journal of the churchill center and societies - Winston Churchill

Gli impses:
LATE ENCOUNTERS
WITH CHRISTINA
(1) Cuban Connections
Maurice Baird-Smith DFC
Iwas the last President of The Royal Dutch Shell Group in
Cuba, leaving when the company was nationalized by Fidel
Castro. It so happened that at around this time, Sir Winston
Churchill was cruising the Caribbean aboard Aristotle Onassis's
yacht Christina with Onassis and Anthony and Nonie (his first
wife) Montague Browne.
Over sixty years before, Churchill had gone to Cuba as
an observer and reporter covering the Cuban revolt against
Spain. He naturally expressed an interest in Castro's revolution,
and Onassis agreed to divert Christina to Havana so that
Churchill could talk to "El Jefe." Unfortunately, the British Foreign
Office persuaded Sir Winston not to go to Cuba—in my
opinion, a silly mistake. He might have had some positive influence.
Who knows
One day a very agitated Cuban—I've forgotten his
name—came to see me in the Shell Office. He had never met
Churchill but was a great admirer, to the point that he kept him
supplied with the finest Cuban cigars, along with gift bottles of
the very best Cognac. Churchill had sent him some of his paintings,
which the Cuban treasured greatly.
The Cuban was frightened that his property might be
confiscated in Castro's rapid communization process and that
he might lose his paintings in the process. Could I help him I
was convinced that Shell itself was going to be confiscated, but
felt I might not be the best person to do what he asked—
namely to ship the paintings out of Cuba to a safe haven. I told
him I would speak to the Dutch or British Ambassador. I can't
remember which agreed to help, but in any case, all went well. I
have often wondered where those paintings are today.
A related story told to me by Sir Winston's son-in-law,
Christopher Soames (later Lord Soames) was that, though Sir
Winston was a connoisseur of cigars, he wasn't so of Cognac.
So, Christopher used to decant the Cuban's good Cognac and
replace it with a run-of-the-mill product! This may well be an
apocryphal story but is worth recording as Christopher and
Winston Churchill enjoyed a very warm and close relationship.
Mr. Baird-Smith (mbairdsmit@aol.com) is retired from the Shell
International Oil Company, and divides his time between Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida and the south of France. He first related these experiences
to Charles Plan of the CC Board of Governors.
Mr. Crookshank, a member of ICS UK,was aide-de-camp to the
Governor of Gibraltar. His story was brought to our attention by Paul
Courtenay, Hon. Secretary of ICS UK.
(2) Reminiscences from the Rock
John Crookshank
Having been lucky enough to see and hear Winston
Churchill in the House of Commons during his last
period in power after the 1951 Conservative victory, I
was even luckier to meet him, albeit in a menial capacity, when
he visited Gibraltar in the late 1950s, aboard Aristotle Onassis's
sleek, converted Canadian corvette Christina. I was ADC to the
Governor.
By 1958, when the graceful, all-white Christina first
called at Gibraltar with her somewhat special passenger, he was
elderly and infirm. Nevertheless, these visits to the Rock were
memorable for Gibraltar. For Churchill, they probably comprised
the last direct impressions he ever received of the Empire
which had meant so much to him, and for which he had striven
for so long and so hard.
Christina would pick up a mooring in the naval base
near what is now the entrance to Queensway Marina. On one
such visit in September 1958, when the Governor was returning
to Gibraltar from a day at sea in the new fleet carrier HMS
Eagle, we passed quite close to the stern of Christina. The crew,
their faces aglow with excitement, manned every vantage point
to look down at the diminutive figure on the yacht's quarterdeck.
Sir Winston looked up with obvious pride as the long
grey wall of the carrier slid past.
Once when we collected Sir Winston from Christina
for a drive to the airport, Gibraltarians thronged the narrow
streets to catch a glimpse of him. Another time, when he dined
at "The Convent" (the Governor's residence), huge crowds
packed Convent Square. At dinner he waxed eloquent about
Eden and Suez with the Governor, Sir Charles Keightley, who
had commanded the aborted British military operation there.
That same year Lady Churchill passed through Gibraltar
on her way to stay at Tangier with the British Consul General,
Bryce Nairn, and his wife, Margaret—old friends from
1944 in Marrakech where Bryce Nairn had been British Consul.
During the stopover at Gibraltar, Lady Churchill had coffee
with John Revell, the RAF Group Captain commanding the
station, who asked rather earnestly: "May we be permitted to
ask how Sir Winston is" Lady Churchill responded quick as a
flash: "I think he must be very well because I read in my Daily
Mail this morning that he was having lunch two days ago with
Miss Greta Garbo and wearing a new white alpaca suit—when
he left London he did not have a new white alpaca suit!" $!
FINEST HOUR 108/29