Winston Churchill

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100-75-50-25 YEARS AGO EDITED BY JOHN G. PLUMPTON SPRING 1888 • AGE 13 Lord and Lady Randolph returned to England from a tour of Russia. His loyalty to the Tory Party was fragile and he was still greatly feared by Salisbury, Balfour and the Queen. On 25 April Lord Randolph's opposition to his own party came into the open. When Balfour spoke in favour of a Private Member's Bill to extend Local Government in Ireland, Churchill was strongly critical of him. He thought he had the support of Joseph Chamberlain to oppose the Government but Chamberlain found the criticisms a little too sharp. Lord Randolph deeply resented what he considered a betrayal by his friend. When they made up, Chamberlain suggested that Lord Randolph must overcome his habit of making things so difficult for his friends. In the main, Churchill remained silent in the House but it was apparent that he was becoming increasingly disillusioned with politics. When he was greeted by a supporter in St. James's Park with the wish that he hoped to see him again in the Cabinet, Lord Randolph replied: "I sincerely hope that you will not." Lord Salisbury remarked that among Churchill's other problems, "his pecuniary position is very bad." This assessment certainly did not inhibit young Winston Churchill from making frequent requests for money from his parents. On April 17 he entered Harrow School as a member of H.O.D. Davidson's House. Within a week of arriving he wrote his mother for more money. "Most boys say they usually bring back £3 and write for more. . . . Please send the money as soon as possible you promised me I should not be different to others." Harrow at this time was in its golden age. Still in the country, it was separated from London by green fields. On a clear day they could even see Windsor. Winston was having difficulty resolving what surname he would live with. He wrote his father: "I am called, and written Spencer Churchill here and sorted under the S's. I never write myself Spencer Churchill but always Winston S. Churchill. Is it your wish that I should be so called? It is too late to alter it this term but next term I may assume my Proper name." Winston's son later told the story that when visitors to Harrow looked for the child of the famous Lord Randolph Churchill at "Bill," the Harrow roll-call, they were heard to remark, "Why, he's the last of all," as he filed by in alphabetical order. We do not have many comments by Winston Churchill on religion but in an essay on 'Palestine in the Time of John the Baptist' he made the following assessment of the Pharisees: "Their faults were many. Whose faults are few? For let him with all the advantages of Christianity avouch that they are more wicked than himself, he commits the same crime of which he is just denouncing them." SPRING 1913 • AGE 38 On 13 March the First Lord presented his naval estimates of £48 millions to the House of Commons. Concerns over Britain's ability to compete with Germany overcame the reservations expressed by Lloyd George about the country's ability to afford it. In fact, other views, expressed by Lord Charles Beresford, argued that the navy was still understaffed and illprepared. However, the Daily Telegraph stated that "the Navy has never in its long history had a more persuasive spokesman in Parliament than the present Minister." In April Churchill was involved in what came to be known as the Marconi Scandal. His colleague, Lloyd George, was accused of improperly trading in shares of the Marconi Company. Churchill vociferously defended his friend. When the editor of the Financial News testified that Churchill himself had profited by trading, the accused exploded. He charged that anyone who stated anything other than his innocence "was a liar and a slanderer." Not only was he believed to be innocent by the public but his friends were impressed by his selfdefence. One wrote: "It is in affairs like these that breeding asserts itself." In May the Churchills set out on a 26 Mediterranean cruise on Enchantress. They were accompanied by the Asquiths and their daughter, Eddie Marsh and Winston's mother. At the time, Jennie was unhappily divorcing her husband, George Cornwallis-West, who had deserted her. They toured Venice in a gondola, visited Dubrovnick and went fishing in Vallona Bay on the Albanian coast. At a picnic luncheon Winston kept quoting Gray's Ode to Spring. "At ease reclined in a rustic state. . . ." At Athens they saw the Parthenon. Churchill, distressed at the sight of the collapsed columns, wanted to bring in a group of naval blue-jackets to set them upright. In Sicily Prime Minister Asquith, having reviewed his Thucydides for the occasion, entertained the party with an account of the Sicilian Expedition. The British press followed their journey with much interest. Punch published a cartoon showing the First Lord and Prime Minister relaxing on the deck of Enchantress. The Prime Minister is scanning a newspaper as Churchill asks him: "Any Home News?" To which Asquith replies: "How can there be with you here?" PUNCH 21tl Miy 191)
At Malta the First Lord disembarked, visited the naval station and rejoined the party at Palermo. On visiting Corsica, Eddie Marsh and Churchill called ac ' Napoleon's house and stood together "for a full moment in silent cogitation." Violet Asquith, the Prime Minister's daughter, remembered particularly the evening card-games. Eddie Marsh was a serious bridge player who was often bemused by Churchill's unconventional play. "I can still hear Eddie's cry of pain" she has recorded, "when Winston, having led up to and sacrificed his partner's king, declared, "Nothing is here for tears. The king cannot fall unworthily if he falls to the sword of the ace" — a dictum which left Eddie's tears over his fallen king undried." Anothing amusing story from the voyage involved Clementine. On paying a visit to the galley to talk to the cook, she found a large and, to her beautiful, turtle. When it became obvious that it was destined for soup she obtained a dinghy and a party of men and returned the intended victim to the Mediterranean. Despite his love of culinary pleasures, Winston approved. SPRING 1938 • AGE 63 In March Churchill was informed by the Evening Standard that his