May 14, 2013

DATELINES: FINEST HOUR 140, AUTUMN 2008

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CHURCHILL WAS BORN

FINEST HOUR 29, AUGUST-DECEMBER 1973— Gladstone announced his retirement (but did not retire for twenty years)….Disraeli’s Tories began negotiations for purchase of the Suez Canal shares from Egypt….Postal sorters pressed for 26/ per week, rising to a maximum of 50/….The King of Fiji ceded the islands to Britain….Disraeli reduced income tax from 4d to 3d in the pound…silver spoons were 7/4 per ounce, coal 21/ per ton, a frock coat 21/. Cook’s advertised first class round-the-world fares for £170….It was raining the day WSC was born, a weekend of hurricanes, high seas and shipping disasters. Vivid lightning was seen by sailors.

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—JOHN FROST

FH editor Dalton Newfield commented:”We are indebted (again) to John Frost, who is an inexhaustible suppler of interesting items about the Great Man.” Thirty-five years on, nothing has changed, as John’s world-renowned newspaper collection serves him still as our cuttings editor. John, 88, a veteran of Juno Beach in 1944, is now very ill. His many friends might like to send him an email via his son Peter: [email protected] —Ed.

ANGIE’S TRIBUTE HOLLYWOOD, JULY 7TH— Evidently Angelina Jolie’s tattoo, Roman numerals for the date of Churchill’s “Finest Hour” speech (FH 136: 62) were temporary adornments for the film “Wanted.” According to Jolie in “Bang Media International” (which doubtless knows what goes), “We tried to focus the fake tattoos on themes that would be related to this sense of justice. I have ‘Strength of Will’ in one language, and we added it in four other languages on my arm….From Churchill’s speech, ‘We have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat,’ I had ‘Toil’ and ‘Tears’ put on my arms.”

Jolie says having the temporary artwork added was unusual, and to that end, her permanent collection of tattoos was not covered for this film: “Instead of taking mine away, which we have to do in every film, we ended up leaving mine and adding more.”

GROWING PAINS

FINEST HOUR 18, MARCH-APRIL 1971— As we become more international, it behooves the editor to realize that we must communicate in at least two languages. Although an Englishman would probably recognize the word “harbor,” he would spell it “harbour.” More dangerously, if Finest Hour dates an event to happen on 3/4/71 it means March 4th to Americans and April 3rd to our British friends. Incidentally, our late Honorary Member, Randolph S. Churchill, raised a big fuss about this during World War II, but to little avail. Finally, American forces were trained to use the designation “4Mar71,” or more fully “4 March 1971,” which leaves little room for any mistakes—and FH will do this in the future (if the editor remembers).

Not so easy of solution is the designation of stamps. Each country has its own lingua franca when it comes to philatelic items, and this is very necessary. Elsewhere in this issue we refer to Australia #152-4. In the USA, this is the normal way to to designate three stamps issued by Australia in 1935 showing King George V on his charger “Anzac” and available in three values, 2d red, 3d blue and 2/ violet; and issued in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the reign of King George V.

But this is all nonsense to a reader who does not have Scott, and uses Gibbon to communicate with his fellow philatelists. Or Minkus. Or one of a number of other perfectly good catalogue systems. Perhaps the editor will have to have both Scott and Gibbon at hand in the future.

—DALTON NEWFIELD

• Newfield’s dilemma gave rise in the early 1980s to the bilingual Finest Hour which persists to this day: When an article originates in English-English, it remains so (humour not humor, defence not defense); when it originates in the U.S., where they haven’t used English in years (as Professor Higgins says in “My Fair Lady”), it is spelled (not spelt) in American: i.e., “humor” and “defense.”

APPLE FROM ORCHARD

CHURCHILLCHAT AUGUST 1ST—There is a kind of cultish quality emerging in Churchill discussions these days with respect to the terms “liberal” and “conservative.” Apparently to some people you must be categorized as being one or the other and there is no middle ground. In fact, it is possible for a single mind to hold liberal views on one subject and conservative views on another without being philosophically inconsistent or unfaithful to one’s personal ethic. Isolated opinions may be interpreted as leftist or rightist, but one can hope people are more complex in their broader intellectual make-up.

Winston Churchill certainly was…Incidentally, Clementine Churchill was a staunch life-long supporter of Liberal Party policies. Churchill was hated at times by people on both the left and right of politics because of his freethinking and fearlessly expressed opinions. His closest friends came in all political colours and Churchill functioned best in coalition governments. One needs only to look at the membership lists for his “Other Club” to see that he was comfortable in the company of vital minds with fully formed ideas no matter what their party affiliations.

