June 3, 2015

Finest Hour 112, Autumn 2001

Page 11

“Churchill in a Yankees Cap”

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 14TH— This, New Yorkers have been saying almost since the first nightmare fireball appeared on their television screens, has been Rudy Giuliani’s finest hour.

The wartime analogy feels apt. The mayor has offered a grittier, Flatbush-flavored version of Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats. He’s been operations manager and pastor, diversity-training counselor and dauntless cheerleader, a normally contentious figure suddenly turned symbol of the city’s unity. He’s been Winston Churchill in a Yankees cap. “I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country and the rest of the world that terrorism can’t stop us,” he said on the first day, having scrambled out of a downtown building where he himself was trapped for several minutes after the first of the Twin Towers dissolved.

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The mayor is everywhere, all the time, it seems—visiting Ground Zero in a white mask and hard hat; at hospitals; phoning radio stations; giving press briefings from an “undisclosed location.” He often wore an FDNY cap and an EMS windbreaker, tributes to the firefighters, who’ve taken catastrophic losses, and emergency medical workers.

He knew without a teleprompter how many truckloads of debris were removed from the attack site, confirmed the number of body bags ordered, announced how many remained missing. He told people where to find shelters and where to donate blood; he passed out photos of an airliner flight recorder box so anyone who found one would recognize it (“except it’ll be obviously covered with soot and dirt”).

—via Chris Dunford from The Washington Post. The cartoon is from a the San Antonio Express News, via Carol Ferguson.

“We Stand By You”: A Letter Home

E-mail from an officer aboard USS Winston S. Churchill. Approved for release by U.S. Navy, sent by Dean Chris Sterling, George Washington University.

Dear Dad,
Well, we are still out at sea, with little direction as to what our next priority is. The remainder of our port visits, which were to be centered around max liberty and goodwill to the UK, have all but been canceled. We have spent every day since the attacks going back and forth within imaginary boxes drawn in the ocean, standing high-security watches, and trying to make the best of our time. It hasn’t been that fun I must confess, and to be even more honest, a lot of people are frustrated either that they can’t be home or that we don’t have more to do right now.

We have seen the articles and the photographs, and they are sickening. Being isolated as we are, I don’t think we appreciate the full scope of what is happening back home, but we are feeling the effects.

About two hours ago the junior officers were called to the bridge to conduct shiphandling drills. We were about to do a man overboard when we got a call from the Lutjens (D185), a German warship that was moored ahead of us on the pier in Plymouth, England. While in port, the Winston S. Churchill and Lutjens got together for a sports day/cookout on our fantail, and we made some pretty good friends.

Now at sea, they called over on bridge-to-bridge, requesting to pass us close up on our port side to say goodbye. We prepared to render them honors on the bridgewing, and the Captain told the crew to come topside to wish them farewell.

As they were making their approach, our Conning Officer announced through her binoculars that they were flying an American flag. As they came closer, we saw that it was flying at half-mast. The bridgewing was crowded with people as the boatswain’s mate blew two whistles—Attention to Port. As Lutjens came alongside we saw that the entire crew of the German ship were manning the rails in their dress blues. They had made up a sign that read, “We Stand by You.”

Needless to say there was not a dry eye on the bridge as they stayed alongside us for a few minutes and we cut our salutes. It was probably the most powerful thing I have seen in my entire life and more than a few of us fought to retain our composure.

The German Navy did an incredible thing for this crew. It’s amazing to think that only sixty years ago things were quite different. It has truly been the highest point in the days since the attacks.

To see the unity that is being demonstrated throughout Europe and the world makes us all feel proud to be out here doing our job. We are no longer at liberty to divulge our location over unsecure e-mail, but we could not have asked for a finer day at sea.

After the Lutjens pulled away and we prepared to begin our man overboard drills the Officer of the Deck turned to me and said, “I’m staying Navy.” I’ll write you when I know more about when I’ll be home, but for now, this is probably the best news that I could send you. Love you guys.

Tribeca: Why We Stay

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 17TH— In and on “September 1, 1939,” poet W.H. Auden wrote of how the “clever hopes expire of a low dishonest decade.” The clever hopes of another low, dishonest decade expired a few hundred feet away before the eyes of my wife and me as we walked our three-year-old son to his first day of preschool.

