June 3, 2015

Finest Hour 101, Winter 1998-99

Page 22

Our members got to talking one day about what attracted them to Sir Winston Churchill. The comments proved fascinating.

One of the most interesting exchanges of 1998 on our Internet Forum (Listserv Winston) was a charming commentary from young and youngish members on what attracted them to Winston Churchill. Most were not old enough to remember World War II, so the origin of their awareness is diverse and interesting. Since these accounts had a huge response, we will gladly publish more of them, whatever the age of the respondent, who may contact us by mail or email. -Editor

Graham Taylor, Toronto (age 18):

My first taste of Churchill, five years ago, was his History of the English-Speaking Peoples. Of course I must have had some interest in British history to begin with, but those four volumes did much to expand my interests, as well as my knowledge.

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Rob Curry, via Internet:

My first memory of him was during 1967-68 when my father had a year’s sabbatical at Cambridge. I recall that on a tour of Blenheim I saw young Winston’s collection of toy soldiers. For a boy of 9 or 10 there seemed to be case after case filled with them. After that, most of my allowance was spent buying Britains model knights and soldiers. I still have a set of Guards with sentry boxes in a box.

Walt Linne, Indianapolis, Indiana:

I was hooked as soon as I could read (circa 1948). My father was killed in action during World War II at Germersheim-on-the-Rhine…I grew up reading WW2 history and novels, specifically aviation, though my Dad was a Tanker. I read Churchill’s name everywhere, and have continued my fascination to this day.

Charlie Montgomery, Monroeville, Alabama:

My father was a Napoleon buff, so as a boy I was too. But in college during the early sixties, I found a copy of The Gathering Storm. I think anyone who lived the Cold War knows how one felt upon reading TGS. I can still remember thinking, “How can we be making the same mistakes again? Churchill has already told us to be aware, and what has to be done.” I never went back to Napoleon. WSC became my hero. Besides that, my birthday is 30 November. What choice did I have?

Greg Smith, Phoenix:

Born in 1937, I grew up during WW2, with my father in the Navy. As a math major I had little exposure to history even though I attended a liberal arts college. I read Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich the year it was published, which began a lifelong fascination with history, and Churchill in particular. In 1962 my mother, knowing of my interest, gave me a first edition of Marlborough, Vol. 2 that she found in a Chicago book store, and I began collecting Churchill’s works. I invited a lady friend over yesterday evening to split a bottle of Pol Roger and watch the video “Young Winston.” I hope the thought counted. She liked the Champagne.

Dr. Thomas J. Brueckner, via Internet:

I was a little kid, riding home on a Saturday morning from the YMCA in our station wagon, with my big brother and my dad driving. We heard about Churchill’s death on the car radio. I remember it was snowing that day, the first time I heard about Winston Churchill.

Michael Olesen, St. Paul, Minnesota:

My first recollection of a historical event was also the Churchill funeral. I was seven at the time, but I remember a distinct sense of sadness and gratitude, and that something more than a life was ending. I remember so well the black and white image of the cranes along the Thames being lowered as the launch Havengore carrying his body passed. Of all the events I have since watched, his funeral is still the most vivid.

Sally Browne, Chatham, England:

The funeral also brought my husband, Owen Palmer, and me to Churchill, for we are restoring Havengore. [See Finest Hour 97 -Ed.] The physical restoration is extremely demanding and thankfully I have often had the more interesting task of researching the vessel. I have immersed myself in the archives at Churchill College, the Port of London Authority, the Museum of London and national newspapers. I had the pleasure of interviewing the warrant officer and the commander of the Grenadier Guards, the bearer party from the Palace of Westminster to Waterloo Station; and listening to the personal memories of the 1965 skipper and crew. Reliance on secondary sources has not reduced the impact of Churchill’s passing; the sadness, loss and gratitude; the contemplation and wonder of what the future held without him.

Richard Dixon, Missoula, Montana:

My first experience was when a friend gave me a copy of My Early Life. Since then I have bought every book by Churchill that I can find (and afford). I’ve always been a reader rather than a collector, so my collection is a mixture of paperbacks to some fine first editions, all of them read at least once. I always buy used copies of My Early Life to give to young people (and some old ones for that matter) to get them started reading Churchill. I recently gave a speech on Churchill and gave out three copies to fellows who are 15 to 20 years my senior (I’m 55). Think I may have hooked one and hopefully CC membership is next. I need someone to raise a toddy with on November 30th.

