Year: 2021

death
Oscar Nemon’s sculpture of Clementine and Winston at Chartwell. (Photo by Gaius Cornelius, Creative Commons)
“To be opened in the event of my death…” Winston Churchill to his Wife, 1915

“To be opened in the event of my death…” Winston Churchill to his Wife, 1915

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Q: The goodbye letter

I am doing some work for my Eng­lish AS course and  need a com­par­a­tive piece to go with a poem I am study­ing. I have tried look­ing  for Win­ston Churchill’s good­bye let­ter to his wife but have been unsuc­cess­ful. Is there any way I could even have a part of the text of the let­ter for my stud­ies? —A.S., UK

A: “In the event of my death…”

This was a great and mem­o­rable let­ter. After his removal as First Lord of the Admi­ral­ty in 1915, Churchill spent six uneasy months in a sinecure posi­tion, unable to influ­ence war pol­i­cy.…

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Christmas Eve
The White House, 24 December: FDR at the microphones, Churchill to follow. (White House Archives, public domain)
Christmas Eve, Washington, 1941: Eighty Years On

Christmas Eve, Washington, 1941: Eighty Years On

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"Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart. Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm." —WSC

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Baldwin
Churchill and his wife (right) dedicating the Baldwin Memorial marker at Astley, Worcestershire, 20 May 1950. At left is Baldwin’s son Oliver and an unidentified woman, who might be one of Baldwin’s daughters. (Astley and Dunley Parish Council)
Churchill’s Magnanimity: Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947)

Churchill’s Magnanimity: Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947)

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Churchill’s cen­so­ri­ous remark about Prime Min­is­ter Stan­ley Bald­win was not, I was pleased to learn, his last words. Once again his char­ac­ter­is­tic mag­na­nim­i­ty pre­vailed. My thanks to my col­league Dave Tur­rell for this information.

June, 1947

Sir Mar­tin Gilbert pub­lished the arrest­ing asser­tion by Churchill in 1947 (In Search of Churchill, 1995, 106). In June, WSC was invit­ed to send a let­ter (I would think for a festschrift) on Baldwin’s 80th birth­day, August 3rd. Writ­ing to an inter­me­di­ary, Churchill refused. “I wish Stan­ley Bald­win no ill, but it would have been much bet­ter if he had nev­er lived.”…

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presidio
“The State of Churchill Scholarship Today”: San Francisco Presidio, 15Jan22

“The State of Churchill Scholarship Today”: San Francisco Presidio, 15Jan22

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At long last we have a meet­ing. Please save the date: Jan­u­ary 15th, 2022 11am to 2:30pm at the Pre­sidio Golf Club in San Francisco.

From Gre­go­ry B. Smith, Chairman
Churchillians by the Bay. Tele­phone: 707 (974) 9324. Email: churchilliansbythebay@gmail.com

Our speak­er will be Richard Lang­worth, Senior Fel­low, Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project, Writer and His­to­ri­an who will speak on the “State of Churchill Schol­ar­ship Today.”

Please note that to attend you need to do three things:

1. Send me a check made out to Churchillians by the Bay for $50. Email or phone for address 2.…

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rapscallions
Whitehall, London, 21 October 1921: Prayer vigil by Irish sympathizers as the Irish Treaty was being negotiated. Inset, Arthur Griffith, followed by Michael Collins, two of the Irish negotiators. Later Collins sent a message: “Tell Winston we could never have done anything without him.” (U.S. Library of Congress, public domain)
Rapscallions? What Churchill Actually Said and Thought about the Irish

Rapscallions? What Churchill Actually Said and Thought about the Irish

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“Rap­scal­lions”: Excerpt­ed  from an arti­cle for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the orig­i­nal text includ­ing end­notes, please click here. Sub­scrip­tions to this site are free. You will receive reg­u­lar notices of new posts as pub­lished. Just fill out SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW (at right). Your email address will remain a rid­dle wrapped in a mys­tery inside an enigma.