The world view in and around Tribeca, where we live less than a mile from Ground Zero, has turned upside down. A neighborhood that twice overwhelmingly gave its vote to a candidate who boasted that his generation “loathe [d]” the military now welcomes hundreds of uniformed reservists and military police.

Almost from the first moments after the attack came the questions. Are you going to move out of New York City permanently? The answer, of course, is “No.” We stay.

Many people know that Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, at 101 the last surviving Allied leader from World War II, is a revered figured in her country. But few understand why.

In 1940, the woman now known as the Queen Mother was, as consort of George VI, Queen of England. She was also the mother of two small daughters, Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth—the latter heir to the throne, aged only 14. As Hitler’s planes rained bombs on London for more than a year, the Queen was asked whether she would remove her daughters from the capital. Her reply won her the undying love of free people everywhere: “The girls will not leave unless I do. I will not leave unless the King does. And the King will not leave under any circumstances whatsoever.”

Hitler, like the present enemies of our country, struck at the most visible symbols: The House of Commons was bombed into rubble. Their Parliament in ruins, Londoners might well have made a panicked exodus from their city. But led by a patriotic and determined spirit in both their King and Queen, and in Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Britons stayed. So shall we.
—James Higgins, Claremmt Institute Precepts

EBartlettWatt

TORONTO, AUGUST 19TH— Bart Watt, CoFounder of the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy and the foremost living collector of Churchill’s writings, died here today. Born in London, Ontario, he served in World War II with distinction in the 19th Canadian Army Field Regiment, in the European theater. While overseas, he met his beautiful and gracious Belgian soulmate, Lucienne. In Churchill’s words, they “married and lived happily ever after.”

Bart started collecting Sir Winston’s works in 1967 at a rather lofty level. Wandering through a Liverpool bookshop, he found a signed, limited edition of Marlborough—not a bad start. In his thorough and businesslike manner, he set out to acquire fine copies of each of the great man’s works as well as important related material.

I met Bart in the early 1970s, and we quickly became friends. We travelled together to the 1978 Annual Dinner of the Edmonton Churchill Society at which Viscount Hailsham spoke, and Bart was so taken by the success of that Society and their Annual Dinner that he resolved to establish a corresponding Society in Toronto. With like-minded friends he established the Toronto-based Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy, which held its first Annual Dinner in 1984. The Dinners are a significant Toronto occasion, bringing together a speaker on Sir Winston and a Canadian political figure who is chosen annually to receive the Society’s lifetime Award for Excellence in the Cause of Parliamentary Democracy.

Bart’s dedication to Churchillian matters, as to family and friends, was broadly appreciated. Sadly, he was predeceased by his daughter Michele 13 months before. He is survived by Lucienne and their son David; Bart’s sister Joann; David’s children Eric, Danielle and Alexander Watt; and Michele’s children, Christopher and Erika Cassidy.

Some years ago, permanently to mark their ties to England and their annual visits to London, Lucienne Watt dedicated a bench in the centre of Berkeley Square to Bart. Visiting Churchillians might like to seek out the bench, sit tranquilly on it and reflect on the Greatest Englishman from the vantage point of a committed man who built his own substantial monuments to Sir Winston’s memory.
—Ronald I. Cohen

Charles Granville Rob MC

BERLIN, VERMONT, JULY 27TH— Charles Granville Rob, 88, a British-born surgeon who operated on Winston Churchill and taught generations of young physicians, died today. Dr. Rob, who pioneered techniques for the repair of damaged blood vessels, was one of Britain’s foremost surgeons when the University of Rochester medical school brought him to the United States in 1960. He was professor of surgery and department chairman in Rochester until 1978, later teaching in North Carolina and Bethesda, Maryland, where made his permanent home.

While at Cambridge, Rob became a pilot with a reserve commission in the RAF, and in 1941 he was assigned to a parachute brigade as surgical specialist. Air-dropped into Tunisia in 1942, he started operating on wounded soldiers under heavy fire. For his bravery, he was decorated on the battlefield with the Military Cross. After the war, while still in Britain, Dr. Rob was regularly called in as a specialist to tend to Churchill, who was aging and increasingly infirm. His numerous medical papers were published throughout the world.

