November 21, 2009

A cigar smoked by Prime Minister Winston Churchill as he planned D-Day has been discovered in a small market village – after being hidden for over 50 years.

UK Telegraph (20 Nov 2009) – The cigar has now been valued at £800 by an expert during the filming of the Antiques Roadshow.

2024 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 41st International Churchill Conference. London | October 2024

More

Student Christian Williams, 33, was given the cigar when he was just 12 by his grandad Ronald Williams, a WWII veteran.

At over six inches long the cigar has never been touched by its owner, who keeps it safe in a sturdy wooden box.

It was taken from a historic meeting between Churchill and the other Allied leaders at the famous Casablanca Conference.

Placecards bearing the names of the world leaders taken with the cigar from the conference combined with Mr William senior’s testimony helped the authentication of the cigar.

Mr Williams, a student at Lincoln College who lives in nearby Horncastle, said he felt like he owned a piece of history.

He said: “I’ve kept the cigar a secret and completely to myself since my grandad gave it to me all those years ago.

“I can remember so clearly what he said to me as he handed it over.

“He said ‘You’ll know what to do with it one day and realise what it is’.

“Even at 12, I obviously knew who Churchill was, but I didn’t fully understand the relevance of the cigar until quite recently when I spoke to an expert.

“I’ve never dared to touch it and never picked it out of its box, it’s far too precious to me.

“I don’t even keep it at home because I’m worried about it, it’s held in a safe place and I only take it from there for special occasions.

“It’s a really powerful object because when I look at it I can really imagine where it came from.

“I guess I have got a 20th century icon, you think of Churchill and you think of the man with a big fat cigar in his mouth.

“You can just imagine him saying ‘Let’s go with D-Day’ as he stood there puffing away on it.”

Mr Williams senior, who served in the 8th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, had been asked to act as butler to the Prime Minister for the conference in 1943.

The meeting, which had the codename of Symbol, was held from January 14 to 24 in the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco.

It was at the conference the Allies plotted their European strategy for WWII and how they were to tackle the German forces.

D-Day was a hot topic among the leaders and plans for it to happen that year were shelved for a later date.

Instead, Churchill agreed to form an Anglo-American body to begin the detailed planning which would lead to the events of June 6, 1944.

It would prove to be the turning point of the war as the Allies began pushing back the Nazis in Western Europe, before final victory in 1945.

At some point during the conference, most likely the end given the importance of the placecards, Mr Williams decided to take some souvenirs of the occasion.

And in 1987 he passed the incredible heirloom down to grandson Christian, a gift made especially poignant as he died just two years later at the age of 67.

Christian had the cigar valued at £800 by an expert during the filming of the Antiques Roadshow at Lincoln Cathedral.

Read the entire article here

©Telegraph.co.uk