contract to write a series of articles for them on foreign affairs was being terminated because his views were not in agreement with those of the newspaper's proprietor, Lord Beaverbrook. He quickly reached agreement with the Daily Telegraph, although its owner, Lord Camrose, insisted on a six-month trial because "our policies might well be at serious variance." These articles were interspersed with others in the News of the World. Millions of readers were reading his views every week as they were syndicated throughout Europe and the Empire. He reached fewer, but more influential, audiences in his public speeches. He believed that a national defence campaign was necessary and was doing his utmost to contribute his share to it. His goal was to unite England on the issue. "Our party must carry the Trade Unions with them. Non-Conformists, Churchmen and Catholics must work for the common end." His son Randolph published a collection of his speeches on defense under the title Arms and the Covenant in England and While England Slept in the United States (Woods A44). Distressed by pro-German and anti- French propaganda in Britain, he flew to France to advocate an Anglo-French alliance. When he was received with full honours by the French, the Cabinet let it be known that he spoke only for himself and not the Government. He believed that "if France broke then everything would break, and the Nazi domination of Europe, and potentially of a large part of the world, would seem to be inevitable." In April, Leon Blum's Government fell and Edouard Daladier became Premier. "A capable and sincere man," said Churchill. When an agreement was signed by Britain and Italy which recognized Italian control over Ethiopia, Churchill called it "a complete triumph for Mussolini." The Government also negotiated an agreement with Ireland to end British naval rights at several Irish ports. Churchill saw this as another example of appeasement. He equated it to a withdrawal from Gibraltar or Malta but his criticisms further alienated him from the Conservative Party. In May he met with Conrad Henlein, the leader of the Sudeten Germans, who Churchill called "the best treated minority in Europe." He approved of a Henlein plan for a federal system in Czechoslovakia but informed Henlein that "if Germany attacked Czechoslovakia, France and then England would come to the latter's assistance." When Lord Swinton resigned as Secretary of State for Air it was assumed by many that Churchill would join the Cabinet. But Chamberlain was still not inclined to offer a position to his principal critic. For his part, Churchill professed to be reluctant to come aboard. "The present majority will remain dumb to the end," he said. SPRING 1963 • AGE 88 In April the American Congress and President John F. Kennedy awarded Sir Winston Churchill an honourary citizenship of the United States of America. The story of this honour will be told in the next issue of Finest Hour. In May it was announced that Sir Winston would not contest the next election. And so would end one of the truly remarkable parliamentary careers in the history of the free world. In some 27 ways that announcement could be viewed as Churchill's real retirement, because he was, as Lord Beaverbrook has written, "in every sense a professional politician, having trained himself for his vocation." Robert Rhodes James has noted that Churchill was born into politics, and it was his devotion to his father that shaped his early political interests, attitudes and ambitions and propelled his early political career. He had entered the House of Commons as Conservative Member for Oldham at the end of 1900 when he was just 26. This early period was devoted to finishing his father's battles. In 1904 he had crossed the floor to the Liberals over the issue of Tariff Reform. Two years later he was elected as a Liberal Member for North-West Manchester. In 1908 he had to stand for reelection to Parliament because of his appointment to the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade. He was defeated by his Conservative opponent, but within a month he found a new constituency in Dundee, Scotland. In 1922 Churchill was defeated at Dundee and out of the House of Commons. The Liberal Party was in disarray. Attempts to return in West Leicester as an Independent in 1923 and in the Abbey Division of Westminster as a Constitutionalist in 1924 were narrow failures. Late in 1924 he was elected in Epping, near London, and subsequently rejoined the Conservatives. In 1945 Labour refused to continue the wartime coalition and a general election ensued while Churchill was at Potsdam. Churchill's constituency had changed from a country seat to a populous borough and its name was changed to Woodford. Despite the breakdown of the alliance, as a mark of respect Opposition parties declined to stand an official candidate against the Prime Minister in his own constituency. But by the 1960s great diplomacy was required to convince Sir Winston that it was time to relinquish the seat. Even Lady Churchill, who so often took on impossible tasks in dealing with him, could not bring herself to meet this challenge alone. In the end, a coalition of Lady Churchill, son-in-law -Christopher Soames, and a very tactful Constituency Chairman, Mrs. Doris Moss, achieved the inevitable, although Sir Winston would attend the House of Commons several more times until his final visit on 28 July 1964. •
Page 2 and 3: NO. 59 • SPRING 1988 • ISSN 088
Page 4 and 5: ERRATA Issue 58, page 9, first foot
Page 6 and 7: INTERNATIONAL DATELINES, continued
Page 8 and 9: BICENTENNIAL PHILATELY: LEFT: Austr
Page 10 and 11: BY H. ASHLEY REDBURN, OBE A " most
Page 12 and 13: Menzies and Churchill. . . I do not
Page 14 and 15: was general respect and liking for
Page 16 and 17: Australia and use it as a base for
Page 18 and 19: UNITED KINOUOM AVON Combe Down/ Edm
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Page 22 and 23: Paintings: Banff's Bunkers An Amusi
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Page 28 and 29: Francis Neilson: The First Revision
Page 32 and 33: WENDY REVES ON FOREIGN EDITIONS As
Page 34 and 35: NEW MEMBERS, continued AUSTRALIA W.
Page 36: The continent of Australia is: •

Winston Churchill

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