Year: 2017

Belloc
“This trench is wrong. It doesn’t agree with my map.” Belloc at the Front, WW1. (Cartoon by Leonard Ravenhill in Punch, 27 June 1917.)
“Incandescent Brilliance:” Churchill and Hilaire Belloc

“Incandescent Brilliance:” Churchill and Hilaire Belloc

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“To Bel­loc this gen­er­a­tion owes big glimpses of the Home­r­ic spir­it. His mis­sion was to flay alive the hum­bugs and hyp­ocrites and the pedants and to chant robust folk-songs to a rous­ing oblig­a­to of clink­ing flagons….” He lat­er con­clud­ed that Lib­er­al reforms mere­ly offered the “prop­erty­less work­er per­pet­u­al security…in exchange for the sur­ren­der of polit­i­cal freedom.” 

Excerpt­ed and con­densed from “Great Con­tem­po­raries: Hilaire Bel­loc,” for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the full arti­cle click here.

_______________

Joseph Hilaire Pierre Belloc

(1870-1953)—writer, sailor, poet, friend of Churchill—helped fuel Churchill’s pas­sion for the sur­vival of free gov­ern­ment.…

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Peck
“This is your Victory!” Churchill waves to the crowds on VE Day, 8 May 1945. On his left is Chancellor John Anderson; on his right is Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin. (Wikimedia Commons)
John Peck, 1945: General Eisenhower asks if the war is over….

John Peck, 1945: General Eisenhower asks if the war is over….

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Col. Gault (Mil­i­tary Assis­tant to Gen­er­al Eisen­how­er, 29 April 1945): “John Peck, is that you? The Gen­er­al told me to ask you if the war is over.”

Peck: “I beg your pardon?”

Gault: “Seri­ous­ly, we’ve got a press mes­sage here which says quite clear­ly that it’s all over. If so, nobody has told the Gen­er­al and he thought you would be the most like­ly to know at your end.”

Peck: “Well, if it has end­ed, nobody has told the Prime Min­is­ter either.”

Gault: “Do you think we had bet­ter car­ry on?”

Peck: “Yes, I think so.”…

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advice
Tipped-on illustration from the cover of “Real Soldiers of Fortune,” first edition, 1906.
Lt. Churchill: “A Subaltern’s Advice to Generals”

Lt. Churchill: “A Subaltern’s Advice to Generals”

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With col­leagues I dis­cussed which of young Winston’s ear­ly war books was deri­sive­ly called, “A Subaltern’s Advice to Gen­er­als.” This was a pop­u­lar wise­crack after his ear­ly works had the temer­i­ty to pro­pose British mil­i­tary strat­e­gy in India, Sudan and South Africa. Churchill was in his mid-twen­ties at the time—but not ret­i­cent to speak his mind. Noth­ing we didn’t know here….

Malakand Field Force?

With­out con­sult­ing ref­er­ences, I thought the “advice” line involved The Sto­ry of the Malakand Field Force (Churchill’s first book, 1898). I was influ­enced by its last chap­ter, “The Rid­dle of the Fron­tier.” Plen­ty of advice there, though it is as much polit­i­cal as it is military.…

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Bullock
Neville Bullock, Churchill Bodyguard, R.I.P.

Neville Bullock, Churchill Bodyguard, R.I.P.

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Neville Bullock…

…a kind and decent man, died aged 92 on August 29th, sur­round­ed by his fam­i­ly. Neville had served most recent­ly as a parish and dis­trict coun­cil­lor for Billinge and Sene­ley Green. Described as a “great bloke” by his friends, he will be deeply missed by all who knew him. Among these are Churchill his­to­ri­ans, who had the ben­e­fit of his remem­brances. Bul­lock was prob­a­bly the only man alive whose encoun­ters with the great bridged Churchill in 1945 with Rudy Giu­liani in 1996.

Trained as a Roy­al Marine, aged only 19, Neville Bul­lock sud­den­ly found him­self a body­guard to the Prime Min­is­ter.…

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Civil
Robert E. Lee on Traveller, by Frederick William Sievers, Gettysburg National Battlefield.
Civil War Memorials: What We Need to Remember

Civil War Memorials: What We Need to Remember

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Of Civil War…

“We think we are whol­ly supe­ri­or peo­ple,” said the Civ­il War his­to­ri­an Shel­by Foote. The 50th and 75th Anniver­saries of the Civ­il War Bat­tle of Get­tys­burg were poignant, inspir­ing moments. The words spo­ken of those occa­sions give cause to won­der. In the wel­ter of emo­tions, have we for­got­ten what we need to remember?

 

Footage of Civ­il War Vet­er­ans at 50yr Anniver­sary in 1913 & 75yr Anniver­sary in 1938
Watch this video on YouTube “We may be given to meet again…”

Shel­by Foote:

We think we are whol­ly supe­ri­or peo­ple. If we’d been any­thing like as supe­ri­or as we think we are, we’d nev­er have fought that Civ­il War.…

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Lindemann
Frederick Lindemann Viscount Cherwell (1886-1957), arriving for a Cabinet meeting, 1951. (Fred Ramage, history.net)
Frederick Lindemann: Churchill’s Eminence Grise?

