Finest Hour the Journal of Winston Churchill and His Times • Third Quarter 2020 • No
FINEST HOUR THE JOURNAL OF WINSTON CHURCHILL AND HIS TIMES • THIRD QUARTER 2020 • NO. 189
Churchill and Scotland
Published by the International Churchill Society • www.winstonchurchill.org The International Churchill Society UNITED STATES • UNITED KINGDOM • CANADA • AUSTRALIA • NEW ZEALAND ICELAND • PORTUGAL • HEADQUARTERS: WASHINGTON, D.C. www.winstonchurchill.org
The International Churchill Society is dedicated to preserving and promoting the historic legacy of Sir Winston Churchill. For the benefit of scholars, students, and Churchillians, the Society’s activities, publications, and programs are conducted through the joint resources of the National Churchill Library & Center at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and America's National Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
International Churchill Society International Churchill Society National Churchill (US) (UK) Library and Center
President Honorary President The George Randolph Churchill The Hon. Celia Sandys Washington University 2130 H Street NW Chairman Chairman Washington, DC 20052 Laurence Geller CBE Laurence Geller CBE Director: Justin Reash
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Westminster College Executive Director Executive Director Fulton, MO 65251 Justin Reash Andrew Smith Tel. (573) 592-5369 [email protected] [email protected] Chairman: Philip Boeckman Director: Timothy Riley Operating Committee International Council [email protected]
Chairman Chairman International Allen Packwood OBE Jean-Paul Montupet Churchill Society (UK)
Members Members Churchill College Katherine Carter Philip Boeckman Cambridge David Freeman Randolph Churchill CB3 0DS Craig Horn Laurence Geller CBE [email protected] John David Olsen Rob Havers Lee Pollock Scott Johnson International Justin Reash Robert Muehlhauser Churchill Society (US) Mitchell Reiss. Allen Packwood OBE Vice-Chairman Mitchell Reiss PO Box 58279 Timothy Riley Andrew Roberts Washington, DC 20037 Andrew Smith Tel. (202)-929-0309 [email protected]
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THIRD QUARTER 2020 • NUMBER 189
Churchill and Scotland
4 From the Editor 5 Letters 6 Foreword • Gordon Brown 8 Why Have the Scots Forsaken Churchill? • Alastair Stewart 14 A “Villain for All Seasons”: Churchill and Scottish Mythologies of Grievance • Gordon J. Barclay 19 Scotland’s Real Strength • Winston S. Churchill 20 “He Is a Great Man”: Winston Churchill and Lord Rosebery Piers Brendon 26 Churchill, the Admiralty, and Scotland Robin Brodhurst 32 Churchill in Dundee, 1921 • David Stafford 38 A Scottish Honorary Degree • Ronald I. Cohen 40 “Keep Their Silliest People in Order”: Churchill and the Scottish Pillar Box War • David Freeman Lord Rosebery 42 Action This Day • Michael McMenamin See story on page 20 50 ICS Supporter Spotlight
Books, Arts, & Curiosities 44 Delicious Reading • Katherine Carter Aberdeen's Mitchell Hall 45 That Other Hamilton Woman • Andrew Roberts See story on page 38 46 The Boffin and the Dam Busters • Mark Klobas 47 How Churchill Opened a “Window” • Robert A. McLain 49 The Turn of the Tide • Leon J. Waszak
On the Cover
Portrait of Churchill, oil on canvas, circa 1920 by Scotland's Sir James Guthrie (1859–1930) A study for Guthrie's painting "Statesmen of the Great War" at the National Portrait Gallery, London Photo credit: The National Galleries of Scotland From the Editor
Churchill and Scotland Founded in 1968 by Richard M. Langworth CBE This is the first in what will be a series of four issues to be Third Quarter 2020 • Number 189 published over four years examining Churchill’s connections ISSN 0882-3715 with the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. The rich www.winstonchurchill.org but scarcely explored field of Scotland comes first, and we are ______honored to have a foreword from former Prime Minister Gordon Publisher Brown. The International Churchill Society Churchill’s affiliations with Scotland began with his birth [email protected] on 30 November 1874—the feast day of St. Andrew, Scotland’s Editor patron saint. Despite the many connections that followed, Scots David Freeman today have all but forgotten Churchill. Alastair Stewart looks at [email protected] the reasons for this and explains why it would profit the country Department of History to embrace the Churchill legacy. California State University More egregious than collective amnesia has been a campaign Fullerton, CA 92834-6846 of deliberate misrepresentation of Churchill’s record in Scotland. ______Gordon J. Barclay untangles the malicious myths that have been Deputy Editor fabricated and explains the reasons for the militant assertion of Justin Reash fake history. Senior Editors In previous issues of Finest Hour, we have looked at aspects Paul H. Courtenay, James W. Muller of Churchill’s military connections with Scotland, including his command of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers during Contributing Editors the First World War in FH 171. In the same issue, we reported on Ronald I. Cohen Michael McMenamin the construction of the Churchill Barriers at Scapa Flow. In this Timothy Riley issue, Robin Brodhurst details Churchill’s many other nautical connections with Scotland. Contributors David Stafford Canada On the political side, we looked in our previous issue at Chur- Gordon J. Barclay, Piers Brendon, chill’s relationship with Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Ban- Robin Brodhurst, Katherine Carter, nerman. In this issue, Piers Brendon looks at Churchill’s friend- Andrew Roberts, Alastair Stewart United Kingdom ship with another Scotsman who made it into 10 Downing Street, Mark Klobas, Robert L. McLain, the Earl of Rosebery. David Stafford helps us to understand why Leon J. Waszak United States Churchill lost his “seat for life” in Dundee, even though his time as the city’s MP saw him functioning at the highest levels of gov- Address changes: Please update us when you move ernment. by contacting [email protected] There is far too much about Churchill and Scotland to in- ______clude in just one issue, but we have room for Ronald I. Cohen to
Finest Hour is made possible through the show how Churchill’s legacy was once greatly valued by the Scots. generous support of members of the Finally, we glimpse how the stirrings of nationalism affected the International Churchill Society. twilight of Churchill’s career with the Scottish Pillar Box War. ______
Published quarterly by the International Churchill Society; David Freeman, July 2020 , subscriptions from offices on pages 2 and 51. Permission to mail at nonprofit rates in USA granted by the United States Postal Service. Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.
4 | FINEST HOUR Letters | Email: [email protected]
Finest Hour 188 British parliamentary history. It is & Queen [i.e., Princess] Elizabeth a masterful brief survey, for which aged 2. This last is a character. She NANTUCKET—I’ve had a chance I congratulate you. It must have has an air of authority & reflective- to devour the new edition on been quite a task to tie it all so ness astonishing in an infant. Churchill’s Prime Ministers. Loved well together by having the story the whole issue especially David of each of the ten prime ministers The King [George V] is well—but Cameron’s introductory article. told in a logical sequence. For us ageing. He no longer stalks but Big Congrats! Loved being a minor amateurs in the field, it is a fascin- goes out on the hill where the deer contributor.—Chris Matthews ating read, so thank you.—Fraser are moved about for him, & it may M. McKee, CDR, RCNR (Ret.) be that some loyal stag will do his TORONTO—Not being either a duty. He and the Q [i.e., Queen political or academic historian (my BALMORAL—[25 September 1928, Mary] asked much after you. With degree was sixty-nine years ago to Clementine] My darling One, tender love, your devoted in forestry!), I had but a general Here I am not at all tired by a rack- —W[inston] , concept of British history. This eting journey….I caught the Scot- issue has made fascinating reading tish Express at 12.45 a.m. at Rugby for me. You managed to collect an & motored on here this morning impressive lot of authors to detail from Perth—a beautiful drive. Coming in Finest Hour 190: WSC’s connection with 100+ years There is no one here at all except Churchill's Literary World of varied, often difficult to follow, the [Royal] Family, the Household
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ISSUE NO. 189 | 5 FOREWORD By Gordon Brown
The Right Honourable Gordon with what he later called “the Brown was Prime Minister of the Order of the Boot,” he found little United Kingdom and Leader of the sympathy—only scorn. “What is Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. the use of a WC without a seat?” Prior to that he served as Chancellor one critic joked. of the Exchequer for ten years. He was educated at the University of His Dundee sojourn, and par- Edinburgh and was Member of Par- ticularly his last visit to the city, liament for Kirkcaldy and Crowden- tells us much about the pre-1940 beath for thirty-two years. Churchill. Courageous to a fault, at the height of Irish home rule he braved ill health—he had just agitation, he promised Scottish o much has been written suffered appendicitis and hostile home rule would follow: “I will about every aspect of Win- audiences, some 5,000 strong, run the risk of prophecy and tell Sston Churchill’s life that and the jeers and the taunts of his you that the day will most cer- it is surprising that one import- opponents—when fighting in that tainly come—many of you will ant area—his relationship with election of 1922 for his political live to see it—when a federal sys- Scotland—has commanded so life. tem will be established in these little attention. That is why it is Islands which will give Wales and important that this set of essays His risk-taking was well Scotland the control within prop- in Finest Hour starts to rectify this known: in the year between his er limits of their own Welsh and and rescues Churchill’s Scottish disastrous period heading the Ad- Scottish affairs.” connections from the condescen- miralty, when he was blamed for sion of posterity. the Gallipoli fiasco, and returning But Churchill was also fool- as Minister of Munitions in 1917, hardy, even to the point of utter Churchill’s wife Clementine he chose, while still a sitting MP, recklessness—a trait that, to their was born of a Scottish family. His to volunteer for military service, great credit, Martin Gilbert and First World War regiment was serving as Lieutenant Colonel Paul Addison, who both deserve Scottish. For fourteen years he with the 6th Battalion Royal Scots to be remembered for their genius served as a Scottish Member of Fusiliers and fighting on the front as historians, bring out in their Parliament. But there was a po- line in Belgium. brilliant books about Churchill. litical reason why Churchill had no reason to love Scotland. After Churchill had been bold, While fortunate to be offered serving fourteen years from 1908 and perhaps opportunistic too, the Dundee constituency only to 1922 as Member of Parliament in his promises to the people of a few days after he had lost his for the jute city of Dundee, he was Dundee. When elected first in own English seat in a by-elec- unceremoniously dumped by the 1908, he espoused an agenda that tion, Churchill nevertheless took East of Scotland electors. Hu- was far more radical than Asquith, Dundee’s support for granted, miliated—he came fourth in the his Prime Minister, or his Chan- telling his mother at the outset, poll—he never set foot in Dundee cellor Lloyd George: championing “It is a life seat and cheap and again and never again stood for labour exchanges, unemployment easy beyond all experience.” a Scottish constituency. Irony of insurance, health insurance, pub- ironies, he was defeated in 1922 in lic works to mop up unemploy- And so, like Asquith who was the two-member constituency by ment, and even public ownership his next-door neighbour in East a prohibitionist—unsurprisingly, of the railways. He was prepared Fife (Asquith was thrown out by Churchill defended the liquor to be radical and forward-looking his Scottish constituents in 1918), trade—and by a pacifist. Faced too on the constitution. In 1913, Churchill seldom visited the city,
6 | FINEST HOUR nor did he identify much with of the correspondence, replying, doctors’ orders, he made a famous the jute workers, whose working “…Any fool of a politician can visit to Scapa Flow, taking with conditions were so poor and their make a public personal attack on him Americans close to President security of employment so ten- newspaper people at any time, Roosevelt in order to persuade uous that they needed someone but he can’t make it a controver- them of Britain’s resolve to win to speak in Westminster on their sy. Nor can he scare newspaper the war and of the Royal Navy’s behalf. people….To be quite candid, if strength, but also of its need for you wish to discuss anything with US support. He wanted to show It was a measure of how too me on friendly lines, cut out all off by personally firing the first of often Churchill threw caution this threat nonsense, and let us a new set of anti-aircraft missiles. to the winds that he managed to discuss matters man to man and He wanted the Americans, he alienate just about every pressure from the point of view of the said, “to see the might, majes- group in the city: the Suffragettes, welfare of the people. That is the ty, dominion and power of the the trades unions, and the local basis of my policy, and a policy British Empire…and how if any- business community, including founded on that basis is the only thing happened to these ships the the most important local families. policy worth discussing.” whole future of the world might In particular, he fell out with the be changed.” owner of the two Dundee papers, Churchill did not relent and the Courier and the Advertiser— instead went public with his Two months later, Clydebank one supported the Conservatives criticisms. At a rowdy meeting in was bombed by the Luftwaffe, and the other the Liberals—and Broughty Ferry just before elec- and thousands were killed. But he did it not just once but on a tion day in 1922, he lambasted while Churchill visited Coventry number of occasions, as hither- Thomson for being “very double after its bombing and visited east to unpublished correspondence faced”: “You have a Liberal and London regularly when it was between the two makes clear. Conservative newspaper owned bombed, he did not venture forth D. C. Thomson, who, along with by the same man and produced to Scotland, nor did the Govern- his elder brother William, owned from the same office on the same ment let it be known publicly that the Conservative-leaning Dundee day. Here is one man, Mr Thom- such a big attack had taken place. Courier, acquired the other paper son, selling Liberal opinions with He feared both a repeat of the in- when William married the daugh- his left hand and Conservative dustrial unrest that had happened ter of the owner of the Liberal opinions with his right hand….” on the Clyde in the First World Dundee Advertiser. This from the politician who War and a Scottish nationalist had gone back and forth himself revival on the backs of the heavy With Lloyd George’s ap- between the Liberal and Conser- sacrifice being asked of the Scots proval, Churchill offered to sell vative parties! in war. D. C. Thomson an honour. Lloyd George’s charges for honours As his diminished vote re- When in 1943, to celebrate his ranged from £10,000 (£350,000 vealed, Dundee had fallen out memorable wartime triumphs and today) for a knighthood to with Churchill, just as Churchill his inspirational wartime leader- £40,000 (£1.23 million today) for had fallen out with Dundee. Of ship, the City of Dundee offered a peerage. Then, when this was course, Churchill visited Scotland Churchill the Freedom of the rebuffed, to the newspaper own- many times after 1922—as Prime City, the reply came from Down- er’s great credit, Churchill went Minister, leader of the opposition, ing Street ten days later that “Mr on to the attack, criticising the and as an ordinary politician—but Churchill regrets he is unable to newspaper’s coverage and even never Dundee. accept the honour.” It was per- threatening to set up a rival local haps just as well: the city’s coun- newspaper. Even in wartime, Churchill’s cilors had voted to offer him their visits demonstrated the same Freedom on a split vote—and by a Lambasting Churchill for his combination of bravery and reck- majority of just one. , threats, Thomson got the better lessness. In January 1941, against
ISSUE NO. 189 | 7 Why Have the Scots Forsaken Churchill?