Dr. Rob’s prescriptions could be quite earthy. At a British Medical Association meeting on the surgical treatment of blood clots in 1957, he said that the best painkiller was a stiff drink of whisky. “We put our patients on big and rapid doses of whisky up to the maximum tolerance in individual cases,” Dr. Rob said. “The best treatment for the condition is rest. The best way to rest is sleep. The best way to get sleep is to relieve pain, and the best way to relieve pain is to give whisky.”
—Wolfgang Saxon in The New York Times

“Churchill Way,” Florida

MANALAPAN, FLA., SEPTEMBER 24TH— Manalapan Estates is a waterfront development of seven properties on a 5.7-acre parcel near Miami Beach. The developers have named the entry road “Churchill Way” in memory of Sir Winston, “who visited the estate on several occasions.”

Although they say the property was formerly the “Vanderbilt Estate,” we can’t help wondering if this was part of the property owned by Canadian ship owner Frank W. Clarke, where Churchill rested before delivering the Fulton Speech in March 1946. (Clarke worked for Churchill on the British Gazette during the 1926 General Strike; after the Quebec Conference in 1943 he lent Churchill the use of his lakeside cabin; see the Official Biography 8:182.) More details from Ocean & Intracoastal Properties, tel. 561-533-5533.

Last Lion Still Alive

NEW YORK, AUGUST 17TH— The New York Times ran an eloquent lament that William Manchester has reluctantly conceded that he no longer has the Churchillian stamina required to complete his Churchill trilogy, The Last Lion:

“To understand the popular appeal of his biography, consider the final sentence of volume 2: And now, in the desperate spring of 1940, with the reins of power at last firm in his grasp, he resolved to lead Britain and her fading empire in one last great struggle worthy of all they had been and meant, to arm the nation, not only with weapons but also with the mace of honor, creating in every English breast a soul beneath the ribs of death.’ This is indeed grandiose. Its very sound—echoing Churchill’s prose—makes a claim for his importance to the last century….It is our misfortune not to have that struggle again, as told by William Manchester.”

This drew a reply from Michael Pietsch, Little Brown’s publisher, who states that he and Manchester are discussing bringing in a writer with whom he could complete the work. “The first 250 pages of the third volume are finished, and Mr. Manchester long ago wrote an extraordinarily detailed, carefully organized set of notes, coded according to character, subject and time, complete through Churchill’s death. This is part of a vast body of work already done on the tliird volume. I am talking with writers who might be capable of completing this weighty project and will present candidates for Mr. Manchester’s approval. It is our hope that in this way Mr. Manchester will be able to oversee the completion of his magnificent biography, and readers will be able to read the dramatic and moving story of Churchill’s role in World War II and after.”

LOCAL & NATIONAL

Churchill in Britain

PORTSMOUTH, UK— The International Festival of the Sea, a four-day spectacle, took place at HM Naval Base, Portsmouth at the end of August. A quarter of a million visitors attended, along with 26 Tall Ships and more than 650 classic and traditional boats ranging from a tiny coracle to the lovingly tended classics including several of America’s Cup yachts.

Dominating the exhibition were numerous Royal Navy vessels and ships from ten other Navies. In pride of place was USS Winston S. Churchill, at her first overseas port-of-call; she attracted much interest in the press and on national television as well as among the huge crowds of visitors.

On the evening before the Festival opened, Commander Michael T. Franken and his crew held a reception on the flight deck to mark their arrival on the previous afternoon. Among those present were the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, the United States Ambassador, the First Sea Lord & Chief of Naval Staff, the Commander-in-Chief US Navy Europe and the Commandant General Royal Marines.

A number of ICS (UK) members had also been invited. This gave Chairman Nigel Knocker the opportunity to make a presentation to Commander Franken: a facsimile of the illuminated verse “Sail on, O Ship of State,” about a dozen of which Winston Churchill had made up and brought to the Atlantic Charter Meeting at Placentia Bay in August 1941; President Roosevelt and he each signed the copies, each kept one, and a precious few were given to those attending. The Longfellow verse had earlier been sent by the President to Churchill with a note in his own hand: “I think this verse applies to you people as it does to us.” This sentiment was especially appropriate exactly sixty years after the Atlantic Meeting.

One delighted visitor to the ship during the Festival was Mr. Patrick Kinna. He had been one of Winston Churchill’s private secretaries for most of World War II and accompanied him to the Atlantic Meeting and on numerous subsequent occasions, including visits to Roosevelt and Stalin. He was very pleased to be presented with a picture of the ship. Our Patron, Lady Soames, also visited the ship at Portsmouth and stayed on board for one night.

