Lecture Finest Hour - New England Churchillians - May 2010
Glow Worm 1st QTR 2011
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The Glow-Worm
Churchillians by-the-Bay E-Newsletter
Northern California
Volume 3, Issue 1 First Quarter 2011
“We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm.” *
*(Violet Bonham Carter, Winston Churchill as I knew Him, page 16—
WSC’s remark was made at a dinner given by Lady Mary Elcho.)
Winston Churchill confers with Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay
See our lead article by David Ramsay son of Sir Bertram Ramsay: Memories of World
War II, Part III, page 3.
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Memories of World War II, Part III by David Ramsay
About the author David Ramsay:
David Ramsay’s late father, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, had a
distinguished career in World War II, being responsible for the Dunkirk
evacuation in May-June 1940. He was the Allied Naval C-in-C for the
successful Normandy Invasion in June 1944.
David has a degree in history and economics from Trinity College,
Cambridge and has long been interested in the history of both World Wars
and in the career of Winston Churchill as well as in the history of
railroads and ocean transport. He is President of The Churchillians of the
Desert, the local affiliate of the Churchill Centre in the Coachella Valley.
After he retired, he took up writing and his first book LUSITANIA SAGA
AND MYTH, a history of the great but ill-fated liner, has been published
in both the UK and the US. He has also written on the TITANIC for the
BBC History Magazine, a history of the John Menzies bookstalls (a
company for which he worked for many years) on British railway stations
for the Archives of the National Railway Museum in York and historical
articles for British Regimental Magazines.
His second book, BLINKER HALL SPYMASTER THE MAN WHO
BRUGHT AMERICA INTO WORLD WAR I, was published in the UK in
July 2008 and in the US in March 2009.
The book tells the dramatic story of Admiral Sir Reginald ‘Blinker’ Hall
and the Naval Intelligence Division he led with outstanding success during
World War I. His greatest achievement was the interception and
subsequent revelation of the Zimmermann Telegram, the German effort to
inveigle Mexico into invading America by promising them that they would
regain the states of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in any peace treaty.
This disclosure led directly to American entry into the War in April 1917
at a critical time for Britain and her allies. He has also written an account
of Admiral Hall’s earlier career in sea-going command before 1914,
entitled BLINKER HALL AN OUTSTANDING SEA CAPTAIN, for the
British magazine WARSHIP WORLD.
He has lectured on a number of topics, including the careers of Winston
Churchill and Blinker Hall, the history of the liner LUSITANIA and the
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naval aspects of the Normandy invasion and his late father’s contribution
to its success.
David and his wife Pamela have lived in Indian Wells California since
1990.
Part III begins:
BHR and Monty
(Bertram Ramsay and Bernard Montgomery)
As Vice-Admiral Dover, in the frontline of the
country’s defence against German aggression, my
father worked closely with his Army and RAF
opposite numbers. Early in 1941 a new three-star
General, Bernard Montgomery, was appointed to
command the Army’s XII Corps, stationed in the
counties of Kent and Sussex. BHR had a very high
opinion of Montgomery, describing him in one letter
to my mother as ‘by far the best of our generals.’
Almost alone of the top allied commanders, American
and British, who served in North West Europe and in
the Mediterranean, BHR got on well with Monty as
he was universally known. Monty, who had
commanded a division in the British Expeditionary
Force, owed BHR one for rescuing him from
Dunkirk. Both men were consummate professionals
who believed in the vital importance of meticulous
operational planning and detailed and effective
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training and a huge mutual regard grew up between
them. .
The leaders in the photograph (clockwise from top left) are: Lieutenant-General
Omar Bradley, Commander, 1st US Army; Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Naval
Commander-in-Chief; Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Air
Commander-in-Chief; Lieutenant-General Walter Bedell Smith, Chief of Staff;
General Sir Bernard Montgomery, Commander, 21st Army Group (all Allied land
forces); General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander; Air Chief Marshal
Sir Arthur Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander. CH 12110 (Feb 1944)
Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London
Personally they were very different. Monty was a
wiry man from Northern Ireland who could be
bombastic, once telling troops that: ‘As God
Almighty says and I must say that I agree with him
…’ and who never met a camera he didn’t like, while
BHR was understated and in the tradition of the
Navy, ever the Silent Service, didn’t court publicity.
While BHR was inherently a family man who was my
cousins’ favorite uncle, Monty was frequently at war
with his family, particularly after the tragic death of
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his wife shortly before World War II, and he was
even estranged from his son for a number of years.
BHR used to call Monty the Iron General and in his
letters to my mother he would tell her how, in the
name of physical fitness, he had ordered his staff
officers to go for regular runs. With his dry sense of
humour, he would conjure up for her the image of
sedentary middle aged Majors and Colonels
dropping dead from unaccustomed physical exertion
all over the highways and byways of Kent and
Sussex.
The successful association between Admiral and
General which began in South–East England in 1941
was to serve the country and the allied cause well
when they went on to larger events in which they
were to work harmoniously together as the top dogs
of the Navy and the Army: the invasions of Sicily and
Normandy.
War comes to Berwickshire
Berwickshire had escaped the First War unscathed
but was not to do so in the Second as the county lay
directly under the flight path taken by the Luftwaffe
when raiding the shipyards and factories in and
around Glasgow and Clydebank. The bombers used
to cross the coast between St. Abbs Head and
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Berwick-on-Tweed and followed the course of the
Tweed to its source in the same Peebleshire hillside
as the Clyde and then down Clydesdale to their
targets. As the RAF night fighter squadrons, once
equipped with twin-engined Bristol Beaufighters,
which proved an effective night-fighter, grew in
strength and skill, the RAF and the Luftwaffe fought
frequent duels all over the South of Scotland. The
bombers would often jettison their loads to try to
escape the fighters and as a result bombs dropped all
over Berwickshire, some of them within a few miles
of Bughtrig. As the county was sparsely populated,
they usually caused little damage. The skies above
Colonel Wilfrid Henry's Home Guard command at
Greenlaw saw regular battles between the two air
forces. Two land mines descended by parachute on
Greenlaw and the Air Raid wardens, believing them
to be paratroops and an invasion was in process,
called out Wilfrid and his Home Guard. Instructions
had been sent out throughout the land telling
everyone what to do in case of an invasion. A story
had gone the rounds suggesting the paratroops would
be dropped disguised as nuns and people were
solemnly advised to call the police if they ever
encountered any nuns wearing hob-nailed boots!
The mines caused considerable damage in the little
town, sadly killing a soldier who was home on leave,
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and destroying the Old Church, where the
established Church of Scotland held its services. My
governess, Rena Hogg, and her husband George
lived in a small house close to the centre of the town
and the explosion blew out her windows. My old
friend, Jean Thompson, who had been one of her
former pupils, remembers spending the next
afternoon helping her to remove splinters of glass
from her furniture.
Jean’s father Moffat, local laird and Elder of the
Kirk, jocularly opined that the bombs would finally
unite the town's two rival Presbyterian
congregations, whose relations were marginally less
hostile than those of the Hatfield and McCoy
families. He was wrong. The Old Church coldly
declined an offer of hospitality made by its rival
whose Church had only suffered broken windows
and, for the rest of the war, held its services in the
manse as Presbyterian Ministers houses were known
in Scotland.
Moffat Thomson lived at Lambden, about two and a
half miles south of Greenlaw, where four bombs
landed, two of them a field close by his entrance
gates. Several more landed in neighboring farms.
After one of these aerial battles, Wilfrid Henry and
his wife Cicely had a narrow escape when a bomb
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dropped only 200 yards from their house, Rathburne,
in the Lammermuir Hills, north of the county town of
Duns and close to the village of Longformacus,
destroying their tennis court and leaving a large
crater. Cicely, one of the county’s characters, both
eccentric and resourceful and a champion bridge
player, rose to the challenge with typical aplomb. On
the following Sunday, she welcomed all those who
came to Rathburne to witness the Luftwaffe's
handiwork, charging them two shillings, the
equivalent of 40 cents, for the privilege for the benefit
of war charities.
