by David Lough
22. Minting the Memoirs, 1945-6
1. 29 Sep 1945 Treasury Chambers letter to WSC, CHUR 1/16/112.
2. 28 Jan 1945 CSC ltr to M. Soames, cited M. Soames, Clementine Churchill, p. 418; 13 Dec 1945 KFR account, CHAR 1/389/36. The Churchills later leased the first and second floors of the adjoining 27 Hyde Park Gate for seven years at £350 per annum, until they bought the property for £7,000 in February 1946 – see 18 Feb, 22 Aug, 17 Oct 1946, WSC cbl to KFR, NM ltrs to WSC, CHUR 1/17/116, 164, 172.
3. 26, 27, 31 Jul, 2 Aug 1945 ER cbls & ltrs to WSC, K. Hill reply, CHAR 8/721/2, 4, 5, 7
4. 8 Aug 1945 ER ltr to WSC, CHAR 8/721/8–9.
5. 7 Aug 1945 Ld Camrose note, Camrose Papers; Ld Hartwell, William Camrose, Giant of Fleet Street, pp. 333–4.
6. 30 Nov 1945 WSC ltr to H. Macmillan, CHAR 8/722/60.
7. 1 Aug 1945 W. Graebner ltr to WSC, CHUR 4/15/572. LIFE (a weekly pictorial news magazine), TIME and Fortune formed the core of a publishing empire founded by Henry Luce. Luce was brought up in China, before he made his way to England, aged fourteen, and then to Yale University. He founded LIFE in 1936. Ten years later it enjoyed a readership of five million and contributed two-thirds of the group’s $96 million annual revenue – see R. Elson, The World of Time Inc., pp. 182–3.
8. W. Graebner, My Dear Mr Churchill, p. 2.
9. 17 Nov 1945 TIME-LIFE ltr to WSC, CHUR 4/15/555. LIFE’s January 1946 edition pp. 44–52 carried pictures of eighteen paintings under the heading ‘The Paintings of Winston Churchill’, pp. 44–52. Mrs Hill negotiated a further fee of £1,000 for The Strand’s use of seventeen paintings in spring 1946.
10. 10 Oct 1945 A. Moir ltr to G. Mason, CHUR 4/15/570.
11. 24 Sep 1945 WSC ltr to CSC, SFT:540–1.
12. 12 Feb 1946 J. Wood ltr to WSC, CHUR 1/17/367–8, schedules 369–ff.
13. Lord Hartwell, William Camrose, Giant of Fleet Street, p. 336.
14. 19 Dec 1945 House of Commons, Hansard vol 417 cc13124.
15. U/d Sep 1945 Ld Camrose note, Chartwell file, Camrose papers.
16. NM account, Camrose Papers, Chartwell file.
17. 25 Oct 1945 Westminster Bank, Temple Bar branch statement, Camrose papers.
18. 1946 Country House file, Camrose papers; 13 Dec 1954 A Moir ltr to J. Colville, CHUR 1/28/290, A. Moir ltr to WSC, 7 Oct 1958, 1/37/43–4;13 Dec 1954 1/28/290. Camrose finally raised £95,000 from seventeen names, interest raising the total to £95,343. Churchill was paid £50,000 on 4 October 1946, before the purchase completed formally on 29 November; the National Trust received its endowment on 2 December. After lawyers were paid, £8,931 remained in the Chartwell subscription account, so £8,728 was added to the National Trust’s endowment in March and April 1947, taking the endowment to £43,728; investment gains and accumulated income raised the endowment’s value to £60,000 at the end of 1954. Lord Camrose’s son, Lord Hartwell, made the list of donors public in 1989. Apart from Lord Camrose’s £15,000, each donor subscribed £5,000: Viscount Bearsted (art collector and philanthropist), Lord Bicester (merchant banker at Morgan Grenfell), Sir James Caird (ship owner), Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen (businessman, British American Tobacco), Lord Catto (governor of the Bank of England), Lord Glendyne (stockbroker), Lord Kenilworth (motor manufacturer), Lord Leathers (shipping), Sir James Lithgow (ship builder), Sir Edward Mountain (underwriter), Viscount Nuffield (motor manufacturer and philanthropist), Sir Edward Peacock (merchant banker), Viscount Portal of Laverstoke (paper manufacturer), J. Arthur Rank (flour miller and film-maker), James de Rothschild (Liberal politician and philanthropist) and Sir Frederick Stewart (engineer).