Ron Cohen, Ottawa, Ontario:

In London, aged 21, the huge media fuss drew me to Kensington Gardens across from the cordoned-off entry to Hyde Park Gate. The curious and concerned from around the world (judging by dress, appearance, language) had gathered there as Sir Winston’s life gradually ebbed. Later I marvelled at the queues waiting to attend the lying-in-state. On the morning of the funeral, I stood in crowds outside Westminster Hall waiting for the catafalque to proceed up Whitehall toward St. Paul’s. What struck me at the time was the huge popular outpouring of love and reverence, the symbolic acknowledgments of state and private enterprises and authority (including the silencing of Big Ben, the attendance by the Royal Family, the dipping of the Thames cranes) and the recognition by world leaders and the media. (The Economist said, in roughly the following terms: “We will boast to our grandchildren that we lived when Churchill was alive.”) When I returned to Canada, I joined the Book-of-the-Month Club, purchased The Second World War, then the History of the English-Speaking Peoples, read Ralph Martin’s Jennie, and then first realized (to my great surprise) that Sir Winston’s writings antedated 1948. I started collecting Churchill’s writings at age 26, heard about ICS, and was hooked. As evidence of the dangerous psychological condition which may result, I am now fifteen years into the preparation of my Bibliography of the Published Writings of Sir Winston Churchill.

Robert A. Gazzola (via Internet):

My first and most memorable experience was also at Hyde Park Gate prior to his death. About a dozen people stood across from his home for ten or fifteen minutes of silent homage, then were replaced by others. There was always a small group present. The scene was simple and voluntary. No one organized it. No one invited people to attend. A lone guard in civilian dress stood before his door. No one spoke and all showed a marked respect and reverence. This made quite an impression upon me and has never left my memory.

Rafal Heydel-Mankoo, Ottawa, Ontario (age 23):

I was 11, and my family deserves full credit for fuelling my interest. During the Second World War my greatuncle was A.D.C. to the President of Poland [See “Glimpses,” page 25. -Ed.] Based in London, he naturally met Churchill on many occasions. My family was also very friendly with Count Edward Raczynski, Polish ambassador to London and later President of the government-in-exile. Being so close to these two men and hearing them speak so highly of Churchill was without doubt the single greatest factor encouraging me to delve deeper into his life.

Brandon R. Sanders, Ft. Worth, Texas (age 29):

Being so much older than Rafal, I fall just under the age 30 barrier. At age 14, I engaged upon the happy task of reading a biography of every United States President, starting with Reagan and working back. I kept noticing these great men quoting someone named Winston Churchill. They seemed to quote him or discuss meeting him with such reverence that I began to wonder who exactly this person could be. Pausing my reading at Kennedy, I started the Randolph Churchill/Martin Gilbert biography of Winston Churchill. I was amazed. This man had lived a thousand “crowded hours.” I couldn’t help but think that if we consider just one great event from his life and nothing else, his place in history would be secure. But here he was, year after year, doing these amazing things. Thus at the ripe old age of 29,1 still find out new things about him. I read and re-read all I can. “Hero” is a term thrown loosely in this day and age, but anyone who knows his story, and has faith in high ideals can call him that. When nature removes so great a man, people explore the horizons for a successor. But none comes and none will, for his class is extinguished with him.

Andrew Rogers, Seattle (age 30):

What attracted me was looking through my father’s book club edition of The Second World War, when I was in elementary school in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Dad was a career Navy officer, and we had lived (and would soon live again) in Hawaii; so I was very interested in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Expecting Churchill’s book would be a conventional history of World War II, I was surprised to read how little attention he paid to the details of the attack, as opposed to his personal reaction and how well he slept that night. I remember wondering whether all six volumes were as focused on the author as the Pearl Harbor episode was, and that anyone who could fill so many pages with personal recollections and first-person narrative must have led a pretty interesting life. Or have a pretty huge ego. Or both. I read a lot more by and about Sir Winston in high school and college, and in college I started to collect his books, and really began to develop a more rounded picture of the Great Man.

