FINEST HOUR - Winston Churchill

ICS People...But Muller was no casualtourist. When he went to Churchill'shaunts, he was trying to understandthe forces that shapedthe man, and he uses the phrase,"getting a sense of what it waslike," frequently when he reminisces.He journeyed to BlenheimPalace, where Churchill was born.He walked the grounds ofChartwell, Churchill's belovedhome where he did much of hiswriting. He visited all four ofChurchill's schools, including theRoyal Military Academy at Sandhurst,and Harrow, the legendaryEnglish preparatory school.Harrow, Churchill's thirdschool, is where he finally cameinto his own, says Muller. Churchillrefused to learn Greek atHarrow, but he did learn theschool songs, which he liked tosing long after he graduated. InDecember 1940, while Englandstruggled to stop Hitler, Churchill,then prime minister, returned toHarrow to be with the boys as theysang the songs that celebrated tradition,patriotism and valor. As helistened to the stirring verses,Churchill wept.Much of the landscape surroundingHarrow has changedsince World War II, and even moresince Churchill went there, but theboys still sing. "My wife and I wentto Harrow and met the Headmaster,"Muller says. "We were invitedto a program of the school songs.We wanted to hear the songs thatwere so important to Churchill."When the Headmaster of Harrowand his wife came to Anchorage,Jim Muller arranged for achorus to sing for his guests thesame verses that had made WinstonChurchill weep more thanfifty years ago. $3Professor Muller is on a brief sabbaticalat Churchill College Cambridge,and at this moment immersedin the archives. This article isreprinted by kind permission ofSciArts, a student publication of theUniversity of Alaska, Anchorage, Departmentof Journalism and PublicCommunications.Riddles, Mysteries, EnigmasQ» / am trying to locate video• footage of Winston Churchilldelivering his speeches. Do you know ofany? — MICHAEL SCHWARTZ, PO BOX 1942,PACIFIC PALISADES CA 90272 USAA. The best single source is "The• Speeches of Winston Churchill,"an MPI Home Video release,ISBN 1-55607-036-5. This capturesquite a few speeches (not in entirety:no video we know does) including theone before a joint session of Congressin 1952. Incidentally, anent the 1952speech, David Freeman of Placentia,California, reports that the line wequestioned in an earlier edition of thiscolumn goes as follows: "I have notcome here to ask you for money,[laughter and applause] ... to ask youfor money to make life more comfortableor easier for us in Britain. Ourstandards of life are our own businessand we can only keep our self-respectand independence by looking afterthem ourselves." David says there isno indication that Churchill followedthe word money with the sotto voce remark"for myself," which we had heardbrought the house down. However, itcould have easily been edited out ofthe film.Q. Could you tell me Churchill's• height and weight at maturity?What color were his eyes? I've seenhundreds of photos of him, but few ofhim smiling. Were his teeth bad or discoloredfrom all the cigars? Did hewear dentures? — DAVID BILLINGSLEY,LEXINGTON KY USAA. Height figures we've seen range• between 5'6 1/2" and 5'9"; thelatter is from his passport, but he mayhave "shrunk" a bit in very old age.Weights we've seen range between 180(12 stone 12 lb) and 220 (15 stone 10lb) but we believe this varied; he wasrelatively trim during the 1940s. Eyes,watery light blue. There are manyphotos of WSC smiling and he did nothave bad teeth, but we don't know ifhe wore dentures; we rather expect hedid. Comment on this would be appreciated.Q» / have a short note by Winston• Churchill on his birthday in1948. It has the House of Commonsseal in the upper lefthand corner andseems to match Churchill's handwriting,but it is unaddressed either in typeor in holograph.A • Your letter is one of thousands•£*•* of very well-produced facsimileholographs which were sent out byChurchill's secretariat to the thousandswho sent him annual birthdaygreetings; similar letters were alsoproduced on other occasions. Thewording is purposely vague unless itrefers to his birthday. A few of the letterscarry the addressee's name andaddress typed at lower right, but theyare all of a type. A nice one, framed, isworth perhaps $50/£30.Q« / purchased the fine ICS print* of Mortimer Menpes's paintingof the young Churchill (also seen on thecover of Finest Hour 79). According tothe FH description, it was taken fromMenpes's book, War Impressions. / amanxious to know the history of thepainting and of Mortimer Menpes.How scarce is the book?A • Fairly scarce, to answer the•*•*•• last question first. We wouldbe glad to have some words aboutMenpes and his relationship withChurchill from any reader who canhelp.MORE RIDDLES TO BE SOLVED:HELP REQUESTEDQ* Can you help me determine if• it was Winston Churchill whocalled the Scots "bloody picts"? If so,what were the circumstances.— ELAINE A. LEAK, GARFIELD, NJ USAQ* During World War II, I under-• stand that Australia's PrimeMinister, John Curtin, signed hisname on an Australian Red Ensign (itsdesign is the same as Australia's nationalflag except that the field is rednot blue), and this flag was also signedby President Roosevelt and WSC andgiven to the latter. Can anyone tell uswhere it is — at Chartwell perhaps?[Haven't seen it there. -Ed.]— DAVID J. BULL, DEAKIN, ACT, AUSTRALIAcontinued on page 43FINEST HOUR 88/14