Working with Winston

by Working

  10 Ibid.

  11 Ibid., p. 93.

  12 Ibid.

  13 Ibid., p. 4.

  14 Holmes, unpublished diary, 21 September 1943, No. 10 Annexe, p. 4.

  15 Ibid., 2 August 1943, No. 10.

  16 Ibid., 24 March 1943, No. 10 Annexe, p. 1.

  17 Ibid.

  18 Ibid., 5 April 1943, Annexe, p. 1.

  19 Ibid., 19 November 1944, p. 16.

  20 Holmes, Churchill’s Bunker, p. 121.

  21 Holmes, unpublished diary, 16 July 1944, Chequers, p. 14.

  22 Finest Hour, No. 118, Summer 2003, p. 20.

  23 Sir John Peck, The Atlantic Monthly (March 1965), as cited in Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour 1939–1941, Vol. VI, pp. 891–3.

  24 Colville, The Fringes of Power, p. 288.

  25 Holmes, unpublished diary, 5 June 1943, Chequers, p. 2. Holmes describes Chequers as ‘Constables everywhere, wonderful… Furniture is fascinating and all the rooms I’ve seen have splendid views.’

  26 Holmes, unpublished diary, 16 July 1944, Chequers, p. 14.

  27 Ibid., 5 June 1943, Chequers, p. 2.

  28 Ibid., 6 June 1943, p. 2. ‘One of the compensations for the late-night duties here is clearly going to be the excellent “full English” breakfast served to one in bed by the ATS domestic staff’. Ibid. However: ‘After he had gone to bed, I remained in the office to type out the statement and got off to bed at 4.15 a.m.’

  29 From 1 June 1940, Churchill had the use of Chequers which was run by Grace Lamont, a very efficient Scottish woman. Soames, Clementine Churchill, p. 322.

  30 Holmes, unpublished diary, 14 July 1944, Chequers, p. 13.

  31 Ibid., 25 June 1945, p. 24.

  32 Ibid., 21 May 1944, Chequers, p. 11.

  33 Ibid., 10 December 1944, Chequers, p. 17.

  34 Gilbert, In Search of Churchill, p. 169.

  35 Holmes, unpublished diary, 26 July 1944, Annexe, p. 14.

  36 Ibid., 31 October 1943, Chequers, p. 5.

  37 Layton, Winston Churchill by His Personal Secretary, p. 21.

  38 Holmes, unpublished diary, September 1944, p. 15.

  39 Ibid., 31 August 1944, p. 15.

  40 Captain Richard Pim (later Captain Sir Richard Pim) had other duties, as all Churchill staff did. He had taken leave from Churchill’s staff to help evacuate soldiers at Dunkirk. Later in Casablanca, late January 1943, ‘a number of American negro troops sang Spirituals, [including] a solo of the Londonderry Air… an inferior version of Danny Boy [which] touched the prime minister deeply. The following morning while still in bed, Churchill asked Pim to repeat the words of the song so that his typist could record them, and he would send them to Mrs Churchill.’ There is no mention of whether or not Churchill hummed the tune. There were no women at Casablanca, so perhaps it was Kinna who took down the lyrics. In Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Road to Victory 1941–1945, Vol. VII, p. 304.

  41 Holmes, unpublished diary, 5 July 1944, p. 13.

  42 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Road to Victory 1941–1945, Vol. VII, p. 940.

  43 The Montreal Gazette (11 September 1944), as cited in Moody, From Churchill’s War Rooms, p. 242.

  44 Martin, Downing Street: The War Years, p. 160.

  45 One of the other women, a secretary to a general, also in Quebec, bought twenty pairs ‘for family and friends, and all the girls in the office’. Moody, From Churchill’s War Rooms, p. 117.

  46 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Road to Victory 1941–1945, Vol. VII, p. 971, US edn.

  47 Ibid.

  48 Niall Ferguson, Kissinger: The Idealist: 1923–1968, p. 132.

  49 Layton, Winston Churchill by His Personal Secretary, p. 119.

  50 Ibid., p. 15.

  51 For more about picnics, see Cita Stelzer, Dinner with Churchill: Policy Making at the Dinner Table.

  52 Holmes, unpublished diary, p. 20.

  53 Layton, Winston Churchill’s Personal Secretary, p. 70.

  54 Holmes, unpublished diary, p. 16.

  55 Gilbert, Churchill: A Life, p. 794.

  56 Holmes, unpublished diary, 25 July 1943, Chequers, p. 3.

  57 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Road to Victory 1941–1945, Vol. VII, p. 973.

  58 Ibid., p. 98.

  59 Ibid., p. 1011.

  60 Bright Astley, The Inner Circle, p. 150.

  61 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour 1939–1941, Vol. VI, p. 1017.

