May 31, 2013

Finest Hour 116, Autumn 2002

Page 34

This update is provided by David Coombs, author of Churchill: His Paintings, who lives in Godalming, where Churchill took up painting at Hoe Farm, in the nearby village of Hascombe.

In 1915 Hoe Farm was part of the Park Hatch Estate, a large agricultural property with associated houses and woodlands. The owner, Joseph Godman, lived with his family at Park Hatch, a large house outside the village some distance from Hoe Farm, which he letted. One of his tenants, for the summer of 1915, was Winston Churchill, who letted the house for summer holidays following the lowest point in his life—dismissal from the Admiralty following Fisher’s resignation as First Sea Lord over the Dardanelles operation. It was here that Churchill took up oils, as he charmingly relates in Painting as a Pastime.

Mr. Coombs writes: “It has been thought that Churchill letted the property from his friend the Duke of Westminster, but the Duke’s ownership dates only from sometime in the 1960s. He in turn sold it in 1972 to Mr. Ian Anstruther, the current owner. Mr Anstruther is presently refurbishing Hoe Farm for his son to live there: which will, I guess, bring to an end its long years as a tenanted property.” Mr. Coombs has interviewed a Hascome resident, Mrs. Briggs, who came to the village when “there were still people who remembered the Churchills. One of her friends recalled being pushed in a pram that was said to have been left behind by the Churchill families in 1915.”

Arthur Simon (left, with Barbara Langworth) was Hoe Farms longtime tenant in residence. He twice welcomed our Churchill Tours, including Lady Soames. We in turn had the pleasure of hosting Arthur at a memorable dinner for Robert Hardy at the Reform Club in London (Churchill Proceedings 1987). Mr. Simon, who died in July 1994, was always the soul of hospitality, knowledgeable of Hoe Farm’s importance in the saga. He is greatly missed