The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

Securities and Exchange Committee. His reforming work in this post gained
him wide respect, particularly at a time when America was emerging from
the Depression.
His appointment as Ambassador had raised a few eyebrows both sides
of the Atlantic, however. Although his bootlegging had never been proved,
there was the faint whiff of the crook that accompanied him, while he was
also known as mercurial and as something of a philandering Irish Catholic
rogue, and a man who liked to call a spade a spade; his style was plain
talking with no bull rather than the subtle language of diplomacy. Yet he
was also undeniably energetic, ebullient and fabulously well connected.
Furthermore, he had been accompanied to London by his bright, beautiful
and apparently charming family – his wife, Rose, and their nine children.
Very quickly the Kennedys had been embraced by British society. His
second daughter, Kathleen, had been the ‘most exciting debutante’ of 1938,
while Eunice, his third and no less beautiful daughter, had ‘come out’ in
1939. His elder sons, Joseph Junior and Jack, were clever and worldly and
had become leading social figures, much photographed and discussed in the
gossip columns and diaries of Britain’s national papers.
Although vehemently anti-communist and unashamedly anti-Semitic,
Kennedy most strongly believed that there should be peace at all costs, and
that America should and could stay well out of European squabbles.
Unsurprisingly, then, he had soon allied himself to Chamberlain and the
appeasement policy that was dominating British politics at the time of his
arrival as Ambassador. Indeed, he came to know Chamberlain well and
considered him a good friend. Thus it was that he had watched the closing
debate in the Commons with no satisfaction whatsoever.
The results of the vote of no confidence had been read out by the
Speaker just after 11 p.m. Although Chamberlain was Prime Minister of a
National (that is, coalition) Government of Conservatives, National
Liberals, National Labour and Nationals, the majority were Tory MPs like
himself. Only around forty Conservatives had voted against him, but a
number had abstained, and with the votes of the Opposition the
Government’s majority had been cut to a mere eighty-one. That was
nowhere near enough to bring down a Prime Minister in peacetime; but in
times of war it was a very different matter.
The results had prompted, first, a gasp around the packed House, and
then pandemonium had ensued.