  62 Holmes, unpublished diary, 3 November 1944, p. 16.

  63 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Road to Victory 1941–1945, Vol. VI, p. 1030.

  64 Layton, Winston Churchill by his Personal Secretary, p. 105.

  65 Colville, The Fringes of Power, p. 538.

  66 Ibid., and Holmes, unpublished diary, Athens, Christmas 1944, p. 1.

  67 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour 1939–1941, Vol. VII, p. 1115.

  68 Ibid., p. 1116.

  69 Spectator (29 December 1944), p. 3.

  70 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour 1939–1941, Vol. VII, p. 1119.

  71 Colville, Fringes of Power, p. 541.

  72 Moody, From Churchill’s War Rooms, pp. 50–1.

  73 Holmes, unpublished diary, Athens, Christmas 1944, p. 2.

  74 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Road to Victory 1941–1945, Vol. VII, p. 1118.

  75 Colville, Footprints in Time, pp. 180–1.

  76 Ibid., p. 181.

  77 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Road to Victory 1941–1945, Vol. VII, pp. 1122, 1131.

  78 Holmes, unpublished diary, Athens, 28 December 1944, p. 4.

  79 Ibid., 13 May 1945, p. 22.

  80 Interview with Elizabeth Layton Nel in DVD War Stories with Oliver North: The Life and Times of Winston Churchill, Fox News Channel (2007).

  81 Holmes, unpublished diary, 7 April 1944, Chequers, p. 9.

  82 Ibid., 11 February 1944, Chequers, p. 7.

  83 Ibid., 2 January 1945, p. 17.

  84 Ibid., 13 January 1945, Chequers, p. 18.

  85 Ibid., Argonaut, 2 February 1945, p. 1.

  86 Ibid.

  87 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour 1939–1941, Vol. VI, p. 1172.

  88 See Cita Stelzer, Dinner with Churchill, ch. 7 on the Yalta Conference.

  89 Holmes, unpublished diary, Argonaut, 10 February 1945, p. 3.

  90 Ibid., Argonaut 13 February 1945, p. 4.

  91 Ibid., Argonaut, 18 February 1945, p. 5.

  92 Ibid., Argonaut, 19 February 1945, p. 5.

  93 Ibid., 29 April 1945, Chequers, p. 21.

  94 Ibid., 3 May 1945, No. 10, p. 21.

  95 Ibid., 8 May 1945, p. 22.

  96 Arthur, Churchill: The Life, p. 211.

  97 Holmes, unpublished diary, 10 June 1945, p. 23.

  98 Ibid., 10 June 1945, p. 23.

  99 Ibid., 14 Jun 1945, p. 24.

  100 Ibid., 29 Jun 1945, p. 24.

  101 Ibid., Potsdam, 15 July 1945, p. 1.

  102 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 61.

  103 Holmes, unpublished diary, Potsdam, p. 1.

  104 Stelzer, Dinner with Churchill, p. 292, fn 19.

  105 Holmes, unpublished diary, Potsdam, 18 July 1945, p. 1.

  106 Ibid., 25 July 1945, p. 2.

  107 Ibid., 27 July 1945, p. 25.

  108 Ibid., 27 July 1945, p. 25.

  109 Ibid., 1 August 1945, no pagination.

  110 Ibid., 28 July 1945, p. 25.

  111 Ibid., 28 July 1945, p. 25.

  112 Obituary of Marian Holmes, Telegraph (10 October 2001).

  Chapter 7: Elizabeth Gilliatt

  1 Rowse, ‘ “There Was Once a Man”’.

  2 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 886. At UCL there is now a Gilliatt Lecture Theatre. He was attending obstetrician at the birth of Queen Elizabeth’s first two children.

  3 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour 1939 –1941, Vol. VI, p. 384.

  4 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never D
espair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 292.

  5 See also ibid., p. 179.

  6 Ibid., p. 179.

  7 Quoted in Bonham Carter, Winston Churchill As I Knew Him, p. 151, from My African Journey.

  8 Moody, From Churchill’s War Rooms, p. 51.

  9 Colville, The Fringes of Power, p. 664.

  10 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, pp. 534, 629.

  11 For a video of his arrival, see https://www.britishpathe.com/video/cap-dail-sir-winston-on-holiday.

  12 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 388.

  13 During the last decade of his life Churchill owned thirty-six racehorses and twelve brood mares. In ‘Winston Churchill and Colonist II’, Finest Hour, No. 125, Winter 2004–5, p. 28.

  14 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Road to Victory, Volume VII, p. 997.

  15 Gilbert, Churchill: A Life, p. 916.

  16 Michael Doran, Ike’s Gamble: America’s Rise to Dominance in the Middle East, pp. 60–61.

  17 Watch the resignation announcement on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Uj_o1L-e0.

  18 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 1135.