By Alastair Stewart
n the United Kingdom today, Pervasive myths continue of a letter he sent to Clementine, there is a debate about our to abound that Churchill aban- famously complaining about a history and our statues. Raised doned the 51st Highland Division maggot in his kipper that “flashed I 3 are two perennial questions: what in 1940, set soldiers of the Black his teeth.” is truth and what is an acceptable Watch on his Dundee constit- legacy? That debate has literally uency in 1911, sent tanks into The formal Dundee acknowl- and physically targeted the Ivor Glasgow in 1919, and would have edgement is dire: there is one Roberts-Jones statue of Winston abandoned Scotland if Nazi inva- plaque. Unveiled in 2008 by Churchill in Parliament Square. sion had come in 1940. (See the Churchill’s daughter Lady following article.) Soames, the marker commemo- Yet Scots, forever ready for rates the centenary of Churchill’s a feisty debate, are left looking Of course Churchill said first election to Parliament from around for a comparable statue of things that are distasteful to the city in 1908. It has now been Churchill even to protest. While modern sensibilities; he was born vandalised. most communities are proud of in the age of the cavalry charge their connections to significant and died when the Beatles were There are a smattering of oth- historical figures, a Dundee his- at their zenith. Issues on race, er tributes to be found to Chur- torian has said of his city, where women’s suffrage, and Irish Home chill in Scotland, including a bust Churchill served as the local MP Rule are all topics that have to be in the City of Edinburgh Council for nearly fifteen years, “A statue contextualised to be understood. building and a Churchill suite in of Winston Churchill here would the capital’s Prestonfield Hotel. be as welcome for many as a swim But Scots are unlikely to be At the Dalmeny Estate, the family through vomit.”1 Does he speak convinced. Social media, sound seat of the Earldom of Rosebery for all Scotland? bites, and ferocious campaigns for (see story on p. 20), there is a tree Scottish independence and Brexit planted by Churchill in 1946. And have bled nuance dry. Churchill in the Edinburgh Central Library The Invisible Man is either a bogeyman or a hero, a there is a plaque honouring suf- visceral stand-in for debates on fragist Elsie Inglis that includes In 2019, an elected Mem- Scottish unionism, or British and a tribute from Churchill reading, ber of the Scottish Parliament Scottish nationalism—usually in “She will shine forever in histo- courted controversy and praise 280 characters. ry.”4 when he tweeted that Churchill was a “white supremacist” and In Dundee, there is bare- In Glasgow’s Kelvingrove a “mass murderer” interspersed ly any acknowledgement that Art Gallery and Museum, there with hand-clapping emojis.2 The Churchill was there at all. In the is a four-foot bronze figure of shock value aside, the post quick- lobby of the Queen’s Hotel, there Churchill by Scots sculptor David ly revealed the pantomime view is a plaque commemorating his McFall. This is a smaller version of Churchill, which underpins his campaign headquarters that went of the full-size statue erected in legacy in Scotland. up in 2008. There is also a copy Churchill’s former constituen-
8 | FINEST HOUR cy of Woodford in 1959. In the a better retort—one can be social- been in power in Scotland since Orkney Islands, Willie Budge’s ly liberal and a hawk on defence 2007 and has taken the majority 2011 monument to the Churchill without tautology. Still, Scottish of Scottish seats at Westminster Barriers at Scapa Flow (see story exceptionalism is a normative and since 2015. Yet the independence in FH 171) is, rather aptly, just a predominantly nationalist ideol- referendum held in 2014 was de- shadow of Churchill made from a ogy about being a “good global feated 55% to 45%. rudder. citizen.”5 Scotland is implicitly placed as morally superior to the Since the referendum, Chur- It is impossible to pronounce UK Government, the British Em- chill—the epitome of British and in absolutes, but observation, par- pire, and Churchill. English identity—has become the ticularly of social media, reveals chief bogeyman. In particular, several core explanations and And yet Scotland, in partner- “Cybernats,” the unofficial, online myths, which reinforce general ship with England since 1707, foot soldiers of independence, Scottish despondency over Chur- built the British Empire. At one have put Churchill in their cross- chill. First, there is the recurring stage, Scots were estimated to hairs over the last decade. Not to belief that Churchill simply did comprise one-third of all imperial be outdone, unionist trolls have not care about, or was at least governors.6 Scots provided vast made Churchill a reactionary indifferent to, Scotland. Second, numbers of traders, administra- poster boy to independence argu- Churchill is seen to have tried to tors, and pioneers, who took a ments. suppress Scottish strikes, an ex- considerable share of the imperial tension of perceived English and spoils.7 The extraordinary influ- The reasons are not just the aristocratic suppression of the ence of Scots at nearly all levels of lack of education and the preva- Scottish working class. the empire makes today’s “acute lence of social media, but the dis- case of cultural amnesia” all the proportionate number of young Third, the case for Scottish more puzzling.8 people now involved in political independence is nearly always discourse. Scotland lowered the made in reaction to the British Popular history is a supply voting age to sixteen during the state, Brexit, and British history and demand industry. The popu- referendum, and most SNP voters (of which Churchill is a giant). larity and awareness of Scottish were under forty at the 2019 Fourth, the prevalence of social tragedies such as the Highland general election. Concurrently, media, in tandem with the ab- Clearances have bolstered the successive polling has shown that sence of a single source or leading politics of grievance. Scottish most UK students do not know voice speaking about Churchill education has never corrected the who Churchill was or think he has and Scotland, has allowed griev- public imbalance and focuses dis- been made up.11 ance politics to fill the void. Fifth, proportionately on episodic wars modern Scottish education gen- with England led by William Wal- The broader debate around erally focuses on the deeds of em- lace and Robert Bruce. Empire statues that has now emerged pire, including slavery and colo- receives perfunctory attention, at compounds existing problems. nialism, with no broader context best, despite Scotland’s central Headlines reinforce falsehoods for the time. This moral rigidity role (Dundee, for example, was because Churchill’s life is not makes even passing support for the “Juteopolis” of the empire).9 taught correctly in schools. He the British Empire or Churchill Churchill, long taken for granted has been reduced to his repertoire taboo and implicitly racist. alongside unionism, has fallen of bon mots, both real and false, out of favour and is now cast as that may have passed into com- Troubles Left and Right the villain—much like the United mon parlance but which reinforce Kingdom itself. misperceptions. Scots left, right, There is a persistent myth and centre hold popular miscon- that Scotland is more left-wing Many have noticed the di- ceptions about Churchill. than England. Repeated polls chotomy between Scottish senti- cannot give a definitive answer. mentalism and rationalism.10 The Many think of Churchill as “Left-wing about what?” would be Scottish National Party (SNP) has an entertaining drunk, despite
ISSUE NO. 189 | 9 CHURCHILL FORSAKEN
Left Churchill and fellow officers of the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1916 at Ploegsteert, Belgium
evidence to the contrary. Some flourishes but with no source— comes to finding Scottish tourism consider him representative of like many myths in the digital age. playing up Churchill is a “Fortress his aristocratic background, not Orkney” site-seeing map.12 knowing that as a young MP he was considered a traitor to Why Scots Should But there is so much that his class for helping to found Put a Kilt on Churchill could be done! In addition to the welfare state. Others say he those already mentioned, there was a warmonger and murder- The £12 billion tourism in- are many other connections er, unaware that in 1916 Chur- dustry is important to Scotland. between Churchill and Scotland; chill led Scottish troops in the Playing up the many Churchill his wife Clementine was of Scot- trenches, an experience that led connections could only enhance tish descent, a granddaughter of to his opposition to a premature this. There is even a genuine pic- the 10th Earl of Airlie; his aptly cross-channel invasion during the ture of Churchill sitting in a Glen- named first biographer, Alexander Second World War, which would garry bonnet (above). Yet despite MacCallum Scott, was Scottish; have resulted in mass slaughter. a smattering of Churchill busts he made frequent trips to Bal- and portraits spread across the moral to attend upon the Sover- country (notably the one on the eign; he served as Rector of the Ironically, even some of Chur- cover of this issue), there is no University of Edinburgh in 1929; chill’s defenders in Scotland rely mad dash to take full advantage he formed the Commandos from on an untruth by frequently citing of Churchill’s extensive connec- Scotland in 1940 and ordered the one of the most famous remarks tions with Scotland. When actor creation of the Scapa Flow bridg- Churchill never made: “Of all Brian Cox—a Dundonian him- es that same year. the small nations of this Earth, self—played Churchill in a 2017 perhaps only the ancient Greeks movie filmed in Edinburgh, the Churchill’s son Randolph even surpass the Scots in their contri- event passed with barely a flutter (unsuccessfully) contested the bution to mankind.” The quote of excitement. The closest one Ross and Cromarty by-election in
10 | FINEST HOUR CHURCHILL FORSAKEN
1936. There is also an emotional that, “Although an Englishman, John Colville (Conservative MP matter to consider that has not it was in Scotland that I found and not to be confused with been examined: Churchill the three best things in my life: Churchill’s Private Secretary John mourned his daughter Marigold my wife, my constituency and my Colville, himself the grandson of in Scotland shortly after her death regiment.”13 Churchill’s second in a Scottish peer), Ernest Brown in 1921. The saga, then, is replete command was Archibald Sin- (Liberal), Thomas Johnston (La- with anecdotage, anger, joy, clair, who went on to become the bour), and the 6th Earl of Rose- sorrow, and adventure. Churchill Leader of the Liberal Party and a bery (Liberal). losing his Scottish seat in 1922 to member of Churchill’s coalition a prohibitionist candidate is the government starting in 1940. When trying to persuade Tom grandest of punchlines. During the Second World War, Johnston to join his government, Churchill proposed a meeting Churchill proclaimed, “Good And then there is the military with Roosevelt and Stalin and heavens, man, come in here and history: Churchill’s substantial suggested Invergordon as a venue: help me make history!”15 The connections with Scotland during “the weather might well be agree- Prime Minister picked Johnston the two World Wars (see story able in Scotland at that time.” because he was left-wing and on p. 26). During the First World The US president declined.14 could help prevent a repeat of the War, Churchill commanded the Red Clydesdale disruption that 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots More successfully, during the occurred during the First World Fusiliers on the Western Front. war Churchill appointed a Scot, War. His Adjutant was Andrew Dew-ar James Stuart, to serve as Chief Gibb (a future Leader of the Whip. Churchill’s four Scottish The Second World War has SNP), who wrote a book about secretaries of state during the also generated at least one ex- the experience. Gibb recorded war represented all of the major ample of Scots trying to prove a Churchill saying to his troops parties of government: David connection with Churchill that
RIGHT Balmoral Castle
ISSUE NO. 189 | 11 CHURCHILL FORSAKEN
Left Churchill inspects women auxiliary nurses in Edinburgh in October 1942. He also received the Freedom of the City.
may not be true but would be The omission teeters on the burgh, Churchill reflected that “I good for tourism. In 2019, the bizarre, given the vast library of still preserve affectionate memo- BBC reported that the Prime books on seemingly every facet of ries of the banks of the Tay.”17 Minister purportedly held a secret Churchill’s life. meeting in Scotland with General Churchill was, in fact, the Eisenhower in 1944 to discuss the Despite all of the opportu- original nationalist—and a fed- D-Day landings.16 nities, however, the Scots them- eralist. Unionism and national- selves have done little to stake ism were always complementary There are today Churchill their many claims to Churchill. and interchangeable forces in connections good for Scottish Scotland for the first part of the trade, including his preference for The Saltire Bulldog twentieth century—and Churchill Johnny Walker whisky, Drambuie knew this. As early as 1913, he liqueur, Dundee cake, and Scot- So, are there any ways for looked forward to the day “when tish grouse. He even considered Scots to think of Churchill as one a federal system will be estab- purchasing a small estate near of their own? Yes, many. lished in these Islands which will Edinburgh before buying his life- give Wales and Scotland the con- long home of Chartwell in Kent in First, Churchill sincerely trol within proper limits of their 1922. cared about Scotland. During his own Welsh and Scottish affairs.”18 time as a Scottish MP, he served And where are the books? in a series of senior ministerial A YouTube search for “Chur- While there have been many ar- posts: President of the Board chill and Scotland” yields a trove ticles and essays published about of Trade, Home Secretary, First of British Pathé videos now gen- Churchill in Scotland over the Lord of the Admiralty, Minister of erally forgotten. Some of the best years, including one book about Munitions, and Secretary of State footage is from 1942, when Edin- his time in Dundee, there has yet for both War and Air. All of these burgh authorities bestowed the to be even one dedicated volume ministries deeply involved Scot- Freedom of the City on Churchill about Churchill and the Scots. land. In a 1942 speech in Edin- (an honour he also accepted from
12 | FINEST HOUR CHURCHILL FORSAKEN
Aberdeen, Ayr, Perth, and Stir- “seems to be regarded as another Edinburgh University Press, ling). Admittedly, he turned down nail in the political coffin” of his 2010), p. 113. the same honour from Dundee in father.21 Scotland has been wrong 9. https://edinburgh.uni- 1943. Rejection is hard to forget before and needs to fix its rela- versitypressscholarship. (see story on p. 32). tionship with Churchill. There is com/view/10.3366/edin- more to Scotland and Churchill burgh/9780748686148.001.0001/ Should Auld than people know. Churchill upso-9780748686148 Acquaintance happily borrowed from Charles 10. Carol Craig, The Scots’ Crisis of Be Forgot? Murray when he told his 1942 Ed- Confidence (Argyll: Argyll Publish- inburgh audience: “Auld Scotland ing, 2011), p. 36. Why, then, Scotland’s per- counts for something still.”22 , 11. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ sistent rejection of Churchill? news/uknews/1577511/Win- Part of the problem is that he is ston-Churchill-didnt-really-ex- considered an exclusively English ist-say-teens.html figure. His daughter Mary Soames Alastair Stewart is a Scottish 12. https://orkneyuncovered.co.uk/ summarized it best in a letter to public affairs consultant and free- fortress-orkney-multi-day-war- her father in his final years: “I lance writer. His mum, granny, and time-tour/?doing_wp_cron=159312 owe you what every English man, grandad gave him a lifelong 0519.8651900291442871093750 woman and child does—Liberty interest in Winston Churchill. 13. Andrew Dewar Gibb, With itself.”19 Winston Churchill at the Front Endnotes (Yorkshire: Frontline Books, Scots are no more cognitive- Note: All website references were 2016), p. 136. ly dissonant about their history accessed 25 June 2020. 14. http://digicoll.library.wisc. than any other country, but the 1. Michael Alexander, “Is It Time edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx- UK is confused. Devolution is not for Scotland’s ‘Racist’ Statues to ?type=turn&id=FRUS. mutually exclusive with British Be Torn Down or Has ‘Political FRUS1944&entity=FRUS. identity, but there is an undoubt- Correctness’ Gone Too Far?” FRUS1944.p0028&q1=invergor- ed scramble for the future that The Courier.co.uk, 13 June 2020. don struggles to explain figures like 2. Ross Greer, https://twit- 15. Tom Johnston, Memories Churchill. ter.com/ross_greer/sta- (London: Collins, 1952), p. 148. tus/1088871720382091264?s=20 16. http://www.bbc.com/travel/ In an effort to promote Scot- 3. Mary Soames, ed., Speaking for story/20190604-the-top-secret- tishness, we risk cutting ourselves Themselves: The Personal Letters of meeting-that-helped-win-d-day off from our rich shared tapes- Winston and Clementine Churchill 17. http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/pol- try—including Winston Chur- (Toronto: Stoddart, 1998), p. 32. icy/1942/421012b.html chill. The rise in English nation- 4. https://www.edinburghcham- 18. https://digital.nls.uk/churchill/ alism (fuelled by the absence of ber.co.uk/war-hero-and-suffrag- intermediate2.html its own devolved and exclusive ist-dr-elsie-inglis-honoured-at- 19. Martin Gilbert, Winston S. assembly) is as much a challenge central-library/ Churchill, Vol. VIII, Never Despair, to pride, and history, in the UK’s 5. https://www.gov.scot/publica- 1945–1965 (London: Heinemann, story. tions/scotlands-future/ 1988), p. 1366. 6. Andrew Mackillo and Steve 20. Tony Patterson, Churchill: But Britain is a colossus. Murdoch, Military Governors and A Seat for Life (Dundee: Winter, Churchill’s time in Scotland and Imperial Frontiers c. 1600–1800: 1980). his story with our nation is so A Study of Scotland and Empires 21. Edinburgh Evening News, much more than the simplistic (Leiden: Brill, 2003), p. xxxiv. 13 February 1936. view of him as a “carpetbagger” 7. T. M. Devine, Scotland’s Empire: 22. https://www.youtube.com/ who needed a constituency.20 1600–1815 (London: Penguin, watch?v=dAFZr1MVjF4 In 1936, the Edinburgh Evening 2012). News wrote that Randolph Chur- 8. T. M. Devine, Scotland and the chill’s Scottish by-election defeat Union: 1707–2007 (Edinburgh:
ISSUE NO. 189 | 13 A “Villain for All Seasons” Churchill and Scottish Mythologies of Grievance
By Gordon J. Barclay
he real, complex, and A particular strand of Scottish and 28% of enlisted men—has historically important nationalism seems to believe that been discredited by Patrick Watt.1 TChurchill is increasing- the cause of Scottish indepen- ly disappearing behind crudely dence will be furthered by pro- Myth One mythologised versions erected moting division and distrust be- by those who wish to defend a tween the Scots and the English. On Sunday, 24 March 2013, in political position or a series of On social media, their rhetoric the Mail on Sunday a myth sprang values, and those who wish to at- can cross the line into something fully formed from the imagina- tack them. On the one hand there like hate speech. tion of a journalist, that in 1940 is the faultless secular saint; on Scotland was to be sacrificed to the other, a villain for all seasons. Historical grievances are the Nazis in the event of a Ger- Oddly, at both extremes, these being resurrected, exaggerated, man invasion, in order to protect positions can often be character- or just invented. In particular, England. The story was picked up ised as “nationalistic.” In much there are what I have termed the and repeated in the Daily Express of this rhetoric, “Churchill” often four twentieth-century “mili- the next day. Both articles were seems merely to be a personifi- tary myths,” and it will perhaps published in print-only Scottish cation of Britain, England, or the come as no surprise to the reader editions of the respective papers, Empire for those whose national- that Churchill features in three but the Mail on Sunday article is ism either idolises or denigrates of them. It is these three that I now available on-line.2 what they stand or stood for. It discuss here. The fourth, claiming appears to have little connection that Scotland suffered dispropor- The problem was, that the to the real man in the context of tionately high casualties in the article named me and my then the times he lived through. First World War—between 25% about-to-be-published book on the anti-invasion defences of Scotland during the Second World War as the source of this “fact.”3 The book and my research suggest no such thing: the myth was created by assigning words to people who did not say them, quoting things from one context as though they were from an- other, and leaving out much that A comment under an article in the nationalist newspaper undermined the story. the National during the controversies about Churchill’s reputation, early in 2019. By the time I took the screenshot, Three days before the article seventeen people had “liked” it. was published, the devolved Scot- tish Government had announced
14 | FINEST HOUR men of the 51st Highland Division at St. Valéry-en-Caux “because they were Scots and expendable.”