If Churchill had not been an individualist but a conventional party politician he could not have achieved what he did and we would not be holding him in such high regard today My hope is that Winston Churchill’s memory will not be appropriated by the left or the right or the up or the down but will be celebrated as an icon of a individualism, rationalism and free speech who remained true to his own convictions in the face of enormous organized resistance.

—STAN ORCHARD, VICTORIA, B.C. GOOGLE GROUPS

THE ORDER OF ETCETERA

FINEST HOUR 21, SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1971— Probably the rarest order in the world is “The Order of Etcetera,” and it may be proudly held by our Patron, The Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Lord Mountbatten is one of the most (if not the most) decorated men in the world. So it is that a typical introduction will begin: “Knight of the Garter, Privy Councillor, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of India, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Indian Empire, Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, etc., etc., etc., etc.” This is an order he proudly shares with Sir Winston Churchill.

The Society has been honored by the acceptance of Honorary Membership by Lord Mountbatten. In a long and thrilling career, he contributed in a notable way to the causes of the Empire and the free world, aided by his wife, Countess Mountbatten. It was our intention to present a thumbnail biography in this issue, and to that end we reviewed several books about Mountbatten in our library. We soon determined that there is no thumbnail that could do justice even to the barest outline of his wide and interesting career. Instead, we present his Who’s Who entry, and intend to bring you biographical sketches in future issues, particularly as they pertain to his relationships with Sir Winston, which were many and intimate. Meanwhile we offer Mountbatten’s address to the Edmonton Society which begins in this issue. (The speech is now available on our website -Ed.)

—DALTON NEWFIELD

LONDON PLAQUES

LONDON, AUGUST 6TH— Reader Keelan Morris asked why there is a blue plaque marking Churchill’s residence in Sussex Square, when the house he lived in was leveled in the Blitz (Ampersand, FH 138:58). We referred this conundrum to Stefan Buczacki, author of the admirable Churchill & Chartwell (reviewed in FH 138:52), who kindly replied and sent the accompanying photographs. Stefan Buczacki elaborates:

“The house with the plaque in Sussex Square is not the original one in which Churchill lived—pretty obvious really! The present house dates from the 1960s. Moreover, notice that the plaque isn’t the official English Heritage version. ‘Official’ plaques are limited to one per person, but there are actually four Winston Churchill plaques in London, plus one for his father Lord Randolph Churchill. Unofficial plaques are on the site of the old 2 Sussex Square, on 33 Eccleston Square, and on 11 Morpeth Mansions (black, not the usual blue).

“The Lord Randolph plaque is official while the official English Heritage plaque for Sir Winston is on his last house, 28 Hyde Park Gate—but contains inaccurate information. As stated in my book, it proclaims that Churchill lived and died there. Actually, he lived at 28 and 27, which he temporarily linked, and he actually died at 27, where the ground floor room had been converted to a bedroom for him. Lady Soames told me she had been aware of this longstanding error when I raised it with her, but no one else seems to have spotted it.”

HISTORY #102

LONDON, MAY 10TH— On the 68th anniversary of Churchill’s becoming premier, the Headmaster of Brighton College told a conference that he wanted to inspire children with Britain’s legacy and influence on the world. Headmaster Richard Cairns said current history stops on only three occasions: 19th century women and the two World Wars. “We should stop being ashamed of being British,” he said.

“The Story of Our Land” is a course taught six times a week to pupils aged 11 to 14, after which they will take exams in geography, history and religious eduction. Cairns said the education system is “so obsessed with testing skills that it has forgotten to provide a historical and geographic framework…Not only do children not know where Afghanistan is on the map but a quarter of them believe Winston Churchill is a fictional character….Our poor children have no sense of their history and no sense of the historical landscape that surrounds them. We’re hesitating about talking about the past because people did things we would not do today. Slavery existed—that was wrong—but Britain had an important role in the development of the world and children should be aware our culture spread across the globe, for good or ill.”

