September 13, 2013

Finest Hour 104, Autumn 1999

Page 18

BY PAUL H. COURTENAY 


The sun shone throughout as the city of Bath hosted the 16th International Churchill Conference. From ancient Roman remains to elegant Georgian architecture, Bath showed itself at its best as members gathered to follow a programme with the theme of the Emerging Leader.

After a welcome by Nigel Knocker, chairman of 1CS (UK) and the conference chairman, proceedings began with a reception by the Mayor at the Roman Baths, where a spring pours out approximately 280,000 gallons of water a day at a temperature of 116°F (47°C). Replying to the Mayor’s speech of welcome, our Patron Lady Soames set the tone for the three days of varied activities. From this historic site members went upstairs to the sumptuous eighteenth century Pump Room for an inaugural dinner and dance. Here the Hon. Celia Sandys introduced the guest speaker, our old friend Bill Gunn, managing director of Pol Roger (UK), who had generously donated Sir Winston Churchill’s favourite Champagne for the earlier reception. Bill spoke about the Churchill connection with Pol Roger, which was as sparkling as the product itself.

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Next morning the serious side of the programme got under way at Bath’s Guildhall (left). The first speaker was Major General Arthur Denaro, commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, who gave a fascinating survey of Sir Winston’s days as a Gentleman Cadet in 1893-94. Comparing the training of those days with today’s demands, General Denaro showed that, while much had necessarily changed, many of the basic principles had stood the test of time and were still applicable. By a happy coincidence, the General had himself been commissioned into The Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars (formed in 1958 as an amalgamation of 4th Queen’s Own Hussars and 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars), so was able to relate a number of amusing details of Sir Winston’s days as a junior officer and his later period as Colonel of the Regiment between 1941 and 1965.

Just as Sir Winston’s career had moved from the Army to that of a war correspondent, the conference programme followed the same route. Lord Deedes had first made his mark as a war correspondent, in Abyssinia in 1935, and was still active in this field at the age of 86, having returned from Kosovo the previous morning. He was able to outline the early impact of Winston Churchill in this role and gave details of the astonishingly high fees WSC had been able to command. By the time he entered the House of Commons in 1900, for example, Churchill was able to invest some £10,000, worth about fifty times more today. Lord Deedes took pride in pointing out that the foundations for Churchill’s political career came largely from two newspapers, The Morning Post and The Daily Telegraph —the only two newspapers for which he himself had worked during the last sixty-eight years.

One of the highlights of the conference took place in the early evening. In hilly county on the edge of Bath is Claverton Manor; today it is the American Museum, but on 26 July 1897 it was a private house and the site of Winston Churchill’s first political speech. He was only 22 and home on leave from 4th Hussars in India. This writer, by way of what he called the hors d’oeuvre, set the scene by explaining the background and circumstances of the speech and then introduced Dominic Walters, a great-grandson of Sir Winston, who reenacted his ancestor’s first political speech at the exact site. The setting was idyllic as members sipped their evening drinks in the beautiful garden in perfect weather, the wooded, rolling hills and valleys forming a restful background as a number of hot-air balloons floated overhead. It was easy to imagine the scene 102 years before as Dominic stood in his great-grandfather’s shoes and spoke young Winston’s remarkably mature thoughts, ranging from industrial relations through party politics to imperial responsibilities. Sample: rounding on the Liberal Party Churchill said, “It reminds me of the man who, on being told that ventilation is an excellent thing, went and smashed every window in his house and died of rheumatic fever.”

Next morning Richard Langworth, Nigel Knocker and Randy Barber gave reports on The Churchill Centre and UK and Canada Societies. Amusement attended the presentation of a USS Winston S. Churchill commander’s cap to UK member Armido Valori, whose intervention had led to the insertion of the middle initial “S” into the ship’s name.

Next speaker was Sir Henry Beverley, director general of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, who gave an informative description of the Trust, which awards about 100 travelling fellowships each year to worthy people from all walks of life. These Churchill Fellows, as they become, are funded to research a topic of their choice (after a rigorous screening process) for between four and eight weeks in an overseas country and to submit a report on their return.

As a final presentation assessing The Emerging Leader, Dr. Stephen Badsey of Sandhurst surveyed Churchill’s leadership during the Boer War and suggested some thought-provoking new angles on his motivation and behaviour. As a tailpiece, this writer highlighted the importance of Jan Christian Smuts in the Churchill’s life, suggesting that Smuts (whom WSC had first met as one of his interrogators while a prisoner in 1899, and who later became a close associate and friend) was probably the one person whom Churchill recognised as a superior mortal to himself. After quoting a number of well-documented remarks in support of this view, we concluded with an extract from a letter Churchill wrote to Smuts’s widow on his friend’s death in 1950: “He was probably more fitted to guide struggling and blundering humanity through its sufferings and perils towards a better day than anyone who lived in any country during his epoch.”

Then came the traditional book discussion by a panel of academic experts. This year’s choice was Churchill’s London to Ladysmith via Pretoria, published in 1900. Professor James MuUer, chairman of The Churchill Centre’s Academic Advisers, led the team which examined this important early work. Those who joined Jim Muller in putting forward insight into Churchill’s adventures in South Africa (including his capture and escape) were Kirk Emmert, Patrick Powers, Paul Rahe, John Ramsden and Manfred Weidhorn.

The final evening saw a river cruise through Bath with good food and drink enjoyed while gliding through the centre of this beautiful city. It was a fitting finale to the social aspects of the conference and allowed everyone to relax and muse over the events of the previous two days, and to dissect many new lines of thought which had been evoked.

The last half-day opened with a brilliant exposition by William Tyler, a freelance lecturer, on “Winston Churchill: An Enduring Model of Leadership.” He brought forward a number of highly articulate but little known contemporary wartime accounts by ordinary unknown people, which demonstrated the depth of the national cohesion under Churchill’s leadership at that time. Mr. Tyler received prolonged applause.

The final item before everyone dispersed was a preview by James Muller of the next conference, to be held at Anchorage, Alaska on 13th-17th September 2000 with the theme “Churchill and Russia.” 


Mr. Courtenay is Hon. Secretary of the International Churchill Society, United Kingdom. He does not say that his own efforts in helping to make the Conference a success entitle him to the thanks of all.

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