On cancelling Winston

Mary Ellen Syn­on is a feisty Irish jour­nal­ist who doesn’t mind tak­ing a contrarian’s posi­tion on pop­u­lar ortho­dox­ies. Writ­ing to oppose the lat­est uproar over Win­ston Churchill, she first explains that she’s enti­tled to be offend­ed by him: “If you think Churchill was heavy on Indi­ans, Mus­lims and Africans, brace your­self for what he said about the Irish.”…

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Bud
Presiden Juneau. Actually, we propped him up at the Reagan Library during a 2012 Packard Club tour. (Photo by Jay Hubbard)
Packard Tales and Memories of Bud Juneau

Packard Tales and Memories of Bud Juneau

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Clarence B. “Bud” Juneau, the Packard Club’s long­time Vice Pres­i­dent for pub­li­ca­tions, passed away March 25th, leav­ing his many friends bereft. This was my con­tri­bu­tion to a spe­cial edi­tion of The Packard Cor­morant, Fourth Quar­ter 2021, pub­lished in his hon­or. —RML

Memories of Bud

Bud Juneau gave me my first real job. I don’t mean “work,” the things we do for some enti­ty which pays us. I mean what we do indi­vid­u­al­ly, hop­ing for pay and sole­ly respon­si­ble for suc­cess or fail­ure. For me, this began with Bud.

In 1975 I resigned as senior edi­tor at Auto­mo­bile Quar­ter­ly and set out to be an inde­pen­dent motor­ing writer.…

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Press
Meeting the press with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mackenzie King, Second Quebec Conference, Sepember 1944. (National Archives, public domain)
Winston Churchill and the Art of the Press Conference

Winston Churchill and the Art of the Press Conference

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Question on press conferences

I am  com­plet­ing an Eng­lish assign­ment which looks at the speech­es of Win­ston Churchill and would like to read press con­fer­ences or inter­views Churchill gave dur­ing the Sec­ond World War. So far, I have been able to find only speech­es. Please could you advise me whether any such inter­views are in exis­tence? —E.L.

Washington, 1941

Churchill rarely gave interviews—only two that I know of as a young man, and those reluc­tant­ly. Speech­es (live) were his pref­er­ence. How­ev­er, on his 1941 vis­it to Wash­ing­ton, Franklin Roo­sevelt ush­ered him into his first press con­fer­ence.…

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flaws
Lustige Blätter, Ber;om, May 1940, published as WSC became Prime Minister. The Cancel Culture would really like these old Nazi cartoons.
Fatal Flaws: Winston Churchill wasn’t Perfect. Surprise!

Fatal Flaws: Winston Churchill wasn’t Perfect. Surprise!

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The urge to proclaim one's virtue by inventing straw men is insidious, and creeps into many unexpected places. Churchill's true flaws are open to learned critique. But there's a difference between presenting "a broad range of views" and inventing myths. And when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

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Thanksgiving
“We have found the Indians very faithful in their covenant of peace with us; very loving and ready to pleasure us; we often go to them, and they come to us.” -Edward Winslow. “First Thanksgiving, 1621,” painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1863-1930. (Wikimedia Commons)
Winston Churchill on American Thanksgiving, 1944

Winston Churchill on American Thanksgiving, 1944

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1621:

“Our har­vest being got­ten in, our gov­er­nor sent four men on fowl­ing, that so we might after have a spe­cial man­ner rejoice togeth­er after we had gath­ered the fruit of our labors…many of the Indi­ans com­ing amongst us, and among the rest their great­est King Mas­sas­oit, with some nine­ty men, whom for three days we enter­tained and feast­ed, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plan­ta­tion and bestowed on our gov­er­nor, and upon the cap­tain, and oth­ers.”  —Edward Winslow, Mourt’s Rela­tion: A Rela­tion or Jour­nal of the Begin­ning and Pro­ceed­ings of the Eng­lish Plan­ta­tion Set­tled at Plimoth in New Eng­land, 1621.…

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Duke
Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson on Mediterranean holiday, 1936. (National Media Museum @ Flickr Commons)
Troublesome Toffs: The Duke of Windsor and Bendor Westminster

Troublesome Toffs: The Duke of Windsor and Bendor Westminster

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“A ful­ly equipped Duke costs as much to keep as two Dread­noughts; and Dukes are just as great a ter­ror and they last longer.”

The wise­crack, wrong­ly attrib­uted to Churchill, was actu­al­ly uttered by his Lib­er­al ally, David Lloyd George. (Alleged­ly LG said it in 1909, dur­ing their bat­tle to reform the House of Lords,) It didn’t make Churchill more wel­come at Blenheim Palace, where his cousin the Duke of Marl­bor­ough for­bade the name of LG in conversation.

The Duke of Wind­sor (for­mer­ly King Edward VIII) and the 2nd Duke of West­min­ster are occa­sion­al­ly attacked for their “near-trea­so­nous activ­i­ty in sup­port of the Third Reich.”…

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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