19. M. Daunton, Just Taxes, pp. 198–9. The budget reduced the standard rate of income tax from 50 to 45 per cent, while the top rate of sur-tax remained 47.5 per cent. The combined top rate was restored to 97.5 per cent six months later.
20. 5 Oct 1945 K. Hill note to WSC, CHAR 8/716/61. Sir Alexander Korda bought the film rights to The River War for £35,000 (paying a first instalment of £25,000 in August 1946). The film was never made.
21. U/d, c16 Oct 1945 WSC note, CHUR 1/15/9–13.
22. 17, 24 Oct 1945 WSC ltr, memo to Ld Camrose, CHAR 8/718/4, 5–9, 8/713/38–42. The Cambridge professor was Denis Brogan.
23. 1 Nov 1945 WSC ltr to N. Flower, CHAR 8/718/14.
24. 12 Dec 1945 WSC draft for G. Mason, CHAR 1/388/30.
25. 17 Sep 1945 ACB ltr to K. Hill, CHUR 4/6/107–9.
26. 19 Nov 1945 M. Field III ltr to WSC, CHUR 4/6/165–6; 17 October 1945 S. Curtis Brown ltr to WSC, 4/6/104–5. Curtis Brown’s estimate of the US rights’ value was $1.1 million, close to the figure achieved a year later.
27. 15 Oct 1945 WSC ltr to Ld Camrose, CHUR 4/6/157.
28. 8 Nov, 10 Dec 1945 T. Harris ltrs to WSC, CHUR 1/9/3, 12. Churchill bought £10,000 of 2½ per cent Consols, £20,000 of 3 per cent Local Loans, £10,000 of 3 per cent Savings Bonds 1965/75, £2,000 of railway preferences shares and £1,000 of Bolsover Colliery shares (despite the the threat of nationalization). 8 Jan, 18 Feb 1946 WSC ltrs to T. Harris, CHUR 8/1/46; 1/9/14, 87; 1/41/194. The day before he left for New York, Churchill gave Lloyds Bank authority to invest a further £20,000 for him, using a pre-agreed list of shares (including Union Corporation, Allied Bakeries and two investment trusts, Select Trust and African & European).
29. 17 Dec 1945 W. Graebner, My Dear Mr. Churchill, p. 4.
30. 17 Dec 1946 H. Luce comment on W. Graebner cable, box 1, WSCDL, CURBSML.
31. 8, 15 Jan 1946 W. Graebner ltr to WSC, WSC ltr to H. Luce, CHUR 4/5/263, 254–7.
32. 19 Dec 1946 ER ltr to WSC, CHAR 8/721/16–17.
33. The advance had been made in 1944 by the introduction of a ‘Pay As You Earn’ or PAYE system, through which employers deducted income tax at source before they paid salaries to their employees.
34. 8 Jan 1946 C. Graham-Dixon Opinion, CHUR 4/41/17–18.
35. 24 Jan 1946 G. Mason cbl to WSC, citing C. Graham-Dixon, CHUR 1/7/77.
36. ER conversation with RSC, cited M. Gilbert WSC 8:187–8.
37. R. Elson, The World of Time Inc., p. 157.
38. 18, 24 Apr, 7 Jun, 25 Jul 1946 N. Pearn corresp with WSC, N. Sturdee, CHUR 4/29/200, 218, 221, 227, 8–10, 114. Pearn, Hollinger & Higham raised almost £5,000 for outright sales: 60,000 French francs from Le Figaro, £300 for Spanish rights, £100 for Scandinavian and Dutch rights.
39. 18 Feb 1946 Fladgate & Co., Schemes, C. Graham-Dixon Opinion, CHUR 4/41/13–18, 11–14.
40. 5 Mar 1946 WSC speech, Westminster College, Missouri.
41. 20 Mar 1946 ER ltr to WSC, CHUR 4/12/321–2.
42. 11 Apr 1946 WSC memo to A. Moir, CHUR 4/41/127–31; May 1952 E. Sturdee note, 4/41/289–90. Omitted from the list were the 1939–45 Prime Minister’s office files, known as the ‘Premier’ files, which had been moved to the Cabinet Office basement, but to which Churchill could have laid claim under war cabinet guidelines. Moir only heard of their existence in 1952, when it was too late to include them in the trust.
