The portrait, dropped off at his home by a Mr. and Mrs. Holliday, is one of about 50 pieces of Churchilliana, from replica dishware from Churchill's house at Chartwell to first-edition books, to come his way in the year since Kieran made news as the youngest member of the International Churchill Centre of Canada. (Ditto for the U.K. and U.S affiliates of the Churchill centre.)

Comment by the Churchill Centre: Churchill had many plans during World War II, including a preventive war with the Soviet Union after the fall of Nazi Germany-as did every other leader with any foresight in a dangerous world. Invading Ireland was neither seriously considered nor necessary, so this article has to be taken as speculative. For the facts about Britain and Ireland in World War II, see Warren Kimball, "That Neutral Island," Finest Hour 145, 54-61.

From The Sunday Times

Sunday, 21 March 2010

Winston Churchill was urged to use Scottish troops to invade Ireland during the second world war to rid the country of Nazi influence, previously unpublished government papers have revealed.

Lord Craigavon, the Northern Irish prime minister, wrote to Churchill in 1940 to ask that Highland regiments be used to overthrow the Irish government and install a military governor in Dublin.

Craigavon, a staunch unionist, claimed that Eamon de Valera, the Irish prime minister, had fallen under Nazi influence and that a crossborder invasion was needed to oust him.

“To meet the susceptibilities of the south the British forces might best be composed chiefly of Scottish and Welsh divisions,” he wrote in a memorandum to Churchill.

“A military governor should be then be appointed for the whole of Ireland with his HQ in Dublin.”

A rare collection of Second World War propaganda posters is to go under the hammer in Lewes, an auctioneer has said.

The 150 prints, bearing morale-boosting slogans such as Mightier Yet and Keep Calm And Carry On, are being sold by Wallis and Wallis Auction Galleries next week.

Auctioneer Roy Butler said they were brought in by a relative of a worker who saved them from being thrown away during a clear-out at a print firm.

He said: "They are all in mint condition and are a very rare find. I expect there will be a lot of interest from museums all around the country.

According to the documents, Harris, the then head of Royal Air Force bomber command, wanted to use the famous Dam Busters to assassinate Mussolini and sought Churchill 's permission to plan the precision strike in 1943.

In fact, the British flying chief wanted the crack 617 Squadron to swoop low over Rome and bomb Mussolini's office and home simultaneously in an attempt to kill "Il Duce" and crush Italian support for Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. But Churchill vetoed the plan as he feared the bombers would hit historical or civilian targets.

By William Horsley
BBC European affairs correspondent

©BBC News

In his "Iron Curtain" speech, delivered exactly 64 years ago, Winston Churchill brilliantly defined an era. The speech may also have lessons for the present.

It was a heroic but troubled time. The world was in turmoil after the most terrible conflict in human history.

On 5 March 1946 Churchill was no longer the UK's prime minister but he still enjoyed a giant reputation around the world.

So US President Harry Truman himself travelled 1,000 miles to Fulton, Missouri, to hear Churchill give a speech after receiving an honorary degree at Westminster College there.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
10 October 1940 - 2 March 2010

LONDON, MARCH 2ND-- It is with great sadness that the Churchill family announces the death of Winston S. Churchill after a courageous battle with cancer. He was 69 and died peacefully at home in London. He is survived by his devoted wife, Luce, his four children from his first marriage and eleven grandchildren.
Winston, the grandson of the wartime Prime Minister, was a war correspondent, author, politician and patron of a number of charities including the UK National Defence Association of which he was the Founder President. He was a Member of Parliament for twenty-seven years.

He bore his final illness with the great fortitude that those who knew him would have expected. There will be a private family funeral and a Memorial Service will be announced at a later date.

Graham Sutherland's portrait of Winston Churchill, commissioned by both Houses of Parliament as a tribute to Churchill on the occasion of his 80th birthday, was destroyed after his death by his wife because she hated it so much. Photographs taken before its demise show the Prime Minister hunched with age and dark in mood. A detailed study by the artist for the destroyed painting still hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

He was one of the towering figures of the 20th century.

"Out of the depths of sorrow and of sacrifice. We'll be born again the glory of mankind."

Few men have changed the course of history like Winston Churchill did, and few have done it with such eloquence.

"We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."

Lady Soames, the only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill, planted a weeping mulberry tree in the grounds of Churchill College on Saturday, near the oak planted by her father on October 17, 1959. She used the same spade he had used.

Now 87, she spoke of her pride in helping mark the 50th birthday of the science and technology college founded in her father's honour.

Voxy.co.nz (15 January, 2010) - Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Hon Tariana Turia has announced six appointments to the Board of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Rachael Selby and Margy-Jean Malcolm have been appointed for second terms on the Board. Dr Helen Nicholson, Graeme Hall, Mary Schnackenberg and Dr Airini have all been appointed as new members to the Board. Ms Selby has also been appointed as Chair of the Board.

All members have been appointed for six year terms, commencing January 2010.

By Cheryl Markoksy

Countrylife.co.uk - A beautiful property in Eccleston Square in London once lived in by Churchill and his family has come onto the market

At a time when MPs expenses were less under scrutiny, Winston Churchill and his family lived in a smart terraced house in London's Eccleston Square for four years - a blue plaque hangs to commemorate his sojourn.

After being up for sale at £4.75 million with no takers, the house is now being offered for rental and is available to let at £3,000 a week through Ayrton Wylie (www.ayrtonwylie.com 020 7730 4628).

Churchill moved to Eccleston Square in 1908, a year after marrying Clementine Hozier. His first two children were born here - Diana in 1909 and Randolph in 1911.

According to some documents released by the Nixon Presidential Library, the ex-American President never considered himself a great orator and was secretly envious of Churchill's oratory skills.

Preparing for an address to the Canadian Parliament in early 1972, the President worried that his rhetoric was so tedious it would cost him politically.

"The speeches I make are to the great credit of the speech writing team generally highly literate, highly responsible and almost invariably dull," Nixon wrote in a memo to his top aides.

"Now I don't mean to suggest that I should write or sound like Churchill," he said.

Beyond the obvious policy point that appeasement is generally bad, the value of the book is in its dissection of how the experienced leadership class of the then-leading power - the British Empire - was able to think, talk and deceive itself to a catastrophically bad policy decision. The author reveals in minute example how domestic politics, leaks and counter leaks to major newspapers shaped - and misshaped - both vital foreign policy judgment and how the world construed and misconstrued British strategic thinking.