  19 Ibid., p. 1140.

  20 Ibid., p. 1128.

  Chapter 8: Lettice Marston

  1 Lavery, Churchill Goes to War, p. 358.

  2 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 221.

  3 Ibid., p. 226.

  4 However, times do change, although Churchill’s work did not. After his retirement, he wrote to his wife laying out in great detail his plan for secretarial help, a rare occurrence when he did not depend entirely on his secretaries to establish the office routine. Churchill Archives Centre, CHUR 1/5. And in Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 1132.

  5 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 1136.

  6 Alan Bullock, Ernest Bevin: A Biography, p. 300.

  7 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 426.

  8 http://www.britishpathe.com/video/churchill-in-oslo.

  9 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 486.

  10 Ibid., pp. 631–3.

  11 Leaming, Churchill Defiant, p. 123.

  12 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 656.

  13 Ibid., p. 1350.

  Chapter 9: Cecily ‘Chips’ Gemmell

  1 D. K. R. Crosswell, Beetle: The Life of General Walter Bedell Smith, p. 340.

  2 Reynolds, In Command of History, p. 77.

  3 ‘This archival treasure’ contained ‘the personal papers of a man who had experienced and shaped the history of the world in the last fifty years – school notebooks from the age of nine, letters and despatches [sic] from the wars in India, the Sudan, Cuba and South Africa; file upon file about the Dardanelles, the Somme and Czarist Russia, secret telegrams from Roosevelt and Stalin, all entangled with the politics between the two World Wars and private family letters and bank accounts. Everything had been kept and nothing thrown away and all were unique and perishable.’ In Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 331.

  4 Reynolds, In Command of History, p. 77.

  5 Layton, Winston Churchill by His Personal Secretary, p. 13.

  6 Paul Bew, Churchill & Ireland, p. 164.

  7 Layton, Winston Churchill by His Personal Secretary, p. 20. Churchill gave a twin (or one quite like it) to a staff member who had forgotten his own. Along with it came the admonition, ‘Read before you sign.’ That pen, with its gold nib, was recently auctioned off by Humbert & Ellis. Paul Fraser, ‘Collectibles’, 1 February 2018. https://store.paulfrasercollectibles.com/blogs/most-recent/winston-churchill-s-fountain-pen-valued-at-1-700.

  8 Clarke, Mr Churchill’s Profession, p. 169.

  9 Graebner, My Dear Mr Churchill, p. 29.

  10 Barry Singer, ‘Churchill’s Smile’, Huffington Post (11 March 2015), https://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-singer/churchills-smile_b_6843634.html.

  11 Soames (ed.), Winston and Clementine, pp. 559, 568.

  12 Grace Hamblin OBE, ‘Frabjous Days: Chartwell Memories’, p. 22.

  13 Ibid.

  14 Graebner has a similar story of a German POW watching a film with Churchill in Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 476.

  15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSz5prkhZng&t=63s.

  16 Layton Nel, Winston Churchill by His Personal Secretary, 2007, p. 39.

  17 Layton, Winston Churchill by His Personal Secretary, p. 39. She calls Ismay ‘A charming person… one of the gentlest and friendliest among Mr Churchill’s circle’.

  18 Lavery, Churchill Goes to War, p. 361.

  19 Lovell, The Riviera Set, pp. 101–2.

  20 Pilpel, Churchill in America, 1895–1961, p. 80.

  21 Graebner, My Dear Mr Churchill, pp. 272–4.

  22 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 479.

  23 Ibid., pp. 386–7.

  24 Ibid., p. 485.

  25 Wardell, ‘Churchill’s Dagger’, p. 21.

  26 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 485.

  27 Purnell, First Lady, p. 17.

  28 Celia Sandys’ remarks at the opening of the Morgan Library’s ‘Churchill: The Power of Words’, in Gary Shapiro, ‘How Churchill Mobilized the English Language’, New York Sun (12 June 2012).

  29 Penman began working for Churchill at Chartwell in August 1938, after secretarial training. The Churchill Documents: The Coming of War 1936–1939, Vol. 13, p. 1337. She left to get married in June 1939. Penman took down much of the night-time dictation for the early volumes of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.

  30 Gilbert, The Churchill Documents: The Coming of War 1936–1939, Vol. 13, p. 1352.

  31 Speaking at annual conference of The International Churchill Society, 11–12 October 2017, New York City.

  32 Churchill wrote home: ‘Everyone liked shoving their paws into the dish and remembered with pleasure that fingers were made before forks.’ In Soames (ed.), Winston and Clementine, p. 558.

  33 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 579.

