April 29, 2013

Finest Hour 155, Summer 2012

Page 4

Despatch Box

FH 154 Canada Number

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I just received the latest issue: very, very good and well produced and well art-directed. It’s good to read some stirring stuff about the Great Man instead of all the rubbish in the press about these present day chancers!
Bob Colman, Eleuthera, Bahamas

It would be graceless on my part not to thank you warmly for what you write about me on page 13. Having spent much of my life, mostly with little success, in trying to foster good relations between this country and Canada, I am grateful to you for drawing attention so pointedly in this issue to the heroic effort which Canada made in the war. It needs saying again and again. I feel sure that many others will share this view, even if it is little understood by politicians, at least in this country.
David Dilks, Leeds, Yorkshire

FH153 “Churchillnomics”

Congratulations for a stunning edition, which shows the depth and breadth of Churchill’s activities and their relevance today. The relationship between Churchill and Keynes brings together two towering personalities who continue to reverberate through our lives today.
Pete Van De Gohm, Houston

Thank you for the nice job on my article, “In the Field: Churchill and Northey.” It was great fun and even better seeing one’s name in print! My 25-year old daughter, who writes a blog on contemporary art (M.A. from American University, Richmond, London) says, “Dad, hasn’t there been enough written about Churchill?”

Response: “No…too many stories out there.”
Bill Nanny, Charlotte, N.C.

Tell her what Martin Gilbert said when a colleague complained that he hadn’t told one-tenth of the entire Churchill story: “That much?” —Ed.

Churchill Proceedings

Last night I pulled Churchill Proceedings 1988-1989 off the bookshelf and read the entire volume before retiring for the evening. I don’t recall ever having read Maurice Ashley’s address (on our website at http://xrl.us/bm9qk2). To make up for it, I read it twice! I am going to have to re-read all of the Proceedings. I had forgotten how valuable they are to the “living history” that was so central to the International Churchill Society in those years. And to think that all of that “meeting and publishing” were done on shoestring budgets. It’s unbelievable. Great record…great memories.
Richard H. Knight, Nashville, Tenn.

Churchillian Kindness

I am the son of John Logie Baird, the scientist who invented the first practical, publicly demonstrated television. My mother was Kathleen Faux, who was employed by the Bairds as a “live-in housekeeper” while John’s family was living on the south coast. She was twenty years younger than he, and modeled for his photography.

Churchill met and became friends with John Baird, and Churchill knew the power of television in the near future. Whenever he called, my mother would look after the then-Mr. Churchill and with her interest in art they too became friends. When she married, Mr. Churchill found a house for her to buy in his constituency of Wanstead. One day, canvassing in Wanstead, he spotted Mother in the crowd and, taking me from her arms, he posed for press photographs. I had blonde hair matching my father’s, and mother had the picture on display for many years. I have over the years lost the picture, and cannot find it online, but I am always proud to have been at least “jiggled” by Sir Winston Churchill.

Churchill’s interests away from the public were vast, and his depressions were deep; he needed love from those near him and from his public.
Gordon Mays Baird, London

The Royal Tournament

Gavin Freeman of Shell UK writes: “I recently purchased a signed program from the 1948 Royal Tournament at Olympia (Churchill, Attlee, Newall, Montgomery, Slim, Tedder, etc.). I was wondering if you would have any references to Churchill being at this event, and better yet some photos.”

Editor’s response: The Royal Tournament was the world’s largest military tattoo and pageant, held by the British Armed Forces from 1880 to 1999. It was popular between the wars; Churchill attended several times and spoke at the 1920 event. The 1948 R.T. was the first since World War II and therefore a major event, and would be likely attended by these luminaries, but I could not confirm that Churchill was there. If you are trying to pin down his attending, the Churchill Archives Centre has his daily appointment cards for this period and may be of help.

Apropos nothing at all is this amusing note by Colin Thornton-Kemsley, who was important mainly for trying to get Churchill thrown out as MP for Epping as punishment for Churchill’s opposition to appeasement. (Kemsley later apologized, and was forgiven by a magnanimous Churchill):

“Bing” Tremlett, a Horse Gunner who played cricket for the Army and in 1942-44 was the Major General in charge of London’s Anti-Aircraft defenses, heard a regimental sergeant-major addresses his men after a Royal Tournament performance:

“Do you know who was in the Royal Box today? It was ‘er gracious Majesty Queen Mary, whose ‘usband the King is lying sick at Buckin’am Palace. When she gets ‘ome the King will say to ‘er: ‘Mary, ‘ow did my Royal Marines do?’ An’ Queen Mary, she’ll say, ‘George, they was ruddy awful’—an’ so you was!”