMY

In Potsdam, while Stalin remained reclusive. Truman and Churchill madeseparate tours of Berlin. The city was nothing but a chaos of ruins."wrote Churchill. "No notice had of course been given of our visit and thestreets had only the ordinary passers-by. In the square in front of theChancellery there was however a considerable crowd. When I got out ofthe car and walked about among them, except for one old man who shookhis head disapprovingly, they all began to cheer. My hate died with theirsurrender; and I was much moved by their demonstrations."

The la»l twostamps issuedby NaziGermany

The Germansurrender andsubsequenti:elebraUons ofMay 1945

Tike victoriousAllies

CHURCHILL CENTER NEW BOOK SERVICE: Winter 1996-97A service to Members oflCS and the Churchill Center. Please order only from New Book Service (not Churchill Stores)

Use order blank on opposite side or list books by number. Checks payable to R. Langworth.Shipping: Add $4 for first book, $lfor each additional. Shipping is by UPS in USA and bookpost to the rest of the world.

Visa/Mastercard accepted on orders over $50 and all non-USA orders. This list supersedes all previous lists.

Just Published:1080. WARTIME MISSIONS OF HARRY HOPKINS,by Matthew Wills. An outstanding look at the obscurego-between who fashioned the partnership betweenChurchill and Roosevelt. "As important a work for theChurchill library as Alanbrooke's diary, Ismay's mem-oirs, and Jock Colville's three books of recollections. Ifyou wish to know the Churchill of World War II, youmust know your Harry Hopkins." -Finest Hour 93. Itsmany photographs are mostly new. Hardbound, 92ppillus., regular price $17.95. Member price $15

1079. MY EARLY LIFE, by Winston S. Churchill, with aNew Introduction by William Manchester. WinstonChurchill's most engaging book is back in print again,with a brilliant foreword by William Manchster, whosets the stage in the romantic tones of The Last Lion. Thebook ends as the 20th century begins. Manchesterwrites: "As it grew into a broadening river, and thenbecame a torrent, Churchill would cross and recross it,striving to alter its course and, at each stage, being him-

self subtly altered... He makes it as exciting in theretelling as it must have been for him then." Soft-bound, 372pp. Reg. $14. Member price $12

1078. HIS FATHER'S SON: THE LIFE OF RAN-DOLPH CHURCHILL, by Winston S. Churchill MP.The latest and best biography of Randolph, basedheavily on his exclusive archives. Authoritative, bal-anced and well written, the book traces Randolph'sbittersweet career, while also providing fresh insightinto Sir Winston through his numerous letters to hisson. Reviewed FH 92. Recommended. Reg £20. Instock now. $38

Books by Winston S. ChurchillThe Churchill Center actively supports republication of rare works by Churchill, over 20of which are in print because of our and ICS's efforts. We have also produced single vol-umes of rare titles by binding extra sheets from the 1974 "Collected Works."

1001. INDIA: DEFENDING THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN.This title has been selected for the Book Discussion at the1997 Conference in Toronto. The First American Edition of arare book first published in 1931: an exact facsimile down toits orange and black internal wrappers and orange sailclothhard binding. Inserted before the facsimile is a fine apprecia-tion by Professor Manfred Weidhorn, who considers thesefamous orations on India the technical equals of the greatwar speeches. Reg. price $35. Member price: $25

FINEST HOUR 93 / 46

The Churchill WarPapers: 1940-41

Edited by Sir Martin Gilbert: Companionsto Volumes VI of the Official Biography.An invaluable sourcework, endlessly fasci-nating—books to take on a desert island.

966a. Vol. I: AT THE ADMIRALTY:SEPTEMBER 1939-MAY1940. The ulti-mate collection of vital papers duringthis crucial period. Hardbound, 1400pp. ($75). US edn. Member price $60

966b. Volume II: NEVER SURREN-DER: MAY-DECEMBER 1940. Putsyou at WSC's shoulder during his finesthour. 1322 pp. ($75). Member price $60

More by Churchill:1002. THE RIVER WAR. Bound inblack cloth with first edition Nile gun-boat illustration blocked gilt on cover.The abridged text first published in1902. ($80). Member price $60

1013. EARLY SPEECHES. Clothboundfrom the Collected Works, includingtwo very rare volumes, Liberalism andthe Social Problem and The People'sRights, Churchill's great reform booksas a Liberal MP. Hardbound, 502pp.,Woods A15/16,etc. ($80). Mbr. price $60

1016. LORD RANDOLPH CHUR-CHILL. Bound in red cloth from theCollected Works, text from the 1952 edi-tion with new material added by SirWinston. Hardbound, illus., 856pp.Woods A8c ($80). Member price $60

1037. THE EASTERN FRONT (THEUNKNOWN WAR). The rare final vol-ume of The World Crisis, a replica of theoriginal English binding to round outyour set. The subject is the little-knownGerman-Russian front in WW1 (see FH90, page 44 Hardbound, illus., 368pp.,Woods A31b ($80). Member price $60

M MO RT AC Vtf ORDS

<WE ARE STILL CAPTAIN OF OUR SOULS"

Late in July I learned that the President of the United Stateswould welcome a meeting with me

in order to survey the entire world position.I obtained His Majesty's permission to leave the country.

I crossed the Atlantic Ocean in one of our latest battleshipsto meet the President at a convenient place.

Important conclusions were reached on four main topics.First of all, on that Eight-Point Declaration of the broad principles and aims

which guide and govern the actionsof the British and United States governments and peoples ...

Secondly, on measure to be taken to help Russiato resist the hideous onslaught which Hitler has made upon her;

Thirdly, the policy to be pursued toward Japan ...Fourthly, there was a large number of purely technical matters

which were dealt withand close personal relations were established

between high naval, military and air authoritiesof both countries ..*

I have, as the House knows, hitherto consistently deprecated the formulationof peace aims, or war aims—however you put it—

by His Majesty's Government at this stage. -I deprecate it at this time,

when the end of the war is not in sight.But a Joint Declaration by Great Britain and the United States

is a process of a totally different nature.Although the principles in the Declaration, and much of the language,

have long been familiar to the British and American democracies,the fact that it is a united Declaration sets up a milestone or monument

which needs only the stroke of victoryto become a permanent part of the history of human progress ...

Thus far then have we travelled along the terrible road we chose at the call of duty.The mood of Britain is wisely and rightly averse

from every form of shallow or premature exultation.This is no time for boasts or glowing prophecies,

but there is this:A year ago our position looked forlorn, and well nigh desperate

to all eyes but our own.Today we may say aloud before an awe-struck world:

"We are still masters of our fate."We are still captain of our souls."

Prime Minister's Speech on the War Situation, House of Commons, 9 September 1941