July 23, 2013

DATELINES: FINEST HOUR 124, AUTUMN 2004

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ACTION THIS DAY AWARD

PORTSMOUTH, ENGLAND, SEPTEMBER 24TH— New England Churchillians are the recipients of The Churchill Centre’s “Action This Day” award. Congratulations to Suzanne Sigman and New England members for a job well done.

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This year’s winning organization included students at their meetings plus two interesting local education programs. They distributed posters to teachers and school libraries. Members purchased Leading Lives: Winston Churchill by Fiona Reynoldson, one of the best Churchill books for ages 8-15 and 2003 winner of the Emery Reves Award, for school libraries. Bookplates on inside covers included information about the Churchill Centre, the Reves Award, and the Centre’s website.

“Action This Day” is awarded annually to the affiliate or local group that scores the highest on a list of specific criteria: number of events, new members, students, total attendance school programs, local and CC fundraising. The recipient receives a traveling plaque with the group’s name engraved on it to display for one year. At the end of the year they receive a permanent smaller replica and pass the plaque to the next recipient. The leader of the group receives two free registrations to next year’s International Churchill Conference.

The award year began 1 July 2003 and ended 30 June 2004. During that time twenty-two local groups held thirty-three events, with a total audience of 1,233, generating approximately 140 new members. Speakers included Celia Sandys discussing her grandfather’s travels, American and British Consul Generals, authors, archivists, professors and historians. Topics included Churchill’s “thinking outside the box,” intelligence agent Richard Sorge, WSC’s Boston visits, and his novel, Savrola. Professor James Muller, Chairman of the Board of Academic Advisers, while touring the U.S. on sabbatical from the University of Alaska, spoke at ten local events. Joint events were held with the English Speaking Union, the British American Business Council, and the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy. Together, these Toronto colleagues revitalized a local Churchill statue, while the Vancouver Society conducted essay contests with monetary prizes. Venues included homes, restaurants, private clubs, museums and the Queen Mary.

AFFILIATE STATUS

Four organizations, California-Desert, North Carolina, Washington DC, and Vancouver Island, have filed by-laws with The Churchill Centre and are now Affiliates, not just “local groups.” As such they may use the Centre’s logo (WSC bust) on their regalia.

ARIZONA ON THE MOVE

Larry Pike reports a membership drive. Some events are being coordinated with the British American Business Council, including a September wine tasting. New board members are John and Jane Lynch; Norman Lane, President BABC of Arizona; and Gregory Grant, MD.

IRAQ ‘EM UP

NEWPORT BEACH, JULY 31ST— Churchillians led by Jerry Kambestad heard Professor David Freeman, Cal State University Fullerton, at a luncheon speech on “The Invention of Iraq,” or in Churchill’s words, “Midwife to a Reluctant Volcano.” Churchill’s admonition to “Study History” haunted the audience as Freeman described the tribal, religious and factional response to the appointed government of the 1920s and 1930s that may be repeating itself today. Thirty-six attended, including three students.

CHICAGO

CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER 2ND— Academics and students attended our panel on “Winston Churchill as Orator” today at the 100th American Political Science Association convention. Michael McMenamin, contributing editor to Finest Hour and Reason, spoke on how Churchill’s oratory was shaped by his Irish-American mentor, Bourke Cockran. Daniel Mahoney, Professor of Political Science at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, discussed Churchillian rhetoric as a means for “recovering martial vigor in a democratic age.” James W. Muller, Professor of Political Science at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and Chairman of the Centre’s Board of Academic Advisers, considered whether Churchill’s speeches deserved the Nobel Prize. The discussant was Robert Eden, Professor of Political Science at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan. The panel chairman was TCC executive director
Daniel Myers.

A group of scholars and local members gathered for dinner at the Chicago Union League Club, site of a rousing speech by Churchill during his 1932 visit to America. Professor Muller spoke on his editing of a new, definitive edition of The River War. We were joined by Rob Havers, the new executive director of the Churchill Museum and Library in Fulton, Mo.

COMING UP:

Chicago friends meet for brunch on Sunday, December 5th, at 1 lam at the Hyatt Deerfield, 1750 Lake Cook Rd., Deerfield, Illinois. Steve Mullins, owner of the world’s largest toby jug museum, will display and discuss his collection with emphasis on Churchill items.

MICHIGAN REUNITES

DEARBORN, JUNE 16TH— Beverly Bonine and a poster of WSC greeted guests at the Dearborn Inn today. Inside, a video was showing “The Man of the Century,” and displays included posters, photographs, books, handouts, American and British flags and numerous publications. We began with a cash bar and conversation, renewing old acquaintances. Many of the twenty-seven attending were at our first meeting in 1996. Four were first-timers and pleased at all the Centre is doing. Several members gave brief impressions of recent meetings. James Pyrros spoke on the Bermuda Conference, Gary Bonine on the Chicago Award
dinner, Genie Sherard on several recent sessions in Washington. We congratulated Dr. Muller, here to speak of “Churchill the Writer,” on his “Circuit Rider” Award (page 5 last issue) and welcomed him home—in that Jim was the first recipient of the Farrow Award, established by the late Fred Farrow.