The first of these two is not as mythological as the “abandon Scotland” story, in that it is, to some extent, based on real events, but the “Battle of George Square” is perhaps the most mythologised event in twentieth-century Scot- tish history. On Friday, 31 January 1919, a demonstration, part of what was known as the “Forty Hours Strike,” descended into violence between demonstrators and Glasgow police. The army was not “sent to Glasgow” by One of the posts that set the lie off around the world. Churchill, nor even by the gov- It included not only the headline, but the body of the ernment, but was called in by the Daily Express article from 25 March 2013. Sheriff of Lanarkshire as “military aid to the civil power”; he had previously checked that troops would be available. In fact, the War Cabinet had been reminded on the previous day, 30 January, that the referendum on Scottish my book had been misrepre- by the commander of the army in independence would be held in sented. I started challenging the the UK, that the government had September 2014. In the atmo- mythology as soon as I discovered no legal powers to send troops sphere of increasingly heated it, but it continues to appear fre- onto the streets of a British city, debate, the “fact” that in Britain’s quently, even now. unless martial law was declared “finest hour” Field Marshal Iron- which in this case, it was not.5 side, Churchill, Westminster, and Myth Two “the English” planned to abandon The myth that “Churchill per- the Scots to the Nazis was seized In 2014 I wrote an article de- suaded the Cabinet that troops, upon as a splendid stick with scribing the creation and political machine guns, and tanks should which to beat those campaigning use of the “abandon Scotland” be deployed” seems to have been to preserve the Union. At 10 p.m. myth. Three years later, I was invented by the Labour politician on 25 March a scan of the Daily passing long days beside my wife’s (and a leader of the Forty Hours Express article was posted on the hospital bed revising that article, Strike) Emanuel Shinwell in his Facebook page for “Yes to an In- and, while searching for recent 1973 memoirs I’ve Lived Through It dependent Scotland” (see image occurrences of the first myth, I All. Shinwell had blamed “West- above). This post received almost came upon many social media minster” in a previous book 1000 “shares” in a short period. posts about two others.4 These and would go on to blame the Other widely followed bloggers were, first, that in 1919 “Churchill Prime Minister of the time, Lloyd also posted it, and the lie went off sent English troops and tanks George, in two later books.6 He round the world. to George Square, Glasgow to provided no evidence for any of crush a strike,” and, second, that these accusations, which indeed At that time, I was not active in June 1940, after the end of the are contradicted by the War Cabi- on social media, and it was some Dunkirk evacuation, Churchill net minutes. time before I became aware that “abandoned” or “sacrificed” the
ISSUE NO. 189 | 15 SCOTTISH MYTHOLOGIES
A century of myth making about the “Battle” means that the mythology is complex. Other elements include claims that:
• All of the troops sent were English. The earliest known date for this claim is 1957, thirty-eight years after the strike. In fact, most of the A typical Tweet about Churchill and George Square, force was Scots. with added “cannons” and firing.
• There were troops, tanks, and a howitzer in George Square on 31 January. The troops started arriving late that evening; the tanks arrived three days later; the The mythology continues that a whole division at a time only howitzer in the Square to be used as the touchstone of would henceforth be posted to was a German “trophy” English, Tory, or Westminster the French on rotation. The 51st weapon from the war. oppression, whenever a suitable (Highland) Division was the first (or not so suitable) occasion aris- whole division to be sent, late in • The troops were sent to es. An almost completely mythi- April 1940. The 51st was a first- crush the strike. The strike cal version of the event, English line Territorial Army Division continued for twelve days troops, tanks in the square and comprising nine Scottish infantry after the “Battle.” all, continues to appear in Scot- battalions and (usually ignored in tish school textbooks. the narrative of grievance) Royal The narrative has developed Artillery, Royal Engineers, and from one of “oppression of the Myth Three other units, some of which were workers by capitalists” into one of English. The ancillary force sent an “English invasion.” The real- The third of the myths is with the 51st also contained three ity is that the army was called in more complex. In the period of English infantry battalions.7 by the city’s own authorities; the the “Phoney War” in the west, army decided to use mainly Scot- between September 1939 and There is no space here to de- tish troops; in such situations the May 1940, the British Expedition- scribe their retreat across France. army decides what force it needs ary Force was based in northern In the end, one-third of the force and, fearing perhaps a re-run of France, along the frontier with did manage to escape through Le the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, neutral Belgium. It was decided Havre. The rest retreated towards took six tanks along, which were that British formations would St. Valéry-en-Caux. Churchill not used. Not only was this not an be rotated to the French Army, made a calculated decision to “English invasion,” the majority into positions in advance of the keep the 51st in the line with the of War Cabinet members present Maginot Line, just east of the French, as part of his efforts to at the meeting at which it was border with Luxembourg. Here, keep them in the fight. Was that a agreed to provide troops to the they would be directly facing the useless “sacrifice”? As General de Sheriff, if he needed them, were German Army and could gain ex- Gaulle said: themselves Scots, and the discus- perience in front-line conditions, sion took place in a room where for example, undertaking offen- …the comradeship in arms the majority of politicians and sive patrolling. Over the winter, experienced on the battle- civil servants present also were nine individual infantry brigades field of Abbeville in May Scots. had gained this experience; at the and June 1940 between the end of the winter, it was decided French armoured division
16 | FINEST HOUR SCOTTISH MYTHOLOGIES
which I had the honour to able. The narrative veers back lieutenant, evacuated injured command and the valiant and forth between “sacrifice” men from the harbour.8 As in the 51st Highland Division under and “abandonment”; the latter other military myths, Churchill is General Fortune played its is more problematic because it assigned personal blame. part in the decision which I links directly to the frequently took to continue fighting on made but false assertion that no The tamer version of this the side of the Allies unto attempt was made to evacuate the kind of social media post merely the end, no matter what the men from St. Valéry. The planned states, for example, “Churchill course of events. evacuation in more than 200 abandoned the fighting Scots vessels that had been gathered of the 51st (Highland) Infantry The commonly employed nar- offshore was made impossible by Division June 1940.” This not only rative of grievance about the 51st inadequate communication, fog, particularises the loss of Scottish is not, however, a subtle consid- and German artillery fire. Some troops by ignoring the shared fate eration of Churchill’s realpolitik, 3,300 men were, however, lifted of non-Scots, but also promotes but a series of claims that the 51st from a beach at the eastern end of the myth of “abandonment,” and was treated worse because they the St. Valéry perimeter. Natu- implies some sort of deliberate were Scots and therefore expend- ralist Sir Peter Scott, then a naval act of malice by Churchill. Unfor- tunately, this problematic post was put up on the Facebook page of a Scottish veterans’ charity in May 2019. Objections to the post on Facebook were answered, “it is a matter of record that a number of historians believe 51st Div. were abandoned in order to allow the evacuation of 300,000 combatants from Dunkirk.” This is demonstrably untrue: the Dunkirk evacuation, over 200 km away, ended eight days before the surrender at St. Valéry, and the evacuation at Dunkirk was not dependent in any way on the struggle of the 51st. A request to name these “historians” went unanswered, and senior figures in the charity have since defend- ed the decision to keep this post on the site, in the face of objec- tions, as they “have no remit to examine the interpretation of military history” as expressed on their social media feed by their staff. This perhaps indicates how much traction this mythologised version of the past is gaining: a Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament posted A Scottish veterans’ charity posts a version of the “abandoned” myth that in the following month: “Chur- places personal blame on Churchill and airbrushes non-Scots from history. chill famously abandoned the Highlanders at St Valéry.”
ISSUE NO. 189 | 17 SCOTTISH MYTHOLOGIES
We should remind our- to disperse protestors in George So far at least, Churchill has not selves that even this relatively Square,” with “orders to shoot been blamed. mild statement is untrue and to kill,” resulting in “hundreds” 2. https://www.pressreader.com/ airbrushes from history the loss dead. uk/the-scottish-mail-on-sun- of non-Scottish troops. But this na/20130324/282106339089564 is only the beginning. Others Third, the elaborate mythol- 3. Gordon J. Barclay, If Hitler descend to cruder levels: an ogy is not subject to even the Comes: Preparing for Invasion, office-bearer in an organisation most basic critical analysis. No Scotland 1940 (Edinburgh: Birlinn, affiliated to the Scottish Nation- one asks: could this possibly be 2013). al Party has recently promoted true? The most strikingly illogical 4. https://www.academia. a newly popular and peculiarly story that I have come across is edu/35272980/The_birth_and_de- unpleasant variant of the mythol- that Scottish sailors serving on velopment_of_a_factoid_2013_17_ ogy, that Scots and Irish troops ships during the Dunkirk evacu- the_invention_of_history_in_the_ were selectively abandoned on ation were close to mutiny when Scottish_independence_debate the beach at Dunkirk, in favour of the news reached them that the 5. See Gordon J. Barclay, “‘Du- Englishmen. 51st was being “abandoned” at St. ties in Aid of the Civil Power’: Valéry. The observant reader will The Deployment of the Army to Alternative Facts have noticed the flaw: how could Glasgow, 31 January to 17 Feb- sailors on, at the latest, 4 June ruary 1919,” Journal of Scottish I have concentrated on fake 1940 threaten to mutiny about an Historical Studies (2018), 38.2, pp. history on social media, but much event that would not happen until 261–92, and Barclay, “‘Churchill of the same mythologised past 11 June? But logic and sense are Rolled the Tanks into the Crowd’: appears in newspaper articles, not the currency of promoters of Mythology and Reality in the Mil- TV documentaries, and even “alternative facts.” itary Deployment to Glasgow in popular and academic histories 1919,” Scottish Affairs (2019), 28.1, and school history texts. The The polarisation of politics pp. 32–62. promotion of this fake history is and society is perhaps seen at its 6. Emanuel Shinwell, Conflict an interesting study. Three things most extreme on social media. Without Malice (London: Odhams, strike me. First, it is clear from It is here that the most blatant 1955); I’ve Lived Through It All their basic errors of fact that the rewriting of reality, past and pres- (London: Gollancz, 1973); Lead majority of the people repeating ent, is being carried out. Populist with the Left (London: Cassel, these myths, especially on social nationalist politics, at both na- 1981); Shinwell Talking (London: media, have almost no knowledge tional and devolved levels in the Quiller Press, 1984). of the historical events to which UK and elsewhere in the world, 7. L. F. Ellis, The War in France they supposedly refer. In relation thrive in an atmosphere in which and Flanders 1939–1940 (London: to the 51st, many people clearly trust has been eroded in tradi- HM Stationery Office, 1954), believe that the Division (various- tional sources of information and p. 366. ly described as a “regiment” or in which expertise and specialist 8. Ibid., pp. 291–93, and Peter “battalion”) was lost at Dunkirk, knowledge are denigrated. This is Scott, In the Eye of the Storm having been left behind as the the context in which the myths I (London: Hodder and Stoughton, rear guard to allow the “cowardly have been describing have de- 1966), pp. 161–63. English” to escape. veloped. “Truth” has become no more than “what I want to you to Second, I have been struck believe.” , Dr. Gordon J. Barclay by the ways in which people are is an archaeologist and historian. willing to invent new “facts” or Endnotes His most recent book The fabricate circumstantial detail to 1. Patrick Watt, “Manpower, Myth Fortification of the Firth of Forth support their own version. Thus, and Memory: Analysing Scot- 1880–1977: “the Most Powerful if there were troops and tanks land’s Military Contribution to Naval fortress in the British in Glasgow, logically it follows the Great War,” Journal of Scottish Empire” (with Ron Morris) that they must have been “sent… Historical Studies, 39.1, pp. 75–100. was published in 2019.