Frederick Lindemann: Churchill’s Eminence Grise?

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Revi­sion­ist His­to­ry, Sea­son 2, Episode 5, “The Prime Min­is­ter and the Prof [ Fred­er­ick Lin­de­mann ],” pod­cast by Mal­colm Gladwell.

A pop­u­lar week­ly half hour pod­cast, Revi­sion­ist His­to­ry takes aim at shib­bo­leths, real and imag­ined. This episode is Churchill’s turn in the barrel.

Scientific Nemesis

The vil­lain, aside from Sir Win­ston, is his sci­en­tif­ic advis­er, Fred­er­ick Lin­de­mann,  lat­er Lord Cher­well, aka “The Prof.” You’ve prob­a­bly nev­er heard of him, says nar­ra­tor Mal­colm Glad­well. You should have. It was Lin­de­mann who made Churchill bomb inno­cent Ger­man civil­ians and starve the Bengalis.

Iron­i­cal­ly, the pro­gram begins with an ad for its spon­sor, Chanel Per­fume.…

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rhinoceros
Cover of the first edition MAJ, 1908.
Rhinoceros Table, Mr. Churchill? Thanks but No.

Rhinoceros Table, Mr. Churchill? Thanks but No.

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The Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project received a nov­el ques­tion: “After his 1908 African safari, Churchill’s  taxi­der­mists ask if he wants a ‘Rhi­noc­er­os Table.’ What in the world is a Rhi­noc­er­os Table?”

Rhinoceros Table, anyone? The ref­er­ence is in The Churchill Doc­u­ments, vol. 4, Min­is­ter of the Crown, 1907-1911 (2007), page 753:

Row­land Ward Ltd., 167 Pic­cadil­ly, to WSC, 4 March 1908

Sir, In accor­dance with instruc­tions giv­en on your behalf by Lieu­tenant Colonel Gor­don Wil­son, we have in hand the fol­low­ing: MODELLED HEADS 1 Rhi­noc­er­os, 1 Zebra, 1 Warthog, 1 Wilde­beest, 1 Coke’s Har­te­beest, 1 Grant’s Gazelle, 1 Thomson’s Gazelle and the dress­ing of three Zebra skins, at a total cost of £​32.…

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quotations
Holding forth in Parliament, 1912. (Illustrated London News)
How Would Churchill Tweet? -National Review

How Would Churchill Tweet? -National Review

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“How Would Churchill Tweet?” appeared in Nation­al Review, 12 August 2017.

Since Pres­i­dent Trump has tak­en office, the pub­lic has quick­ly learned to get its polit­i­cal news from a nov­el source—namely, the President’s Twit­ter account.

The move to this plat­form rep­re­sents a shift in the nature of pol­i­tics, both for good and for ill. Trump might be among the first polit­i­cal lead­ers to use this medi­um to attack oppo­nents or make major announce­ments. He is cer­tain­ly not the first to uti­lize the kind of brevi­ty the plat­form requires to make his points.

Such brevi­ty also char­ac­ter­ized the rhetor­i­cal style of Win­ston Churchill, whose wit, humor and insight com­ple­ment­ed his deci­sive and effec­tive polit­i­cal lead­er­ship.…

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movies
Well-cast leads in “Churchill: The Wilderness Years” (1981). L-R: Edward Woodward (Sir Samuel Hoare), Peter Vaughan (Sir Thomas Inskip), Robert Hardy (Winston Churchill), Eric Porter (Neville Chamberlain), Peter Barkworth (Stanley Baldwin).
Churchill Bio-Pics: The Trouble with the Movies

Churchill Bio-Pics: The Trouble with the Movies

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“The Trou­ble with the Movies” was pub­lished in the Amer­i­can Thinker, 5 August 2017.

David Fran­co, review­ing the film Churchill, star­ring Bri­an Cox, rais­es ques­tions he says every­one should be ask­ing. “Isn’t the abil­i­ty to accept one’s mis­takes part of what makes a man a good leader? …. To what extent should we rely [on] past expe­ri­ences in order to min­i­mize mis­takes in the future? These are the ques­tions that make a bad movie like Churchill worth seeing.”

Well, I won’t be see­ing this bad movie. Described as “per­verse fan­ta­sy” by his­to­ri­an Andrew Roberts, it joins a recent spate of slop­py Churchill bio-pics that favor skewed car­i­ca­tures over his­tor­i­cal fact.…

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Hudson
Could this have been the revolutionary 1948 Hudson? Yes and no.
Should this have been the “Step-down” Hudson?

Should this have been the “Step-down” Hudson?

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Read­er Brent Hinde writes about my Hud­son book, The Clas­sic Post­war Years (1977, reprint­ed 1993). Very kind of him, since it’s the first men­tion of that book in decades.

Recent­ly at an estate sale I picked up the book and found it an excel­lent read. On page 38 is a ter­rif­ic sketch of a car that should have been built, rather than the design man­age­ment chose. My ques­tion is: Who drew that sketch? Are there more draw­ings like that in exis­tence? It would make a great guide for a project car.

Hudson’s styling team

The draw­ing (top) shows a crisper shape than the pro­duc­tion 1948 Hud­son.…

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