Cicely was also a skilled carpenter. One Sunday
morning, not long after the war ended, she and
Wilfrid went to church in Duns, arriving just as the
service began. To our considerable amusement, my
mother, my brother Charles and myself sitting in an
adjacent pew, noticed that Cicely was carrying an
old green suede or felt bag containing a hammer, a
saw, a chisel and other carpenter's tools. Without
batting the proverbial eyelid, for she really did not
care a great deal for what other people thought about
such matters, she deposited her tool bag on the ledge
in front of her. Wilfrid, ever regimental, must have
been ready to go to church in good time and got
irritated at Cicely's characteristic unpunctuality. In
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her hurry to placate him, she must have grabbed the
wrong bag.
I vividly remember going for a walk with my mother
and our dogs. Suddenly we heard the sound of
airplanes and we saw two fighters apparently above
us engaged in a dog fight. She quickly hurried us
and the dogs into a ditch. After a bit I stuck my head
above the parapet to see what was going on and my
mother pulled me down saying: ‘You fool. Do you
want to get shot?’ The planes eventually disappeared
and we climbed out, rather pleased that we had
watched some action. In hindsight, I wonder if we
had not been watching two RAF fighters, practicing
for dog fights as virtually all the fighting between the
two air forces took place at night and the Luftwaffe’s
lead fighter, the Messerschmitt 109, had too short a
range to fly to Scotland and back.
RAF Charterhall
The rapid expansion of the Air Force resulted in the
construction of a large number of airfields all over
Britain; many of them close near to the East Coasts
of both England and Scotland. Late in 1941,
contractors arrived to build an airfield at
Charterhall, about two miles from Bughtrig on land
requisitioned from our neighbour Colonel Algernon
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(Algy) Trotter, a veteran of the Boer War and World
War I.
The Ramsay home Bughtrig with statue of Sir Bertram Ramsay in the garden
My mother had known the Trotter family since she
had been a girl and Col. Algy’s eldest son Henry was
my godfather. Charterhall had been a grass airstrip
in World War I when it was named Eccles Tofts after
a local farm. A second airfield was built at Winfield
on the road from Leitholm to Berwick and a third at
Milfield in Northumberland. My friends and I used
to cycle up to a road which ran at right angles to the
main runway, laid out East to West, in accordance
with the prevailing winds to watch the construction .
The airfields were to be the base of No. 54
Operational Training Unit whose task was to train
aircrews for night fighters.
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The first personnel, among them WAAFs, the
acronym for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force,
arrived in April 1942 and the first aircraft a month
later. I can remember their arrival with the skies
seemingly full of planes all day long. To us boys, this
was intensely exciting but some of our elders viewed
this development very differently. RAF Charterhall
was to have a profound effect on local life. Jean
Thomson remembers that as soon as she was old
enough to get a driving license and pass the test, she
went to work for the RAF as a driver, proud to be
able to contribute to the war effort.
Flight-Lieutenant Paul Le Rougetel, an RAF officer,
who had been posted to Charterhall, with his wife
Hazel and their baby daughter Heather, whom in
later life became the well–known nature
photographer and TV presenter Heather Angel, were
billeted with us for some time. Paul had flown
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Blenheims in the elite 600 City of London Squadron
of the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Heather tells
the story of his remarkable bailout over the Channel
after he had been the victim of what was
euphemistically called ‘friendly fire’.
‘Paul was on a night mission somewhere over the
Kent coast. The coastal anti-aircraft defences had
forgotten or ignored his message that he would be in
the area, and managed a rare hit on his starboard
engine. The Blenheim definitely needed both engines
to keep aloft. He did the right thing, insisting that his
navigator/gunner get out first, although they were
over the sea and the poor chap couldn't swim - but he
jumped. Unfazed, Paul trimmed the controls to put
the plane into a shallow descending arc before
opening the escape hatch beneath him. The uprush of
air foiled a clean exit, and he found himself jammed
in the hatch for a few seconds, before managing to
push himself free. The parachute did its stuff, and on
the way down he had the presence of mind to jettison
anything weighty and superfluous, such as boots. He
was a long time in the water, and passed out, but by
the greatest of good fortune was picked up by the
Ramsgate lifeboat who spotted the luminous dial of
his watch which Hazel (my Mother) had given him.’
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I remember that Paul Le Rougetel very kindly
arranged for my brother Charles and me to be shown
round the airfield when we climbed up into the
cockpits of the Blenheims and Beaufighters, the night
fighters which were based there. Needless to say we
thoroughly enjoyed our day out.
Moffat Thomson was greatly amused when an officer
mistook him for a taxi driver. The airfield bordered
my grandparents home Kames and they found it a
sore trial. The Officers Mess and Kames were both
on the Leitholm telephone exchange while the local
taxi service, McDavid's Garage, was on the
neighboring Greenlaw exchange. As ill-luck would
have it, my grandparents’ number was Leitholm 202
and McDavid's was Greenlaw 202. The gallant
officers of RAF Charterhall would ring 202 and ask
for a taxi. My grandmother, renowned for her fiery
personality, used to respond to this unwelcome
intrusion by roaring down the telephone ‘I am not a
taxi.’ Her fulminations and a succession of angry
letters to the Station Commander had little effect and
not surprisingly she developed a very poor opinion of
the RAF's efficiency. She eventually relented when
she realized the dangers which these pilots faced
practically every day.
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An inaugural dance was held in the Officers Mess
that July, attended among others by my mother’s
friend and neighbour Hy Wilson, her daughter Judy
and the Thomson family and from then on dances
were held in the Mess about once a fortnight:
virtually the only social life in Berwickshire during
the war years. Jean Thomson recalls one party at
which her brother David was playing his bagpipes,
drowning the sound of a concert being held in the
next room! The Wilson and Thomson families were
among those who extended a lot of hospitality to the
Air Force. Hy took some of the officers riding,
discovering that they knew little more about horses
than their predecessors had in the First War when
she had been a nurse in one of the larger local
houses which had been commandeered as a wartime
hospital. The genial Moffat Thomson, who organized
rough shoots around his house for the officers, found
the experience decidedly dangerous! However his
tennis court proved highly popular and some of his
guests volunteered to milk his cows. Moffat was
highly amused when one officer told him that his cow
was only flying on one cylinder!
RAF Charterhall is remembered for its connection
with Richard Hillary, a Spitfire pilot who had been
badly burnt when he was shot down in the Battle of
Britain and whose bestselling book The Last Enemy
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had made him a celebrity. Hillary had spent some
time in a hospital in East Grinstead in Sussex which
was run by Archibald McIndoe, a pioneer plastic
surgeon, who achieved remarkable results with his
patients, who called themselves The Guinea Pig
Club, treating them for deep burns and serious facial
disfiguration.
Hillary was very attractive to women and following
the success of his book, he was sent on a tour of
America where he had a torrid affair in New York
with the actress Merle Oberon, seven year his senior
and married to the film magnate, Alexander Korda,
who was in England at the time.
The recognition which his book had earned him had
reinforced Hilary’s already powerful character and
he succeeded in persuading- some might say
bullying- a sympathetic Air Marshal, against his
better judgment, to bend the rules and allow him to
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fly again. He was posted to RAF Charterhall in
November 1942 to train as a night-fighter pilot. His
colleagues in the Officers Mess noticed that he was
unable to manage a fork and knife: his hands were
described as being like claws. He and his radio
operator, Sergeant Wilfred Fison, were tragically
killed when his Blenheim crashed on a local farm
during a night-flying exercise on January 8 1943.
