Tag: Grace Hamblin

revisioon
“It was a great work, and I wish you could now add another chapter to your own career.” The ghost of John Churchill looks over our author’s shoulder. (E.H. Shepard in Punch, 2 November 1938)
How Churchill Polished and Improved His Writing by Constant Revision

How Churchill Polished and Improved His Writing by Constant Revision

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Con­densed from “Con­stant Revi­sion,” an arti­cle under my pen name for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the com­plete text click here.

Revision and redraft

We are asked: “As I recall Churchill labeled his man­u­scripts some­thing like “draft,” “almost final draft” and “final draft.” Do you recall what those cat­e­gories were?”

We can­not estab­lish that he rou­tine­ly used those labels. Instead he tend­ed to use “revise” or “revi­sion.” Fre­quent­ly his fin­ished draft was marked “final revise.” It often took a long time before, with a sigh of relief, his pri­vate office staff reached that point.…

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Stelzer
From Cita Stelzer’s book cover.
Secretarial Masterpiece: A Churchillian Reader by Cita Stelzer

Secretarial Masterpiece: A Churchillian Reader by Cita Stelzer

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Cita Stelz­er, Work­ing with Win­ston: The Unsung Women Behind Britain’s Great­est States­man. New York, Pega­sus Books, 2019, 400 pages, $28.95, Ama­zon $19.35, Kin­dle $14.99. Excerpt­ed from a review for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the full text, click here.

Grace Ham­blin came to Chartwell in 1932 and served as sec­re­tary to both Churchills. After Sir Winston’s death she became Chartwell’s first Nation­al Trust admin­is­tra­tor. Through all those years she nev­er “wrote.” Nor, with one excep­tion, did his oth­er office sec­re­taries. The excep­tion was Eliz­a­beth Lay­ton Nel. Her love­ly book, orig­i­nal­ly  Mr.…

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butterflies
Gardener Stephen Humphrey at the butterfly house at Chartwell. Mr. Humphrey took charge of the reinvigorated butterflies in 2009 and reported they were soon flourishing. (BBC)
Churchill’s Butterflies Continue to Flourish at Chartwell

Churchill’s Butterflies Continue to Flourish at Chartwell

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But­ter­flies are back in force at Sir Win­ston Churchill’s Chartwell. In 2009, the Nation­al Trust rebuilt the but­ter­fly hut and gar­den­er Stephen Humphrey took charge of rais­ing but­ter­flies. Nigel Guest, a Chartwell vol­un­teer, imme­di­ate­ly report­ed “a ter­rif­ic year for but­ter­flies.” For his report and col­or pho­tos of Churchill’s favorite species see BBC Radio Kent, “Churchill’s But­ter­fly House at Chartwell.”

David Rid­dle, a Nation­al Trust vol­un­teer at Chartwell, gave me the back­ground of the “But­ter­fly House” Churchill estab­lished to prop­a­gate the insects on the grounds of his home:

The But­ter­fly House was first used as a game larder between 1869 and 1889 by the Colquhoun fam­i­ly, who owned Chartwell between 1830 and 1922, when Churchill bought the estate.…

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Rose
The greatest generation: Roger Miles marries Doris Clayton Greene, St. Peter’s Church, Vere Street, London, 8 January 1942. (Jill Rose)
“Every chance brought forth a noble knight”: Jill Rose, “Nursing Churchill”

“Every chance brought forth a noble knight”: Jill Rose, “Nursing Churchill”

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Jill Rose, Nurs­ing Churchill: A Wartime Life from the Pri­vate Let­ters of Win­ston Churchill’s Nurse.  Fore­word by Emma Soames. Stroud, Glouces­ter­shire: Amber­ley Pub­lish­ing, 2018, 286 pages, $27.95, Kin­dle $20.02. Reprint­ed from a review for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For Hills­dale reviews of the hun­dred Churchill works pub­lished since 2014, click here. For a list and descrip­tion of books about Churchill since 1905, vis­it Hillsdale’s anno­tat­ed bibliography.