  34 Churchill was so taken with the tempera method that he wrote to his Swiss paint and brush supplier, ordering ‘another outfit of tempera in tubes… and let me have the bill as I have a few francs available’. In Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 588.

  35 Ibid., p. 582.

  36 Ibid., p. 585.

  37 Ibid., p. 576.

  38 Ibid., p. 577.

  39 Graebner, My Dear Mr Churchill, p. 73.

  40 Portal, in a conversation with the author, says that Sturdee worked only on occasion at Number 10, and then as a volunteer. Gilbert reports she was paid an annual salary of £469 (worth about £14,500 in today’s money), as was Gilliatt. In Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 657, n 1.

  41 Moran, Winston Churchill, p. xvii.

  42 Purnell, First Lady, p. 344.

  Chapter 10: Jane Portal

  1 Speech at Home Park Football Ground, Plymouth, Devon, Churchill Archives Centre, CHUR, 5/44 B/215-216.

  2 Vanda Salmon, unpublished memoir, p. 35. Salmon added ‘Mr Churchill was a country man at heart.’

  3 Hansard House of Commons Debate, 12 May 1949, Vol. 464, cols 2011–2131.

  4 Vanda Salmon, unpublished memoir, p. 17.

  5 Ibid., p. 48. Arnhem was a battle ‘which none of us could forget’, and Browning was ‘a delight to know’, according to Salmon.

  6 In conversations with the author.

  7 Walter Graebner, My Dear Mr Churchill, p. 49.

  8 Churchill partially smoked the four-inch (10 cm) cigar at Le Bourget Airport in Paris on 11 May 1947. BBC, 13 October 2017.

  9 Reynold
s, In Command of History, p. 225.

  10 In conversation with the author.

  11 Lewis E. Lehrman, Lincoln & Churchill, frontispiece.

  12 John Maynard Keynes, Essays in Biography, p. 54.

  13 Lord Chandos, The Memoirs of Lord Chandos, p. 168.

  14 Interview with Jane Portal, now Lady Williams, as reported by Andrew Lownie, Stalin’s Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring, p. 240.

  15 And, on some nights, government or military films. ‘One night it was ‘Dangerous Moonlight’ – about the bombing of Poland… ’ In Layton, Winston Churchill by His Personal Secretary, p. 37.

  16 Charles Drazin, Korda: Britain’s Only Movie Mogul, p. 215.

  17 Lough, No More Champagne, p. 231.

  18 Michael Korda, Alone: Britain, Churchill and Dunkirk: Defeat Into Victory, p. 152.

  19 Lough, No More Champagne, pp. 231–5.

  20 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 485.

  21 Richard Brooks, ‘Winston Churchill’s Secret Love Doris Castlerosse: A Blackmail Risk?’, Sunday Times (25 February 2018).

  22 Andrew Roberts, The Spectator Blog, February 2018.

  23 John Colville, The Churchillians, p. 115.

  24 Graebner, My Dear Mr Churchill, p. 30.

  25 Colville, The Churchillians, p. 7.

  26 Richard Steyn, Churchill’s Confidant: Jan Smuts, Enemy to Lifelong Friend, pp. 164–5.

  27 Colville, Fringes of Power, p. 655.

  28 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 631.

  29 Leaming, Churchill Defiant, p. 120.

  30 Norman McGowan, My Years With Churchill, p. 101. A former sailor, wearing bell-bottom trousers, he began working for Churchill in 1949. His book is worth reading.

  31 In conversation with the author.

  32 Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair 1945–1965, Vol. VIII, p. 633.

  33 McGowan, My Years With Churchill, p. 102. And for a wonderful video, watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPL_LmBxlyc.

  34 Orson Welles was in Venice and has a wonderful story to tell on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpqwY7QL7r8.

  35 Another example of Churchillian humour from Lord Peter Carrington, describing an offer to join the Churchill Cabinet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjhyNDBLAd4.

  36 Anthony Montague Browne, Long Sunset: Memoirs of Winston Churchill’s Last Private Secretary, p. 118.

  37 Sheila Minto, LVO, MBE, was a chief administrator of Number 10 Downing Street through eight prime ministers. Born in 1908, she died in 1994. Nicknamed ‘The Queen Bee’, she is the great-aunt of Sir Christopher Meyer, former British Ambassador to the United States. He called her ‘a no-nonsense Scottish woman’ in DC Confidential, p. 15. She quotes Churchill saying ‘with a mischievous grin’, ‘I shall require two young women tonight,’ as he prepared to dictate into the early morning hours. Finest Hour, No. 86, Spring 1995, p. 10. On another occasion, John Peck quotes Churchill saying with a twinkle: ‘I shall need two young ladies tonight.’ In A&E’s Biography Series: Biography – The Complete Churchill, VHS.