One of Hillary’s friends, Sergeant Andy Miller, who
took part in the same exercise and who was also
flying a Blenheim, recalled that there was freezing
fog over Berwickshire that night and that he
narrowly escaped crashing due to icing. He believed
that Hillary’s plane had stalled as a result of icing.
Although the demanding weather conditions were
probably the direct cause of the crash, the ultimate
blame has surely to rest with the training staff at RAF
Charterhall in allowing Hillary to fly when they must
have known of his serious disability.
The unacceptably high toll of aircrew at RAF
Charterhall led to the airfield being cynically
nicknamed RAF Slaughterhall and eventually to the
replacement of the Station Commander and the entire
training staff. When I was in Berwickshire last May
my nephew and I visited the churchyard in the nearby
village of Fogo where sixteen flight crew from RAF
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Charterhall are buried. Ten of these sixteen were
from Commonwealth countries: a poignant reminder
of the considerable contribution which these
countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, Rhodesia and India, made to the allied cause.
I vividly recall that on one day between Christmas
and New Year’s Eve 1944, Charles and I joined our
friends, Jeremy and Martin Bates, who lived on the
other side of Leitholm, on one of our regular
expeditions when we cycled to a road which ran east
of the airfield at an angle of 90 degrees to the runway
where we enjoyed watching planes take off. We were,
as always, under adult supervision: on that day it
was Muriel Little a widow who was one of Cecily
Henry’s sisters and a first cousin of Jeremy and
Martin’s mother Jean. My mother had many
attributes but cooking was not one of them and she
had taken Muriel on as the family cook. Muriel fed us
well and Charles and I were very fond of her.
On arrival Muriel instructed us to watch the action at
a safe angle to the runway while she chatted to a
friend of hers, a Mrs. Dobbie, who had cycled from
her house near Fogo to meet her. There was a full
flying programme that afternoon and we watched
several planes take off. Then a Beaufighter singularly
failed to reach take off speed and belly flopped
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through the grass boundary, demolished the fence
which separated the airfield from the adjoining
countryside, continuing across the road, and ending
up in a neighboring field. If anyone had been on the
stretch of road opposite the runway they would
almost certainly have been killed.
A horrified Muriel, suddenly aware of the
responsibility she bore to two families, rushed to
where we were standing watching the crash and told
us boys that this was far too dangerous a place for
us, summarily instructing us that we were going
home immediately. As we cycled back, we reflected
that we had witnessed a small example of the risks
which these brave pilots faced every day.
By 1946 the Air Ministry had no further need for
RAF Charterhall. Before men and planes departed,
the Officers Mess held the last of their memorable
dances and the airfield was handed back to Henry
Trotter, the new Laird, as his father, Col. Algy, had
died shortly after the end of the war. The land
reverted to farming. In the 1950s and 1960s
Charterhall became a motor racing circuit but the
venture was never financially successful and was
eventually closed down. The main runway is still
operational and is licensed by the Civil Aviation
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Authority for use by light aircraft. A couple of
buildings survive and are used for farming,
In 2001 a memorial to Richard Hillary and the other
aircrew who were killed at RAF Charterhall was
unveiled by the Duke of Kent. The clergyman who
gave the dedication was the son of Sergeant Wilfrid
Fison, Hillary’s radio operator. The memorial stands
at the entrance to the airfield on land donated by my
old friend, Alexander Trotter the present Laird of
Charterhall.
Memorial to Richard Hillary and his crew near Charterhall
The RAF was not the only part of the military to
which Berwickshire played host. A Polish Armored
Brigade was stationed in and around Duns. Charles
remembers two of its officers coming to lunch with
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my mother at Bughtrig and treating him to a drive in
their jeep. The Poles weren’t universally popular as
they were widely considered to have an eye for the
main chance. My mother, who often hit the nail on its
head, once told me: ‘The trouble with the Poles is
that they are very good at falling on other people’s
feet.’ In particular they were resented for their
success in finding girl friends when so many local
men were away serving in the forces.
Moffat Thomson’s wife Cathy, loved by everyone
who knew her, not least for her sparkling sense of
humor, related how she once went to see a woman
who lived in one of the cottages on the Lambden
estate. She found the woman’s son aged three, whom,
as she put it, had no identifiable father, playing with
a toy outside the cottage. When she asked the boy
where his mother was, he replied: ‘Upstairs with her
Pole!’
The War in North Africa
After Italy had entered the war in June 1940,
Mussolini had invaded Egypt from neighboring Libya
which was then an Italian colony but his attack soon
petered out. That December the British Army in the
Middle East, including Australian and Indian troops,
commanded by General Sir Archibald Wavell, a very
capable Scottish soldier but who unfortunately never
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hit it off with Churchill, unceremoniously threw the
much larger Italians army out of Egypt and back into
Libya. By the middle of January 1941 Wavell’s
Desert Army, effectively supported by the
Mediterranean Fleet and the Middle East Air Force,
had advanced over 200 miles into Libya, and had
taken two heavily defended seaports. On February
7th Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya, fell to
the 6th Australian Division and the 7th Armoured
Division, the famous Desert Rats, which had
bypassed Benghazi, cut off the fleeing Italian Tenth
Army, which they forced to surrender. In less than a
month, the Desert Army had advanced a further 300
miles, had destroyed nine Italian divisions, capturing
135,000 prisoners, 400 tanks and 1,300 guns,
reaching Agheila, less than 500 miles from the
capital city of Tripoli
The victory in the African Desert was a powerful
boost to morale at home and, like many other
families throughout Britain, we at Bughtrig keenly
followed its fortunes. With the help of my mother and
Rena Hogg and the Daily Express, complete with
illustrations and cartoons, I was able to understand
the progress of the campaign and admire the Army’s
achievements. At about this time I began to keep a
scrapbook, cutting out articles, maps and pictures
from the Express and the illustrated magazines to
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which my mother subscribed. Seventy years later,
almost to the month, Libya, in the turmoil of a vicious
civil war, is once again in the news and names of
towns and cities like Sollum, Bardia, Tobruk,
Benghazi and Brega, which I remember from so long
ago, are once more making headlines.
Wavell’s success was short-lived. Early in February
1941 British intelligence was warning that a German
armoured force was being sent to North Africa on
Hitler’s orders to reinforce their faltering Italian
allies. On February 12 General Erwin Rommel, who
had earned a formidable reputation commanding a
Panzer Division in the Battle of France (see My
Memories Part II), who had been appointed by Hitler
to lead the Afrikakorps, made up of the 15th and 21st
Panzer Divisions, arrived in Tripoli, The German
tanks were far superior to the British and they were
also equipped with what the historian John Keegan
called the superlative 88mm anti-tank (and anti-
aircraft) gun.
Churchill’s controversial decision to transfer troops
from Libya to Greece prevented Wavell from
carrying on to Tripoli and he lacked the strength to
cope with the counter-offensive which Rommel
launched on March 24, only forty days after his
advance guard had disembarked at Tripoli. By April
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3rd he had retaken Benghazi and a week later he had
besieged Tobruk, which its garrison valiantly and
successfully defended, and had effectively pushed the
Desert Army back to where they had started their
advance, close to the border between Libya and
Egypt.
Rommel
Rommel, known as The Desert Fox, proved to be a
master of mobile warfare and for the next eighteen
months he repeatedly ran rings round the British,
particularly after their most able front-line General,
Richard O’Connor, had been captured during the
German advance. I will recount in Part IV of My
Memories how BHR’s friend, Bernard Montgomery,
finally won the Desert War and how BHR planned
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the invasion of North-West Africa. Between them they
played a very large part in the eventual Allied
Victory which expelled the Germans and Italians
from Africa.
North Africa, November 1942 General Bernard L. Montgomery watches his tanks.