18 | FINEST HOUR Scotland's Real Strength
By Winston S. Churchill
In the first volume of A History of contemporary, Banquo. the English-Speaking Peoples, The lustre of a divine an- Winston Churchill surveys the final tiquity illumined princes two centuries of medieval Scottish whose pedigree ran back history, when internal strife and pe- into the Celtic twilight riodic battles with England afflicted of Irish heroic legend. the lives of many generations, and For all Scots, Lowland identifies the true foundation of Scot- and Highland alike, the land’s emergent power. royal house had a sanc- tity which commanded he disunity of the [Scot- reverence through peri- tish] kingdom, fostered ods when obedience and by English policy and even loyalty were lacking, T their clansmen. Some clan chiefs, perpetuated by the tragedies that and much was excused befell Scottish sovereigns, was those in whom royal blood ran. like the great house of Gordon, in not the only source of Scotland’s the Highlands, were also feudal weakness. The land was divided, But reverence was not an magnates in the neighboring in race, in speech, and in culture. effective instrument of govern- Lowlands. In the west the rising The rift between Highlands and ment. The Scottish estates did house of Campbell played either Lowlands was more than a geo- not create the means of fusion of role as it suited them. They were graphical distinction. The Low- classes that were provided by the to exercise great influence in the lands formed part of the feudal English Parliament. In law and years to come. world, and, except in the South- fact feudal authority remained West, in Galloway, English was far stronger than in England. The Meanwhile the Scots peasant spoken. The Highlands preserved King’s justice was excluded from farmer and the thrifty burgess, a social order much older than a great part of Scottish life, and throughout these two hundred feudalism. In the Lowlands the many of his judges were ineffec- years of political strife pursued King of Scots was a feudal mag- tive competitors with the feudal their ways and built up the coun- nate; in the Highlands he was system. There was no equivalent try’s real strength in spite of the the chief of a loose federation of of the Justice of the Peace or of numerous disputes among their clans. He had, it is true, the no- the Plantagenet justices in eyre. lords and masters. The Church table advantage of blood kinship devoted itself to its healing mis- both with the new Anglo-Norman Over much of the kingdom sion, and many good bishops and nobility and with the ancient feudal justice itself fought a divines adorn the annals of me- Celtic kings. The Bruces were un- doubtful battle with the more dieval Scotland. In the fifteenth doubted descendants of the first ancient clan law. The Highland century three Scots universities King of Scots in the ninth centu- chiefs might formally owe their were founded, St. Andrew’s, ry, Kenneth MacAlpin, as well as lands and power to the Crown Glasgow, and Aberdeen—one of Alfred the Great; the Stuarts, and be classified as feudal ten- more than England had until the claimed with some plausibility, to ants-in-chief, but their real au- nineteenth century. , be the descendants of MacBeth’s thority rested on the allegiance of
ISSUE NO. 189 | 19 “He Is a Great Man” Winston Churchill and Lord Rosebery
By Piers Brendon
n a visit to Lord Rose- childhood into a grown-up friend- man seems to ascend in a balloon bery’s palatial country ship.”3 out of earshot every time he is house Mentmore in 1880, addressed by one not socially his O 4 the radical politician Sir Charles Lord Randolph equal.” Dilke noted that his host was “the most ambitious man I had ever Archibald Primrose (1847– Rosebery and Lord Randolph, met.” Years later Dilke added a 1929), who became fifth Earl of however, had much more in com- marginal comment, “I have since Rosebery at the age of twenty, mon than patrician hauteur. They known Winston Churchill.”1 had been two years ahead of were both clever, erratic, sardon- Needless to say, young Winston Winston’s father, Lord Randolph ic, prickly, self-indulgent, and was ambitious, occasionally tell- Churchill, at Eton. They forged highly strung. Both were mesmer- ing—and convincing—complete a close bond at Oxford where ic orators, captivating huge audi- strangers that he was destined to they were both members of the ences on the stump and holding lead his country. But Rosebery’s fast, aristocratic set whose main sway in parliament, though Rose- ambitions were more diffuse. activities were drinking, gambling bery lacked Lord Randolph’s com- They were famously summed up and sport. Unlike Lord Randolph, mon touch and his brutal capacity in his expressed desire to marry younger son of the Duke of Marl- for invective. Instead, wrote one an heiress, win the Derby and borough, Rosebery was immense- biographer, Rosebery adopted in become Prime Minister. Perhaps ly rich, inheriting over 20,000 the House of Lords “the tone of this story is apocryphal since the Scottish acres and a clutch of a very consciously sane chaplain three wishes were apparently stately homes to go with them. addressing the inmates of a home made at the Mendacious Club, So while Lord Randolph merely for imbeciles.”5 As political antag- which he formed with the Amer- kept his own pack of harriers at onists they occasionally attacked ican socialite and political fixer Merton College, Rosebery spent each other: in 1885 Rosebery Sam Ward. Yet all three were a small fortune on the Turf. The declared that since it took forty fulfilled, which did not prevent Dean of Christ Church was not generations to turn a wild duck Rosebery’s life from becoming amused, insisting that Rosebery into a tame duck “you cannot what the journalist A. G. Gar- must either give up his race-hors- expect Lord Randolph Churchill diner called a “tragedy of unful- es or his undergraduate studies. to become a serious statesman all filment.”2 That life fascinated Characteristically Rosebery chose at once.”6 Churchill. As he wrote in a spar- to sacrifice the latter, departing kling essay on Rosebery in Great from the university without a Yet they had some ideas in Contemporaries, “With some at degree. This was the sort of grand common: both aspired to be na- least of those feelings of awe and gesture that appealed to Lord tional leaders even at the cost of attraction which led Boswell to Randolph, who shared Rosebery’s party loyalty, and, just as the Tory Dr. Johnson, I sought occasions intense pride of caste whereby, as Lord Randolph added Upper Bur- to develop the acquaintance of an Eton contemporary wrote, “a ma to the British Empire, so the
20 | FINEST HOUR Liberal Rosebery added Uganda. “rather of the oyster tribe.”9 In his piercing personalities, They enjoyed a bantering person- 1906 Rosebery wrote a brief life his elaborate irony, and al relationship. When Rosebery of Lord Randolph, which was his effective delivery, gave complained that Lord Randolph’s notable alike for its affection, astonishing popularity to his reference to his “enormous and brilliance and candour (tempered speeches.10 unlimited wealth” would inundate by discretion). It had the merit, him with mendicants, his friend too, of revealing much about its Rosebery himself was also retorted: “Your letter is most author, who paid vivid tribute freakish and flippant, so much so affecting but what can I do? You to the wayward charm of his that he was urged to take a more support that old monster [Glad- subject. With his weird jay-like serious tone by Queen Victoria, stone], and therefore you must be laughter, his poached-egg eyes one of two people on earth who fleeced and fined in this world.” and his jaunty moustache, which really frightened him, the other When Lord Randolph asserted, “If had an emotion of its own, Lord being Bismarck. there’s one thing I hate and detest Randolph was a “striking combi- it is political intrigue,” Rosebery nation of the picturesque and the Lord Randolph was handi- responded with “a solemn and burlesque.” capped, however, by a disease deliberate wink.”7 (probably syphilis, though this His demeanour, his unex- diagnosis has been challenged), Privately Rosebery reckoned pectedness, his fits of ca- which Rosebery thought was that to gain political advantage ressing humility, his impul- partly responsible for Lord Ran- Lord Randolph would “sell his siveness, his tinge of violent dolph’s fatal resignation as Chan- own soul.”8 But they remained eccentricity, his apparent cellor of the Exchequer in 1886. close, though Lord Esher, anoth- dare-devilry, made him a In the ensuing years, as Rosebery er Etonian, considered Rosebery fascinating companion; unforgettably wrote, Lord Ran- incapable of true friendship and while his wit, his sarcasm, dolph “died by inches in public…
Left Lord Rosebery in Harper's Weekly circa 1902
ISSUE NO. 189 | 21 HE IS A GREAT MAN
the chief mourner at his own posted to India, Churchill was motorcar. Rosebery also showed protracted funeral.”11 His career conjuring with the idea of real- concern about his diction and ended at the very time Rosebery ising his father’s dream of pop- Churchill wrote, “I will take your was establishing himself as Glad- ular conservatism. This would advice about elocution lessons, stone’s political heir. Yet Rose- combine perfectly, he thought, though I fear I shall never learn bery was handicapped by psy- with Rosebery’s avowed policy of to pronounce my S properly.”19 By chological ills. The spoilt child imperialism and social reform, the autumn Rosebery was assur- became an adult prima donna, a all to be carried out by a new, ing Churchill, “It is a great plea- creature of moods and whims and centrist political coalition. But sure to me, both for your father’s crotchets. He was hyper-sensitive their adult relationship got off to sake and your own, to see you and ultra-fastidious. He craved a rocky start. At a country house whenever you like.”20 power but refused frequent offers party Churchill gave such a volu- of preferment, disdaining the ble and bumptious account of his For the next few years Chur- Westminster hurly-burly and de- escape from Boer captivity as to chill tried to persuade Rosebery siring (in the oft-quoted words of stampede fellow guests from the to take the lead in forming a mid- his Eton tutor) “the palm without room. Rosebery complained, “I dle “party wh[ich] shall be free the dust.”12 And when in 1894 he was almost jammed in the door.”15 at once from the selfishness & was summoned to fill the vac- callousness of Toryism on the one uum left by Gladstone, Rosebery Nevertheless Rosebery hand & the blind appetites of the likened the Prime Ministership to congratulated Churchill on his Radical masses on the other.” The a dunghill. With a divided cabinet, “fruitful and honourable career risks would be great, Churchill confused policies and minimal in South Africa”16 and invited said, and “only the conviction achievements, he resigned just him to lunch to meet the Duke of that you are upholding the flag for over a year later, extricating him- Cambridge. When Churchill sent which my father fought so long & self from what he later called an him proofs of his book London so disastrously would nerve me “evil-smelling bog.”13 to Ladysmith via Pretoria (1900), to take the plunge.”21 Rosebery Rosebery responded generously: warned him not to “compromise “What a natural wholesome man- your career by premature ac- Young Winston ly record. We heed that particular tion.”22 He himself was morbidly In 1896 Rosebery also re- species as no other European passive and viscerally unreliable, 17 He was still more signed as leader of the Liberal nation does.” “not a man to go tiger-shooting effusive in February 1901, shortly 23 He cherished his indepen- party, making a speech, which with.” after Churchill’s election to par- dence and (what Churchill called Winston Churchill extolled in a liament: in a cancelled passage in Great letter to his mother. Contemporaries) “his superiority Let me wish you heartily joy 24 A more statesmanlike & im- to the common truck.” of your maiden speech. It is pressive utterance is hard to a great thing to have got it imagine. He is a great man— Sometimes Rosebery liter- over, for it is a disagreeable and one of these days he will ally held aloof. In August 1903 though necessary operation, again lead a great party. The he wrote to Churchill from Bad like vaccination circumci- only two great men now on Gastein: sion and the like. But it is the political stage will be much more to have achieved Here I am on a lonely peak, drawn irresistibly together. a triumph, as you have.18 above but not in sight of all Their political views already the Kingdoms of the world. coincide and L[or]d Rose- Soon Churchill was visiting It is an unspeakable solitude bery and Joe Chamberlain Mentmore and the Durdans, where the farming policies would be worthy leaders of Rosebery’s Epsom mansion, of [the Duke of] Devonshire Tory Democracy.14 where the younger man had to and J[oseph] C[hamberlain] It is remarkable that even apologise for frightening his appear as phantoms from as a fresh-faced subaltern, just horses while learning to drive a another world.25
22 | FINEST HOUR HE IS A GREAT MAN
This was a facetious refer- ence to Chamberlain’s cam- Here I am on a lonely peak, above but paign to abandon free trade for imperial protection, the issue not in sight of all the Kingdoms of the that caused Churchill to quit the Tories for the Liberal party world.” —Rosebery to Churchill in 1904. Rosebery also opposed tariffs, arguing (in a curious anticipation of the anti-Brexit case) that “a great commercial lify Churchill with lavish praise that I am not in office. In that country like ours cannot reverse for his “marvellous picture of I thank God hourly if not mo- a commercial system, on which a gifted, complicated ill-fated mentarily.”34 Edward VII himself so much prosperity has been lovable being, written with the deplored Rosebery’s barren built, on a hypothesis.”26 But far affection of a son” (though self-isolation. In an involuntary from embracing allies, he insist- privately he thought it was too tribute to the Earl’s enigmatic ed on ploughing his own furrow. filial).29 And he unconvincingly character, the King urged him referred to his own memoir as “to rise like a sphinx from your By 1905 Churchill was an advertisement for Churchill’s ashes.”35 becoming disillusioned with biography. But the episode ran- Rosebery, who annoyed him by kled, and years later Rosebery’s In similar vein Sir Edward stating that, as a qualification son was startled by a Churchil- Grey, Liberal Foreign Secretary, for office, eloquence was worth lian growl: “Your father called had once said that Rosebery’s less than proven administrative my father a scug.”30 genius elevated him above the ability. Rejecting Churchill’s crowd: “It’s as if God dangled “poisonous insinuation” that Churchill was further alien- him amongst us by an invisible this referred to him and Lloyd ated when, on the eve of what thread.” But sitting “godlike, George, Rosebery professed to proved to be a crushing Liberal above the melée,” as Grey’s favour the promotion of “young victory at the polls, Rosebery biographer put it, Rosebery be- talent” rather than “the system disowned the party’s policy of came an increasing irrelevance.36 by which ministerial Struld- gradual advance towards Irish He was certainly far-sighted. brugs…claim office till they Home Rule. To his mother He visualised the Empire as a drop into unregretted graves.”27 Churchill wrote, “Rosebery has Commonwealth of Nations, pre- Worse still, Rosebery withheld I regret to say greatly injured dicted that the entente cordiale crucial assistance over Chur- himself by his reckless speech. with France would lead to war chill’s biography of his father. Parties do not forgive this kind with Germany and divined that He first claimed that he had of unnecessary quarrelsomeness Liberalism would be squeezed burned his recollections of Lord at critical moments.”31 They between Conservativism and Randolph. Later he said that remained on intimate terms. Socialism. But he was a Whig they had turned up but refused On becoming Under-Secretary oligarch among progressive to let Winston see them, evi- of State for the Colonies in the democrats, the last British dently intent on publishing his new government, Churchill Prime Minister never to have own memoir. told Rosebery, “They bought sat in the Commons. Churchill me cheap.”32 Rosebery treated exclaimed to Gardiner: Oddly enough, Churchill him to health bulletins. He was told a different story in Great plagued by insomnia: “After a What a mind, what en- Contemporaries, asserting that good night I am a man, after dowments that man has! I he did not want to incorporate a bad night I am a mouse.”33 feel that if I had his brain Rosebery’s work into his own, A month later, in March 1907, I would move mountains. particularly as he had described Rosebery wrote: “influenza and Oh, that he had been in Lord Randolph at school as a malaria make a diabolical com- the House of Commons! “scug.”28 Rosebery tried to mol- bination. My only comfort is There is the tragedy. Never
ISSUE NO. 189 | 23 HE IS A GREAT MAN
Left Political cartoon showing Prime Minister William Gladstone dancing with Lord Rosebery, wearing a kilt and a crown
defending dukes as “a poor but honest class.”40 Churchill was scathing about his performance, describing it as ignorant, inaccu- rate, inconclusive, tedious and feeble beyond words: “He really reminds me of a rich selfish old woman grumbling about her nephew’s extravagance.”41
In 1911, the Parliament Act restricted the power of the House of Lords. After speaking against it and voting for it, Rosebery never again entered that chamber. He became, as the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote, “a complete outsider in national affairs.”42 Churchill saw him occasionally and still delighted in his scintil- lating talk, which was likened to a fountain playing in the sunlight. to have come into contact fairest prospects of happi- He had learnt much from Rose- with realities, never to have ness. I am sure too that such bery, not least from his political felt the pulse of things—that a marriage will be an incal- failure, his crippling dilettantism, is what is wrong with Rose- culable solace and assis- his lack of bulldog spirit. And bery.37 tance in your public career, Rosebery did Churchill one last so brilliant and successful service, urging him to write about This was the burden of Chur- and affluent of future dis- “Duke John,”43 as he dubbed the chill’s essay in Great Contemporar- tinction…just as an ill-match victor of Blenheim, and lend- ies. Rosebery carried into “current is hell, so a fortunate one is ing him John Paget’s Examen, events an air of ancient majes- the Kingdom of Heaven on a rebuttal of Macaulay’s indict- 38 ty.” earth.39 ment of Marlborough. Churchill told Rosebery that this book had Still Friends As Churchill pursued radical cleared away some of the difficul- In person Rosebery remained social policies, the political gulf ties he felt about writing a biogra- supremely gracious. When Chur- between the two men widened. phy of “‘Duke John.’ (That would chill’s engagement to Clementine Despite his theoretical dedica- be rather a good title wouldn’t Hozier was announced, he wrote tion to noblesse oblige, a dedica- it?)”44 to Winston: tion Churchill shared, Rosebery opposed the introduction of old In his final years Rosebery’s I have seen and admired age pensions. He also attacked health deteriorated and he de- your bride, and honestly Lloyd George’s People’s Budget, scribed himself as a “well-pre- believe that you have the denouncing it as “Socialistic” and served corpse.”45 When Prime
24 | FINEST HOUR HE IS A GREAT MAN
Minister he had cheered himself Churchill (London: Arthur L. up by humming “Rule Britan- Humphreys, 1906), pp. 34–35 and 23. Rhodes James, Rosebery, p. 258. nia.” As Churchill did not fail to 120. This was Tim Healy’s verdict. mention in Great Contemporar- 11. Ibid., pp. 79 and 199. 24. CAC, CHAR 8/579/40. ies, Rosebery died to the strains, 12. Churchill, Great 25. CAC, CHAR 2/8/51, Rosebery played on the gramophone at his Contemporaries, p. 11. to Churchill, 10 August 1903. instruction, of the Eton Boating 13. Crewe, Rosebery II, 659. Rose- 26. McKinstry, Rosebery, p. 460. Song. , bery’s most recent biographer 27. CAC, CHAR 2/22/84, Rose- plausibly discounts the theory bery to Churchill, 4 May 1905. (advanced in the Oxford Dictio- Rosebery’s amusing but specious nary of National Biography and Piers Brendon is author of Chur- rhetoric led him astray: although elsewhere) that he suffered a chill’s Bestiary: His Life Through Swift’s Struldbrugs grew old, they nervous and physical breakdown Animals (2018) and former Keeper did not die. resulting from terror about being of the Churchill Archives Centre. 28. Churchill, Great Contemporar- implicated in a homosexual scan- ies, pp. 8–9. “Scug” was Etonian dal at the time of the trial of Os- slang for boor. Endnotes car Wilde. It is true that Rosebery 29. Churchill II, p. 141. had been adored by a pederastic 1. Randolph S. Churchill (first two 30. Rhodes James, Rosebery, 215. schoolmaster at Eton and was vols.) and Martin Gilbert, Winston 31. CAC, CHAR 28/27/48, Chur- reputed in homosexual circles to S. Churchill [henceforth Churchill] chill to Lady Randolph Churchill, be what his (and Wilde’s) accus- (London: Heinemann, 8 vols., 28 November 1905. er, the Marquess of Queensberry, 1966–88), vol. I, p. 53. 32. Rhodes James, Rosebery, p. 462. called a “Snob Queer.” He also 2. A. G. Gardiner, Prophets, Priests, 33. CAC, CHAR 1/65/11–12, Rose- collected pornography, indulged and Kings (London: Alston Rivers, bery to Churchill, 13 February in smoking-room ribaldry and 1908), p. 278. 1907. took care to open his own letters. 3. Winston S. Churchill, Great 34. CAC, CHAR 1/65/23–24, Rose- But Rosebery had been happily Contemporaries, edited by J. W. bery to Churchill, 5 March 1907. married (to Hannah Rothschild), Muller (Wilmington, DE: ISI 35. Rhodes James, Rosebery, p. 463. and his health problems seem to Books, 2012, first published in 36. G. M. Trevelyan, Grey of Fal- have been largely caused by “the London by Thornton loden (London: Longmans Green, unique pressures of his post as Butterworth, 1937), p. 7. 1937), pp. 80 and 76. Prime Minister.” (Leo McKinstry, 4. Robert Rhodes James, Rosebery 37. Gardiner, Prophets, Priests, Rosebery: Statesman in Turmoil (London: Phoenix, 1995), p. 25. and Kings, p. 280. [London: John Murray, 2006], pp. 5. E. T. Raymond, The Man of 38. Churchill, Great 363 and 366.) Promise: Lord Rosebery Contemporaries, p. 9. 14. Churchill I, p. 313. (London: Unwin, 1921), p. 34. 39. CAC, CHAR 1/73/70, Rosebery 15. Rhodes James, Rosebery, p. 418. 6. T. F. G. Coates, ed., Lord Rose- to Churchill, 15 August 1908. 16. CHAR 1/25/19, Rosebery to bery: His Life and Speeches, Vol. I 40. Rhodes James, Rosebery, Churchill, 21 July 1900, Churchill (London: Hutchinson, 1900), p. 465. Archives Centre (CAC), p. 463. 41. Churchill II, 327. Cambridge. 7. Marquess of Crewe, Rosebery, 42. G. K. A. Bell, Randall Davidson, 17. CAC, CHAR 1/25/26, Rosebery Vol. II (London: John Murray, vol. II (Oxford University Press, to Churchill, 3 September 1900. 1931), pp. 491 and 493. 1935), p. 869. 18. CAC, CHAR 1/29/7, Rosebery 8. R. F. Foster, Lord Randolph 43. Winston S. Churchill, Marlbor- to Churchill, 20 February 1901. Churchill (Oxford: Clarendon ough: His Life and Times (London: 19. McKinstry, Rosebery, p. 455. Press, 1981), pp. 339–40. George G. Harrap, 1947), p. 18. 20. CAC, CHAR 1/29/36, Rosebery 9. James Lees-Milne, The Enig- 44. CAC, CHAR 8/196, Churchill to Churchill, 23 September 1901. matic Edwardian (London: Sidg- to Rosebery 24 December 1924. 21. Churchill II, p. 47. wick and Jackson, 1988), p. 97. 45. McKinstry, Rosebery, p. 490. 10. Lord Rosebery, Lord Randolph 22. CAC, CHAR 2/2/20, Rosebery to Churchill, 12 October 1902.
