June 23, 2015

Finest Hour 114, Spring 2002

Page 09

CHICAGO, DECEMBER 3 IST—Strategic Hotel Capital has expanded its Churchill advertisement (see back cover, FH 112) into a series, the second and third of which, produced by Daly Gray, a Herndon, Virginia-based communications firm, are shown herewith. The first ad (“An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”), the first commercial advertisement ever to appear in Finest Hour, was published not for commercial reasons but for its artistry and relevance. Finest Hour contributed the quote and attribution to the third ad.

“We created the first ad to provide encouragement to the hotel industry, which was in the midst of the effects of an economic slowdown,” said SHC chief executive officer Laurence Geller. “Like much of what Sir Winston voiced, however, the enduring quotation lent itself equally well to the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks.” Geller noted that following the recent horrific events, Churchill’s words frequently served as the greatest source of inspiration for an array of political figures.

The response to the ad from the hotel industry was overwhelmingly positive, which led Strategic Hotel Capital to expand the series. “We intend periodically to invoke the sage words of Sir Winston in advertising to provide additional encouragement and inspiration for the industry,” adds Geller, an avid reader of history, student of the life of Churchill, a Mary Soames Associate and a Trustee of The Churchill Center.

Headquartered in Chicago, Strategic Hotel Capital currently owns twenty-seven luxury and upscale hotels and resorts in North America and Europe. The company acquires and assetmanages properties with 200-plus rooms in markets with unique, hard-toduplicate locations and high barriers to additional competition. SHC’s portfolio includes the Essex House in New York City; the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, California; the Four Seasons Mexico City; the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero and Park Hyatt in San Francisco; the Hyatt Regencies in New Orleans and on Capital Hill, Washington; the Marriott Hamburg, Germany; the Hotel Inter-Continental Praha in Prague, Czech Republic; and the Marriott Champs Elysees in Paris. SHC (www.shci.com) is a privately held limited liability company whose major stakeholders include the Whitehall funds and Prudential Insurance Co. of America.

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New Paintings Catalogue: An Appeal for Help

LYME REGIS, DORSET, MARCH 10TH—I am working with David Coombs, compiler of the 1967 catalogue, Churchill: His Paintings, on a new updated edition. The original was mainly in black and white; the intent for the new edition is to achieve all reproductions in colour. This will be the definitive catalogue of Sir Winston’s over 500 canvases and we are trying to trace them all and obtain colour transparencies for reproduction. We have now traced over 450 paintings, discovering some that were not in the original catalogue, which is very exciting. We are presently trying to trace those paintings that have disappeared.

If you own one of Sir Winston’s paintings, or know of the whereabouts of any—even though you might feel that we know about it—please contact us. We will treat all information, ownership and location in the strictest of confidence. For publication purposes, paintings can be, if requested, credited as, for example, “in a Canadian collection” or similar wording.
—Minnie S. Churchill,
Churchill Heritage Ltd., Ware House, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT73RH, England, ([email protected]).

David Coombs writes: “You might be interested in hearing about some of the things I have found. At Chartwell, I discovered a large and uncatalogued cache of black and white photographs relating to Churchill’s painting. These include a number of him working at his easel (both before and after WW2) as well a larger number of photographs which he used for making paintings down the years. The latter were especially interesting. I have made a selection from both categories which I hope we will be able to include in the new catalogue.

“A number of lost paintings have turned up: one for example is that auctioned at Balmoral Castle in 1927 for King George V and Queen Mary. The son of the original purchaser now owns it. Only recent extensive correspondence with an American owner has revealed another painting by Churchill: one that nothing was known of before. This was a gift in 1928 to the artist who painted the picture that hangs over Churchill’s bed at Chartwell: a view of his mother’s dining room.”

Peregrine Spencer Churchill

VERNHAM DEAN, HAMPSHIRE, MARCH 19— Henry Winston Peregrine SpencerChurchill, who died today after a short illness aged 88, was a nephew of Sir Winston Churchill and a trustee of the Churchill Archives, containing the personal papers of Sir Winston, his brother Jack, and members of their family.

Peregrine, as he was always known (along with the nickname “Prebbin”), was born 25 May 1913, the second son of John Strange Spencer-Churchill (1880-1947) and the former Lady Gwendeline Bertie (“Goonie”), fourth daughter of the Seventh Earl of Abingdon. Although six years Winston’s junior, Jack was devoted to his brother and their wives, Clemmie and Goonie, became close confidantes.

In the First World War the two families shared Jack and Goonie’s house in Kensington. Peregrine, with his elder brother Johnny and sister Clarissa, grew up in close proximity to Sir Winston’s offspring and were frequent visitors to both Lullenden and Chartwell. Johnny was born in 1909, and Clarissa, who married Anthony Eden, followed in 1920. Peregrine was educated at Harrow and Cambridge and, in 1954, married Patricia Ethel Louise of Chesham, Buckinghamshire. She died in 1956, and his second marriage, in 1957, was to Yvonne Henriette Marie of Rennes, France. There were no children from either marriage.

In 1993, Peregrine Churchill was instrumental in arranging the agreement between the Churchill heirs and the Government over the acquisition of the Churchill Papers by the nation.

Whilst attending the funeral of his elder brother in 1992, Peregrine, a civil engineer, was shocked at the condition of the family graves in Bladon, Oxfordshire, not only those of Sir Winston and Lady Churchill but of his parents, and his grandparents, Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill. He proposed to use some of the profits from the sale of the archives for the £250,000 restoration work at the famous country churchyard. He made good his promise, and lived to see a service of rededication after completion of the work.

Peregrine took a powerful interest in the work of The Churchill Center and Societies, and was instrumental to researchers, notably assisting Dr. John Mather’s medical research, which proved among other things that Lord Randolph Churchill did not die of syphilis (FH 93).

Finest Hour editor Richard Langworth has fond memories of his visits to Peregrine and Yvonne Churchill, who were devoted to each other and to their forebears: “I well remember Peregrine showing me the rows of Lady Randolph’s diaries, teaching me to look beyond the rumors and misstatements for the real truth—that Winston’s parents took far more interest in him than anyone believed, and that Winston did much better in school than he preferred to let on. I still routinely quote Peregrine’s words: ‘Winston was a very naughty boy and his parents were deeply concerned about him.’

“Peregrine had a burning loyalty to the truth, which he often saw as overwhelmed by innuendo and bad research. He was instrumental in moving the Southampton project and lived to see its first fruits. He was a great man, self-made and self-reliant. Devoted to history, he saw Sir Winston in a balanced way, virtues and faults together. And he banked his treasure, as his uncle wrote of F. E. Smith, in the hearts of his friends.”

Peregrine Spencer Churchill was privately cremated, and a Memorial Service is planned for a later date. He is survived by his sister Clarissa, Countess of Avon, and by an extended family of nephews and nieces. —Michael Rhodes