British Official. (OWI) Part IV continued next issue …
The Casablanca Conference (codenamed SYMBOL) was held at the
Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, then a French protectorate, from January 14 to 24,
1943, to plan the European strategy of the Allies during World War II. Present were
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. the French sent many representatives to
file reports of the French . Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had also been invited but declined
to attend in light of the ongoing conflict at Stalingrad. General Charles de Gaulle had
initially refused to come but changed his mind when Churchill threatened to recognize
Henri Giraud as head of the Free French Force.--Wikipedia
Hollywood ‘never lets a crisis go to waste’: “In Early November 1942
Allied forces landed on the North Africa coast and captured Casablanca.
Capitalizing on the headlines, Warner Bros. launched its own offensive to
put (the film) Casablanca into theaters as soon as possible. The picture
opened in New York on Thanksgiving Day, 1942. On January 23, 1943,
one day before Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill wrapped up
their “Casablanca Conference,” it went into general release.”
--The Lost One a Life of Peter Lorre by Stephen D. Youngkin, pg.205
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‘Give us the tools’…
Broadcast 9 February 1941
After Wendell Willkie gave Winston Longfellow’s verse “Sail on, O Ship
of State” which Franklin Roosevelt had written out in his own hand,
Winston ended his broadcast with:
What is the answer that I shall give, in your name, to this great man, the
thrice-chosen head of a nation of a hundred and thirty millions? Here is
the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt: “Put your confidence
in us. Give us your faith and your blessing, and, under Providence, all will
be well.
We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden
shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will
wear us down. Give us the tools), and we will finish the job.
The Unrelenting Struggle page 63 in the Cassell Edition.
From the National Archives—The Lend Lease Act
Passed on March 11, 1941, this act set up a system that would allow the
United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed "vital to the
defense of the United States."
In July 1940, after Britain had sustained the loss of 11 destroyers to the
German Navy over a 10-day period, British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill requested help from President Roosevelt. Roosevelt responded by
exchanging 50 destroyers for 99-year leases on British bases in the
Caribbean and Newfoundland. As a result, a major foreign policy debate
erupted over whether the United States should aid Great Britain or maintain
strict neutrality.
In the 1940 Presidential election campaign, Roosevelt promised to keep
America out of the war. He stated, "I have said this before, but I shall say it
again and again and again; your boys are not going to be sent into any
foreign wars." Nevertheless, FDR wanted to support Britain and believed the
United States should serve as a "great arsenal of democracy." Churchill
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pleaded, "Give us the tools and we'll finish the job." In January 1941,
following up on his campaign pledge and the prime minister's appeal for
arms, Roosevelt proposed to Congress a new military aid bill.
The plan proposed by FDR was to "lend-lease or otherwise dispose of arms"
and other supplies needed by any country whose security was vital to the
defense of the United States. In support of the bill, Secretary of War Henry
L. Stimson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the debate
over lend-lease, "We are buying . . . not lending. We are buying our own
security while we prepare. By our delay during the past six years, while
Germany was preparing, we find ourselves unprepared and unarmed, facing
a thoroughly prepared and armed potential enemy." Following two months
of debate, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, meeting Great Britain’s
deep need for supplies and allowing the United States to prepare for war
while remaining officially neutral.
For more information and other related documents, see the Teaching With
Documents Lesson Plan Documents Related to Churchill and FDR.
Transcript of the Lend Lease Act is available from the Department of the Navy’s Naval
Historical Center.
The following words of Sir Winston and their sources are
courtesy of Jim Lancaster.
70th Anniversary of the Lend Lease Act—The
Third Climateric of World War II-- in Churchill’s
Own Words
Churchill from his broadcast address, on 22 June
1941, on the invasion of Russia:
I have taken occasion to speak to you to-night
because we have reached one of the climacterics of
the war. The first of these intense turning-points
was a year ago when France fell prostrate under the
German hammer, and when we had to face the
28. 28
storm alone. The second was when the Royal Air
Force beat the Hun raiders out of the daylight air,
and thus warded off the Nazi invasion of our island
while we were still ill-armed and ill-prepared. The
third turning-point was when the President and
Congress of the United States passed the Lease-and-
Lend enactment, devoting nearly 2,000 millions
sterling of the wealth of the New World to help us to
defend our liberties and their own. Those were the
three climacterics. The fourth is now upon us.
WSC The Unrelenting Struggle (Little, Brown and Company, pp
169-170) and (Cassell, page 176)
Following is the full text of Winston’s short
statement to the House of Commons on March 12,
1941—‘A new Magna Carta.’
THE Lease-Lend Bill became law yesterday
[March 11, 1941], when it received the
signature of the President. I am sure the
House would wish me to express on their behalf,
and on behalf of the nation, our deep and respectful
appreciation of this monument of generous and far-
seeing statesmanship.
The most powerful democracy has, in effect,
declared in solemn Statute that they will devote their
overwhelming industrial and financial strength to
ensuring the defeat of Nazism in order that nations,
29. 29
great and small, may live in security, tolerance and
freedom. By so doing, the Government and people
of the United States have in fact written a new
Magna Carta, which not only has regard to the
rights and laws upon which a healthy and
advancing civilization can alone be erected, but also
proclaims by precept and example the duty of free
men and free nations, wherever they may be, to
share the responsibility and burden of enforcing
them.
In the name of His Majesty’s Government and
speaking, I am sure, for Parliament and for the
whole country, and indeed, in the name of all
freedom-loving peoples, I offer to the United States
our gratitude for her inspiring act of faith.
(Unrelenting Struggle, Little, Brown & Company
edition, page 60)
Winston’s address at the Pilgrims’ Society
Luncheon on March 18 extracts:
Extract #1 (unabridged) We have our faults, and
our social system has its faults, but we hope that,
with God's help, we shall be able to prove for all
time, or at any rate, for a long time, that a State or
Common-wealth of Nations, founded on long-
enjoyed freedom and steadily-evolved democracy,
30. 30
possesses amid the sharpest shocks the faculty of
survival in a high and honourable and, indeed, in a
glorious degree. At such a moment, and under such
an ordeal, the words and the acts of the President
and people of the United States come to us like a
draught of life, and they tell us by an ocean-borne
trumpet call that we are no longer alone.
(Unrelenting Struggle, Little, Brown & Company
edition, page 62)
Extract #2 (unabridged): It is my rule, as you
know, not to conceal the gravity of the danger from
our people, and therefore I have a right to be
believed when I also proclaim our confidence that
we shall over-come them. But anyone can see how
bitter is the need of Hitler and his gang to cut the
sea roads between Great Britain and the United
States, and, having divided these mighty Powers, to
destroy them one by one. Therefore we must regard
this Battle of the Atlantic as one of the most
momentous ever fought in all the annals of war.
Therefore, Mr. Winant, you come to us at a grand
turning-point in the world's history. We rejoice to
have you with us in these days of storm and trial,
because we know we have a friend and a faithful
comrade who will "report us and our cause aright."
But no one who has met you can doubt that you
31. 31
hold, and embody in a strong and intense degree,
the convictions and ideals which in the name of
American democracy President Roosevelt has
proclaimed.
In the last few months we have had a succession of
eminent American citizens visiting these storm-
beaten shores and finding them unconquered and
unconquerable — Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Willkie,
Colonel Donovan, and now today we have here Mr.
Harriman and yourself. I have dwelt with all these
men in mind and spirit, and there is one thing I
have discerned in them all — they would be ready to
give their lives, nay, be proud to give their lives,
rather than that the good cause should be trampled
down and the darkness of barbarism again engulf
mankind. Mr. Ambassador, you share our purpose,
you will share our dangers, you will share our
anxieties, you shall share our secrets, and the day
will come when the British Empire and the United
States will share together the solemn but splendid
duties which are the crown of victory.