ISSUE No. 189 | 25 Churchill, the Admiralty, and Scotland
By Robin Brodhurst
t was in Scotland that Win- chill used her extensively to visit if I had a further talk with you ston Churchill was first both Royal Naval bases and fleets and of course I should love the offered the position of First throughout his peacetime service Enchantress (but not at sea!!!) I 2 Lord of the Admiralty. Churchill, as First Lord. In the three years She’s damnable at sea!” Churchill as Home Secretary, was staying that followed his appointment be- visited Portsmouth four times in with Prime Minister H. H. As- fore war was declared, Churchill November, usually for two nights quith at Archerfield late in Sep- spent a total of eight months on at a time, once to escort the King tember 1911 and had been playing board Enchantress. She had a crew and Queen out of Portsmouth golf when the Asquith asked of ten officers and 186 men and harbour on their way to the Delhi him “quite abruptly” whether he was a sister ship of the royal yacht Durbar and always to visit naval would like to go to the Admiralty. Victoria and Albert. Churchill used establishments. He did not, how- Churchill immediately responded her for two main purposes. The ever, venture further than Ports- that he would. The driving force first, as mentioned, was to visit mouth in those early months. behind this appointment was the the Royal Navy, but just as im- need to impose on the Admiralty portant was to host politicians North to Scotland a Naval Staff, and the first choice and friends. We tend to forget, had been Richard Haldane, a Scot, in this age of instant communi- It was not until the summer who had created an Army Staff at cations via email and sat-phone, of 1912 that Churchill paid his the War Office. Haldane, how- that earlier eras did not have that first official visit to Royal Naval ever, was by then in the House convenience, so Churchill would establishments in Scotland. He of Lords, and both Asquith and make a point of meeting politi- had visited Enchantress often in Churchill deemed it essential that cians and others as he made a spring 1912, sometimes for a week the leader of such a high-spend- voyage by calling in at small ports, at a time, but his longest trips ing department should be in the embarking them, carrying on his in British waters were in August Commons, so Haldane gave way, conversations and discussions, and September. He started on 19 although holding the view that it and then dropping them off at August at Chatham, and worked would have been better if he had the next port. Much of this can be his way up the east coast, via gone to the Admiralty for a year, followed in his correspondence, Sheerness, Harwich, Cromer, and so as to impose the new Naval as invitations are issued and ar- Grimsby, before reaching Rosyth Staff, while Churchill held the rangements are made. on 29 August. Here he inspected War Office for that year and then the dockyard before sailing to went to the Admiralty.1 In 1911 Churchill limited his Dundee and St Andrews and then visits on board Enchantress to the Cromarty, where he inspected One of the greatest perks of south coast. Enchantress, accord- Torpedo Boat Destroyers (TBDs) the job of First Lord was the use ing to Admiral Fisher, was not a and submarines on 3 September.3 of the Admiralty yacht Enchant- good sailor. He wrote to Churchill Enchantress then sailed to Ab- ress. She was a purpose-built on 10 November 1911: “I confess erdeen, where Churchill disem- yacht of 4000 tons, and Chur- I think it would be a good thing barked on 5 September,
26 | FINEST HOUR RIGHT The USS Wasp (CV-7) in Scapa Flow, 1942
re-joining her two weeks later at Aberdeen; and Lord Fisher, then shops so as to maintain and repair Greenock on 13 September for a a once and future First Sea Lord. heavy ships, as well as defensive cruise among the islands of the On the southward journey En- batteries, expecting the Treasury Inner Hebrides on the west coast, chantress called at Criccieth to to pay up without question. Chur- calling at the Clyde shipyards, and embark David Lloyd George, his chill far preferred Cromarty to then Lamlash on the Isle of Arran, wife, and daughter for a day’s Rosyth as a base, writing a Mem- Colonsay, Mull, Oban, and back cruise. orandum for the Naval Staff on 5 to Greenock on 24 September. He October explaining that “a fleet returned south on Enchantress via Much of Churchill’s interest leaving Cromarty comes almost the shipyards at Barrow-in-Fur- in Cromarty and Scapa Flow was immediately into the open sea, ness and Birkenhead, and then in their defences (as well as those instead of having to make its way Holyhead and Devonport, before of Hull) since these were likely to down 17 or 18 miles of difficult disembarking at Portsmouth on 3 be threatened in any war against channel, affording many opportu- October. Among those who spent Germany. There had been discus- nities to mines and submarines…. time on board during this peri- sion in Cabinet on Cromarty and The docks and dredged channel at od were Oliver Locker-Lampson Scapa Flow in July. Churchill was Rosyth cannot be counted upon (Conservative MP, who lived at adamant, having “spent a week in for 4 years; the temporary base at Cromer); J. A. Spender (editor this wonderful natural harbour,” Cromarty could be brought into of the Westminster Gazette); Sir that Cromarty was “incomparably existence in 6 months.”5 Given Edward Grey (the Foreign Secre- the finest [harbour] on the East the close proximity to the bright tary); Lord Morley (Lord Presi- Coast of Great Britain.”4 He was lights of Edinburgh, it was not dent of the Council), who joined determined that it should have a wholly surprising that many Royal at Newcastle and stayed until floating dock and floating work- Naval officers preferred Rosyth!
ISSUE NO. 189 | 27 THE ADMIRALTY AND SCOTLAND
Right Churchill Barrier 1 built at Scapa Flow in response to sinking of HMS Royal Oak
Churchill naturally paid Telegraph (founded in 1877 and sian navy at Kronstadt and the attention to his constituency also still in existence), The Dai- German navy at Kiel in June, but of Dundee when he paid these ly Record (founded 1895), and although the visits by the Royal official visits, usually managing The Sunday Post (founded 1914). Navy did go ahead, Churchill did to fit in a short visit, and he made Churchill made certain that all his not accompany them. All that a major speech in Dundee on 12 visits and speeches were reported is certain is that he did not visit September before embarking on in all of them. Scotland at this time. the second part of his voyage on board Enchantress. In that speech At War Once war was declared on 4 he proposed a form of devolved August, Churchill remained at government to each part of the The summer of 1914 was busy, first in London before his odyssey United Kingdom, forming a sort and Enchantress was fully used, to Amsterdam. There was as far of federal constitution. Dundee as in 1913. As far as can be seen as can be traced only one visit to was famous for “Jute, Jam, and from her log, she was confined to Scotland, which is not mentioned Journalism.” The last of these the South Coast, with trips across in either the Official Biography or included The Dundee Courier the channel to Cherbourg and The World Crisis. In The Gathering (founded in 1801 and still in Dieppe. There had been plans for Storm, however, Churchill recalls existence), the Dundee Evening Churchill to visit both the Rus- visiting the Fleet at Scapa Flow
28 | FINEST HOUR THE ADMIRALTY AND SCOTLAND
Left Cromarty Harbour: "Incomparably the finest [harbour] on the east coast of Britain"—Winston S. Churchill
and Loch Ewe in September 1914 next morning, transferring to Sca- officers had all been junior offi- and staying with Admiral Jellicoe pa and the flagship of the C-in-C, cers in 1914–15 and were mainly so as to visit many ships and meet Admiral Sir Charles Forbes, HMS unknown to him.6 The problems, most of the senior officers. His Nelson. Here Churchill discussed however, all seemed much the concentration was firmly fixed the naval situation and the safe- same. The principal problem was elsewhere, initially on Amster- ty of the anchorage, which had that Scapa Flow, while the right dam, and then on the Dardanelles. been a matter of considerable place to control the northern exit This is in contrast to 1939, when discussion in Cabinet before, on from the North Sea, was not yet he was appointed to the Admi- the 17th sailing to Loch Ewe, on safe from attack by U-boat. It had ralty on 3 September and imme- the west coast, where most of not been safe in 1914 and again diately visited the Home Fleet at the Fleet lay at anchor. Nelson, to was unsafe in 1939. The defenc- Scapa Flow on 15 September. Churchill’s surprise, had sailed es had been starved of money without an escort because there between the wars, like so much Churchill’s first visit to the were not enough destroyers. else. He stayed a second night on Fleet during the Second World Churchill reflected that most of board Nelson, disembarked on the War is well documented. He left the senior officers in the previous 18th, and drove back to Inverness. London by train late on 14 Sep- conflict had been appointed by On his return to London from tember and arrived at Wick the him, whereas the present senior Inverness, Churchill was met by
ISSUE NO. 189 | 29 THE ADMIRALTY AND SCOTLAND
the First Sea Lord, to be informed U-boats to enter the anchorage. rived in Glasgow the next morn- that one of the Royal Navy’s sev- Both had been defeated. Now, at ing. On 7 March, he embarked on en aircraft carriers, HMS Coura- the first attempt, Kapitänleut- board Forbes’s flagship and ac- geous, had been sunk in the Bristol nant Gunther Prien, commanding companied the Fleet through the Channel. It was to be closely U-47, managed to achieve his Minches and back to its anchor- followed by another disaster, this great success. Churchill was ap- age at Scapa Flow, which was now time in Scotland. palled. As his daughter Mary later considered safe, and where they said, “[He] felt the loss of life would meet those parts of the The poor defences of Sca- very much. He realised what it all Home Fleet that had been based pa Flow received their greatest meant, the loss of the great ship, at Rosyth during their absence blow in October 1939. Churchill the loss of the men—and what it from Scapa. Churchill paints a had repeatedly warned that the meant in terms of the war.”7 marvellous picture in The Gather- defences were not secure and he ing Storm of their voyage by day was proven right, when, at one It was not until well into the and night through these restricted o’clock in the morning of 14 Oc- New Year that the First Lord waters, explaining that the waters tober, Germany’s U-47 torpedoed managed another trip to see the were narrow and intricate, requir- HMS Royal Oak, with the loss of Home Fleet in Scotland. Churchill ing exact navigation by the Master 839 lives. In the First World War departed from London by train of the Fleet, the navigating officer there had been two attempts by on the evening of 6 March and ar- of the flagship. Just as they were
Left First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill hosts Prime Minister Asquith aboard HMS Enchantress
30 | FINEST HOUR THE ADMIRALTY AND SCOTLAND
about to depart at lunch time, this officer was struck down ill, and so He realised what it all meant, the loss “a very young-looking lieutenant who was his assistant came up of the great ship, the loss of the men.” on to the bridge to take charge of the movement of the Fleet. I was struck by this officer, who without —Mary Soames on her father any notice had to undertake so se- rious a task requiring such perfect science, accuracy and judgement. His composure did not entirely training purposes at the time,” a 3. TBDs were the early version of conceal his satisfaction.” useful lesson for future avoidance destroyers with the initial pur- of friendly fire incidents.9 pose of defending the battle fleet Churchill’s passage to Scapa from attack by torpedo boats. Flow was interrupted by an air Within days Churchill was 4. Churchill to Lord Haldane, raid on the anchorage, which caught up first in the planning, 26 September 1912, in Randolph dropped mines on the main and then in the implementation Churchill, ed., Winston S. Chur- entrance, forcing Forbes to delay of the Norway campaign, so he chill, Companion Volume II, Part his entrance for twenty-four had no time to visit Scotland, 3, 1911–1914 (London: Heinemann, hours while they were cleared. let alone any other Royal Naval 1969), p. 1649. The delay not being acceptable establishment. On 10 May he 5. Ibid., Churchill memorandum, due to his needing to return to became Prime Minister and left dated 5 October 1912, p. 1652. London, Churchill was trans- the Admiralty. As Prime Minister 6. Forbes had in fact served at ferred to a destroyer in a cutter, he was to make many journeys the Dardanelles in 1915 as execu- rowing the mile between ships, to Scotland, both to embark for tive officer on board the flagship and taken into Scapa Flow by trans-Atlantic voyages to meet HMS Queen Elizabeth before being what the commanding officer of President Roosevelt and to visit appointed Flag Commander the destroyer referred to as “the Royal Naval facilities, but above to Jellicoe. He remained in the tradesmen’s entrance,” the Switha all to visit Combined Operations Grand Fleet until the end of the Sound.8 Churchill soon found his training establishments, which war, ending as Captain of HMS way on board HMS Hood, where were often based on the west Galatea. he was entertained by Admiral coast of Scotland. Here he could 7. Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Whitworth, commanding the see active preparations being Churchill, Vol. VI, Finest Hour, Battle Cruiser Squadron, spent made for the sort of operations he 1940–1941 (London: Heinemann, the night, and inspected ships and so dearly loved. Scotland, and its 1983), p. 62. the new defences the next day. He Royal Naval ports and bases, were 8. Commander J. T. Lean, caught the night train to London close to the heart of Churchill, commanding HMS Punjabi. on the evening of 10 March and, and he visited them as often as he 9. Minutes of the War Cabinet, once back at the Admiralty, issued could. , Martin Gilbert, ed., The Churchill a clutch of minutes reflecting all War Papers, Vol. I, At the Admi- that he had discussed with both Endnotes ralty, September 1939–May 1940 Admirals Forbes and Whitworth. 1. Randolph S. Churchill, Winston (London: Heinemann, 1993) Churchill reported to the Cabinet S. Churchill, Vol. II, Young States- pp. 867–68. that he considered the Scapa Flow man, 1901–1914 (London: anchorage to be 80% secure, and Heinemann, 1967), pp. 538–39. that “the German aircraft, which… 2. Lord Fisher to Churchill, 10 had been seen dropping objects November 1911, in Randolph in one of the entrances to Scapa Churchill, ed., Winston S. Robin Brodhurst is author of had been mistaken for our own Churchill, Companion Volume II, Churchill’s Anchor: Admiral of machines which had been co-op- Part 2, 1907–1911 (London: the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound erating with the defences for Heinemann, 1969), p. 1327. (Pen and Sword, 2000)
ISSUE NO. 189 | 31 Churchill in Dundee, 1921
By David Stafford
y 1921 the popularity of ly worried about the impact of and the amendment of the unem- Prime Minister David Lloyd Labour on local Liberal support. ployment laws. When Churchill BGeorge’s Liberal-Con- Disenchantment with the Gov- met with the City Council the servative coalition was waning, ernment’s austerity programme, next day, the atmosphere was and election talk was in the air. he warned Churchill in June, was likewise frosty. As the local MP, he As a senior member of the Cab- a serious threat to his seat. The had his constituents’ interest to inet, Winston Churchill’s own influential Secretary of the Jute promote. Being a Cabinet Mem- political future was seriously at Workers’ Union in the city, John ber, however, meant he also had stake. Since 1908 he had been Sime, thundered publicly and to defend Government policy. It a Liberal MP for Dundee. He often that Churchill was “born was an impossible task. The mood once described it as “a seat for a Tory, is still a Tory, and always was made worse after one of the life,” but the rise of the Labour will be a Tory.” Furthermore, Council’s Labour members began Party meant he could no longer Churchill’s violent denunciations by furiously accusing the Cabinet take this for granted. The city, of Sinn Fein meant that the city’s of a “brutal and callous” response Scotland’s third largest, was Irish voters, once his strong sup- to the unemployed. Churchill hit dominated by the jute industry, porters, had also turned against back by pointing out how much and the population was heavily him. A local anti-drink campaign- the government had provided in working-class. As a result of the er and socialist, Edwin Scrym- benefits since the war and blam- 1918 Representation of the People geour, had by now emerged as a ing a recent wave of strikes for Act, the electorate had tripled and serious electoral rival.1 weakening the economy. now also included thousands of women. The city’s slums were no- Thus it was that when Chur- Yet the fractious and often torious for poor housing; drunk- chill arrived in Dundee for his emotional council meeting left enness was rife; and the post-war annual visit that September, he not just its audience dissatisfied. slump meant unemployment had ran into serious hostility. Riots by Churchill himself was deeply reached crisis proportions. Chil- the unemployed had engulfed city discomfited. What he had seen dren walked hungry and shoeless streets only days before. Dozens with his own eyes had clearly in the streets. of shop windows were smashed. A shocked him. Dozens of shops crowd of thousands lustily singing still had windows boarded up. Churchill rarely visited the the Red Flag besieged the home of Many children were visibly in city more than once a year. It was the Lord Provost, and the police what he described as “a savage a long and tedious journey by rail made dozens of arrests. Anger at and starving condition.” Back at from London. Besides, in local both Churchill and the govern- his hotel he sat down and wrote a businessman Sir George Ritchie, ment in London was palpable. heartfelt personal letter to Lloyd he benefited from an excellent Churchill had hardly checked into George confessing that he had constituency agent who kept him the Royal Hotel before he was become convinced that there was in touch with the city’s affairs. By confronted by a delegation head- “very great ground for complaint” now, however, even the normally ed by Sime angrily demanding the about the Government’s unem- sanguine Ritchie was serious- immediate recall of Parliament ployment policy.2
