August 5, 2013

Finest Hour 120, Autumn 2003

Page 05

“The following list of Churchill Centre accomplishments was published in a recent Chartwell Bulletin, but I deem it important enough to repeat in our journal of record:

• Symposia and Seminars: Churchill as Peacemaker, Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech, Churchill in the Postwar Years, Churchill’s Marlborough, Manard E. Pont Seminar, Churchill and the American Civil War, eight Student Seminars since 1995, seventy academic panels since 1988, American Political Science Association Churchill programs since 1996.

• The Churchill Lecture: Amb. Raymond Seitz, College of William & Mary, 1998: Christopher Matthews, George Washington University, 2001:David Fromkin, GWU, 2003.

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• Scholarships: University of Dallas Churchill’s England Program; Centre for Second World War Studies, University of Edinburgh.

• International Conferences: Twenty since 1984, where members, scholars, students, family, critics and champions meet to discuss and debate Churchill’s life and times. The largest to date was 400+ at Boston in 1995; the smallest was twenty in Melbourne in 1991. Hundreds of college and high school students have been sponsored.

• Speakers (Partial list): William F. Buckley, Jr.; Sen. Harry F. Byrd, Jr.; John Charmley; Winston S. Churchill; Sen. Max Cleland; Alistair Cooke; Sir Martin Gilbert; Robert Hardy; Sir Edward Heath; Lord Heseltine; Sir David Hunt; Lord Jellicoe; Lord Jenkins; Jack Kemp; Amb. Jeane Kirkpatrick; David McCullough; Sir Anthony Montague Browne; The Countess Mountbatten; Sir Robert Rhodes James; Amb. Paul H. Robinson, Jr.; William A. Rusher; Celia Sandys; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.; Amb. Raymond Seitz; Lady Soames; Gov. John Sununu; Lady Thatcher; Caspar W. Weinberger

• Internet Presence: www.winstonchurchill.org, one million hits per year from over 100 countries.

• Local groups and Allies: Alaska, Calgary, California North, California South, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, England North, Florida, Georgia, New England, North Carolina, Ohio, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington-Delmarva, International Churchill Societies of Canada and the UK, Sir Winston Spencer Churchill Societies of Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

• Information: The Centre answers thousands of questions per year about Churchill from government, media, the military, politicians and the public. Its “Rapid Response Team” counters erroneous or unfair representations of Churchill in the media to syndicated columnists and television news personalities. Its Speakers Bureau provides speakers both lay and academic on all aspects of Churchill. Posters bearing the Karsh photograph have been distributed to 5,000 schools and libraries worldwide.

• Exhibits and Memorials: Library of Congress Churchill and America Exhibit; Livadia Palace Churchill Room; Cabinet War Rooms; Chartwell; Bletchley Park; Churchill Memorial Stamps Exhibit; Grave of Mrs. Everest (perpetual care since 1982).

• Churchill Tours: Fourteen since 1983. England, Scotland, Australia, France, South Africa, Morocco.

• Periodicals: Finest Hour since 1968; Chartwell Bulletin since 2001; Churchill Proceedings since 1987.

• Works by Churchill: The Dream; Chartwell Bulletins; Shall We Commit Suicide?; Churchill-Conover Correspondence.

• Works by Others: Uncomfortable Hero, by Caspar Weinberger; The Boer Conspiracy, by John Woods; Churchill’s London, by Martin Gilbert; Churchill’s Orders, Decorations and Medals, by Douglas Russell; Fifty Year calendars, 1940-1945, by John Plumpton; Guide to 28 Hyde Park Gate; Churchill Centre Video, narrated by Gregory Peck.

• Published in Association: Churchill as Peacemaker; Connoisseur’s Guide to the Books of Winston Churchill; Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech; Official Biography, Companion Volumes 6-8. By Winston S. Churchill: Malakand Field Force; Savrola; The Boer War; My African Journey; The World Crisis (Easton Press ed.); My Early Life; India; Thoughts and Adventures; Great Contemporaries; The Second World War; The War Speeches; History of the English-Speaking Peoples; Painting as a Pastime. Forthcoming: Bibliography of Works about Sir Winston Churchill; The River War, new 2 vol. edition; Savrola, illustrated edition; Winston Churchill’s Life of Marlborough; Orders, Decorations and Medals of Sir Winston Churchill, new edition.

Not bad for a mainly volunteer organization operating within the strict constraints of a pitifully small budget!

We are often asked also why Churchill of all people needs a champion. Our answer is that time marches on, and memories fade. Churchill needs a champion to defend his good name from attacks by the uninformed; and to keep that name before a public with the manifold distractions of 21st century life: hundreds more distractions than past generations enjoyed. Our Patron describes our challenge perhaps most succinctly: “To keep the memory green, and the record accurate.”

It should be apparent that The Churchill Centre is not in competition with other major sources of Churchill activity and focus. The Centre is not a library, not an archive, not a museum, not a repository of Churchilliana, not a historical site, not a research institute, and certainly not an arbiter of how Sir Winston should be portrayed or remembered.

The Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, London’s Cabinet War Rooms (soon to be a superb museum), Chartwell, Bletchley, Blenheim, the Imperial War Museum, and many other entities admirably fulfill their primary functions and do a fine job of portraying the real Winston Churchill. For its part, The Churchill Centre is an enormously valuable source of prompt and accurate information and service, and the organizing force behind many gatherings and activities from small local groups to international conferences.

The Centre is committed to expanding the Churchill community and enhancing its cohesiveness. We need the help of all to make it so.