March 1, 2009

by Douglas J. Hall
Finest Hour 91, Summer 1996
Churchill’s England

The nerve-centre of Britain’s successful codebreaking effort now joins Chartwell, Blenheim and the Cabinet War Rooms on the UK’s popular “Churchill Trail.” Ulsterman Jack Darrah, longtime Friend of ICS United Kingdom, has devoted his massive collection and untold hours to its perfection.

Finest Hour #85 covered the history and wartime role of Bletchley Park, the location of the top-secret Ultra code-breaking team described by Churchill as “My geese that laid the golden eggs and never cackled.” A plan to demolish the site and build houses and a business park was overturned by the active lobbying of a small group of enthusiasts who were determined to preserve it as an important part of the British national heritage. The Bletchley Park Trust is now embarked on an ambitious programme to develop the whole site into a series of museums covering its wartime role and the spin-off benefits which accrued to the electronics, data processing and telecommunications industries.

Housed in two large and sumptuous rooms in the Mansion, and one of the first of the new exhibitions to open to the public, is the Darrah-Harwood collection of Winston Churchill memorabilia. High on a mantel, overlooking the show-cases, is a larger-than- life marble bust of Churchill by Oscar Nemon. A replica of the bust in the Queen’s Guard Chamber at Jack and Rita Darrah admire Bletchley’s Nemon bust. “Likes and Leisures” showcase relates to WSC hobbies. Windsor Castle, it was presented anonymously to the Bletchley Park Trust to commemorate Churchill’s links with the site. Eleven large showcases house a magnificent collection of Churchilliana and the walls of both rooms are hung with an estimable assembly of prints – some of Churchill’s own paintings, plus photographs, drawings and tapestries.

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An eye-catching display on one wall is the “Winston Churchill Quilt” made in 1987 by Mrs. Mary Mayne. It was originally a prize-winning entry in the Great British Quilt Festival at Harrogate, where it represented the Birth Room at Blenheim Palace in a competition to design a quilt for a bedroom in a Stately Room. It measures 7 x 5 feet, appliquéd and hand-quilted, and took nine months to make. A notice alongside recounts that when making the quilt Mrs. Mayne had difficulty in finding a piece of fabric suitable for Churchill’s overcoat. In desperation she raided her husband’s wardrobe and cut off a large part of the leg from a pair of his trousers! He found out, so the cost of the quilt included a new pair of trousers for Mr. Mayne!

The major part of the collection was built up over many years by a Friend of ICS, UK, Jack Darrah. It is supplemented by a lovely little group of miniature figures belonging to his granddaughter (I suspect largely bestowed by granddad!) which attracts many an envious glance from Churchilliana collectors.

Jack built the collection over more than thirty years, but had been forced to store it away in card- board boxes when he sold his villa and moved with his wife to a “granny flat” in the garden of his daughter’s house at Luton (about 15 miles from Bletchley). Jack says, “It is good to see them out again, particularly in the splendid surroundings of the mansion at Bletchley Park.”

The exhibition has three themes “The Early Years,” “The Bletchley Park Connection” and “War and Peace,” illustrated by an enviable collection of ephemera, books (including rare first editions of some of WSC’s early books), porcelain, pictures, medals and a whole lot more.

During opening hours there is a continuous slide show featuring events from the whole of Churchill’s life. Already the number of visitors to the exhibition, which is still in the process of being completed, runs into several hundreds on each occasion. It is surely destined to become as popular on the “Churchill Trail” as Blenheim Palace, Chartwell and the Cabinet War Rooms.

Jack Darrah has made a particular effort to persuade schoolteachers to bring their classes to visit the exhibition – he is absolutely dedicated to “Teaching the Next Generation” – and has devised a series of worksheets for various age groups designed to make their visits educational as well as enjoyable. He actively participates in all such visits and there can be little doubt that. his infectious enthusiasm can only be doing a great deal to “Keep the Memory Green.” For the moment Bletchley Park is open to the general public only on alternate weekends – a constraint of a largely volunteer workforce – but it is hoped that as funding is built up the facilities can be opened full-time and become fully self-financing. Many of us fervently hope that that will be the case and are doing all that we can, in various ways, to achieve that ambitious objective.

Jack has provided the accompanying photographs. He tells me that additions and improvements are still being made and he will keep us updated on any significant events which may occur.