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Jill Rose…

…begins this fine World War II nar­ra­tive with a friend­ly warn­ing. Don’t wait till your par­ents are gone before pre­serv­ing their mem­o­ries. The par­ents of “baby boomers,” Rose writes, lived through the most momen­tous times of the 20th cen­tu­ry.…

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Wilderness Years
Robert Hardy at Hillsdale, where we were privileged to host him in 2015 and 2016. (Hillsdale College)
Robert Hardy’s Estate Auction: All Memories Great and Small

Robert Hardy’s Estate Auction: All Memories Great and Small

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Robert Hardy’s estate went under the ham­mer in Glouces­ter­shire yes­ter­day. It com­prised an eclec­tic scrap­book of his grand life. There was even the brass plaque of Siegfried Farnon, the iras­ci­ble York­shire vet. RH endeared him­self as Siegfried for nine­ty episodes on “All Crea­tures Great and Small.” . Alert­ed late, I tried for one of his Churchill rings, but the bid­ding went far beyond esti­mates. A friend and col­league came away with Churchill’s bow tie. It was giv­en to RH by Grace Ham­blin dur­ing the film­ing of Churchill: The Wilder­ness Years, in 1981.…

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Grace Hamblin, Total Churchillian

Grace Hamblin, Total Churchillian

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Remem­ber­ing Grace: 1908-2002

Beloved by all Churchills, Grace Ham­blin died at her home in West­er­ham, Kent, aged 94. Aware she was ail­ing, I had just sent her some lit­tle thing in the post; Car­ole Ken­wright at Chartwell said it arrived in time, and she was able to read from it for a few minutes.

Grace Ham­blin was the longest serv­ing and most loy­al­ly devot­ed of Churchill’s inner cir­cle, arriv­ing at Chartwell in 1932 as an assis­tant to then-prin­ci­pal pri­vate sec­re­tary Vio­let Pear­man. She spent vir­tu­al­ly her entire career as pri­vate sec­re­tary, first to Win­ston and from 1939 to Clemen­tine. In 1966 she became the first Admin­is­tra­tor of Chartwell, serv­ing through 1973. In…

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Churchill’s Common Touch (4)

Churchill’s Common Touch (4)

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con­tin­ued from part 3…

Part 4: “Being Shout­ed At”

“I think being shout­ed at was one of the worst things to get over,” said Grace Ham­blin, sec­re­tary to Win­ston and then Clemen­tine Churchill from 1932, typ­i­cal of the com­mon Ken­tish folk who loved them. “I’d come from a very qui­et fam­i­ly and I’d nev­er been shout­ed at in my life. But I had to learn it, in time.”

In the midst of dic­ta­tion one day, Grace told me, Churchill com­mand­ed: “Fetch me Klop!” Klop? she thought—what could it mean?

Final­ly, proud­ly, she strug­gled in with Onno Klopp‘s 14 giant vol­umes, Der Fall des Haus­es Stu­art. “Jesus…

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Churchill’s Common Touch (1)

Churchill’s Common Touch (1)

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Part 1: Mr & Mrs Don­key Jack

A recent book by a dis­tin­guished his­to­ri­an sug­gests that Win­ston Churchill dis­dained com­mon peo­ple. It cites anoth­er Prime Min­is­ter, H.H. Asquith, dur­ing World War I, pro­vid­ing a tow to a bro­ken-down motorist and giv­ing two chil­dren a lift in his car. The writer adds: “It is hard to imag­ine Win­ston Churchill behav­ing in such a fashion.”

It is not hard at all. In fact, Churchill did fre­quent kind things for ordi­nary peo­ple he encoun­tered, pri­vate­ly and with­out fan­fare. We know about them only through his pri­vate cor­re­spon­dence, thanks to the offi­cial biog­ra­phy, Mar­tin Gilbert, or the tes­ti­mo­ny of observers.…

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