43. May 1946 A. Moir Draft Chartwell Literary Settlement deed, CHUR 4/41/20–7.
44. 19 May, 31 Jul 1946 WSC ltr to A. Moir, Chartwell Literary trust deed, CHUR 4/41/29, 59–6. The trust’s final form gave half to Randolph on winding-up and half to his other children. It excluded Churchill and Clementine as beneficiaries.
45. 31 Jul 1946 Fladgate & Co. Chartwell Literary Settlement Trust deed, CHUR 4/41/51, 52.
46. 4 Aug 1946 WSC letter to Camrose, CHUR 4/42/124–5.
47. 10 May 1946 CP (46) 188, NA CAB 129/9.
48. 29 May 1946 WSC to C. Attlee, NA CAB 21/3740.
49. 23 Sep 1946 WSC ltr to E. Bridges, Camrose Papers.
50. 27 Sep 1946 E. Bridges memo WSC, NA CAB 21/3747.
51. 10 Oct 1946 E. Bridges ltr to WSC, Camrose Papers.
52. 25 Sep 1946 WSC schedules, CHUR 1/8/129–31; 13 Sep 1945 VdaC list of WSC securities, 1/16/226–7.
53. 1941 My Early Life £7,500, London Film Productions (A. Korda)/Warner Br
os.; 1944 Marlborough: His Life and Times £50,000, Two Cities Films (del Giudice)/J. Arthur Rank; 1945 A History of the English-Speaking Peoples £50,000, London Film Productions (A. Korda)/MGM; 1946 Savrola £35,000 London Film Productions (A. Korda).
54. 5 Apr, 23 May 1946 Wood, Willey & Co. schedules, CHUR 1/7/97–104, 1/17/61. Before his tax was computed, Churchill could deduct £1,039 of life assurance payments on policies with Phoenix Assurance, National Mutual Life and Commercial Union, £668 interest on loans from Lord Randolph’s will trust (£12,000) and his settlement for Mary (£1,700). There were also large deductions for his covenanted payments to Pamela Churchill, Sarah Oliver, Randolph and Mary (his £500 a year covenant for Randolph cost a net £180 each year after Churchill made deductions against both his income tax and sur-tax assessments).
55. 14 Oct 1946 www.britishpathe.com/video/winston-churchill-gives-away-a-house/query/sevenoaks. The gift came from C. A. Hopkins. Churchill gave Kippington Court, now Churchill Court, to the British Legion ‘for the comfort of the wounded and the sick’.
23. Selling the Memoirs, 1946-8
1. 17, 19 Oct 1946 Ld Camrose corresp with ER, Camrose papers.
2. 1966 ER recollections to RSC, M. Gilbert, Winston Churchill and Emery Reves, pp. 264–71.
3. Oct 1946 Daily Telegraph New York office memo to Ld Camrose, Camrose papers.
4. 24 Oct 1946 ER cbl to WSC, CHUR 4/31/1.
5. 25 Oct 1946 Ld Camrose cbl corresp with WSC, CHUR 4/31/4, 5, Camrose Papers. Written in early November, the Collier’s article appeared in January 1947 as ‘High Road of the Future’. Churchill donated $4,000 of his $25,000 fee to the British Handling Group of the project for a United States of Europe (his son-in-law Duncan Sandys was treasurer). 7 Nov 1946, 13 Feb 1947 CHUR 4/31/28, 51, 68, 85, 100: The Daily Telegraph paid £400 for British rights; Australian, French, Belgian and Swiss rights fetched £450 and Reader’s Digest paid $1,100 for reprint rights.
6. 22 Aug 1957 D. Longwell interview transcript, TIME-LIFE file A–M, WSCDL, CURBSML.
7. 4 Nov 1946 ER ltr to WSC, CHUR 4/12/284–6.
8. 10 Nov 1946 WSC cbl to ER, CHUR 4/12/282.
9. 15 Nov 1946 Ld Camrose ltr to WSC, Camrose papers.
10. See, e.g., M. Gilbert, Winston Churchill and Emery Reves, pp. 264–71.
11. Appointments Calendars 1945, 1946, Clare Booth Luce papers, box 744, LoCW.
12. 22 Aug 1957 D. Longwell interview, 3:5–13, TIME-LIFE file A–M; memo to E. Thompson, box 4 WSCDL, CURBSML.