32 | FINEST HOUR Right Churchill speaking at Kinnard Hall at 1908 Dundee by-election, when he was first elected the local MP
The Caird Hall Speech its neo-classical grandeur and in fact a grand civic event, and acoustically top-rated auditorium, the hall swelled with between As Colonial Secretary and Caird Hall held out the hope of a three and four thousand people. one of the few Liberal ministers more prosperous future for the The Lord Provost presided, and in the Conservative-dominated city on the River Tay. To ensure a the platform included many local coalition, Churchill could do little sympathetic audience, Ritchie had worthies, including Sir George to appease Dundee’s anger about made the event a ticketed affair. Ritchie himself, as well as repre- economic and social issues. As a But this was a radicalized Dundee. sentatives of the Liberal and Con- national rather than local actor, Hundreds of entry tickets were servative Parties. As a significant however, he was able to turn his forged, and only at the last min- straw in the political wind, the 1921 visit to Dundee into a per- ute were their holders barred Lord Provost opened the evening sonal triumph. from entering. Outside, a hostile by stressing that he was chairman crowd of several thousand sang only in an official capacity. Per- On the following day, Sat- socialist songs, and an unsuc- sonally, along with many others urday, 24 September, Churchill cessful effort was made to rush present, he had strongly support- delivered a speech he had been the hall. A heavy police presence ed the Government during the carefully preparing over the attended the proceedings. war. But since then, he told his lis- summer at Dunrobin Castle in teners, many things had happened the Highlands. The venue was the Still, despite an occasional of which he did not approve. Here recently completed concert hall heckler, inside Churchill found a was a worrying portent for the named after James Key Caird, a responsive audience as he de- future of the Coalition, as well as local jute baron and philanthro- livered yet another of his many for Churchill himself.3 pist who had also sponsored masterful speeches. More impor- Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated tantly, the national press gave his Having been alerted—and expedition to the Antarctic. With talk widespread coverage. It was possibly stimulated—by the Lord
ISSUE NO. 189 | 33 DUNDEE, 1921
Dunrobin Castle
Provost’s provocation, Churchill ress of mankind will be found to the Pacific, to create a climate of opened his speech by accepting reside.” peaceful co-operation. Here he that the present post-war period looked ahead to the near future was a time of great social distress How was this future to be and the forthcoming international and anxiety where everyone was reached? Churchill’s answer was naval disarmament conference to still suffering from “the grievous by following the path of recon- be held in the American capital. wounds of the war,” the imprint ciliation. This was the time, he “I have high hopes of this Wash- of which they would all carry declared after moving on from his ington Conference,” he told his to their graves. From this dark sombre opening scene, “for com- listeners. “It marks the re-entry of opening, he guided his audience posing differences, for assisting the United States into the respon- step by step towards a brighter each other, for leaving alone all sibilities and difficulties of world future that echoed familiar sen- quarrels and co-operating in the politics,” and, he added, made timents he had been expressing rebuilding as quickly as possible him confident of the Anglo-Amer- throughout the year. “I look for- of the threatened prosperity of ican future. ward confidently,” he eventually the country. Classes and nations concluded amidst cheers, “to an must help each other.” One way Of course, perils awaited. ever closer association between was to settle war debts and re-es- Not surprisingly, Churchill pro- the United States and the British tablish a healthy and prosperous nounced that the greatest of these Empire, for it is in the unity of system of tariff-free international was Bolshevism. Earlier that the English-speaking peoples that trade. Another was for the Great month the Dundee Advertiser had the brightest hopes for the prog- Powers of Europe, as well as of carried a full-page appeal request-
34 | FINEST HOUR DUNDEE, 1921
Caird Hall ing donations for famine relief people had been shot in Petrograd Sinn Fein and Britain in the Irish in Russia, where millions were for being implicated in the latest war of independence had been starving in the aftermath of the “plot” against the regime; most, declared that July. This was the Revolution and Civil War. Chil- it seemed, were “men of educa- centrepiece of his talk, and the dren were often abandoned and tion, including two professors and one his audience was most anx- reduced to eating grass, roots, and a famous sculptor.” Churchill’s ious to hear. Again, reconcilia- rubbish. In total, some thirty-five attack on the perils of Bolshevism tion was the central theme. Past million Russians were suffering. concluded on a familiar note. Do- quarrels now had to be put aside, “One of the world’s greatest mestic supporters had been doing and this included, he stressed, granaries,” Churchill declared, their best to disrupt the economy differences between the Conser- “has been reduced through four through strikes and disputes and vatives and Liberals themselves years of Socialism and Bolshevism “to ruin us here in Britain.” Luck- on how to deal with Ireland. But to absolute starvation.” Worse, ily, Churchill added in a typical if the message was reconciliation, he added, Lenin and Trotsky had aside that drew approving laugh- his tone was firm. In its offer of killed without mercy all those ter, “we always seem to get these Dominion status to southern who opposed them and now lived foreign diseases in a less acute Ireland, the Government had off the wealth of those they had form.” gone “to the utmost limit possi- dispossessed. This claim rang true ble.” So far, the negative response to his audience. In a despatch Churchill then asserted that of Eamon de Valera, Sinn Fein’s from Helsinki, the local paper had the more immediate threat lay in leader, had been disappointing recently reported that sixty-one Ireland, where a truce between and puzzling. True, he was “riding
ISSUE NO. 189 | 35 DUNDEE, 1921
a nationalist tiger,” and allowance events we are pursuing to- Churchill’s final two years had to be made for that. Nonethe- wards the Irish Sinn Feiners as MP for Dundee marked an less, Churchill told his audience is repugnant to some of our important step in his political that he was still uncertain where feelings…we must cheer our- rehabilitation. It had been sixteen the Irish leaders stood. “I only selves by remembering that years since his first biographer, know,” he said, “where we stand. a lasting settlement with Alexander MacCallum Scott, We have reached the end of our Ireland—a healing of the had identified him as a potential tether.” This prompted cheers in old quarrel, a reconciliation prime minister. The Dardanelles the audience. between two races—would campaign in 1915 had put a brutal not only be a blessing in it- end to that perception. Yet by Churchill then added a sober- self inestimable, but with it the autumn of 1921, the words ing note by raising the prospect would be removed the great- “statesman” and “leader” were of an independent Irish Repub- est obstacle which has ever again being attached to Chur- lic and what it would mean. He existed to Anglo-American chill’s name. In an editorial enti- painted a dark and ominous unity, and that far across the tled “An Essay in Statesmanship,” picture of what could lie ahead: a Atlantic Ocean we should The Times declared that “Discard- fortified frontier between north reap a harvest sown in the ing the debased coinage of party and south with hostile armies on Emerald Isle.5 politics,” Churchill in his Dundee each side; constant fear that the address “used the nobler cur- Irish Republic was intriguing with Peacemaker rency that once used to pass and other countries against Britain, will, we trust, pass again between possibly by giving them subma- The speech did little to alter British public men and the British rine bases; a tariff wall between minds in Dundee about Chur- public.”6 the two nations; and hundreds chill’s suitability as their MP. of thousands of Irishmen living After he finished speaking, Chur- Even more outspoken was an throughout the Empire immedi- chill had to exit by the back door article in the weekly magazine ately being declared “aliens” if and be hastily driven to his hotel. Outlook. “Were I an ambitious war broke out between Britain More than a year later, the gov- young backbencher,” declared and Ireland. “What a ludicrous erning coalition collapsed, and its anonymous author, “I would and what an idiotic prospect is Churchill was defeated in the hitch my wagon to the star of unfolded before our eyes,” he general election that followed. the Colonial Secretary, a star declared. “What a crime [Sinn Neither Lloyd George nor the that once seemed to be waning Fein] would commit if…they Liberals would ever again head to telescopic dimensions, but of condemn themselves and their a government in Britain. For the late has rapidly waxed from the children to such misfortunes.” first time, Labour formed the third to the second magnitude To head off this dark future, a official opposition. Before that, and, in my opinion, will go on conference was clearly needed. It however, Churchill’s Caird Hall waxing. Winston seems to be the would be wise to be outspoken, speech had guaranteed his selec- only one in the Cabinet with a and foolish to encourage false or tion as one of the chief British sane and comprehensive view of dangerous hopes. It had to be a negotiators in talks with Sinn Fein world politics.” This was all the successful conference. “Squander that culminated in the creation of more remarkable a declaration it,” he warned in words clearly the Irish Free State. This, along because the magazine tradition- designed for the ears of de Valera, with his settlement of Britain’s ally supported the Conservatives, “and peace is bankrupt.”4 His final residual obligations in the Middle who had long loathed Churchill words linked Ireland’s fate to his East during his time at the Colo- as a traitor to their cause. It was broader vision for Britain: nial Office, meant that Churchill, an intriguing straw in the wind contrary to his image as a belliger- hinting at a major shift in the When in moments of doubt ent warmonger, could now legiti- political landscape. Indeed, only or hours of despondency mately claim to be a peacemaker. three years later, Churchill would we fear that the course of return to the Conservative fold—
36 | FINEST HOUR DUNDEE, 1921
Left Ediwn Scrymgeour, Scottish Prohibitionist candidate who defeated Churchill at Dundee in 1922
RIGHT Sir George Ritchie Churchill's constituency agent in Dundee
although no longer as a Scottish Churchill: A Seat for Life (Dundee: 6. The Times, 26 September 1921. MP”—proudly don his father’s David Winter and Son, 1980). 7. Outlook, 22 October 1921. robes as Chancellor of the Ex- 2. Churchill to Lloyd George, chequer, and confidently imagine 23 September 1921, in CHAR 5/24. that his next major move would 3. Dundee Advertiser, 26 September David Stafford is author of be into 10 Downing Street.7 1921. Oblivion or Glory: 1921 and the 4. For the text of the Caird Hall Making of Winston Churchill Endnotes speech, see Robert Rhodes James, (Yale University Press, 2019), from 1. Sir George Ritchie to Churchill, ed., Winston S. Churchill: His Com- which this article is adapted. 17 June 1921, in CHAR 5/24, Chur- plete Speeches, Vol. III, 1914–1922 He formerly served as Project Direc- chill Archives Centre, Cambridge; (New York: Chelsea House, 1974), tor of the Centre for the Study of the for a broad overview of Churchill pp. 3128–31. Two World Wars at the and Dundee, see Tony Paterson, 5. Ibid., p. 3140. University of Edinburgh.
ISSUE NO. 189 | 37 A Scottish Honorary Degree
By Ronald I. Cohen
eaders will be surprised to wife, who is deeply grieved Dundee, and to thank you learn how few honorary not to be here today through for your courtesy. Mr Chur- Rdegrees were conferred on temporary indisposition. chill regrets he is unable to Winston Churchill in the course I commanded a Scottish accept the honour which of his long life. Although the prac- battalion of the famous 21st you have proposed to confer tice of granting a degree honoris Regiment for five months in upon him. causa is more than five centuries the line in France in the last old, the practice was not common war. I sat for 15 years as the Churchill ultimately became a until this past century. Even then, representative of “Bonnie Freeman of all of the other cities when such recognitions began to Dundee,” and I might be sit- he had ever represented in Parlia- proliferate, Churchill was granted ting for it still if the matter ment and of five Scottish cities, only fourteen in all. Only one of had rested entirely with me. but his bitter electoral disap- these came before he was prime pointment at Dundee after four- minister (he was at the time Dundee Denial teen and a half years as the local Chancellor of the Exchequer). MP prevented him from adding Three more came during the Sec- It did not rest with him. In the Scotland’s fourth-largest city to ond World War, all from North general election of 1922, Chur- that list. America, and ten more followed chill lost a bitter battle for the after the hostilities. The first seat at Dundee that he had held Aberdeen of the post-war degrees that he since 1908, standing fourth of six received from universities in the candidates. “Winston thought Not quite three years after United Kingdom was presented his world had come to an end. his refusal to become a burgess by the University of Aberdeen. Not since the days of his lonely of Dundee, Churchill happily childhood, or even at the time he acceded to the invitation of the In some respects, the rec- had lost the Admiralty, had he Aberdonians. On 27 April 1946, ognition from Scotland was not felt such a depression of spirit.” Churchill Day, the city gave him surprising. Churchill had already He never visited the city again. a double-barreled welcome by received the Freedom of the City Years later, in October 1943, the granting him the Freedom of the and Royal Burgh of Edinburgh in Dundee City Council attempted City at the Music Hall followed by October 1942, the first of for- a rapprochement and voted to an Honorary LL.D. at the Univer- ty-two City Freedoms that he “do ourselves and the communi- sity’s Mitchell Hall. “Wherever ultimately garnered worldwide. ty great honour by making him a he went...there was welcoming On that occasion, Churchill said Burgess of the city.” In response, laughter and applause, and this to the audience in Usher Hall: Churchill’s Private Secretary, swelled to a roar as he moved T. H. Beck, rebuffed the offer in up in the procession through I have myself some ties with the following terms: a packed audience which had Scotland which are to me of waited long and patiently for his great significance—ties pre- I am desired by the Prime arrival.” cious and lasting. First of all, Minister to acknowledge I decided to be born on St. your letter of October 8th, Churchill spoke at both cere- Andrew’s Day—and it was to inviting him to accept the monies. At the Music Hall he said, Scotland I went to find my freedom of the City of “Aberdeen is also famed for warm
38 | FINEST HOUR RIGHT Turning to the Program for honorary degree ceremony at Vice-Chancellor, Taylor the University of Aberdeen. concluded:
I do not presume even in summary to assess the contribu- hearts, keen affection and bright tion which Mr. Chur- eyes. I am deeply moved by your chill made to our final welcome. I regard it as a special deliverance. That compliment to an Englishman to is a task which will be invited to receive the Freedom occupy the commen- of this City and a degree from its tators of the future. eminent University, and the gen- But this I will say: erosity and kindness which you to-day, we stand—let show me are a joy indeed.” us all realise it—in the presence of one At the university, Professor of the great figures T. M. Taylor, The Promoter in of history. No dis- Law, recalled the observation of tinction which we or Edmund Burke that the ancient any other mortal may spirit, though not always visible, confer, can add one “never fails to come forth when- scintilla to the lustre great honour and blessing, ever it is ritually invoked, ready to of his renown; but we may as I must regard it, to be perform all the tasks which shall ask to have the honour of gifted with those forms of be imposed upon it by public hon- entering in the album of our expression, derived from our.” Professor Taylor then fixed graduates, the name of the long Parliamentary practice, Churchill’s role: greatest living Englishman. which enabled me to be the exponent of the feelings In that crisis of our fate, In response, Churchill rose to which surged through al- there was but one man who face what was described as “a tu- most every man and woman could perform the saving mult of ecstatic cheers” and told from Land’s End to John act of ritual invocation: it the audience: O’Groats in those days when was his supreme service we stood alone against the so to do. Under his leader- The Promoter in Law said a most awful forms of tyranny ship, the ancient antithesis great many things which it is which had ever been known between word and deed not perhaps good for a man among men. ceased to hold; great ora- to hear—it is going beyond tory took on the quality of what he should know or Thus ended Churchill’s con- action, and in an hour of think about himself. I have tribution to this very special Ab- defeat the speeches of Mr. been profoundly touched erdeen occasion, which was fol- Churchill were the equiva- by his words. I humbly trust lowed by a procession of students lent of victory. They fused that history may not dissent chanting the traditional Scottish and integrated our people, from some at least of the verses, “Better lo’ed ye canna be, raising them to the height of conclusions which he placed Will ye no come back again.” , their destiny, till the nation before you. felt itself to be one—one in ... the face of present peril, one As you know I have never also with the historic and accepted the suggestion Ronald I. Cohen MBE is author of heroic past. that it was I who roused A Bibliography of the Writings of the British nation. I had the Sir Winston Churchill (2006).
