Books have been central in my life since early childhood. Collecting books seriously took a few more years. A focus on collecting all things Winston Churchill began after having read his autobiography, My Early Life. A book that is beautifully written, engrossing and inspiring.
The scope of Churchill materials available are myriad and mirror his multiple talents and skills. The three items displayed here are representative of the diverse aspects of his life.
First, is an inscribed copy of Churchill’s My Early Life to a young student at the start of his tenure as Prime Minister in 1940, early in WWII. Young David Benn, a schoolboy, wrote a letter to London Times detailing why he didn’t want to be evacuated to Canada and he ended his letter “p.s. i would rather be bombed to fragments than leave england.” The letter created an international media event which lead to a change in public policy.
Second, is the original drawing for the Punch cartoon published on October 4, 1939 as “The Ruler of the King’s Navee” commemorating Churchill’s being brought back into Government as First Lord of the Admiralty.
Third, is a Churchill holograph letter to Muriel Wilson in 1904 laying bare his emotions and begging her to reconsider marrying him. She had said no!
Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965). Holograph letter to Muriel Wilson, 3 pages, on 104 Mount Street stationary, 1904.
Siles Collection.
Churchill had proposed to three women before he married his life-long wife, Clementine. One was Muriel Wilson (1875-1964), a longtime friend and a talented, beautiful, and socially well-positioned young lady. In 1904, he proposed and was rejected. He didn’t want to accept her decision and wrote her this dejected and pleading letter. “You are not certain in your mind. Don’t slam the door.I can wait – perhaps I shall improve with waiting.” In the end, they remained lifelong friends.
Reference: Bass, Eleanor, Ed., Yours Always: Letters of Longing, UK, Icon Books, Ltd., 2017, pp. 17-22.
Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965). My Early Life. London: Butterworth, 1940.
3rd printing. Inscribed to David Julian Benn, July 1940, with front brown wrapper label. Stiles Collection.
Benn was a school boy whose letter to the London Times asks that he not be forced to evacuate England under a new Government policy during WWII. He ends the letter - “I would rather be bombed to fragments than leave England.” The ensuing international press coverage caught the attention of Churchill who agreed with him and through his War Cabinet stopped the policy. Churchill sent this inscribed book to David. One voice had made a difference!
Reference: Stiles, Gary L., “Bombed to Fragments”: One Boy’s Determination to “Stand Fast”, The Churchill Project, Hillsdale College, 2024.
A. W. Lloyd (1883-1966), cartoonist. “The Ruler of the King’s Navee,” Punch, October 4, 1939, p. 379.
Original pen and ink drawing. Stiles Collection.
Churchill was represented in political cartoons more than 600 times in the iconic British magazine Punch. Churchill had spent the 1930s in the ‘Wilderness’ and out of favor. In September 1939, war was declared and there were calls for Churchill to be given a leadership position. He was, as First Lord of the Admiralty. Here he is depicted as First Lord Sir Joseph Porter in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta H.MS. Pinafore.
Reference: Stiles, Gary L., Churchill in Punch, Sussex, UK, Unicorn Publishing Group, 2022, p. 328.