13. 20 Nov 1946 W. Graebner cbl to H. Luce, box 2, WSCDL, CURBSML.
14. 0900 23 Nov 1946 Ld Camrose cbl to S. Berry, for passing to WSC, Camrose papers.
15. 24 Nov 1946 WSC cbl to Ld Camrose, Camrose papers.
16. 24 Nov 1946 ER cbl to WSC, CHUR 4/12/265–6.
17. D Longwell memo to E. Thompson, box 4, WSCDL, CURBMSL.
18. D Longwell interview transcript, TIME-LIFE File A–M, WSCDL, CURBMSL.
19. 27 Nov 1946 Ld Cam cbl to WSC, Camrose papers.
20. 28 Nov 1946 Ld Camrose cbl to N. Sturdee, Camrose papers.
21. 11 Dec 1946 North American Newspaper Alliance cutting, Camrose papers.
22. 9 Dec 1946 ER ltr to Ld Camrose, CHUR 4/12/280–1.
23. 6 Jan 1947 A. Moir schedule, CHUR 4/41/119; Ld Hartwell, William Camrose, Giant of Fleet Street, p. 334; author’s estimates. The main amounts were:
LIFE / New York Times $1,150,000 £ 287,500
Montreal Standard $ 110,000 £ 27,500
Houghton Mifflin $ 250,000 £ 62,500
The Daily Telegraph £ 75,000
Cassell & Co. £ 40,000
Australia serials £ 20,000
Australia book £ 20,000
South Africa serials £ 16,500
Ireland serials £ 2,500
Reves for foreign rights £ 47,500
24. 22 Sep 1946 D. Longwell memo to E. Thompson, box 4 WSCDL, CURBSML.
25. 6 Jan 1947 A. Moir ltr to WSC, CHUR 4/41/117–18; u/d probably 7 Jan 1947 WSC ltr to Ld Camrose, 4/41/118.
26. 6 Jan 1947 ER ltr to P. Brooks, H. J. Frank file, box 318/1 HMCo HLHU. France and Holland paid the equivalent of $300,000.
27. 17, 23 May 1946 JSC schedules, CHUR 1/9/75, 282. Churchill added to existing holdings in Selection Trust and Africa & European, and started new investments in British Oxygen, British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco.
28. 15 Dec 1946 VdaC valuation, CHUR 1/9/282. Gains of £3,250, all on bonds, were offset by losses on shares of £1,900.
29. 26 Aug 1945 CSC ltr to M. Churchill, M. Soames, A Daughter’s Tale, p. 363, Clementine Churchill, p. 301.
30. U/d 1946 J. D. Wood particulars, CHUR 1/32/312; 20, 22 Oct WSC corresp with R. Marnham, 1/32/293, 292. Major Marnham’s dairy herd was expected to produce £2,000 of milk during the year.
31. 6, 9, 19 Dec 1946 Fox & Mainwaring ltrs to WSC, CHUR 1/35/16, 6, 18; 1/34/27. The asking price had been £12,500. Contracts were exchanged on 18 March 1947.
32. 13 Nov 1946 T. Harris ltr to WSC, CHUR 1/32/284; 3 Jan 1947 WSC ltr to G. Mason, 1/11/132. The loan of £21,500 carried an interest rate of 3½ per cent.
33. 8 Mar 1947 C. Soames ltr to WSC, CHUR 1/42/295–7.
34. 16, 24 May 1947 Fox & Mainwaring particulars, ltr to WSC, CHUR 1/34/9, 13.
35. 19 Dec 1946 D. Longwell interview transcript, box 4 WSCDL, CURBMSL.
36. 24 Jan 1947 W. Graebner cbl to D. Longwell, box 2 WSCDL, CURBMSL. Churchill crossed out the word ‘nearly’ in front of ‘all’.
37. 1 Apr 1947 D. Longwell ltr to E. James, NYT, box 3, WSCDL, CURBMSL. The Daily Telegraph paid £600; LIFE recouped $5,000 by selling secondary US rights to Reader’s Digest, which also paid Churchill $2,451 (its usual author’s fee of $200 per page plus $1 per word) for use in its international edition. May, Jun 1947 Reves accounts, CHUR 4/43/14, 17, 37: Reves raised £2,530 from other foreign sales, Churchill’s 60 per cent share amounting to £1,518.
