Winston Churchill

NEW MEMBERS, continued
AUSTRALIA
W.A.: LYNWOOD/Ray Perry
CANADA
BC: NANAIMO/Stanley Freestone; NEW
WESTMINSTER/Joseph Raphael; N. VAN-
COUVER/Leslie A. Strike; VAN-
COUVER/Barry Kirkham, W.C. Koerner, Saul
Kohn, Lionel S. Such, Stan Szary, Vancouver
Public Library, C.S. White, Bryan E. Yirush;
VICTORIA/Edw. Bowden-Green, Leone
Trubkin; W.VANCOUVER/John Goodger
ON: BRANTFORD/Wm. Sempie; GUELPH/
M.C. Shonfield; MARKHAM/David Hencher;
THORNHILL/Garnet Barber; TORONTO/
Marlene Allan, G.E. Campbell; UNION-
VILLE/Arthur Wootton; WILLOWDALE/
G.W. Churton, John Piddington; WOOD-
STOCK/Mary Alexander
NB: GAGETOWN/Dr. John Moore
NEWFNDLND: ST. JOHN/Tim Horgan, Jas.
H. Steele
QUEBEC: WESTMOUNT/Alex Bernstein
WANTED
Urgently wanted to complete my collection of
ICS commemorative covers: issue no. 2, the "Act
of Union" cover, dated London, 18 September
1970. Details to A.H. Benham, 4 Walpole Walk,
Rayleigh, Essex SS6 8HY, England
AVAILABLE
New list of hundreds of books by and about
Churchill. Includes pre-1940 titles and a good
selection of Woods, B,C,D items. Send SAE
(UK) or dollar bill for airmail catalogue. Mark
Weber, 35 Elvaston Place, London, SW7,
England
Write for our latest catalogue of works by and
about Sir Winston: books "by" and "about,"
autographia, paintings, records priced from one
dollar up. Churchillbooks, Burrage Road, Contoocook,
NH 03229 USA
"The Hour of Decision" Churchill plate
autographed by Sarah Churchill, originally sold
for $150; we have two and would like to sell
them for $75 each. Dorothy Collins Cramp,
29919 Valle Olvera, Temecula CA 92390 USA.
BPO stamp-subject postal cards: 10 different including
Churchill 5 l/2p issue. Wish to sell to a
fellow Anglophile who will appreciate them.
Edith Ellexson, 404 23rd St, Apt 1, Richmond
CA 94804 USA.
Official Biography: Biographic Volumes I-V,
Companion Volumes I-IV, 15 volumes in all.
Please contact A.B. Palk, Wellesley House, 63a
Vansittart Road, Windsor, Berks. UK
Churchill stamps for sale or swap. Write for
list. Peter Jenkins, 8 Regnans Ave., Endeavour
Hills, Victoria, Australia 3802.
Classified adverts are free to members, but subject
to editing for space. Please send yours to the editor.
Copy deadlines: Summer 2 wks, Autumn 1 Sef>,
Winter 1 Dec, Spring 1 Mar.
ACCIDENTS
Q. I've heard it said, "Churchill had as many
lives as a cat — and he needed them." How
many near-misses did he have?
A. He needed more than nine lives. He fell
out of a tree (1893), nearly drowned in Lake
Lausanne (1893), fell off a camel (1921), fell
off a polo pony (1922), fell into a lake while
goose hunting (1928); when he fell from a
horse he claimed £2 a week for six weeks
from a London newspaper under its free insurance
scheme. He had car accidents in
Whitehall, Cairo and Kent (although
whether he, one of the world's worst
drivers, was behind the wheel at these
events we don't know).
In 1931 he was knocked down by a New
York taxicab. In 1919 he was passenger in a
plane which landed in a ditch after taking
off near Paris. In Flanders, 1916, a 4.2 shell
landed in his room. He had five attacks of
pneumonia, suffered from gastroenteritis,
appendicitis (1922), tonsilitis (1928),
paratyphoid (1932) and irritations of the skin,
eyes and lungs. However, he never suffered
from nicotine or alcohol poisoning.
(Answered with the help of John Frost's
Historical Newspaper collection, and a cutting
from Leader magazine, 2 April 1949.)
WSC & THE REFORM CLUB
Q. At our dinner for Robert Hardy at the
Reform Club last September (FH 57), someone
mentioned that Churchill had been a member of
the Reform Club, but resigned on a matter of
principle. What was it?
A. We asked member Norman Rogers of
Suffolk to follow this up; he consulted
Simon Blundell, Club librarian, who refers
us to a privately printed book, The Reform
Club 1836-1978, by George Woodbridge.
Here is the story . . .
On 18 December 1912 Baron Maurice Arnold
de Forest, Liberal MP for West Ham
North, was entered in the Candidates'
Book, proposed by Churchill and seconded
by Eugene Wason, a member who actively
promoted the admission of MPs. (Wason
had seconded Churchill's own nomination.)
De Forest came up for election 23 January
and was blackballed.
Although legend has it that members and
seconders are obliged to resign if their
nominees are blackballed, this is untrue and
was never routine procedure. Thus it was a
surprise that both Churchill and Lloyd
George resigned over de Forest's rejection.
(The Baron was quite a rake, and also the
adopted son of Austrian Jewish banker
Baron Hirsch. According to Randolph
Churchill's official biography, Volume II,
when discussing the creation of peers to pass
the Parliament Act in 1911, George V told
Asquith the only one he would never accept
was de Forest.)
Because of their close friendship with de
Forest, both Churchill and Lloyd George
thought it necessary to resign from the
Reform Club. Churchill, writes author
Woodbridge, "never returned to the Club
and eventually left the Liberal Party [but]
Lloyd George did return in 1917."
COLLECTED WORKS & ESSAYS OF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL
A very limited supply remains available, bound H|HHH!IB!!^^HH[H^HHIH^Ii
to the highest standard: gilt page edges, page ^^H(
markers, marbled endpapers, thick headbands, ^^^Hl
rounded spines, 500-year archival paper, Chur- ^^Ht
19
chill arms gilt on covers. A masterpiece of the ^^Hf
I11
1 11 ^H
bookbinder's art.
^^^H
1 COLLECTED WORKS: All 50 Churchill ^Hl
I
1
^H
books in 34 volumes (see article, FH 57); limited ^|BL.'
JLL1
1 ^H
to only 2000 copies worldwide. Available in ^H|]|
II ?,
original full vellum with dark green slipcases, or ^H I
lower-priced full red morocco in red slipcases. 100 ^R II 1
lbs, 4 1/2' long, 19,000 pages. (Red morocco not •} It
u available in UK.) ^Hg 8
»
I
i
COLLECTED ESSAYS: The only compila- Hf'S'
tion of 350 Churchill articles and forewords in BBLJL. It !
volume form, comprising four volumes and 1,830 ••"»•"
A
pages: "Churchill on War/Politics/People/At K "It •
Large." Centenary Limited Edition: full vellum K-' K'.'S ' :.
•*•
with dark green slipcase; Centenary Edition in V F J
• - *
•
quarter dark blue morocco.
K M '•";
, £
Please write for details to Churchillbooks, Bur- ft •• ;*•'
V :•/*
rage Rd, Contoocook NH 03229 USA, telephone | | | '
:v s
(603) 746-5606. m "I**" 1 -- T.*««— — '
30
f
•
1 H
1 H
t.H III
I IB
JLHH