Michael Malley and Peter Hollinshead are chairing committees working toward formal affiliation and future meetings. James Rauh spoke on Sir Martin Gilbert’s visit here this autumn. Tom and Alma Goldner donated Churchilliana, Helen Muller helped give away six door prizes. A surprise was a former governor of Michigan who, after seeing the Library of Congress Exhibition and talking to Genie Sherard, asked to be added to our mailing list. —GARY J. BONINE

NEBRASKA ROUND TABLE

OMAHA—The Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Spencer Churchill Round Table of Nebraska meets once a month on Sunday afternoons at the 72nd Dodge Borders Bookstore. John Meeks is their leader. Their meeting dates and times are on the Centre’s website and also on their website.

NEW ENGLAND CHURCHILLIANS

BOSTON, MAY 20TH— Tremont Temple Baptist Church, where Churchill spoke on his first trip to Boston, was the setting for a PowerPoint presentation by Joe Hern on Churchill’s Boston visits. At the 1995 Boston conference, Cyril Mazansky and Richard Batchelder organized a trolley tour tracing Churchill’s visits. Joe built on the idea, researching newspaper and photo archives, photographing buildings, tracking stories from the 1900-49 visits, while adding interesting and humorous commentary. The lecture was free to the public. Among the seventy guests were Boston’s British Consul General, John Rankin; and Nick Owlett, Deputy Head Master of the British School of Boston. A 2004 Churchill Fellow, Faheem Shakur, saw the notice in The Boston Globe, came with two friends, and videotaped the entire program.

After the presentation, a dinner was held at Cafe Marliave, a very old Italian restaurant. In thanks Joe received a copy of Churchill and the Great Republic and a pack of Churchill playing cards. Thirty-four were at the dinner, held jointly with the English-Speaking Union. Joe Hern provided a lovely 20-page booklet on Churchill’s Boston speeches, which guests received with enthusiasm. Joe set a very high standard and encouraged many to attend.

MILTON, MASS., AUGUST 28TH— Finest Hour editor Richard Langworth led a book discussion of John Meacham’s Franklin and Winston, which he suggested was the best book ever on that fascinating relationship “for several reasons: (1) Meacham mined and presented all the sources, living and dead. For instance, he manages to quote succinctly one of the few people who knew both Roosevelt and Churchill when they first met in 1917: Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor. (2) The writing is mesmerizing, some of the very best on the subject Churchill ever published. (3) By no means least to us, the book is pro-Churchill—decidedly so, understanding better than any comparable work the complexities of the relationship Lady Soames likened to that between two lovers: there is always one who tries to kiss, and the other who turns the cheek.”

Our New England group was happy to welcome several new members: Maura Dowling from Providence, R.I.; and from Massachusetts Mary Hurley from Dorchester, who brought her sister; Susan Kidder from Shrewsbury, and Dan Moulton from Boston. Richard and Sonia Osborne, old members who have moved to Cape Cod, also joined the group of forty.

Joe Hern is now leading the New England Churchillians (Suzanne Sigman has joined the CC Board of Governors, where she is heading the education program). We thank Suzanne for the work she has done with the local groups as the originator of the local network and the many interesting events she held for New England members.

NORTH CAROLINA PLANS BIRTHDAY

AUGUST 7TH— North Carolina Churchillians met to review a Bermuda conference video and to elect officers: Dr. Wendell Musser, chairman; William Roeder, vice chairman; Dr. Gary Snyder, secretary/treasurer; Maj. Robert Seals, program chairman; and Kathleen Moore, member-at-large. The group has set November 13th as a tentative date for their Churchill birthday event.

THE RIVER WAR DISCUSSED

SHAKER HEIGHTS, JUNE 13TH— Professor James Muller spoke on The River War in the Cleveland area today at a late afternoon picnic for twenty-five people, with a number of new members present for the first time. The Nile war will be revisited by his new edition of Churchill’s book coming next year.

DAWN OF LIBERATION IN VIRGINIA

BURKE, VA.— The Washington Society for Churchill assembled on a warm August evening for its annual summer picnic and book discussion, and welcoming long-time member and CC academic adviser Chris Harmon to talk about The Dawn of Liberation (1944), the fifth volume of Churchill’s war speeches. Chris began by noting that the nearly sixty talks and messages vary greatly in length, from a page or two to more than twenty. He noted Churchill’s outspoken comments on one occasion concerning the Jewish terrorists who murdered his colleague Lord Moyne in Palestine, noting that if such actions continued he might have had to reconsider his support for Zionism—in the midst of a Holocaust about which he already knew.

More positively, Harmon noted Churchill’s concern over British relations with President Roosevelt and the USA, calling at one point for a continued combined chiefs of staff operation after the war, and noting how well the military forces and leadership of the two countries intermixed.

On the occasion of the American Thanksgiving holiday, Churchill spoke in the Royal Albert Hall, praising the rise of American military might to world supremacy. Chris Harmon finished by noting Churchill’s accurate predictions about the end of the war—when and what would likely happen—although many of his own military advisers guessed it wrong. Churchill guarded against over-optimism and was planning for an intensified war against Japan, which he thought might last 18-24 months after V-E Day. As focused on the war as he clearly had to be, Churchill did not have his ear to the ground of domestic politics, Harmon continued. Although WSC commented in 1944 on the need for improved housing and health insurance, he refrained from making specific promises or deadlines for action until the war was won. 

 

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