ISSUE NO. 189 | 39 “Keep Their Silliest People in Order” Churchill and the Scottish Pillar Box War
By David Freeman
o return to power in 1951, had been Parliamentary Private Winston Churchill need- Secretary to Prime Minister Nev- “E II R” in the northern kingdom. ed support in Scotland as ille Chamberlain and had accom- This fine distinction, however, T was initially lost on the Post Of- much as he did anywhere else. panied his leader to the infamous During the general election cam- Munich Conference, which Chur- fice. paign, therefore, he dutifully trav- chill had vociferously denounced. eled to Glasgow, where he spoke Stuart stood firm, however, and The Battle Begins at St. Andrew’s Hall on 17 Octo- Churchill relented. “All right— “On 28 November 1952,” ber. If the Conservatives were to have your Home sweet Home,” historian David McLean writes, win, Churchill told his audience, he huffed. “The Prime Minister’s “an official party assembled at “We shall advise the creation of a personal directive to me was the junction of Gilmerton Road new Minister of State for Scottish characteristic and terse,” Doug- and Walter Scott Avenue in Affairs of Cabinet rank, to work in las-Home later recalled, “‘Go Edinburgh’s newly-built Inch Scotland as Deputy to the Secre- and quell those turbulent Scots, housing estate to formally un- tary of State.”1 and don’t come back until you’ve veil Scotland’s first ‘E II R’ pillar done it.’”2 There was indeed to be box.” Letters of protest had been The strategy worked. The turbulence. sent to local authorities express- Tories eked out a seventeen-seat ing disapproval over what some majority in the election by secur- Less than four months after viewed as an inappropriate Royal ing thirty-five of the seventy-one Churchill’s return to Downing Cypher for use on Scottish let- Scottish seats. Churchill became Street, King George VI died terboxes. Consequently, “five prime minister for the second and was succeeded by his elder police officers were present at the time and appointed his former daughter. The new sovereign was unveiling ceremony.”3 Chief Whip, James Stuart, as undoubtedly the second reigning Secretary of State for Scotland. Queen Elizabeth—in England. Despite the box receiving Stuart in turn recommended that During the reign of Elizabeth I, special protection, vandals soon Alec Douglas-Home, who had however, Scotland had been the struck. Within thirty-six hours recently succeeded his father to independent realm of James VI, the Royal Cypher had been de- become the 14th Earl of Home, be who succeeded the Virgin Queen faced with tar, and two unsuc- appointed as the promised Minis- to become King James I of En- cessful attempts to blow up the ter of State. gland in 1604. It stood to reason, box followed within two months. many Scots believed, that in their McLean continues the story: The selection of the mid- country the daughter of George Finally, on 12 February 1953 dle-aged earl did not appeal to VI was not Elizabeth II but simply at around 10 pm, the Inch Churchill. As a member of the Elizabeth Regina with no ordinal was rocked by an explosion House of Commons, then styled designation. The Royal Cypher, that could be heard a mile Lord Dunglass, Douglas-Home therefore, should be “ER” and not away. The three-month-old
40 | FINEST HOUR Queen Elizabeth II Pillar Boxes English version (left) Scottish version (right)
replied. “If the Hon. Gentleman has any information to give to Her Majesty’s Government, or to the police, the Secretary of State for Scotland is entirely at his disposal.”5 Clearly Churchill viewed the controversy as nothing more than a tiresome gadfly. Nevertheless, a resolution was required. The residents of Inch were justifiably concerned about public safety, and nobody wanted the violence to spread. As the Government’s “boots on the ground” in Edin- post box had been com- follow up: “May I ask the Prime burgh, Douglas-Home in conjunc- pletely blown apart courtesy Minister if there is any truth in tion with Stuart back in Westmin- of a gelignite bomb. The the statement that, in order to ster quietly arranged that new next day a small Lion Ram- strengthen the case for the reten- pillar boxes in Scotland should be pant was discovered draped tion of the numeral, the Govern- decorated only with images of the across its smouldered ruins.4 ment have issued a circular offer- crown. There would be no Royal ing £2,000 reward for information Cypher. In time for the corona- Questions in the House leading to the identification of tion, a truce had been established. Elizabeth I of Scotland, dead or , With the coronation of the alive? Is that now Government new queen approaching, an issue policy?” that some regarded as a matter of Endnotes national pride and others viewed If Rankin was trying to get 1. Robert Rhodes James, ed., as infinitely trivial reached the the Prime Minister worked up, Winston S. Churchill: His Complete floor of the House of Commons. he succeeded. “When I think of Speeches, Vol. VIII, 1950–1963 During Prime Minister’s Ques- the greatness and splendour of (New York: Chelsea House, 1974), tion Time on 1 April 1953, John Scotland,” Churchill answered, p. 8276. Rankin, a Labour MP for Glasgow, “and her wonderful part in the 2. Alec Douglas-Home, The Way “asked the Prime Minister if he history not only of this island but the Wind Blows (New York: will arrange that the Royal Cy- of the world, I think they really Quadrangle, 1976), pp. 102–03. pher is not placed on new pillar ought to keep their silliest people 3. David McLean, “Lost Edin- boxes.” To this Churchill replied, in order.” burgh: The Queen and the Ex- “Her Majesty’s Government are ploding Postbox,” The Scotsman, not prepared to place any general Still Rankin kept charging: 3 September 2014. restriction on the use of the Royal “Then may I ask the Prime Minis- 4. Ibid. Cypher. Its use for any particular ter what steps he is taking to dis- 5. Parliamentary Debates, purpose is a matter for detailed cover the authors of this poster?” 1 April 1953. decision in relation to the circum- But Churchill had had enough of stances of the case.” this political posturing. “It is not part of my duties as Prime Minis- is editor of But Rankin had only just ter to seek out and work up into David Freeman Finest Hour. started. He now launched into his all these small ferret holes,” he
ISSUE NO. 189 | 41 MICHAEL McMENAMIN’S on an unarmed crowd of Indi- ans at Amritsar, killing 300 and wounding 2,000. A Government Commission investigated the incident—the Amritsar Massa- cre—and, eight months after the tragedy, condemned the general’s actions. Dyer was relieved of his command, and Churchill—the Secretary of State for War and still a member of the Liberal Par- ty—had the Army Council refuse Dyer any further command. Many 125 Years Ago cannot find the energy to read any Conservative MPs were upset Summer 1895 • Age 20 other serious work.” He went on by these decisions. Although the “I Shall Never Know to tell her that he intended, once Tories belonged to the coalition, they had a free-standing majority Such a Friend Again” situated in London, to study one or two hours a week with a schol- in the House of Commons and, ar in Economics or Modern His- with it, the power to bring down rs. Everest, Winston’s tory because “I need someone to the Government. Motions were beloved childhood point out some specific subject to filed by both Conservative MPs Mnanny, died on 3 July. stimulate & to direct my reading and opposition Labour MPs to He wrote to his mother the same in that subject.” reduce the salary of the Secretary day: “She was delighted to see me Churchill was keenly aware of of State for India, Edwin Mon- on Monday and I think my com- the deficiencies in his education. tagu, who was a Liberal and only ing made her die happy. Her last He wrote his mother that “my the third practicing Jewish man to words were of Jack. I shall never mind has never received that pol- serve in the Cabinet. know such a friend again.” ish which for instance Oxford or Montagu led off the debate for Churchill continued to have Cambridge gives. At these places the Government and did poorly. his mind on politics and had no one studies questions and scienc- One MP observed in a note to the intention of making a career in es with a rather higher object than Prime Minister that “Montagu the Army. Writing to his mother mere practical utility. One re- thoroughly roused most of the on 16 August, he said, “It is a fine ceives in fact a liberal education.” latent passions of the stodgy To- game to play—the game of poli- Churchill intended to give himself ries and many of them could have tics—and it is well worth waiting just such an education, which he assaulted him physically, they for a good hand—before really did throughout his time in India. were so angry.” Sir Edward Car- plunging….The more I see of sol- son, leader of the Ulster Union- diering—the more I like it—but ists, spoke after Montagu and the more I feel convinced that it 100 Years Ago pointed out that Dyer’s actions is not my métier. Well, we shall Summer 1920 • Age 45 had been approved at the time by see—my dearest Mama.” “Frightfulness” both his Commanding Officer and On 24 August, Churchill again the Lieutenant-Governor of the wrote his mother: “I find I am Punjab. Andrew Bonar Law, Lord getting into a state of mental difficult issue for the Privy Seal and Leader of the Con- stagnation….It is a state of mind coalition Government of servative party, who was directing onto which all or nearly all who ADavid Lloyd George that the debate for the Government, soldier—fall. From this ‘slough summer was the debate in Parlia- thought things were going so of Despond’ I try to raise myself ment over the decision to relieve badly that he called upon Chur- by reading & re-reading Papa’s General Dyer from his command. chill earlier than he had intended speeches—many of which I al- The previous year, Dyer had in order to save the day. Churchill most know by heart—but I really ordered his troops to open fire proceeded to do just that.
42 | FINEST HOUR After patiently explaining which they have broken, and by 18 July, Churchill hosted a lunch the procedural process whereby which alone their criminal regime for Truman. While they were an officer is relieved of com- can be maintained.” alone together for two hours, he mand, Churchill suggested that The Times described Chur- unsuccessfully attempted to per- the Government Commission’s chill’s speech as “amazingly skill- suade Truman to drop the term findings “might furnish the fullest ful…not only a brilliant speech but “unconditional surrender” con- justification for removing him one that persuaded and made the ceived by President Roosevelt and from his appointment.” When result certain.” The Government to find “some other way” to de- another Member shouted “No, easily defeated the two motions scribe their peace terms to Japan. No!” Churchill replied, “I am filed against it over Dyer’s relief Notwithstanding their failure to expressing my opinion. When my from command. agree on this point, Truman told honourable and gallant Friend is Churchill that it was “the most called, he will express his opin- enjoyable luncheon that he had ion. That is the process we call 75 Years Ago had for many years.” Debate.” Turning to the merits of Summer 1945 • Age 70 That evening, Churchill dined Dyer’s dismissal, Churchill said “A Blessing in Disguise” alone with Stalin. At the plenary the Amritsar Massacre was “an session that afternoon, Stalin episode which appears to me to had assured Churchill that there be without precedent or paral- ith Germany defeated, would be free elections in Poland. lel in the modern history of the an election was sched- Now, Stalin gave him the same British Empire.…It is an extraor- uled for 5 July, the first W assurance with respect to the na- dinary event, a monstrous event, general election in the United tions of Central Europe. He also an event which stands in singular Kingdom for ten years. The told Churchill that the Conserv- and sinister isolation.” Churchill results would not be announced atives would have a majority of then described “certain broad until three weeks after the polling eighty in the election. Churchill lines…every officer had to follow, day in order to allow the votes of was skeptical of both the promise certain questions he had to ask” military personnel overseas to be and the prediction. and explained that Dyer had failed counted. This meant that Church- Stimson gave Churchill a in this. ill would attend the Big Three private briefing on 22 July about After that, Churchill referred summit conference in Potsdam the effects of the atomic bomb to “one general prohibition that month without knowing test—a one-mile circle of total which we can make. I mean a the outcome of the election. devastation. On 24 July, Truman prohibition against what is called Consequently, Churchill invited finally told Stalin of the success- ‘frightfulness.’ What I mean by Labour’s leader, Clement Attlee, ful test. The Soviet leader did frightfulness is the inflicting of to attend the conference with him not appear surprised, but the great slaughter or massacre upon in order to provide continuity in explanation for that would only a particular crowd of people, the event that the election results be discovered later. On 25 July, with the intention of terrorizing did not return the Conservatives the conference was interrupted not merely the rest of the crowd, to power. for two days so that Churchill and but the whole district or the Churchill arrived in Berlin Attlee could return to Britain to whole country.” Churchill then with his daughter Mary on 15 learn the results of the election. smoothly segued into an attack July and had his first meeting On 26 July, it was announced that on Bolshevism, one that he knew with President Truman the next Labour had won in a landslide, would appeal to his Conservative morning. He told his daughter with a majority of 146 seats in the critics. His hatred of Bolshevism, that he liked the new President House of Commons. Clemen- he said, “is not founded on their immensely and was sure he could tine Churchill told her husband silly system of economics, or their work with him. At lunch that day that “It may well be a blessing absurd doctrine of an impossible with Truman and US Secretary of in disguise.” “At the moment,” equality. It arises from the bloody War Henry Stimson, word was re- Churchill replied, “it seems quite and devastating terrorism which ceived that the first atomic bomb effectively disguised.”, they practice in every land from had been successfully tested. On
ISSUE NO. 189 | 43 Books, Arts, & Curiosities
have used? How close were these The book does have some Delicious Reading in relation to the service lifts, longueurs. The chapter about Mr. and where had the family dined? Landemare, Georgina’s future Annie Gray, Victory in the Annie was combing meticulously husband Paul, runs nearly forty Kitchen: The Life of Churchill’s through menus, fridge bills, wine pages before he meets his wife- Cook, Profile Books, 2020, lists, and other archival docu- to-be. I can, however, forgive this 400 pages, £16.99. ments. on account of being introduced ISBN 978–1788160445 at this point to some mouth-wa- The increasing attention to tering Parisian dishes, including Review by Katherine Carter the staff that served the upper the heavenly sounding batons au classes of early twentieth-century chocolat (chocolate and vanilla ealth Warning: While society has been interesting to flavoured almond pastry biscuits reading this scrumptious observe for those of us who run dipped in meringue and chopped Hbook, be prepared to historic houses in Britain. “The pistachios). crave deliciously rich-sounding Downton Abbey effect,” as I call recipes. I first spoke with Annie it, means that the team at Chart- Gray early in 2018 when she had well are now asked almost as got in touch as part of her re- much about butlers, maids, secre- search for the book she was writ- taries, bodyguards, and cooks as ing about Georgina Landemare, about the Churchills themselves. the Churchills’ cook. She was But can the stories of the staff keen to visit Chartwell and get make interesting histories unto a feel for the house where Mrs. themselves? With Victory in the Landemare had spent so much Kitchen, Annie Gray emphatically time and where I am fortunate proves that they can. enough to work. Annie wanted to learn what had been the layouts The start of Mrs. Landemare’s of the house both before and after life is a fascinating insight into the Second World War so as to the lives and status of servants understand what had been the in the Victorian era, when work- logistics involved in Mrs. Lande- ing life began in what today we mare’s job. would regard as childhood. And of course the subject of food is never Many people write about far away. Descriptions of Edward- Chartwell, and lots of them visit ian dinners and their mind-bog- Mrs. Landemare started over the course of their research, gling levels of intricacy—an working for the Churchills in but on her first visit I sensed in evening at Blenheim, for example, 1933, initially hired for individual Annie a real desire to understand often included seventeen cours- occasions as a “jobbing cook.” Mrs. Landemare’s life there. es—shows just how pivotal to the With Winston’s reputation as a Where had the kitchens been? aristocracy was the role of food. lover of food, and the importance Which were the stairs she would of meals to his politicking—es-
