British Army Guardsman on parade in London

Events

Conference London, England
24 October 2024

2024 International Churchill Conference

41st International Churchill Conference to be held in London. Help celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Sir Winston Churchill. The International Churchill Society i...

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Events

Inter-war

1 January 1970

Poverty and Plenty between the wars

V H Mottram’s (1932) gives recipes to help families economise: For the “really poor”, ingredients include white and brown bread, suet white flour, rice, tapioca, sago, potatoes, dates, currants and figs. For the “merely poor”: butter, parsnips, raisins, milk, sweet biscuits, some pork and beef. Those on a ‘moderate income’ could turn to (1937), with twelve menus for breakfasts, luncheons and dinners for all four seasons. Recipes included salmon mayonnaise, roast fowl, asparagus with cream sauce, oysters , fillets of Beef a la St Aubyn, roast partridge and all kinds of fish – fresh, saltwater and shellfish.

AdversityEuropeFoodInter-warWar
1 January 1970

Painting

With no place for Churchill in the National governments of the 1930s, he spent much of his leisure time at Chartwell, the house and grounds he bought in 1922 set in the rolling countryside of Kent. When he wasn’t writing (or bricklaying, building tree houses for the children or feeding his menagerie of animals), he spent much of his time painting, often abroad but also at home and at the house of friends in Britain. His studio at Chartwell is today much as it was when he was alive and many of his paintings, created during this time, can be seen on its walls. In late December 1935, on the recommendation of Sir John Lavery and other artist friends, Churchill travelled to Morocco for the first time for a painting holiday. Inspired by the light and colours, and by the desert landscape, he painted some of his most accomplished water colours (and one particularly skilled oil painting) here. He collected a large number of photographs on this and subsequent visits, from which he would paint on his return, and all these remain in the Studio archives at Chartwell.

ArtInter-warLeisurePainting
1 January 1970

Keeping in touch

Churchill was not, however, entirely alone in his ‘wilderness’. As a privy councillor and an elder statesman, even without power, he wasn’t without some influence and retained contacts within the political arena, keeping his ‘finger on the pulse’. In 1934 he was drawn into deliberations about defence matters (principally about the problems of defending Britain from attack by air) and, from June 1935 until the outbreak of war in 1939, served on the Air Defence Committee, so was well informed about Britain’s ability to combat the German Luftwaffe. He was also kept informed by disaffected colleagues in the intelligence service, RAF and Foreign Office. Churchill held court at Chartwell, ‘a sort of alternative Cliveden; a regular meeting place for Churchill’s extensive circle of political associates and admirers, with an inner circle of particular friends at its core’ (Best, ). Guest included the three ‘Bs’ – Beaverbrook, Birkenhead (F. E. Smith) and Brendan Bracken – young conservative MPs who kept him in touch with what was going on within parliament. And of course the ‘Prof’ was also frequently at Chartwell. Professor Lindemann, the leading Oxford University scientist advised Churchill on aspects of air warfare in the 1930s and was a trusted source of information on technical matters. To learn more about Churchill’s political allies and advisers, read the (made publicly available to mark the anniversary of Churchill’s death).

FriendshipGovernmentInter-warPolitics
1 January 1970

India

Returning to Britain from the US, Churchill found Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour government had issued a declaration, in October 1929, that British rule in India should aim to allow India ‘Dominion Status’. A firm believer that British rule was a guarantee of good government, Churchill’s found himself arguing against colleagues in his own party. Baldwin had endorsed the declaration and nearly everyone else within the party felt that India should be granted limited self-government and dominion status. Only a few ‘diehard’ Conservatives supported Churchill. He fought vehemently. Churchill argued strongly that only British rule could prevent racial and religious divisions within India resulting in bloodshed. But Churchill’s fighting talk didn’t win anyone over. When Gandhi and other Congress politicians were released from prison to attend discussions on constitutional reform, Churchill resigned in protest from the shadow cabinet in January 1931. Click to see some Punch cartoons of the time. 

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