For good or ill“? Will someone please send to Headmaster Cairns Churchill’s retort to Clement Attlee (Woodford, 12 October 1951), who said his Labour Party was having to clean up “the mess of centuries”:

“This is what the Prime Minister considers Britain and her Empire represented when in 1945 she emerged honoured and respected from one end of the world to the other by friend and foe alike after her most glorious victory for freedom. ‘The mess of centuries’—that is all we were. The remark is instructive because it reveals with painful clarity the Socialist point of view and sense of proportion. Nothing happened that was any good until they came into office. We may leave out the great struggles and achievements of the past—Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, Parliamentary institutions, constitutional monarchy, the building of our Empire—all these were part of ‘the mess of centuries.’ Coming to more modern times, Gladstone and Disraeli must have been pygmies. Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill…and in our lifetime Balfour, Asquith and Morley, all these no doubt were ‘small fry.'”

“NEVER SO GOOD”

LONDON, MARCH 28TH— Actor Jeremy Irons, who won fame in “Brideshead Revisited” and other great roles, receives high marks for his portrayal of Harold Macmillan at the Lyttleton Theatre. (The play’s title is from “Supermac’s” 1957 remark that the British “never had it so good”). According to Benedict Nightingale in The Times, Irons portrays a “shrewd, canny, withdrawn figure who conceals a melancholy and even a despair beneath an urbane exterior.” (Macmillan’s wife carried on a long and not very quiet affair with Robert Boothby, Macmillan determinedly ignoring it.) Nightingale writes, “…the play is two or three cuts above the usual theatrical bio. There are consistently good supporting performances, from Anthony Cal’s vain, edgy Eden to Ian McNeice’s Churchill, who looks a bit like a bloated dwarf but does catch some of the giant character. Irons manages genuinely difficult feats. To be self-effacing yet in command. To aim for power without quite wanting it….To attain success yet see through it and, at times, wish for death. To watch what he suspects is his own moral decline. To be inscrutable. In short, to be Harold Macmillan.”

THE DIRTY VICAR

KEW, LONDON, MAY 5TH— In 1940, MI5 seized a vicar, Henry Tibbs of Teigh, Leicestershire, after being informed that he was preaching Nazi propaganda, the National Archives at Kew revealed today. Tibbs was said to have described Churchill as a “vile drug addict” in the pay of American Jews, and to have invited two members of the Gestapo to stay at his vicarage shortly before the outbreak of World War II, to help them spy on an RAF base. MI5 quoted the Irish-born Tibbs as saying “Germany is our natural friend” and “As soon as Hitler gets here the better.” Ultimately the charges were dismissed as having been the invention of
an unfriendly rival vicar, but the report concluded that Tibbs “often lets his tongue run away with him.” Sounds like some of the stuff we’ve been reading during the never-ending American presidential election….

LAST LAP FOR THE O.B.

LONDON, AUGUST 25TH— Sir Martin Gilbert today began work on the completion of the Churchill official biography’s documentary companion volumes.

The last published volume, 1941: The Ever-Widening War (volume three of the Churchill War Papers) was published in 2000 by Heinemann in Britain and Norton in the United States. A new publisher, Hillsdale College Press, of Hillsdale, Michigan, will be publishing the remaining seven volumes, as they are republishing all of the previous biographic and companion volumes. The new volumes cover the following:

1942 (including the fall of Tobruk and Singapore, Churchill’s first Moscow visit, the Battle of El Alamein).

1943 (including the Casablanca and Teheran conferences).

1944 (including Normandy, Churchill’s second Moscow visit, Yalta).

1945 January to July (including Dresden, VE-Day, Potsdam).

1945 August to October (War’s End, Iron Curtain speech).

1951-1955 (Second Premiership, Bermuda Conference).

1955-1965 (Retirement, writing, painting, reflecting, family, legacy).

Anyone who has any documents that they would like Sir Martin to consider for inclusion can email him through his website.

BUY NOW!

Support Hillsdale College in its noble republishing of all past official biography volumes and all seven of the new companions.

The Official Biography now being completed is already the longest ever published and the ultimate authority and source-work for every phase of Churchill’s life and times. Thanks to Hillsdale, it is now truly affordable by everyone.

Not only are these books an incredible buy (Biographic volumes $45, Companions $35) but Hillsdale College Press will sell you all eight Biographics for $36 each and all twenty-one (eventually) Companion Volumes for $28 each by subscription. Better yet, if you subscribe for all thirty volumes, you get the Biographic volumes for $31.50 and the Companions for $24.50. That includes the upcoming, 1500-page Companions to Volume V, first editions of which are trading for up to $1000 each! How can you not afford these books? Order from their website or telephone toll-free (800) 

 

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