On his first day as prime minister on May 11, 1940, among Winston Churchill’s many tasks was to rid 10 Downing Street of Horace Wilson, the head of the Civil Service and close advisor to the previous two holders of the office of prime minister, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain. A leading architect of appeasement, Wilson had strategically occupied for the previous five years the office located next to the Cabinet Room in Number Ten. Occupying that office had been “the symbol and source of his power.” There are many colorful stories about how Wilson was swiftly evicted from Number 10, with one account saying that a furious Churchill instructed Brendan Bracken to “Tell that man if that room is not cleared by 2 p.m. I will make him Minister to Iceland.” Although banished from Downing Street in disgrace, Wilson was allowed to remain head of the Civil Service and permanent secretary to the Treasury as it would have been “an affront to the Civil Service” to sack him. Wilson clung on for two years until he was retired on reaching the retirement age of sixty, his place being taken by Sir Richard Hopkins who was two years his senior.
Fighting Churchill, Appeasing Hitler: Neville Chamberlain, Horace Wilson, & Britain’s Plight of Appeasement: 1937-1939 by Adrian Phillips focuses on the role of Horace Wilson in providing an outstanding account of the woeful history of the British policy of appeasing the dictators. Wilson had enjoyed “a stellar ascent through the ranks of the Civil Service” which culminated in being appointed an advisor to Baldwin in 1935, a position he continued in under Chamberlain when he emerged as “a great power in the land.” During his premiership, Chamberlain relied upon Wilson for advice on every possible topic, including foreign policy where Wilson’s counsel proved tragically inept. Wilson’s reputation had been made in resolving British industrial disputes with a lone foray in foreign affairs being the negotiation of the trade agreement in Ottawa in 1932. Dealing with Hitler was an entirely different matter than ending strikes and Nazi Berlin was a far cry from the always pleasant Canadian capital.
Fighting Churchill, Appeasing Hitler is an excellent read. Phillips is the author of The King Who Had to Go: Edward VIII, Mrs. Simpson, and the Hidden Politics of the Abdication Crisis.