Marc David Miller, New York City:

Like several others, I was fascinated by Napoleon at the age of 15. After learning what I could about Napoleon, I drifted eight decades on to Churchill. I bought many books about and by Churchill, watched “Young Winston,” “The Wilderness Years” and “The First Churchills.” Twenty years later (January 1998) I saw the Cabinet War Rooms, and I hope to see Chartwell and Blenheim in the future.

Joseph Sramek, Binghamton, N.Y.:

I am 22 now but have been a Churchillian since the sixth grade. My class was assigned a project: research and impersonate a famous person! I obtained a frock coat, Homburg hat, cane and cigar. Doing it correctly for my teacher, who was old enough to be of the WW2 generation, required a lot of research. I don’t exactly know why I chose Churchill, but it might have something to do with family discussions. Early on, I was aware of Hitler, Stalin, and the valiant man who resisted them and (singlehandedly in my family’s eyes) “saved” civilization. My grandmother, now 75, told me she cried when Churchill died. She gave me newspaper clippings to help me and I was hooked to the study of history. Churchill continues to remain prominent as I pursue a PhD program in European History. While many historians dismiss or doubt the Carlylean and Macaulayite notion of “the Great Man in history,” there is one leading candidate. His major contribution, aside from saving the free world in 1940, is as one of the best historians of the century, for Marlborough has consistently been cited among the best biographical works.

Richard H. Knight, Jr., Nashville, Tenn.:

My parents bought a Time-Life photo history of World War II in the late Forties. The text was actually an abridgement of the early volumes of Churchill’s war memoirs. Well thumbed, this book served us well over the decades, often flattening stamps we had soaked from covers, when it was not propping open doors. In the mid-Fifties, when Movietone Newsreels began running pieces on Churchill’s birthday, I knew how old he was. Sir Winston seemed to have a birthday about every three months. One day in 1958 I asked my Dad (a career Naval Person) for his opinion on the Man of the Century. He replied, “Winston Churchill.” It made perfectly good sense to me. Dad still holds to this view. So does Junior.

Clarence Martin, via Internet:

I was born in New Orleans in 1930. My father required that every Saturday morning I copy, by hand, an article from one of the magazines to which we subscribed and explain to him its significance. The bad part was that he picked out the article. The good part was that if I “passed” I received 15 cents. As early as 1938 the articles I was assigned were largely about the coming of war, and Churchill. During my reward sessions at the movies during the war, Pathe News would light up the giant screen with a bigger-than-life Winston Churchill, walking through the burning ruins of London. I felt he was someone I knew—not as exciting as Flash Gordon, but real. I found myself following his exploits. I need not explain to this group where it went from there.

Melchior de Wolff, Rotterdam, Holland:

It was my grandmother whom I recall as the first person to speak to me about Churchill. It must have been during a visit to Amsterdam, she being about 66 years old, I being about nine. I remember distinctly her voice, in Dutch: “Listen: if he [WSC] wouldn’t have been there, you wouldn’t have been there.” A second recollection is that several members of my family pronounced WSC’s name as: “Sjorzel.”

Ricardo Munro, Arvin, Calif.:

I was born in 1955 just after Sir Winston retired. Both my grandfather and father had strong memories. I remember my grandfather telling me that Churchill had been a Liberal in Dundee, highly respected by the Scots. Although my grandfather had Labour Party sympathies as a young man, like many Scots he had great respect for Churchill’s courage and integrity. During the 1930s, after he emigrated to America, he broke with friends from the Red Clydeside, many of whom were pro-Communist. Incredible as it may seem both left- and right-wing Americans supported the Russo-German pact in 1939. Although my father and grandfather became naturalized American citizens in 1936, they remained staunchly pro-British. Hearing Churchill on the radio (and later Edward R. Murrow) was inspirational. People in my family still talk about it. My father carried with him a copy of Blood, Sweat, and Tears throughout the war. My grandfather gave me an LP of Churchill’s speeches which we heard together many times. I still have the book, with a 1941 June rose pressed in, and the record.