March 12, 2015

‘Ah, Chartwell!’

Churchill was consumed by the Irish situation during the summer. The Provisional Government and the Irish Republicans engaged in armed struggle which led to a civil war. In Churchill’s words “the Irish labour in the rough sea.” He supported Michael Collins and wrote him these encouraging words: “…I have a strong feeling that the top of the hill has been reached, and that we shall find the road easier in the future than in the past….there is nothing we should like better than to see North and South join hands in an all-Ireland assembly without prejudice to the existing rights of either….The prize is so great that other things should be subordinated to gaining it. The bulk of people are slow to take in what is happening, and prejudices die hard. Plain folk must have time to take things in and adjust their minds to what has happened. Even a month or two may produce enormous changes in public opinion.”

“…if only we could get a little country home within our means and live there within our means it would add great happiness and peace to our lives.”

Collins asked for the support of Churchill and the British Government in opposing the Local Government Bill for Northern Ireland. He argued that is would “oust the Catholic and Nationalist people of the Six Counties from their rightful share in local administration.” His pleading was unsuccessful. The cause of peace received two serious blows in August with the loss of two signatories to the Irish Treaty. The first was Arthur Griffith, who Churchill described as “a man of good faith and good will.” Eight days later Michael Collins was assassinated in County Cork. Churchill had just received this message from Collins through an intermediary: “Tell Winston we could never have done anything without him.” He now feared his greatest problem would be in dealing with “a quasi-repentant De Valera. It may well be that he will take advantage of the present situation to try to get back from the position of a hunted rebel to that of a political negotiator.”

While Michael Collins was being ambushed, Churchill was returning from a holiday in France which was marred by cold and wet weather. On their fourteenth wedding anniversary Clementine wrote “…if only we could get a little country home within our means and live there within our means it would add great happiness and peace to our lives.” Unknown to his wife, on the next day he offered to buy Chartwell Manor near Westerham in Kent for £4,800. It would bring him great happiness and peace but not his wife, principally because they could not maintain it “within our means.” On that very same day, however, another event occurred which brought great and lasting peace and pride to them both: the birth of their daughter, Mary, Lady Soames, former Patron of The Churchill Center and the International Churchill Societies.