September 11, 2015

Finest Hour 165, Autumn 2014

Page 06

QUOTATION OF THE SEASON

The whole of the middle east is intimately related…. There are always feuds and animosities. There are always scores to be settled and fanatical thirsts to be slaked. Any appearance of the lack of willpower…. Blows like a draught of air on the full, fierce embers.”
—WSC, SUNDAY TIMES, 22 SEPTEMBER 1929

Funeral Coach Saved Again

SHILDON, UK, SEPTEMBER 15TH— The 1931 railway car that carried Sir Winston’s coffin to Bladon after his State Funeral in 1965, property of the Swanage Railway Trust, has arrived at “Locomotion,” the National Railway Museum, to be cosmetically restored and exhibited during the 50th anniversary of the funeral.

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Southern Railways baggage car number 2464 has an interesting history. Long before it carried Churchill, it was used to transport the body of Edith Cavell, the World War I nurse and spy executed by the Germans, to her final resting place; Churchill highly respected Cavell’s service to her country.

Some years ago the famous artifact was acquired by Pacific Palms Resort outside Los Angeles, where it was placed on display alongside a replica of St. Andrew’s Station (FH 129: 6-7). In 2006 Pacific Palms grew tired of the display and proposed to scrap the historic car, but offered to return it to England if the funds could be raised. That was when the Swanage Railway Trust began its campaign to raise £40,000 for the operation (FH 133: 8). A year later the car began its journey from Los Angeles back to Swanage where the Railway Trust arranged for its preservation (FH 136: 20). With the help of the National Railway Museum it will now be preserved for posterity.

Congratulations Dame Vera

LONDON, JUNE 6TH— Released to coincide with the 70th anniversary of D-Day was a new album, “Vera Lynn: National Treasure: The Ultimate Collection.” Dame Vera, 97, said: “I am delighted of course. It is wonderful to hear these songs again that were at the top of the charts long ago, and it’s warming to think that everyone else is listening to them too.”

The veteran singer’s last major chart success was five years ago when, at the age of 92, she achieved a number one with an earlier “best-of” release. Dame Vera, who made her professional debut at the age of seven, already holds the record as the first British artist to top the U.S. charts in 1952, and as the only artist over 90 to top UK album charts.

The new album, featuring more than forty wartime songs including the memorable classics “We’ll Meet Again” and “The White Cliffs of Dover,” reached number 13 in the chart, beating the likes of Pharrell, the Arctic Monkeys and rapper 50 Cent whose new album missed the top twenty.
—FELICITY THISTLETHWAITE, DAILY EXPRESS

Sassoon’s Palace Opens

HYTHE, KENT, JUNE 12TH— A magnificent house once owned by a Tory MP who befriended Lawrence of Arabia and Churchill was reopened as a hotel by a conservation charity. Sir Philip Sassoon sat for Hythe from 1912 to his death in 1939. He began to build Port Lympne before the First World War and completed it after being demobbed, spending much of his vast fortune on its decoration and upkeep. A member of the Rothschild family, Sassoon also hosted Prince Edward and Mrs. Simpson and Charlie Chaplin.

The house is now the Mansion Hotel at Port Lympne Reserve, run by the Aspinall Foundation, where animals roam free and visitors receive a safari-like experience. The hotel specializes in weddings, corporate events and getaway breaks. —PAUL DONNELLY, THE MAIL ONLINE

Curt Zoller, R.I.P.

LAGUNA HILLS, CALIF., OCTOBER 6TH— Longtime Churchill scholar Curt Zoller died today, a week short of his 94th birthday. Despite recent declining health, writes his daughter Marsha, “he tried hard to ‘Never give in.’”

For years Curt wrote for FH, where he took over “Churchilltrivia,” the Quiz column from Barbara Langworth. In 2004 he published the Annotated Bibliography of Works About Winston Churchill, signed copies of which are offered by  Mark Weber (http://bit.ly/1w8CPEo, tel. 520-7438405. He logs thousands of books, articles, dissertations and together he and I wrote annotations on the primary works. Curt also published The American Handpress (1980), and with Michael McMenamin an important book on Bourke Cockran: Becoming Winston Churchill: The Untold Story of Young Winston and His American Mentor (2007).

Gert Zoller, Curt’s wife of 67 years, continues to do well at 93; email me for her contact information.

A man never dies as long as he is remembered. Curt’s many friends remember the delight of his company and friendship, and his books comprise his permanent memorial among Churchill scholars. —RML

Blairence of Arabia?

LONDON, JUNE 21ST— “Richard and Judy,” the Daily Express column, suggests that much-maligned Tony Blair may be vindicated following recent confirmation of his dire predictions about the Middle East.

Contradicting charges that Blair went “mad” or “bonkers” in his last days in office, the column suggests a certain parallel with WSC:

“Churchill had a rotten time of it in the 1930s. The catastrophic 1915 Gallipoli campaign cast a long shadow, as Iraq does over Blair now, and Churchill’s warnings about Hitler were mostly dismissed as the ravings of an old, tired, discredited, disappointed politician—and a warmonger to boot.

“Blair is no Churchill, but much of what he warned of this week: the borderless ambitions of the murderous, racist, fascist entity that is currently spreading across the Middle East, are privately accorded with by his fiercest critics, left, right and centre. The ball and chain that dogs Blair’s steps is 2003—with hindsight a pointless mistake. Gallipoli was Churchill’s mistake and he got a second chance because Britain catastrophically ran out of options in 1940.

“Blair wearily warns us that the Islamic extremists currently rampaging through what’s left of Iraq will eventually drag us into a fight with them whether we like it or not. If that happens will he remain the perpetually reviled outsider preaching in the wilderness or will we start listening to what he has to say? I’m taking no bets either way. These are unpredictable times….”