(Unrelenting Struggle, Little, Brown & Company
edition, page 63)
32. 32
From Churchill’s Eulogy on the death of President
Roosevelt:
It was in February that the President sent to England the
late Mr Wendell Willkie, who, although a political rival
and an opposing candidate, felt as he did on many
important points. Mr Willkie brought a letter from Mr
Roosevelt, which the President had written in his own
hand, and this letter contained the famous lines of
Longfellow:...
Sail on, 0 ship of State!
Sail on, 0 Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
with all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
At about that same time he devised the extraordinary
measure of assistance called Lend-Lease, which will stand
forth as the most unselfish and unsordid financial act of any
country in all history. The effect of this was greatly to
increase British fighting power, and for all the purposes of
the war effort to make us, as it were, a much more
numerous community.
To join Churchillians by-the-Bay send a check for the annual dues
of $50 to Churchillians by-the-Bay President Jason Mueller at
17115 Wilson Way, Royal Oaks Calif. 95076
33. 33
The following article is by our fellow Churchillian and
often guest speaker, David Freeman.
Perspective: How true is 'The King's Speech'?
Screenwriter David Seidler did some tweaking
and telescoping to tell his tale, a history
professor writes, but it was done to advance
the story, plus explore the relationship
between the stuttering royal and his
commoner therapist.
February 13, 2011|By David Freeman, Special to the Los Angeles Times
If any best-picture contender was going to face questions about taking liberties
with the facts this Oscar season, it seemed likely it would be "The Social
Network." But now that screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and Facebook founder Mark
Zuckerberg have tactfully retreated a bit from their initially contentious stands,
the accuracy debate has shifted to "The King's Speech."
"The King's Speech" is being sold as a feel-good tale of how a friendship between
a royal and a commoner affected the course of history. But some commentators
are complaining, among other things, that the film covers up Winston Churchill's
support for Edward VIII, the playboy king who abdicated to marry an American
divorcee, and that the movie fails to acknowledge that the once tongue-tied
George VI supported Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of the
Nazis. (Writing last month at slate.com, Christopher Hitchens blasted the film as
"a gross falsification of history.")
As a specialist in British history, I agree that screenwriter David Seidler certainly
has tweaked the record a bit and telescoped events in "The King's Speech" — but
for the same artistic reasons that have guided writers from Shakespeare to Alan
Bennett, who wrote the screenplay for "The Madness of King George" (and the
play on which the movie was based). While historians must stick to the facts,
34. 34
dramatists need to tell a good story in good time. It also helps if they can explore
the human condition in the process.
Seidler's script opens with Colin Firth as Prince Albert (the future King George
VI, but then the Duke of York and known to his family as "Bertie") facing the
ordeal of making his first radio broadcast. To add to the strain, the duke must
deliver the address in a stadium before a large crowd. However, his words come
only haltingly, causing embarrassment for all present. Not shown but later
referenced in the film is the fact that in the crowd was Lionel Logue (Geoffrey
Rush), a speech therapist recently transplanted from Australia.
All this took place in 1925, but Seidler brings the speech disaster forward 10 years
to the eve of the abdication crisis, which resulted in the duke unexpectedly being
transformed into a king when his brother Edward VIII stepped aside. The
compression of events, although understandable, requires a slew of historical
alterations to explain the back story.
The duke's stammer derived in part from the verbal abuse he received as a child
from his father, King George V (Michael Gambon). To indicate this, Seidler
concocts a scene showing the adult Bertie still being hectored by his father, and it
is only after this that he agrees to see Logue.
Much of the early part of the film is taken up with Logue's struggle to win the
duke's trust. The therapist succeeds partly by trickery and partly because of
continued prompting by Bertie's wife, the Duchess of York (Helena Bonham
Carter). After achieving a "breakthrough" with his patient and following Edward's
abdication in 1936, Logue helps prepare the new king for the ordeal of the
coronation ceremony. That hurdle cleared, the film culminates with the therapist
coaching Bertie through another historic moment: his broadcast to the British
Empire at the start of World War II with an approving Churchill (Timothy Spall)
looking on.
In reality, the duke first sought treatment from Logue in 1926, and, contrary to
the film, the two hit it off immediately. Logue wrote in a note later published in
the king's official biography that Bertie left their first meeting brimming with
confidence. After just two months of treatment, the duke's improvement was
significant enough for him to begin making successful royal tours with all the
public speaking that entailed. George V was so delighted that Bertie rapidly
became his favored son and preferred heir.
In interviews, Seidler has been ambiguous about what sources he consulted in
writing the script. The various biographies of George VI all tell of the king's
relationship with Logue. This includes the official biography published in 1958.
John Wheeler-Bennett, the royal biographer personally selected by the king's
widow, was himself a former patient of Logue's and so wrote about the episode
with great emotion.
35. 35
It remains unclear, though, to what extent sources not available to scholars or the
public played a role in the final shape of the film. Seidler has said that Logue's
son offered 30 years ago to show him his father's notebooks, provided the king's
widow agreed. But when Seidler wrote Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, he
was told that she found it too painful to remember the old anguish and begged
that he wait until she had passed away.
Although the Queen Mother died in 2002, filmmakers said they were provided
with Logue's diaries, notes and letters only shortly before filming began. Seidler
has not specified how material from Logue's records was used, but he has said
that research guided him to the conclusion that Logue utilized Freud's "talking
cure" approach. Thus, by reading up on the king's life, Seidler used what he terms
"informed imagination" to create the film's therapy scenes.
Seidler also drew on personal experience: He himself stammered as a child, and it
was this that led him to an interest in George VI. From what he has said about his
own successful treatment, Seidler indicates that he projected that experience into
his fabrication about Logue having to work patiently to gain Bertie's trust. This
liberty with the truth certainly gives the film more dramatic interest.
There are many other instances of artistic license in "The King's Speech." For
example, Bertie chose his regal cognomen, George, out of respect for his father
and not as the film has it because Churchill suggested that Albert sounded "too
German." Another dramatic fantasy occurs when the Archbishop of Canterbury
(Derek Jacobi) breathlessly revealed that Logue was not in fact a doctor. In
reality, Logue's credentials were never misrepresented. Bertie always referred to
him as "Mr. Logue" or simply "Logue." Logue's grandchildren recently came
forward to say that their grandfather never used Christian names with the king at
all — despite the movie making a strong point that the future king bristled at
being called "Bertie" by Logue.
As for Hitchens' allegations, they are much ado about nothing. Churchill's
support of Edward VIII owed more to his near-medieval reverence for the
monarchy than it did to the individual occupying the throne. In supporting the
appeasement policies of Chamberlain, George VI acted in harmony with the
overwhelming majority of the British population across the political spectrum. As
a combat veteran of World War I, the king was as anxious as his subjects to avoid
a second conflict by any promising means. George VI was also at one with most
Britons in remaining skeptical about Churchill as prime minister until the great
man had proved himself.
Hitchens will get a second chance to scrutinize moviedom's portrayal of Edward
VIII and George VI this year, when Madonna's film "W.E." — about Wallis
Simpson and Edward — hits theaters. He's probably already stocking up on
pencils. Freeman teaches history at California State Fullerton. Reprinted
with permission of the author. calendar@latimes.com.
36. 36
Bookworm’s Corner by James R. Lancaster
The curious chronology of the glow-worm story
In Violet Bonham Carter’s book Winston Churchill as I Knew Him, published in
1965, Violet tells us that the legendary first meeting with Winston took place in
the summer of 1906. Many years later, on 22 February 1942, she wrote to Winston
a letter in which she referred to their first meeting:
I always remember you saying to me at a dinner at Mary Elcho’s – at
which I first met you – “We are all worms – but I do believe that I am a
glow-worm.” You never said a truer word – but oh! for more glow-worms!
This letter was printed in Champion Redoubtable, The Diaries and Letters of
Violet Bonham Carter, 1914-194, but this book was not published until 1998. So
where do we have to go for the first published account of the 1906 meeting?
