January 22, 2016

According to Sir Martin Gilbert, on October 28 1951, in an attempt to persuade the Liberals to join his new Government as Prime Minister for the second time, Winston Churchill had invited the Leader of the Liberal Parliamentary Party, Clement Davies, to visit him. Pitblado (his Principal Private Secretary) later recalled how, as the talk progressed, Churchill ‘was politely gloomy’. At one point the conversation turned to the past:

Clem Davies: Do you remember speaking at Bradford in 1909?
Winston: No.
Clemmie: Yes dear, you must.
Winston. Ah yes. That was when I was a young Liberal. I must have made a very truculent speech.