After Portsmouth, USS Winston S. Churchill sailed north and was due to visit a number of other ports in the United Kingdom and also Dublin and Norway. Her present whereabouts are now the business of the Navy.

Churchill in Washington

WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 11TH— Winston S. Churchill, honorary member, trustee and Churchill Center Associate, delivered a major address today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., entitled “The United States, Britain & Europe: The Coming Crisis.” He offered thoughts on the new circumstances and future for the “special relationship” largely forged by Mr. Churchill’s grandfather before, during and after the Second World War. By special arrangement, Churchill Center members attended a pre-address luncheon at the Press Club member rate and immediately after the speech were welcomed at a private reception with the speaker.

The sponsor of Mr. Churchill’s visit was Churchill Center member Tom Pazzi of Potomac Management Inc., with assistance from The Churchill Center. In the evening, Mr. Pazzi arranged a special dinner for Mr. and Mrs. Churchill at Washington’s famous Willard Hotel, attended by numerous distinguished guests. They included Senator Max Clelland (D-Ga.), Representative Ken Hoekstra (R-ML), columnist Robert Novak, President Susan Eisenhower of the Eisenhower Institute, J. Willard Marriott, Laurence Geller, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benizir Bhutto, and the Executive Committee of The Churchill Center. Senator Cleland gave a particularly moving impromptu address, testifying to Sir Winston’s continued relevance in the 21st century and his deep personal interest in the work of the Center. We are most grateful to Mr. Pazzi for his generosity.

Washington

ALEXANDRIA, VA., AUGUST 5TH— The Washington Society for Churchill held its summer picnic/book seminar today at the home of Susan and Dan Borinsky. It was well attended and members were riveted by the theme (which five weeks later would prove prescient indeed): “Dealing with Disaster: Churchill and Gallipoli.” Suggested reading for the discussion was the first two chapters of Robert Rhodes James’s 1970 book, Churchill: A Study in Failure.

Guest speaker Dr. Jeffrey Wallin and program chairman Dr. Chris Harmon together related the events leading to this great World War I debacle. Chris reviewed the beginning of the Great War, while Jeffrey described the difficulties of the British plan and the political decisions which brought about the failures. Although Churchill was thoroughly involved in some areas of planning, major disagreements left him an easy target to blame. Success could have changed the course of history.

WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 15TH— Interest in the Second World War continues to spawn more floods of new books. Today, at the Marvin Center Auditorium, George Washington University, the Washington Society for Churchill assembled a panel of experts to discuss strengths and weakness of the new scholarship, paying particular attention to how, or whether, they address Winston Churchill. The panel was impressive. Dr. Ronald Spector, GWU historian, is author of the widely-read Pacific war history Eagle Against the Sun, and his new At War At Sea, a 20th century naval history. Dr. Eliot Cohen, noted writer and commentator on war and politics, directs Strategic Studies for Johns Hopkins University in Washington, and formerly lectured on Sir Winston at the Naval War College. Dr. David Jablonsky, a retired Army colonel, has been writing monographs and books on Churchill while teaching at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania. Dr. Williamson Murray, author of numerous World War II volumes, has just released the acclaimed A War to be Won, co-written with a fellow historian. Dr. Murray spoke to the Washington Society at a past event on the war diaries of Field Marshal Alanbrooke. W.S.C. board member Dr. Chris Harmon, who teaches a Churchill course for Marine Corps officers, chaired the panel. For more information on Washington area activities contact the W.S.C. director, Caroline Hartzler ([email protected]), telephone (703) 503-9226.

London

SEPTEMBER 19TH— An interesting pair of lectures was held today at the Cabinet War Rooms under the aegis of BBC History Magazine. The first was by Piers Brendon, Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge and until recently Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre there. He said that perceptions of Churchill changed throughout his career because of its great length and its numerous ups and downs. He thought the official biography was herculean and marvellous, but a chronicle rather than a biography, i.e. facts and not judgment; it was consistently uncritical and omitted some discreditable and weird points. This had led to revisionists like Rhodes James and Cowling; but recent debunking had gone too far, e.g. Ponting, Roberts, Irving and Charmley. But the worm was now turning and the revisionists were being revised (e.g. Blake & Lewis).