As it happens, the first published account of Violet Asquith’s meeting with
Winston at Lady Elcho’s appeared as Violet’s tribute to Winston on his eightieth
birthday [30 November 1954], published as Winston Churchill — As I Know Him,
almost the same title she would later use for her book.
After receiving his copy of the book of tributes published by Cassell [Winston
Spencer Churchill, Servant of Crown and Commonwealth, a tribute by various
hands presented to him on his eightieth birthday, edited by Sir James Marchant,
37. 37
Cassell, 1954], Winston wrote a note of thanks to Violet, as she recounts in her
diary entry for Friday 5 November 1954:
Worked. Was manicured (very badly!). Had a most moving letter from W.
who had just got the Cassell book He writes of the various contributions:
‘There is one which means more to me than all the remainder & which
indeed moves me deeply. It seems that after all these years you still believe
me to be a glow-worm. That is a complement which I find entirely
acceptable.’ It has made me very proud & happy.
The next published account was in French, in 1956. The author was Princess
Marthe Bibesco (1886-1973), a Romanian who married Prince George III Bibesco
at the age of 17 – on her wedding day she wrote: “I stepped onto the European
stage through the grand door”. Fluent in French, and spending most of her life in
France, she became an established and successful writer in her adopted country.
She first met Winston Churchill in Paris in 1914 at a private dinner to which
various members of the French Parliament had been invited to meet Churchill, the
First Lord of the Admiralty at the time.
Five years later Marthe was introduced to Violet Bonham Carter, eldest
daughter of Herbert Asquith, Prime Minister 1908-1916. Violet's half-sister
Elizabeth (1897-1945, the first child of her father’s second marriage) married, in
London, May 1919, Marthe’s cousin Prince Antoine Bibesco.
In 1956 Marthe’s book about Churchill’s courage – Churchill ou le Courage
was published in France. In the first chapter of this book she recounts a meeting in
London (circa 1952) with Violet and some other friends where each was asked to
describe the circumstances when they met Winston for the first time. Violet was
the first to give her account. It is very similar to the account she later gave in the
first two pages of her book Winston Churchill as I Knew Him, published in 1965, a
few months after the death of Winston Churchill.
Marthe’s book was translated into English in 1957, published as Sir Winston
Churchill, Master of Courage.
A short time ago in London, in a friend’s house, we were comparing notes
about the great man and somebody suggested the following game: each one
in turn was to say where, and under what circumstances, he had first met
Winston Churchill. The first to be asked was Lady Violet Bonham Carter,
Asquith’s eldest daughter. I asked her if their first meeting had taken place at
Downing Street where she was then living with her father. She thought for a
moment and said: “No, the first time I saw him was in London at a dinner
party, the year I came out. I was sitting next to him. He did not open his
mouth. He was hunched up with his head well down between his shoulders
and seemed to be brooding about something. He intimidated me and I was
38. 38
piqued because he would not talk to me, so I said nothing; then I decided to
start a conversation with the man on the other side of me, who was only too
delighted. Because I was annoyed and wanted to annoy Winston, I kept up
the conversation for a long time. But all the time I was talking to the man on
my right I had the curious impression that something like a banked-up fire
was smouldering or a cauldron boiling on my left. Just before the end of
dinner, Winston Churchill turned toward me and said suddenly, in that
chuckling voice of his which we all know, “How old are you?” I answered,
“Nineteen”.
“’Ah” he cried, “and to think that I am thirty-eight [sic, thirty-one]!
Already thirty-eight [sic, thirty-one]! My life is finished! Is it worth going on
living when one has lost one’s youth?” And he launched out on a prodigious
improvisation on the hackneyed theme of the shortness of life, how little
time was vouchsafed to the miserable human race; but these commonplace
platitudes were transformed by his eloquence; it was a dazzling display of
oratory. And his young listener was completely dazzled. Like a spent
fireworks rocket falls to the ground, he relapsed into silence. Then he raised
his head and concluded:
“We are all nothing but worms, miserable worms!” Then, with a defiant
air, but with a malicious gleam in his eye:
“Yes, nothing but worms, miserable worms, but I, you see, I intend to be
… and shall be … a glow-worm!”
Jim Lancaster
The longer version of this article, with the extract in French from Princess
Bibesco’s book published in 1956, plus all the source notes etc., can be
obtained by sending a request to the author’s email address:
jim@JRLancaster.com
39. 39
Lying-in-state Sir Winston Churchill
Died January 24, 1965
Silent mourners pace slowly by the catafalque in Westminster Hall
Lying-in-state describes the formal occasion in which a coffin is placed on view to
allow the public to pay their respects to the deceased before the funeral ceremony.
Lying-in-state in the UK is given to the Sovereign, as Head of State, the current or
past Queen Consort and sometimes former Prime Ministers.
Many notable occasions of lying-in-state have taken place in Westminster Hall at the
Houses of Parliament, a few days before the funeral ceremony, including:
• 1898 - William Ewart Gladstone
• 1910 - King Edward VII
• 1936 - King George V
• 1952 - King George VI
• 1953 - Queen Mary
• 1965 - Sir Winston Churchill
• 2002 - Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
40. 40
Following is an article by the honored biographer of Sir
Winston and contributor to Glow-Worm.
Martin Gilbert: A friend of Israel National Post January 17, 2011 – 8:01 am
A poster for a documentary exploring Winston
Churchill’s relationship with Zionism.
By Martin Gilbert
In his determination to see Bolshevism crushed in Russia, Winston Churchill
studied the nature and organisation of the Bolshevik government in Moscow. He
was familiar with the names and origins of all its leaders: Lenin was almost the
only member of the Central Committee who was not of Jewish origin. Neither
Churchill nor his colleagues, nor the Jews, knew that Lenin’s mother’s
grandfather was a Jew.
In a speech in Sunderland on Jan 2, 1920, surveying the world scene, Churchill
described Bolshevism as a “Jewish movement.” Churchill had nothing but
contempt for what he described as “the foul baboonery of Bolshevism.” He had
studied the Bolshevik terror against political opponents, democrats and
constitutionalists, and he knew the significant part individual Jews had played in
establishing and maintaining the Bolshevik regime.
For the several million Jews of Russia, caught up in the rapid and often ruthless
spread of the Bolshevik revolution, three possibilities beckoned: to emigrate,
either to Palestine or to the West; to seek to maintain Jewish social, religious and
cultural institutions within Russia despite Bolshevik hostility; or to throw in their lot
with the Bolsheviks. A minority chose the latter. It was with these facts in mind
that, on 8 February 1920, a month after his Sunderland speech, Churchill wrote a
long and closely argued article for a popular British Sunday newspaper, the
Illustrated Sunday Herald, appealing to the Jews of Russia, and beyond, to
choose between Zionism and Bolshevism. “Some people like Jews and some do
not,” Churchill wrote, “but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are
beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has
ever appeared in the world.”
In a paragraph that the newspaper headed “Good and Bad Jews,” Churchill
characterised the Jewish people in dramatic terms: “The conflict between good
and evil which proceeds unceasingly in the breast of man,” he told his readers,
“nowhere reaches such intensity as in the Jewish race. The dual nature of
41. 41
mankind is nowhere more strongly or more terribly exemplified.” Elaborating on
this theme, he expressed his profound regard for an aspect of Judaism that had
impressed itself upon him through his familiarity with the Old Testament. “We
owe to the Jews in the Christian revelation,” he wrote, “a system of ethics which,
even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably
the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all other
wisdom and learning put together. On that system and by that faith there has
been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing
civilisation.”
Jewish creativity was not, however, necessarily the final word. “It may well be,”
Churchill wrote, “that this same astounding race may at the present time be in the
actual process of producing another system of morals and philosophy, as
malevolent as Christianity was benevolent, which, if not arrested, would shatter
irretrievably all that Christianity has rendered possible.” This was Bolshevism.
