Bulletin #87 – Sep 2015

The Churchill Centre Co-Sponsors with The Royal Oak Foundation Appearances By Michael Shelden (Young Titan) and Sonia Purnell (Clementine Churchill)

The Churchill Centre is co-sponsoring with the Royal Oak Foundation lecture tours of the United States this fall by Michael Shelden, author of the Churchill biography Young Titan, and Sonia Purnell, author of First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill and due to be published next month in the United States as Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill. Readers of the Chartwell Bulletin will receive discounted admission by using the code: 15FCHILL. Read More >

BBC’s Andrew Marr Examines Churchill the Painter

During the fiftieth anniversary year of Churchill’s death, the BBC continues to probe his legacy. Veteran British journalist Andrew Marr ventured to Chartwell to examine Churchill’s painting studio and tell the story of how “Britain’s greatest prime minister”—his words—took to painting as a pastime and how this sustained Churchill from then on. To view the full one-hour documentary, please CLICK HERE. Read More >

Test Your Knowledge of Churchill

The popular Churchill Quiz is now published exclusively online. Find out if you know as much about Winston Churchill as you think you do and learn something new in the process. Each new edition of the quarterly feature is uploaded to The Churchill Centre website. The latest installment is now available. To view the autumn edition of the quiz, please CLICK HERE.

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Churchill and Colonist II: The Story of Winston Churchill and His Famous Race Horse By Fred Glueckstein.
iUniverse, 97 pages, $22.95. ISBN 978-1491749722
Reviewed for The Churchill Centre by BILL DWYRE

It is refreshing to learn that not all of Winston Churchill’s races were political.

We discover this in a recent book written by New York writer and frequent author on all subjects Churchillian, Fred Glueckstein.

In his book, Churchill and Colonist II, we find out that the British Prime Minister who walked side-by-side with us through the horrors of the Second World War, dearly enjoyed walking into a horse race winners’ circle. Or, for that matter, into the clubhouses of England’s racetracks. Read More >

Pim and Churchill’s Map Room by John Potter
Northern Ireland War Memorial, 76 pages, £5. ISBN 978-0992930103
Reviewed by PAUL H. COURTENAY

This very slim booklet tells the story of a little-known member of Churchill’s inner entourage, whose experiences deserve to be known about. Richard Pim was very much a Northern Ireland worthy and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. Shortly before the partition of Ireland in 1922, he had become a police cadet in the Royal Irish Constabulary and, after this date, was appointed a senior civil servant in the newly established government of Northern Ireland. In 1924 he added an important activity to his credentials by joining the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR); he attended regular training, which included extensive sea-time, rising to the rank of Commander. As a trained reservist, he was mobilised in September 1939 and was posted to the Admiralty and put in charge of the map-room on the day after Churchill’s re-appointment as First Lord. In May 1940 Pim was promoted to the rank of Captain on accompanying Churchill to Downing Street. Pim remained in this position until July 1945 and often was called to brief his master several times a day. Read More >

Reviewed for The Churchill Centre
by PETER RICH and STEVE CAREY

During the Second World War, the conferences among the three major allied powers helped to shape the post-World War II global environment. Three personalities dominated those conferences, whether or not they were all present in person: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin Roosevelt, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. From the initial conference to Potsdam (where only Stalin remained in power), historians have long studied the impact of these gatherings where philosophies and beliefs, as well as personalities, were constantly in conflict. Yet these three leaders somehow managed to work together in order to defeat Germany and Japan. The leading ten conferences are the subject of a new board game, appropriately named Churchill: Big Three Struggle for Peace.

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