FH115 Final.qxd - Winston Churchill

EMINENT CHURCHILLIANS
Patrick Kinna MBE: “He was sure we would win all along.”
JASON WOODWARD
Cdr. Mike Franken, commanding officer of
the guided missile destroyer USS Winston S.
Churchill, welcomes a special guest at the
International Festival of the Sea, 2001,
when Patrick Kinna was invited to visit in
honour of his being the last surviving member
of Churchill’s wartime Private Office
Churchill hated whistling,
Roosevelt always said hello,
De Gaulle was a gossip,
Stalin never smiled.
As one of Churchill’s personal
secretaries, ICS UK member Patrick
Kinna accompanied the Prime
Minister everywhere he went and
met many of the 20th century’s
greatest statesmen. Though he stayed
at the White House and slept at the Kremlin, he lived
for most of the time in Downing Street.
Now aged 88, Mr. Kinna lives in Sussex Square,
Brighton in the flat he shared with his sister Gladys until
her death six years ago. He is the last surviving member
of the “little people,” the close-knit Secretariat which
surrounded Churchill during the war. Last summer he
was guest of honour during the visit of USS Winston S.
Churchill to Portsmouth Harbour, where he was given a
full tour of the latest vessel named for his old chief.
“I had the most wonderful day,” he said. “I felt
embarrassed because they made such a fuss of me. It’s all
changed from my day. Almost everything on board was
completely different from when I was on a warship.
Time has moved on.”
More than anything, it was an opportunity to
reflect on old times and recall the many memories and
journeys of those wartime years when Mr. Kinna was
one of Churchill’s most trusted aides. “When I look
back now,” he continued, “I cannot believe it really happened.
Did I really do all those things...did I really see
all those people It’s almost like a dream. It was so interesting,
but at the time one did not have much opportunity
to reflect on it all.”
Brought up in London, Patrick Kinna trained to
become a verbatim reporter in the House of Commons,
Mr. Woodward’s article is reprinted by kind permission of
Portsmouth’s The Argus from its editions of 25-26 August 2001.
but his exceptional shorthand and typing skills brought
him to the attention of the Cabinet Office shortly before
war broke out in 1939. The day the war began he was
sent to Paris to work for the Anglo-French Liaison
Secretariat and as secretary to the Duke of Windsor, formerly
King Edward VIII, who had abdicated in 1936 to
marry Mrs. Simpson.
“He was a charming man,” Kinna said of the
Duke. “When the Germans arrived he left for Spain very
quickly to avoid being captured. Later he sent me a note
apologising for not having time to say goodbye. I never
saw him again.”
After the invasion of France, Patrick Kinna
returned to England and was ordered to accompany
Churchill on a secret trip to meet President Roosevelt
“somewhere in the Atlantic,” the first of many wartime
meetings between the two. “It was a wonderful opportunity
for me,” he recalled. “Before I embarked, I remember
asking if the PM had any pet likes or dislikes. I was
told he absolutely detested people whistling.
“The first morning I was summoned to his cabin
and was feeling very nervous. He ordered me to sit
down, and just as I did, one of the sailors began
whistling outside. He demanded I go and shut him up.
He did not seem very friendly at all. It wasn’t a very
good start and I thought I wouldn’t last. I was a bit
scared of him, Winston being Winston. However, after
that everything went splendidly.”
FINEST HOUR 115 / 38