At the present “fateful period” of history, Churchill wrote, “there are three main
lines of political conception among the Jews, two of which are helpful and hopeful
in a very high degree to humanity, and the third absolutely destructive.” First
there were the Jews who, “dwelling in every country throughout the world,
identify themselves with that country, enter into its national life, and, while
adhering faithfully to their own religion, regard themselves as citizens in the
fullest sense of the State which has received them.” Churchill noted that such a
Jew living in England would say, “I am an Englishman practising the Jewish
faith.” This, Churchill added, “is a worthy conception, and useful in the highest
degree. We in Great Britain well know that during the great struggle the influence
of what may be called the ‘National Jews’ in many lands was cast
preponderatingly on the side of the Allies; and in our own Army Jewish soldiers
have played a most distinguished part, some rising to the command of armies,
others winning the Victoria Cross for valour.”
Churchill also pointed out that the “National Russian Jews,” in spite of the
disabilities under which they had suffered, “have managed to play an honourable
and useful part in the national life even of Russia. As bankers and industrialists,
they have strenuously promoted the development of Russia’s economic
resources, and they were foremost in the creation of those remarkable
organisations, the Russian Co-operative Societies. In politics their support has
been given, for the most part, to liberal and progressive movements, and they
have been among the staunchest upholders of friendship with France and Great
Britain.”
Turning to what he called “International Jews,” those Jews who supported
Bolshevik rule inside Russia and Bolshevik revolution beyond its borders,
Churchill told his readers: “In violent opposition to all this sphere of Jewish effort
rise the schemes of the International Jews. The adherents of this sinister
confederacy are mostly men reared up among the unhappy populations of
42. 42
countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race. Most, if not all, of
them have forsaken the faith of their forefathers, and divorced from their minds
all spiritual hopes of the next world.”
There was, Churchill continued — in the section of his article headed “Terrorist
Jews” — “no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism
and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution, by these international
and for the most part atheistical Jews,” but he went on to write that the part they
played “is certainly a very great one; it probably outweighs all others. With the
notable exception of Lenin, the majority of the leading figures are Jews.
Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from the Jewish
leaders.”
Churchill noted that “the fact that in many cases Jewish interests and Jewish
places of worship are excepted by the Bolsheviks from their universal hostility
has tended more and more to associate the Jewish race in Russia with the
villainies which are now being perpetrated.” This, he wrote, was an injustice on
millions of helpless people: Jews who were themselves suffering under the
Bolshevik regime. It was therefore “specially important to foster and develop any
strongly-marked Jewish movement which leads directly away from these fatal
associations. And it is here that Zionism has such a deep significance for the
whole world at the present time.”
Headed “A Home for the Jews,” the next section of Churchill’s article was a
public declaration in favour of Zionism” “Zionism offers the third sphere to the
political conceptions of the Jewish race,” Churchill wrote. “In violent contrast to
international communism, it presents to the Jew a national idea of a commanding
character.”
It had fallen to the British Government, Churchill explained, as the result of the
conquest of Palestine, “to have the opportunity and the responsibility of securing
for the Jewish race all over the world a home and a centre of national life. The
statesmanship and historic sense of Mr. [Arthur] Balfour were prompt to seize
this opportunity. Declarations have been made which have irrevocably decided
the policy of Great Britain.” The “fiery energies” of Dr. [Chaim] Weizmann — “the
leader, for practical purposes, of the Zionist project, backed by many of the most
prominent British Jews … are all directed to achieving the success of this
inspiring movement.”
The small size of Palestine was another aspect of Zionism that Churchill had
studied, but he saw the potential of the country for considerable growth. “Of
course,” he wrote, “Palestine is far too small to accommodate more than a
fraction of the Jewish race, nor do the majority of national Jews wish to go there.
But if, as may well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by the
banks of the Jordan a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown,
which might comprise three or four millions of Jews, an event would have
44. 44
Two of Churchill’s post-war speeches in 1946 at
Fulton, Missouri and Zurich, Switzerland established his
position as the world’s most honored elder statesman.
The Sinews of Peace, by Winston Churchill-- 65th
Anniversary
Nine months after Sir Winston Churchill failed to be
reelected as Britain's Prime Minister, he traveled by train
with President Harry Truman to make a speech at the
request of Westminster College in the small Missouri town of
Fulton. On March 5, 1946, Churchill gave his now famous
"Iron Curtain" speech—following is an excerpt:
A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied
victory. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist
international organisation intends to do in the immediate future, or
what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytising
tendencies. I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant
Russian people and for my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin. There is
deep sympathy and goodwill in Britain - and I doubt not here also -
towards the peoples of all the Russias and a resolve to persevere
through many differences and rebuffs in establishing lasting
friendships. We understand the Russian need to be secure on her
western frontiers by the removal of all possibility of German
aggression. We welcome Russia to her rightful place among the
leading nations of the world. We welcome her flag upon the seas.
Above all, we welcome constant, frequent and growing contacts
between the Russian people and our own people on both sides of the
Atlantic. It is my duty however, for I am sure you would wish me to
state the facts as I see them to you, to place before you certain facts
about the present position in Europe.
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has
descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of
the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin,
45. 45
Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these
famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call
the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only
to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing
measure of control from Moscow.
In Bern on the occasion of the address given by Winston Churchill at the University of
Zurich on 19 September 1946
Churchill speaks in Zurich
Churchill advocates the creation of a United States of
Europe based on Franco-German cooperation—From our
special correspondent, 19 September 1946
Zurich, 19 September
A few weeks ago, Mr. Churchill arrived in Switzerland
accompanied by his wife and daughter, Mary. He is staying
in the villa placed at his disposal in Bursinel, where he has
remained out of sight, dividing his time between resting and
his favourite occupation, painting. Before his departure, he
46. 46
nonetheless made a point of thanking the Swiss
Government for its hospitality and, appearing in front of
the Swiss people, he gave a lecture at the University of
Zurich, addressing students world-wide. The substance of
the speech confirmed the predictions of the journalists who
had foreseen its political importance.
A huge crowd awaited Mr Churchill, who, in splendid form,
asked to be presented to the policemen who had ensured his
safety. This was done. Shaking hands, Churchill gave each
of them one of his famous cigars as a souvenir.
In a specially chartered train, he then went to Bern, where
the locals gave him such an enthusiastic welcome that
Mr Churchill could not help but shed a few tears. After the
welcome given by the President of the Confederation and
the ensuing traditional banquet, Churchill, standing up in
his car, was taken on a tour of the town, its inhabitants
cheering him loudly. It seems that the Bernese, best known
for being calm and unexcitable, abandoned these qualities
for once.
Today, he was in Zurich, the high point of his stay in
Switzerland, and tomorrow he will leave the country in a
specially chartered aircraft bound for England.
At ten o’clock, Mr. Churchill left the Hotel Dolder to go to
the reception held by the Cantonal Government. From nine
o’clock onwards, all the roads of the town through which
he was to pass, impressively decked out with flags, were
crowded with people, and on several occasions the police
had to call for reinforcements to keep order. A little after
47. 47
ten o’clock, Mr. Churchill went by in an open-topped car,
standing up and waving to the crowds who threw him
flowers. Once he had reached the Cantonal Government
building, Mr. Churchill was welcomed by the President of
the Government and, after having replied and thanked him,
he climbed back in his car to go to the University and make
his speech. The Great Hall was full when, to frenzied
acclaim, Mr. Churchill made his entrance. After a
welcoming speech made in German by the Dean of the
University, Mr. Anderes, and after having accepted an
honorary degree, Mr Churchill started speaking in English.
Having thanked the Dean, he said that he wanted to speak
about the tragedy of Europe.
