Brian Mulroney, a former Canadian Prime Minister, recently delivered an interesting speech at Blenheim Palace on Winston Churchill and leadership. The text of the speech was published in the National Post. In the speech, Mulroney, who was prime minister from 1984 to 1993, said that Churchill was, “the paragon of leadership during the darkest period of Britain’s history” and referred to him as “a consummate actor on the world stage.” Mulroney concluded that “transforming leadership — leadership that makes a significant difference in the life of a nation — recognizes that political capital is acquired to be spent in great causes for one’s country. That is precisely the lesson from Churchill.”
On June 23, 1953, Winston Churchill met with the Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, who was on the first day of a two-day visit to Britain, at 10 Downing Street. The prime ministers met for an hour and discussed Churchill’s support for the European Defence Community and the upcoming Bermuda Conference. They also sat in the garden in Downing Street to be photographed by the press. In the afternoon Churchill answered questions in the House of Commons on the discussion of world trade at the Bermuda talks as well as the suitability of the Mid-Ocean Club in Bermuda as a venue for meeting with President Eisenhower. During the day Churchill was visited at Downing Street by his physician, Lord Moran, who thought the prime minister was “played out.” Moran told Churchill he was unhappy with the strain the prime minister was under, but Churchill only grunted and returned to his papers.
That evening Churchill gave a dinner in honor of De Gasperi and his wife Francesca at 10 Downing Street. The 38 guests included Labour leader Clement Attlee, Minister of Defence Harold Alexander, the prime minister’s aide John Colville, Churchill’s wife Clementine, their daughter Mary and her husband Christopher Soames. At the end of the dinner Churchill made a short speech mainly about the Roman conquest of Britain, which Colville thought was “in his best and most sparkling form.” As the people started to leave Christopher Soames noticed that Churchill was trying to stand up but was unable to do so and fell back into his chair. Soames quickly realized the prime minister was unwell and told Clementine that they could not move him until the guests and waiters had left. He told his wife Mary to “guard” the prime minister from the guests as he was having trouble speaking. Mary thought her father looked “unhappy and uncertain and was very incoherent.” Christopher let Gasperi know that Churchill was tired and the Italian prime minister quickly departed. After the guests and staff had departed Churchill was taken upstairs to his bedroom with the prime minister leaning heavily on Colville’s arm. Lord Moran was contacted and next morning he examined Churchill and diagnosed that he had suffered a stroke.
The Spring 2015 issue of the Sewanee Review has an article, entitled “Remembering Winston Churchill The Making of a Book,” about the researching and writing of The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965. This volume completes the three volume life of Churchill that was begun by William Manchester who fell ill and passed away before finishing the last volume. The article describes the “daunting” task faced by Paul Reid who was selected to complete the book, discusses the book’s reception upon its publication, and considers the question of how different this book is from the one Manchester would have written. The author of the article is Mel Livatino. The website for the Sewanee Review is here.
Churchill memorabilia is always in demand, including it seems his chewed cigars. One of the many cigars he smoked during his lifetime is to be auctioned in October and expected to be sold for £1,000. The cigar in question was smoked by Churchill while in the Middlesex Hospital in 1962 for a fractured hip and retrieved from an ashtray by a nurse. A report on the auction is available from BBC News as well as the Irish Mirror.
In the article “Winston Churchill’s unlikeliest role,” Sir David Cannadine considers the decided lack of interest Winston Churchill showed throughout his career for the important political issue of education. Cannadine includes a quote from R. A. Butler that Churchill’s interest in education was “short, intermittent and decidedly idiosyncratic.” Later in his career Churchill would, however, show a great deal of interest in the universities, especially the University of Bristol where he was appointed chancellor in 1929. The article is published in the Times Higher Education and is available here.
The Spring 2015 issue of the Finest Hour: The Journal of Winston Churchill is dedicated to the seventieth anniversary of V-E Day. It includes articles “Ministers at War” by Jonathan Schneer, “Churchill & The Empire’s Armies” by Raymond Callahan, “The Noblest Romans: Winston Churchill and General of the Army George C. Marshall” by Mark Stoler, and “Churchill, Menzies, and the Empire at War” by Anne Henderson. Also included is a very interesting autobiographical article by the late Martin Gilbert. The issue includes 15 book reviews, including a positive review of my own Churchill in North America, 1929: A Three Month Tour of Canada and the United States. Information on the journal can be found here.
The Duchess of Cornwall recently unveiled two memorials to Winston Churchill. After a memorial service, the Duchess unveiled a stained glass window at St Martin’s Church in Bladon, where Churchill was buried in 1965. The window was designed by Emma Blount. Afterwards the Duchess laid flowers at Churchill’s grave. Later she opened a memorial garden and unveiled a bust of Churchill at Blenheim Palace, where he was born in 1874. The garden was designed by Kim Wilkie. A report on the events can be found at the BBC website.
On June 2, 1953, Prime Minister Winston Churchill participated in the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey. The coronation day began with the announcement on the radio at 7:30 am that Edmond Hillary and Tensing Norkay had climbed Mount Everest. Later in the day, Churchill sent a message of congratulations to the climbers. With millions of people lining the streets of London despite the rain, Churchill was loudly cheered as he arrived with his wife Clementine at the abbey at 9:42 that morning. Wearing the uniform of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, an office he had held since 1946, he led the 11 Commonwealth Prime Ministers attending the coronation. After the ceremony was completed, with the Queen crowned at 12:23 pm, Churchill departed the abbey at 2:45 in the afternoon to join the extended procession through London back to Buckingham Palace. He was now wearing the cape velvet hat and plumes of a Knight of the Garter. The rain created problems during the procession as the horses had difficulty pulling the slipping carriages. At Trafalgar Square, Churchill’s landau had to fall out of the line. The coach eventually rejoined the end of the procession. The prime minister, however, felt it was inappropriate for him to continue behind the state coach, which is by tradition the last in the procession. As such, after passing through Admiralty Arch, he directed his coachman to fall out of the line and return directly to 10 Downing Street.
“We have had a day which the oldest of us are proud to have lived to see and which the youngest will remember all their lives,” Churchill said that evening as he began his brief speech to introduce Queen Elizabeth II’s radio address. Saying that the age of chivalry did not belong to the past, he called the young Queen a “gleaming figure.” He concluded that, “it is our dearest hope that her reign shall be as glorious as her devoted subjects can help her make it. We pray to have rulers who serve, nations who comfort each other and for peoples to thrive and prosper free from fear.”