38. 5 Feb 1947 Draft agreement, Time Inc., New York Times box 2, WSCDL, CURMSL. LIFE, published weekly on Fridays, The New York Times (read mainly in America’s north-east corridor) daily.
39. 15 Apr 1946 W. Graebner cbl to D. Longwell, box 2 WSCDL, CURBMSL.
40. 3 Jun 1947 Agreement The Daily Telegraph, Time Inc. box 2 WSCDL, CURBMSL, CHUR 4/41/66–74: The Daily Telegraph’s copyright purchase and side agreements with Time Inc. and The New York Times were signed on 23 June and completed on 3 July. Their provisions were relatively simple: The Daily Telegraph bought from the Chartwell Literary Settlement the entire copyright in the records and memoranda of Winston Churchill, employing Churchill to write his memoirs which would ‘relate to the period following the Treaty of Versailles, including the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, as well as the actual period of the said war, and will include a substantial portion of new writing by Mr Churchill in addition to extracts from the documents hereinafter mentioned’. The first volume was to be delivered by 15 October 1947, the second and third during 1948 and the fourth and fifth during 1949 without Churchill being bound to the number of volumes or dates. Outside the US, Churchill retained performing, dramatic, film, radio, television and other mechanical rights. Within the US, Churchill assigned all rights but The Daily Telegraph undertook to use its best endeavours to return them to Churchill as soon as it could. The Daily Telegraph was to pay Churchill £175,000: £35,000 on signature; £35,000 on 1 May 1948 and each of the following three years (providing each volume was delivered on time) with a last payment on 1 May following delivery of the final volume, whichever number volume it might turn out to be (at the insistence of LIFE). The Daily Telegraph was to loan Churchill a further £15,000 without interest, to be repaid by him on delivery of the last volume. The possibility of delays as a result of Churchill resuming office or being incapacitated was addressed: if there was gap of more than eighteen months between instalments, The Daily Telegraph had the right to cancel the agreement or, in certain circumstances, appoint another author (approved by Churchill or his executors) without
further payment to Churchill. Churchill and The Daily Telegraph agreed to split in half the risk of unforeseen tax demands by countries outside Britain.
23 June 1947 Agreement The Daily Telegraph, trustees of the Chartwell Literary Settlement CHUR 4/41/75–80: To the Chartwell Literary Trustees, The Daily Telegraph was to pay £375,000: £49,000 on signature, then three instalments of £69,000 on 1 June 1948, 1949 and 1950; and finally £119,000 on 1 June 1951 (or on the dates of delivery if later). The same tax arrangements were to apply as in Churchill’s contract: the trustees and The Daily Telegraph shouldered half of the risk each. The trustees’ agreement included a clause providing for an arbitrator to settle disputes between the two parties if ‘the value or prospects of the said rights of copyright shall be materially affected by war, pestilence, famine, currency trouble, or any other national or international change or chance beyond the control of the vendors or Purchaser’. On behalf of The New York Times as well as itself, Time Inc. was to pay The Daily Telegraph $1,150,000 by five instalments of $230,000, the first on signing and the remainder on delivery of each volume.
4, 5 July 1947 H. Laughlin ltr to D. Flower, Houghton Mifflin agreements with Cooperation Publishing Corporation and The Daily Telegraph, Churchill: Contract and Copyright for memoirs file, 1947 box 318/1, HMCo HLHU: on 4 July Desmond Flower and Henry Laughlin agreed that Cassell & Co. would enjoy exclusivity for English language sales in Europe while Houghton Miflin controlled the ‘Western Hemisphere’, except for Britain’s Caribbean dependencies. On 5 July Houghton Mifflin signed both its agreement with The Daily Telegraph and its side-agreement with Reves.
41. 30 Oct 1947 Ld Camrose ltr to D. Longwell, WSCDL, CURBMSL. Dan, as his American correspondents called Longwell, picked up the signal and replied ‘My dear Lord Camrose’.
42. 30 Aug 1947 WSC ltr to EHM, Marsh Papers, Berg Collection, NYPL.
43. 2, 28 July 1947 LlBk ltrs to WSC, CHUR 1/9/222. Churchill bought 2½ per cent Treasury Stock at a price of 91½. He lost 2¼ per cent of his investment on sale.
44. 31 Jul 1947 BRB ltrs to WSC, CHUR 1/9/232, 235.