The second lecture was by David Cannadine (FH 111:13, who said that WSC had a bifurcated personality, “wonderful, yet impossible.” He spoke about Churchill’s power as an orator and said he was an artist with words, overcoming speech impediments, which led to his sonorous phrases. WSC’s speeches were crafted with immense care and were fashioned in his own style, with influence from Gibbon, Macaulay, Bourke Cockran and Lord Randolph Churchill. He quoted from Savrola (Chapter 10) about the effort and after-effect of speech-making. He also quoted Herbert Samuel, who said that people often voted against Churchill because he had no judgment, was too prone to believe his own verbosity, and was ill-suited to intimate parliamentary debate. Until 1940 he “failed to inspire trust.” —PHC

Erratum

In your review of The Churchill Factors (FH 110:43) you say that “Churchill quoted something to the effect that when one is about to be hanged, ‘it concentrates the mind wonderfully.'” I do not know when and where Churchill may have said this, but he would have been quoting Samuel Johnson. When referring to the poor Dr. Dodds, awaiting execution in Newgate gaol, the great lexicographer said: “Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Another Johnson quote used often by Churchill was: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”
JIM LANCASTER, TURQUEVII.LE, FRANCE

Thank you for the correction. Churchill had a photographic memory and often ran off his favorite quotes, not always with attribution. Your second Samuel Johnson admonition is referred to frequently by this writer—not, alas, with as much success as WSC. -Ed.

Chicago

OAK BROOK, ILL., SEPTEMBER 14TH— Phil and Sue Larson invited Chicagoarea Churchillians to the Wyndham Drake Hotel here tonight for dinner and remarks by David Druckman, a longtime contributor to Finest Hour, inveterate traveler to Churchill haunts worldwide. Much of the evening was devoted to reflections of the murderous attacks in New York, and what Churchill had said in similar circumstances. Contact: [email protected] or telephone (708) 352-6825.

ICS UK Fine Art Awards

LONDON, JULY liTH— ICS (UK) has initiated a competition for art students at colleges of further education, which it is intended will become an annual event. By this initiative the Society is enhancing its aim of educating and inspiring present generations through the works and example of Sir Winston Churchill. Thanks to generous sponsorship by The Daily Telegraph it was possible to offer prizes for the three best entries, which were specifically required to be representational landscapes. In addition to the cash prizes to individuals, each winner’s college received a supply of art materials donated by Daler Rowney. The arrangements were expertly coordinated by the Association of Colleges.

This year’s awards were presented at the Cabinet War Rooms by Lord Black, chairman of The Telegraph Group and an honorary member of the Churchill Center and Societies. Present were Lady Soames, Celia Sandys, Lord Deedes, President John Plumpton of The Churchill Center, Robert Hardy and Elizabeth Nel (who, as Miss Layton, was a wartime secretary to WSC and accompanied him to many overseas conferences).

The winner of the £5000 first prize was 17-year-old Michael Shipley, a student at St. Brendan’s Sixth Form College, Bristol, who submitted a painting of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Shipley aims to combine further fine arts study with animation, having already made several studies in the latter field. Equal seconds (sharing a prize of £2500) were Jessie White from Moray College, Elgin and Miranda Wooner from Bournemouth Arts Institute. The third prize of £1000 went to Sarah Flux from Eastleigh College.

Churchill at Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE, UK— Downing College Cambridge will be offering a two-week course entitled “The Churchill Years,” during July 14th to 27th next year. The course director is Eric Grove, one of Britain’s leading naval historians. Field trips to Chartwell as well as Churchill College are included in the program. In the United States the program is offered through the Office of Cooperating Colleges in Eire, Pennsylvania. Interested members should contact Dr. Joann Painter of the Office of Cooperating Colleges by calling (814) 456-0757, or by fax to (814) 453-5502.

Two-Wheel Churchillians

Any member with a motorcycle is invited to join the smallest offshoot of The Churchill Center, Motorcycling Churchillians, and perhaps take part in future group rides. Our membership currently stands at four (two BMWs, two Harleys!). The group has no (separate) dues and membership carries no particular obligations, nor any legal tie to the Center. Ambitious future rides (Blenheim? Normandy?) are a possibility. Those interested can contact Terry McGarry ([email protected]), telephone (818) 345-5044.