Recognising that Europe was the cradle of Christianity,
culture, philosophy and science, Mr. Churchill asked the
question: ‘What has happened to Europe?’ He answered by
saying that, with the exception of a few small countries,
there was hunger, poverty and devastation across most of
the Continent. If Europe did not recover quickly, this
devastation would eventually reach America. There was but
one remedy, which was to create the European Community,
and the only way to achieve this was through the United
States of Europe. What had to follow was the re-education
of hundreds of thousands of Europeans.
Mr. Churchill went on to recall that certain steps had
already been taken: he spoke of the former idea of
European union, of the great Frenchman Aristide Briand,
of the League of Nations, which was not flawed in its
48. 48
principles but was undermined by the desertion of certain
countries. He declared that this disaster must not recur and
that his friend, President Truman, had already shown an
interest in the matter in the context of the United Nations.
Speaking of Germany, he said that the crimes that country
had committed could not be forgotten and that the guilty
must be punished, that Germany must never again be in a
position to wage an aggressive war. However, we had to
look to the future. The spirit of vengeance must cease. The
European Family must learn to forgive. The first step
would be cooperation between France and Germany! It
was the only way for France to regain its moral and
cultural authority in Europe. There must be as much room
for the small nations as for the large ones.
Mr Churchill ended his speech with a warning: time may
be short for the creation of the United States of Europe.
Even though the war was over, the dangers were still
present; the creation of the United States of Europe must
start immediately. The atomic bomb, for example, was still
in the hands of only one nation, which would use it only for
peaceful purposes. Perhaps, however, in years to come,
other nations would possess it and use it for other means.
We must therefore strengthen the United Nations and
recreate the European Family in its original form, with the
first step being the formation of a Council of Europe,
providing solid foundations for those who are able and
willing. The other nations would probably join in due
course. With France and Germany in partnership, Europe
would ‘arise’.
Rodolphe Singer
49. 49
AN ADDITIONAL HISTORIC SPEECH
Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom addressed a
Joint Meeting of Congress
January 17, 1952
On this date, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom addressed a Joint
Meeting of Congress in the House Chamber. The occasion marked the third time that
Churchill spoke before Congress—more than any other foreign dignitary in congressional
history. Churchill, who had coined the cold war term “Iron Curtain” to describe the
Soviet Union’s grasp on Eastern Europe, implored Congress to support Western
European re-armament in the face of Moscow’s continued threat to the continent. He
believed the Anglo-American alliance was the keystone to the defense of democracies
worldwide. “Bismarck once said that the supreme fact of the 19th century was that
Britain and the United States spoke the same language,” Churchill told the assembled
Representatives and Senators. “Let us make sure that the supreme fact of the 20th
century is that they tread the same path.”
Winston Churchill earned the distinction of being the only foreign leader to address
Congress three times. As British Prime Minister he addressed Congress in 1941, 1943
(pictured), and 1952.Courtesy of Library of Congress
Cite this Highlight
Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk,
http://clerk.house.govhighlights.html?action=view&intID=82, (March 01, 2011).
53. 53
The Glow-Worm Gallery of Modern Art
Description
English: Cartoon depicting Sir Winston Churchill in the cubist manner of
Picasso. Courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collection.
Date circa 1920
54. 54
This cartoon ' Winston Churchill ' was made by urbanmonk. See this cartoon's details or visit urbanmonk's
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CHURCHILL IN THE NEWS
Artwork by Teacher of Eisenhower and Churchill to be
Exhibited at Dolly Johnson Show
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Abenstille am Wasser by Georg Arnold Grabone, 1960
55. 55
Artwork by a German artist, Georg Arnold Graboné, who gave lessons to both President
Dwight D. Eisenhower and Winston Churchill will be on Display at the Dolly Johnson
Art and Antiques Show March 11 and 12.
Born in Munich on September 11, 1896, Georg Arnold Graboné is known today for his
palette knife painting style. Beginning as a self-taught artist, Graboné would later travel
to Berlin where he refined his techniques under the well-known German impressionist
Max Liebermann and would teach at an academy in Zurich.
In 1951 U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was stationed in Garmisch, Germany as the
commander of occupied Europe. Sir Winston Churchill encouraged Eisenhower to take
up painting as a hobby. Eisenhower followed Churchill’s advice and began to take
lessons from Professor Arnold-Graboné. At that time Arnold-Graboné had his studio only
a few miles from Eisenhower’s headquarters. For a period of time Eisenhower traveled
twice weekly from Paris to Tutzing where he took his art lessons.
One of Arnold-Graboné’s paintings hung in the White House during Eisenhower’s term
and later the former president hung one of the paintings, “Zugspitze” in his home in
Gettysburg.
Through Eisenhower, Professor Arnold-Graboné eventually became acquainted with Sir
Winston Churchill who was interested in the artist’s spatula technique and asked him for
some tutelage. The two of them spent several weeks one summer in the early 1950s
painting together on the Isle of Man.
Graboné died on October 2, 1982 near Starnberg in Bavaria. The Spartanburg Art
Museum in Spartanburg, SC. showcased an exhibit of Graboné’s work in 2009.
The work will be displayed in the booth of Urban Art & Antiques of Grapevine, Texas.
For more information see www. dollyjohnsonAntiqueAndArtShow.com
March 15, 2011, 2:45 pm
Dallas Museum Is Sued
By KATE TAYLOR
Last year when the Dallas Museum of Art celebrated the 25th anniversary of one of its
largest donations — a collection of some 1,400 works of art, including paintings by Van
Gogh, Renoir, and Pissarro — it probably didn’t anticipate that it would soon be forced to
defend its ownership of the art. But that’s what has happened.
The collection, amassed by Emery Reves, a writer and publisher who was a close friend
of Winston Churchill, was donated to the museum by Reves’s widow, Wendy Reves,
who died in 2007. The Reveses lived in the South of France in a villa that had originally
been built for Coco Chanel.
57. 57
According to The Mail On Sunday, Queen Elizabeth II's late mother owned records
including ska music, traditional folk tunes, Trinidadian calypso bands and audio
recordings of Winston Churchill's wartime speeches.
William Shawcross, her official biographer, told the paper: "During one of her trips to the
Caribbean in the '60s, she was introduced to ska music, which she became very fond of.
"Noel Coward, who was a personal friend, had a house called Firefly in Jamaica and she
greatly enjoyed her visits there. The Queen Mother adored him and found his songs to be
wonderfully witty."
A former equerry to the Queen Mother said that she "enjoyed listening to everything
from Scottish reels to stage musicals".
He further added that she was a devoted fan of BBC broadcaster Terry Wogan, listening
to his Radio 2 breakfast show "every morning before she came downstairs".
The 1911 British Census By Steven Russell
Thursday, March 24, 2011
5:01 PM
DID you know Winston Churchill once employed a couple of housemaids from East
Anglia? Nor did I, until I took a gallop through the census returns from 100 years ago.
Winston, then 36, is described in 1911 as “one of His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of
State”. He’s living south of Victoria station, with wife Clementine, 26, to whom he’d
been married less than three years. Also in Eccleston Square on Sunday, April 2 is
their one-year-old daughter, Diana, while Clementine is heavily pregnant with
Randolph, who will be born within two months.
The Home Secretary’s household includes a number of domestic staff, all of them
single folk. There’s 43-year-old cook Elizabeth Jackson, who was born in
Lincolnshire, and nurse Ethel Higgs, 28 and from Margate. Nancy Baalham, a 24-
year-old from Barking, is a lady’s maid, while Eva Knights – 30 and born at Aylsham,
north of Norwich – is a parloumaid.
There’s an under-parlourmaid and a kitchen maid – 21 and 17 – and housemaid Ada
Robjent. She’s 25 years old and was born in Hatfield Peverel, the village between
Witham and Chelmsford.
The staff is completed by hall boy Albert Brown – a youthful 15 years old.
Until next issue:
