Working with Winston

by Working

  On other trips to Monte Carlo, when Churchill stayed with Beaverbrook at La Capponcina, Gemmell stayed in a small hotel in the town and went back and forth to work at the villa by taxi. As usual, Churchill managed to find time to paint and to swim off the beach. He ‘turned somersaults in the sea to amuse [Merle Oberon, the beautiful actress and wife of Alexander Korda].24 He also tutored her in the art of painting and was delighted to teach her and she patterned her painting on his.’25

  Churchill suffered a minor stroke while visiting Beaverbrook, serious enough that Lord Moran was summoned from London, arriving with his golf clubs ‘so that it would not seem that anything was amiss’.26 Gemmell remembers only that Churchill had a few colds and this stroke – but she does not recall fearing that the stroke was likely to cause permanent damage or prove fatal.

  She does, however, recall Mrs Churchill’s disapproval of her husband’s visits to the casinos in Monte Carlo. Clementine had a lifelong fear of gambling, losing money and facing bankruptcy, which was no surprise given her impoverished and itinerant childhood. Her mother Lady Blanche ‘enjoyed the casino [when they lived in France], quickly becoming a regular. Needless to say, she lost money she did not have, and to Clementine’s shame, the family was forced to ask for credit in the local shops.’27 With this background, being married to a man who ‘lived from pen to mouth’28 must have been unnerving indeed. Especially given his often-all-consuming passion for the casino. In 1938, en route from Daisy Fellowes’s villa near Monte Carlo to the train station, Mary Penman29 recalls that ‘Churchill ordered the car to stop as they were passing the Casino. Although we had little time to spare before catching the train, he dashed in to the Casino and returned triumphantly, “I have just won enough to pay for our fares home – what do you think of that?”’30 Fortunately for his family’s ability to maintain the lifestyle to which Churchill was accustomed, they did not have to rely on his winnings: he sold more history books than any other twentieth-century historian, according to Andrew Roberts, his latest biographer.31

  During their 1947 stay in Morocco, Thami El Glaoui, the Pasha of Marrakesh, gave a dinner for Churchill’s party and unusually the entire entourage was invited, including the female secretaries. His palace was in the Medina, the old fortified city. ‘We were ushered through lots of courtyards and into a tiny little room hung with carpets or silk or something… No sign of the Glaoui and drinks were being passed around… so I reached up for my drink and the Old Man said: “Oh Miss, be careful, it might be an aphrodisiac. Ho ho ho!!”’ When the Glaoui appeared they were invited in to dinner to sit on rugs on the floor, but Churchill, however, sat on a low bunk. ‘Then they brought in these great earthenware pots of food, absolute lovely. I remember chicken with wonderful pastry… We ate with our fingers32 and we all took little bits out and then the pot would go to the wives and from the wives all the way down. But we had the first thing.’ And they were served champagne, although the Muslim hosts did not drink it. She says they were expecting undulating dancing girls, belly dancers perhaps, but were disappointed as the only dancers turned out to be boys, covered head-to-toe in white, carrying musical instruments. Churchill, however, writing to Mrs Churchill, remembers it differently: first Berber female dancers, then female Arab dancers, neither of which he found either enticing or interesting. In fact, Churchill wrote: ‘I have great regard for the Glaoui who no doubt had endured all this and many other afflictions in his journey through this vale of sin and even more woe.’33

  Churchill had admired some paintings in the La Mamounia Hotel and asked to meet the French artist to ask him how he painted such ‘beautiful blue skies’. Invited to his studio, Churchill took Gemmell with him, expecting to work on the drive. It was hot in the studio and Churchill fell asleep – or so Gemmell thought. While the artist explained in French how he used tempera34 and ‘blew the paint on to his canvases’, Gemmell, who did not speak French, nodded knowingly, while the artist said he hoped she would be able to explain it all to Churchill. Suddenly Churchill woke up and said, ‘ “No good talking to her, she can’t understand a word.” Wasn’t that awful? I [was] mortified and a figure of fun.’ Churchill could be momentarily cruel.

  And impetuous. ‘Lili Marlene’ was one of the most popular songs of the Second World War. Although originally a German song, it was later picked up by the Allied armies in North Africa and its lyrics changed to English. Churchill hated the ‘Lili Marlene’ tune and ‘was absolutely terrified that they might play “Lili Marlene”, because once he got that tune in his head he had not been able to get it out.’ To get away from the tune, he decided to flee Marrakesh. The party first flew to a French Foreign Legion base with an old runway in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The French Commandant of the base welcomed Churchill’s party – with offerings of dates and goat’s milk and some more-welcome French coffee. The Commandant, a real Beau Geste figure, dressed in a navy cape and red hat along with his most attractive wife, entertained Churchill and his staff. Gemmell remembers that she sat for a meal with the detectives until Churchill asked that she join his table – an unusual gesture.‡‡

  The entourage then drove to a tiny village called Tinehir for a few days, where Churchill ‘found a sunlight painting paradise’. In a letter he promised Mrs Churchill he would take her when she arrived a few days later.35 They stayed in a small hotel where, Gemmell recalls, the bathrooms were all downstairs. One night, needing to go to the bathroom, she wandered down the stairs in the dark. She ‘put my foot out and something rose and rattled to its feet… and found the next morning that the Berbers were sleeping downstairs, guarding him.’ Not sounding very concerned, she says she felt no ‘danger of being raped perhaps by a Berber’.

  Back in Marrakesh, there were multiple picnics, ‘star turns and he [Churchill] expected all his guests to attend. Probably no man in the twentieth century organized an outing on such a lavish scale. The site was selected some days in advance after Mrs Churchill… had explored the region with a careful eye on what would make good subjects for Mr Churchill’s brush. Departure time was usually eleven sharp.’36 Gemmell says that the family sat at one table and the staff another, but that all the secretaries were invited – should he have an idea or a letter to dictate. Presumably they were included, too, in the Indian army toasts learned from General Pownall. She adds that they all adored and wanted to marry the recently widowed ‘Darling General Pownall’.

  Later that year, Gemmell decided to live in London and began to work for Churchill at Hyde Park Gate, with occasional trips to Chartwell. In London the taxi service they used to ferry the secretaries home was called Godfrey Davis, so when work was over for the night, Churchill would say to her ‘Go and order your Davy Jones,’ another Churchillian wordplay.

  In December 1950 Churchill returned to Marrakesh to paint and work, mostly on the final volume of the war memoirs. He took Gemmell as well as Sturdee, ‘a detective; Sergeant Murray, Churchill’s bodyguard; and Norman McGowan his new valet. Also on the expedition was Lord Cherwell and his valet Mr Harvey.’37 While the secretaries were unpacking the office supplies and typewriters to set up the offices – as they did on all trips – and the airline crew, staying at another hotel for the month, were settling in, Churchill scouted around for the ‘most paintacious’ spots, and cabled home to ask how Rufus II was doing.38 Graebner describes this type of office:

  The office was always installed in the middle of the Churchill wing [of the hotel],§§ since it functioned as the nerve centre for the entire party. All mail, for example, was delivered to the office, not to the rooms of any individuals. If anyone wanted to find out who was coming to dinner, he inquired at the office. All plans for the day were issued through the office. The management of this vital part of the holiday operation was entrusted to secretaries [Sturdee and Gemmell] from the London staff, one of whom was available whenever Churchill called between 8 a.m. and 2 a.m.39

  In October 1951 a general election brought Churchill back to Downing Street as prime mini
ster for the second time. Churchill immediately went to work at 28 Hyde Park Gate, doing what he called ‘putting chickens in coops’, meaning filling cabinets posts. But once again Gemmell’s confidence ebbed and she became fearful of not knowing what to do in the new situation. Jane Portal, being junior to her, was offered the post of working for Mrs Churchill, but turned it down. That gave Gemmell an opportunity to offer herself, which she did because she was very afraid of ‘going to No. 10 with him. I think I thought it was going to be terribly responsible and… I saw a way out by going to work for Mrs Churchill. So then we all moved over to No. 10.’ Although back in Number 10, but now working for Mrs Churchill, she saw less of her old colleagues. Sturdee,40 Portal and Gilliatt went with the prime minister, Gemmell with Mrs Churchill. Gilliatt recalls that the three of them did all his shorthand and typing, creating some resentment for Churchill’s personal secretaries from the Garden Room Girls, who had been anticipating doing that work.

  Gemmell wasn’t in the clear yet. She was in her office when one of the Private Secretaries asked her to please come to the cabinet room as the prime minister needed to dictate and everyone else had gone to lunch. ‘I go shaking into the Cabinet Room. I think it was the first time I had been in there… He wanted to dictate something… about the Yalu River.’ Because papers discarded at Downing Street had to be burned and not thrown out, she had a little pile of black ash on her desk – she was so nervous typing that there were quite a few sheets of paper that needed to be burned. But she ‘got through it somehow’.

  The work Gemmell did for Mrs Churchill was

  mostly personal: remind people to come to lunch, shopping for her, [buying] things on approval… She would say, ‘Could you go and get my camelhair coat, dear?’ I used to go to Fortnum & Mason and, [pointing to items], say ‘That’s nice, that’s nice, that’s nice… Could you send them, please, to No. 10 on approval?’ I’d get the car and chauffeur and it was very pleasant.

  Mrs Churchill’s biographer points out that as Churchill aged and sank into ‘apathy and indifference’,41 Mrs Churchill ‘in her loneliness turned to the young women she employed as secretaries.’42 Because they had been warned to be discreet and agreed to those terms, she could count on them to be discreet and not sell stories to the tabloids or otherwise be the source of gossip about the Churchill family.

  Mrs Churchill was not the only one on whom loneliness descended.

  On some days [the Churchills] would have lunch or dinner alone. There were days when nobody [came] to lunch… He’d say, ‘Who’s coming to lunch today?’… and one would sometimes say, ‘You’re alone.’ [He would] say, ‘Well, you’d better have lunch with me.’ And so to lunch with one’s [shorthand] book, mind you. And then no conversation. He hated being alone… and then the Old Man would become very mellow with the champagne. There would be meringues, perhaps, with dessert… His favourite things were Irish Stew and meringues… [He’d say], ‘I bet you like those, Miss, don’t you?’ Talking to the dog. You were there to take down.

  She says he did not drink a lot, but sipped a weak whisky and soda throughout the day, champagne for lunch and dinner, and then a brandy after dinner. She sometimes had to mix his whiskies and soda, especially when Walter (‘the most charming Swiss butler… he was sweet’) was on vacation, or sometimes the Swiss maids served his drinks. Churchill complained once that one of the Swiss maids made his drinks too strong, but he was reluctant to tell her as he thought it might hurt her feelings. And this is the same man that could yell at his personal secretaries, clashing characteristics in one person.

  When Churchill was knighted in April 1953 the secretaries had to decide what to call him. He hated being called ‘Sir’, even before he became a knight. He wanted to be called simply ‘Mr Churchill’. However, when Gemmell ‘met him in the passage at Number 10, said, “Good morning, Sir Winston.” He went, “Hummm, don’t be so cheeky, Miss,” which was sweet.’

  In early 1953, before Gemmell moved to New York to work for Life magazine, she went to say goodbye to both Churchills. She was told the prime minister would see her in the Cabinet Room. He was just off to the races and dressed in shepherd’s plaid.¶¶ ‘I think he kissed me and I practically died on the spot. He offered her a photograph… and that was it.’

  By July 1954 Gemmell was living in New York, where she still lives today. Churchill was there at the same time, visiting President Eisenhower. As he boarded the Queen Elizabeth for home, she and other guests, among them Bernard Baruch,## came aboard the ship to say goodbye to Churchill. When she saw her old boss, she recalls

  He was so sweet. I think I got a kiss. I practically burst into tears… [H]e must have asked where I worked. I… said Life magazine, and he said ‘Do you see Mr Luce often?’ [Henry Luce was as grand to Time Incorporated as Churchill was to the world.] So I said, ‘Not very often.’ ‘Well, give him my regards,’ answered Churchill. When I got back to the office, Mr Luce was there, and he said, ‘Hi, young lady. Where have you been?’… ‘Just down to see the prime minister and he sends Mr Luce his regards,’ she answered. ‘I got a look [that said] you’re very good at making up stories.’

  On trips back to London Gemmell visited the Churchills and was invited to Chartwell for lunch. Lady Churchill (as she had become) warned her that ‘Winston was very changed, dear.’ At the table, a thoughtful host as always, Churchill asked if she wanted mustard? Then asked her, ‘Have I got soup on my face or something?’ (She was so taken with her placement on his right and was looking at him intensely.) Then he continued, ‘Do I know you?’ ‘Oh yes,’ she said. ‘I used to work for you.’ ‘For how long?’ he asked. ‘For four years,’ she answered. She then went to say goodbye to him and he ‘sweetly said, “Thank you for coming to see me.”’ She never saw him again.

  Gemmell’s recollections are of two sorts – the first is her semi-humorous description of his work-above-all attitude:

  We always used to laugh, but the old man really just wanted us to be there to take down. We always used to laugh that if anything happened to us and one went in and one said, ‘Mr Churchill, I’m terribly sorry, but’ – let’s say it was me – ‘Miss Gemmell has been run over by a tram.’ We always [used to think] what the old man would say – no, not run over, ‘She’s been hurt in an accident’ – and the old man would say, ‘Oh, oh, I am sorry. Will she be able still to take down?’ And then if the answer was ‘No, I don’t think so. It’s going to be a long time.’ ‘Oh well, well, send her parents a copy of My Early Life. I’ll sign it.’ We always used to laugh about this, but we never really believed it… And then [on] one of the picnics, General Pownall took Jo [Sturdee] and me up a hillside for a walk, and coming down Jo caught her ankle in a hole or something and did sprain it very badly; and General Pownall said, ‘Take the car back to the hotel,’ and – she was in quite a lot of pain – and ‘Get the doctor and they’ll bind it up for you.’ Jo got into the car and was driven back to the hotel and General P. went over to the old man, who was painting, and he said, ‘Miss Sturdee has had a small accident. She sprained her ankle and I sent her back to the hotel.’ And the old man looked up and said to General P., ‘Can she still take down?’ I heard it and it was too good to be true. So if one only had the courage, I would have said, ‘Well, it’s her ankle, not her hand. So she was still able to take down.’

  The second is a completely serious description of her deep affection for Churchill, using many of the same words the other secretaries used.

  He was lovable… so funny… sort of a lovable teddy bear, except when he was barking at you, shouting at you. And appreciative… the way he would call me into the hall and say goodbye… and thank one. [And] charm, he had bags of charm. Bags of it. Now whether he was being just Winston Churchill, the squire tending to his sheep, would he still have gotten one to love him as much? I don’t know… the greatness …

  * ‘Old Man’ was used affectionately by many of the secretaries.

  † She could not see out completely, but the small
window to the front of the house gave her a good view of visitors’ shoes and socks. She called it her view of ‘the socks of the famous’. She especially recalls Anthony Eden’s pink socks.

  ‡ What is clear is that all future historians will thank Kelly and Gemmell for their initial work setting up what became the invaluable Churchill Archives.

  § Examples abound. Notably Churchill’s agreement to allow de Gaulle to share the glory of the liberation of Paris.

  ¶ He was urged, too, to sign photographs of himself, which he also used as thank-you gifts to staff and others.

  # Tagging was done with ‘little pieces of material with a wire at the end, which you put through the Treasury tags.’ Belly bands were the leather straps. Compare with the ‘Bellybandoes’ for his cigars.

  ** Rufus I had been run over by a car while Churchill was away in Brighton at the Conservative Party Conference in October 1947.

  †† Time-Life also paid for many of the trips on RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth.

  ‡‡ One of the Scotland Yard detectives told Gemmell that he had helped build the road they were driving on when he was serving in the French Foreign Legion.

  §§ Usually the Churchill party took an entire floor. In this case, it was a renovated wing of the hotel.

  ¶¶ A black-and-white tartan plaid.

  ## Gemmell recalls that Baruch was very kind, and not only because he gave the secretaries pocket money.