March 2010 - Richard M. Langworth

Talking Churchill in the Baltic, 1995

19 March 2010

I told the Baltic mayor how Churchill had hoped to force a "showdown" with Stalin over Poland if he got back to Potstam. What the result would have been is a matter for conjecture. “Much of Eastern Europe, given harsh reality, had no chance for liberty,” I said, “but we should not denounce the efforts Churchill made.” Mayor Teodors Enins listened politely, but then he just sadly shook his head. "No. You should have fought them anyway."

Winston S. Churchill 1940-2010

10 March 2010

You can read about Winston Churchill’s career elsewhere. I’d like rather to indulge in the remembrance of a friend.

We met through the post forty-two years ago, when he became the third honorary member of the Churchill Study Unit, after his grandmother and his father. The latter had only just sent a letter of encouragement to our little group of stamp collectors when he himself died. It was June, 1968. In sending condolences, I asked Winston to take his father’s place. He accepted, adding, “It is consoling to know so many share my loss.”…