44 | FINEST HOUR pecially during his “wilderness That Other entrepreneur, had a profound ef- years” of the 1930s—a great deal fect on Hamilton’s career at cru- of pressure came with the role of Hamilton Woman cial moments. And through her cook at Chartwell. By the time the deliciously gossip-ridden diaries Celia Lee, Jean, Lady Hamil- Second World War began in 1939, we get many wonderful anecdotes ton 1861–1942: Diaries of a however, Mrs. Landemare had about life in that gilded age. Soldier’s Wife, Pen and Sword, made herself indispensable not 2020, £19.99. only to Winston Churchill but to It will be the many diary en- the entire family. ISBN 978–1526786585 tries that concern Churchill and his wider family that will be of For the rest of Churchill’s Review by Andrew Roberts particular interest to fellow Chur- career, entertaining remained a chillians. On their first acquain- vital tool for his political discus- eaders of Finest Hour who tance, Jean was not greatly taken sions and policy-making. Mrs. are familiar with Winston with the “young man in a hurry,” Landemare well understood this, RChurchill’s role in initiating and it did not help that she caught as illustrated by her own account the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 will him out in a mild social fib in of her reluctance to abandon the instantly recognise the name of 1902. Churchill had sent a formal Downing Street kitchen during Sir Ian Hamilton, the commander decline of a dinner invitation, an air raid because she was in the of that tragically doomed expedi- signed by his secretary, pleading middle of preparing a mousseline tion. Churchill had recommended his busy political schedule. Yet pudding for the Prime Minister. Hamilton, a distinguished Ed- Jean’s friend, Pamela Plowden, Perhaps most remarkable was wardian soldier and long acquain- who Churchill was wooing, had her ability to create delicious and tance, to Lord Kitchener, the already told her she could not satisfying meals during the war secretary for war, for that high attend because he was taking her despite rationing (though with command, which turned out to be out to dinner à deux that very eve- the addition of diplomatic cou- an utterly poisoned chalice. ning. Jean mischievously had the pons and the help of further sup- letter framed and hung on a wall plies brought from the productive The young cavalry officer had in her house for many years after. gardens at Chartwell). been thrilled to come to the at- tention of the famous soldier, Ian She quickly warmed to Chur- By delving into the life of Mrs. Hamilton, who was twenty-one chill, however, as he was a con- Landemare, we learn how one years his senior. Churchill’s sixth stant guest of her husband, and woman made her mark on history book, Ian Hamilton’s March, was Jean and Winston shared a love of not on the world stage but from written to honour his achieve- painting. In 1921 Jean paid £50 for the kitchens. Her service and ments in the South African war. a gorgeous picture of Ightam Moat, unswerving loyalty to the Chur- They remained firm friends and now a National Trust property in chills made her a vital cog in their shared many of the liberal, and Kent. (Hamilton bequeathed the lives for more than thirty years. It indeed Liberal, beliefs of the day. painting to Ightam Moat in his is little wonder that Winston said Both were opposed to harsh peace will.) that he could not have achieved settlements with the Boers in what he had without her. You 1902 and the Germans in 1918. The many dinner table stories can experience why this was so recounted by Jean in this volume yourself. Expect when you finish Celia Lee has an unrivalled include one from February 1910 Annie Gray’s superb book you will knowledge of the invaluable and that shows, in a way no official next find yourself buying Mrs. detailed diaries kept by Jean, Ian record could, the humanitarian Landemare’s very own Recipes Hamilton’s wife, and has written in Churchill. As Home Secretary from No. 10. a remarkable biography based he said it weighed on his mind on those intimate daily records that he had just signed his first Katherine Carter is the Collections of the life of a member of the death sentence, on a man who and House Manager at Chartwell. , Edwardian power elite. Jean, the had abducted a girl and brutally daughter of a millionaire Scottish cut her throat in an alley. “I was
ISSUE NO. 189 | 45 BOOKS, ARTS, AND CURIOSITIES
Gallipoli catastrophe, when the three dams in the Ruhr Valley two men worked hand-in-glove in May 1943—codenamed Chas- during the inevitable public In- tise—allows him to draw upon quiry into all the things that had the interviews he conducted for gone so badly wrong in that cam- his 1979 classic Bomber Command. paign. As the progenitor of the Building on new archival labors expedition and its commander, and recently published studies, Churchill and Hamilton were in Hastings provides a more detailed the forefront of the potential crit- examination of the attack than in icism, yet through their patient, his previous book. factual and eloquent explanations of every stage of the operations, The basic facts are familiar to closely coordinated between viewers of the 1955 film The Dam them throughout the Inquiry, Busters, which dramatized the they encouraged the Dardanelles attack on the Möhne, Sorpe, and Report to place the blame where Eder dams. Breaching these three it deserved to fall, rather than structures, it was argued, would primarily on them. cause enormous devastation in a region important to Germany In 1919, the Hamiltons first relieved,” Jean wrote, “and said industry. At the time, however, rented and then purchased from cheerfully: ‘That would not weigh the airborne munitions capable of on my mind.’ ‘Think,’ he said the Churchills the beautiful destroying the dams did not exist. rather savagely, ‘of a society that country estate of Lullenden in Enter Barnes Wallis, a brilliant en- forces a man to do that.’” The East Grinstead in Sussex. These gineer employed by Vickers, who discussion continued about the large-scale expenditures were, of created a weapon called Upkeep, criminal liability of lunatics; Jean course, entirely due to Jean’s in- designed to explode in the res- found Winston “sensitive and heritance. It is worth noting that excitable.” Ian Hamilton owned the shooting ervoirs just behind the dams and rights on the Chartwell estate and collapse them under hydrostatic During the First World War, almost certainly introduced Win- pressure. The attack on 16–17 May Jean recorded her admiration for ston to the property that became partly succeeded. The Möhne and the war work conducted by Clem- the most important to him, and to Eder dams were both breached entine Churchill, who organised Churchillians everywhere. and much death and destruction canteens for women working in inflicted in the communities munitions factories. At a dinner Andrew Roberts’ most recent book downriver. towards the end of the conflict, is Leadership in War (2019). , the pregnant Clementine, worried Hastings provides a read- about her family finances, even The Boffin and able overview of the attack from offered to give her unborn child The Dam Busters conception to legacy but focuses to the childless Jean Hamilton. on three people in particular. There could hardly be a more Max Hastings, Operation Chas- The first is Wallis, a driven and graphic example of the closeness tise: The RAF’s Most Brilliant eccentric individual whose post- of their families and friendship. Attack of World War II, Harper, war public persona as a “boffin” That child was Marigold who, of 2020, 400 pages, $35 obscured his skills as a bureau- course, was not given up but trag- ISBN 978–006295363X cratic infighter. He came to the ically died at the tail end of the project by way of his work on the Spanish Flu pandemic. Review by Mark Klobas never-realized “Victory Bomb- er,” which he envisioned could The friendship between the ax Hastings’ newest be equipped with bombs larger Churchills and the Hamiltons was book, a history of the than what RAF aircraft of the sealed after the collapse of the MBritish effort to destroy time could carry. This led Wallis 46 | FINEST HOUR BOOKS, ARTS, AND CURIOSITIES to explore means for destroying value of strategic bombing as a phe caused by the destruction of dams and other large structures, way to weaken the German war the dams and an extended consid- moving from his initial vision of effort, but he never believed that eration of the strategic air offen- deep-penetration “earthquake” it would in itself bring about the sive in general. While reaffirming bombs (later to be realized with enemy’s surrender. Harris’ com- his earlier conclusion that the the development of the Tall- mitment to area bombing made bombing campaign’s costs were boy and Grand Slam ordnance) him the primary obstacle to mak- greater than its value to Britain’s to the idea of employing what ing the vision of Wallis a reality. war effort, Hastings pays gener- amounted to enormous depth- Once, however, RAF chief Charles ous tribute to the young airmen charges. These would be skipped Portal lent his support to the who risked their lives. Nowhere or “bounced” across the water in project in February 1943, Harris does he make his point more a way that would avoid torpedo ended his opposition. effectively than in his criticism of nets and other underwater de- Harris, who failed to follow up on fenses so as to detonate close to a Hastings notes that once Operation Chastise. Subsequent dam’s base. Harris supported the mission to attacks on the repair efforts to the destroy the dams, he only had dams would have required less one significant decision to make: effort than the initial raid, com- choosing who would lead the pounded the damage, and disrupt- attack. The bomber chief’s selec- ed the Third Reich’s war effort far tion of Wing-Commander Guy more effectively than the contin- Gibson, the third major figure in ued pounding of German cities. Hastings’ account, was crucial. While Hastings regards the air- Though only twenty-four, Gib- crews as victims of the war rather son was an experienced squad- than war criminals, he makes it ron commander with dozens clear that Harris’s own crime was of missions under his belt. The in failing to exploit to the fullest driven Gibson was more admired the sacrifices made by the men of than loved by his men, but he 617 Squadron. possessed the skills necessary to organize and train the crew of 617 Mark Klobas teaches history at Squadron for their special mission Scottsdale College. in the mere two months available before water levels behind the dams reached their spring peak How Churchill Opened In 1942 Wallis tested the and would be too high for the a “Window” concept of bouncing bombs, prov- Wallis plan to succeed. Hastings ing their practicality. While the shows a group often portrayed as Damien Lewis, Churchill’s Shad- concept had many supporters, a collection of elite flyers to have ow Raiders: The Race to Develop others saw it as a wasteful distrac- been in fact a mishmash thrown Radar, WWII’s Invisible Secret tion. Foremost in this view was together with only the barest Weapon, Citadel Press, 2020, Arthur Harris, the head of Bomb- understanding of what they were 389 pages, $27. er Command and the second being asked to do. Yet in the end ISBN 978–0806540634 person of Hastings’ three prin- Gibson succeeded in training a cipals. Harris disdained Wallis’ squadron that enjoyed remarkable Review by Robert A. McLain advocacy of precision bombing as success, albeit at a disproportion- a distraction from his own focus ately high cost in the lives of the on area attacks, which he believed men involved. t is lamentable that the role would win the war. In this Harris of technology in the Second diverged from Winston Chur- Hastings ends his book with a IWorld War has received rela- chill. The Prime Minister saw the description of the Möhnekatastro- tively little attention when
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compared to major campaigns, operatives, many of whom would German fire. Having secured the particularly given its importance be captured and executed later, key elements of the Würzburg, to winning the war. The conflict reported only a thin German pres- Frost and his men found them- was fundamentally a technologi- ence in the region. Jones shopped selves in a running gun battle as cal race for better military intelli- the idea of a “snatch and grab” they moved towards the beach for gence and improved weaponry. In operation to Professor Frederick a rendezvous with the boats that this regard, Damien Lewis’s Chur- Lindemann, Churchill’s prickly would ferry them to destroyers chill’s Shadow Raiders reveals the confidant and scientific advisor. offshore. British commandos had crucial role of radar in defeating In a familiar pattern, Churchill seized a vital piece of Germany’s the Luftwaffe, itself a precedent jumped at the bold idea, only to air defense technology, at the cost for the Anglo-American landings face opposition from his own cab- of two killed and twelve wounded in 1944. inet. or captured. In stark contrast to Colossus, nearly the entire British A journalist by training, Lewis The opposition stemmed from force returned safely. has written extensively on special the failure of Britain’s first air- operations. This was furthered in borne raid, Operation Colossus, Lewis notes the far-reaching the summer of 2018, when he had which had sought to hamper the effects of Operation Biting. The the good fortune to gain access to Axis by destroying a key aqueduct resulting intelligence allowed a the archives of the Telecommuni- in southern Italy. The successful British scientist and mathemati- cations Research Establishment destruction, however, had little cian, Mrs. Joan Curran, to perfect [TRE], which was Britain’s princi- effect on the Italian war effort, the use of “Window,” the drop- pal wartime effort at radar intel- and Italian forces captured nearly ping of millions of thin aluminum ligence and counterintelligence. the entire force of thirty-eight foil strips to blind the Würzburg R. V. Jones, one of the TRE’s key men from the newly formed Spe- radar system. The only trouble scientists, suspected that the Ger- cial Air Service commando team. was getting Bomber Command to mans had developed a short-range Lewis spends nearly one-third of adopt it as a means of suppressing radar system to complement their the book on Colossus. It makes Germany’s deadly system of anti- longer-range “Freya” units. The for gripping reading, yet it de- aircraft guns and the night fight- deadly short-range Würzburg par- tracts from the main subject. ers that were vectored against the abolic radars were in fact vector- bomber streams. ing German night fighters to RAF Churchill overcame objec- bomber streams that resulted in tions to the proposed assault at TRE boffins lobbied for more staggering losses for the British. Bruneval, codenamed “Biting,” by than a year for the widespread Jones was fascinated by photo appointing the ardent Lord Louis adoption of Window, only to reconnaissance and spent signif- Mountbatten to oversee special be refused out of the fear that icant time at Danesfield House, operations. Major John Frost, of the Germans would reciprocate the manor where young Sarah the 1st Airborne Division, would against England’s equally suscep- Churchill served as a skilled lead the raid directly, with a force tible radar network. Jones saw interpreter of aerial photos. of 120 men. On the night of 27–28 this logic as nonsensical, arguing There, in late 1941, Jones and an February 1942, Frost and his paras forcefully to the cabinet that the assistant examined images that dropped into the Bruneval area. Germans undoubtedly already seemingly confirmed the presence The most gripping part of Lewis’s knew of Window. Neglecting to of a Würzburg emplacement on work tracks the raid itself and the use the new system cost lives, as the French coast at the village of assault on the Würzburg installa- demonstrated by the 11,000 air Bruneval. tion. Speed was essential, because crewmen and 1,600 planes lost planners expected that German while the political debate played Jones and his colleagues reinforcements would arrive in out. These losses, however, set- within the TRE saw a clear oppor- the area relatively quickly. The tled the matter and resulted in tunity: steal this key technology. raiders initially cleared German one of the most devastating RAF The installation sat close to the bunkers, while others dismantled raids of the war, the bombing of beach in an isolated area. French the Würzburg set under intense Hamburg in late July 1943.
48 | FINEST HOUR BOOKS, ARTS, AND CURIOSITIES
The Bruneval Raid directly widely appreciated at the time on that the election of Eisenhower in contributed to the success of the either side of the so-called “spe- 1952 would usher in better coor- Hamburg operation. The losses cial relationship.” Many Ameri- dination between the two “En- of the RAF, though still immense, cans thought that Britain sought glish-speaking” nations on a wide were undoubtedly reduced in to drag the US into yet another variety of international issues, future operations. Arthur Harris’s foreign entanglement, while Brit- given the long-established war- prediction that the Nazis would ish Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin time relationship between Chur- “reap the whirlwind” resulted in attacked Churchill, who had been chill and Ike. In fact, the divisions large part because of Churchill’s voted out of office less than a year grew deeper, and the resentments vision with regard to special oper- before, as a dangerous egotist and became more evident, although ations. manipulator: “’E thinks ’e’s Prime these were not always seen in Minister of the world.” Neverthe- public. Robert A. McLain is Professor of less, within a few years, the North History at California State Atlantic Treaty Organization From the US point of view, University, Fullerton. , (NATO), which Churchill had the British were a bundle of con- more or less called for, had been tradictions—an imperial power in created. decline subject to US financial un- The Turn of the Tide derwriting yet having the audacity NATO notwithstanding, the to assume an aura of moral supe- Derek Leebaert, Grand Impro- relationship between Britain and riority over the Americans who visation: America Confronts the United States was becoming were paying their bills. This moral the British Superpower, 1945– more complicated and led to position was compromised not 1957, Farrar, Straus and Gir- serious disagreements over a wide long after Churchill retired when oux, 2019, 612 pages, $35.00. range of interests from the Mid- Britain colluded with France and ISBN 978–0374250720 dle East to China, Latin America, Israel to strike at Egypt in the and Southeast Asia. The British, Suez Crisis. Eisenhower’s oppo- Review by Leon J. Waszak for example, were reluctant to sition to “Operation Musketeer” commit large numbers of troops resulted in the diminution of both to the Korean War in 1950 be- Britain and France as world pow- merican leaders at the end cause they felt exposed in Hong ers. Leebaert observes that Ike’s of the Second World War, Kong and Singapore and, by ex- Vice President, Richard Nixon, Anot yet confident of their tension, in the Middle East. As the saw fit to issue a “declaration of nation’s new role as the principal war in Korea expanded to include independence” from British au- defender of Western democracy, China, the British urged caution thority. initially looked to the British for and direct negotiations with Mao guidance. That Britain thus as- Zedong, whose ascension to pow- This is history in the grand sumed a role in animating US pol- er in 1949 the US refused to rec- manner and with dramatic flair. icy for the remainder of the 1940s ognize but which Britain accepted Leebaert’s book is a must read and well into the late 1950s is the from the onset. The British also for all Churchillians and for those focus of a new study that author shared a concern that a major set- who want to know more, in detail, and historian Derek Leebaert calls back on the Korean peninsula—or about Anglo-American relations the “grand improvisation.” worse, a general war resulting during the early Cold War period. from it—might embolden Joseph Winston Churchill’s “Iron Stalin to attack British interests in Leon J. Waszak is author of Curtain” speech in 1946 is viewed the Middle East. Agreement in Principle: The by Leebaert as a symbolic “pass- Wartime Partnership of ing of the torch,” when the gravity Churchill’s return to power in Wladyslaw Sikorski and Winston of responsibility started to shift October 1951 by no means meant Churchill (1996). , from Britain to the US. This was that Anglo-American relations not, however, a cut-and-dried were soon to improve. Many departure. The speech was not observers at the time believed
ISSUE NO. 189 | 49 Supporter Spotlight
his spring the oldest member of the Interna- tional Churchill Society celebrated her 100th Tbirthday. Ruth Lavine was born in Germa- ny in 1920. Her family came to the United States when she was thirteen in order to escape the Nazis. Ruth earned her law degree from the University of Southern California in 1943 and became an estate planning attorney.
“My husband was in the US military during the Second World War. When we started dating in 1940, he would read Winston Churchill’s most recent speeches to me, and we avidly followed his career. Our son Raymond told us about the Churchill So- ciety, and joining was one of the best decisions we made. We took wonderful trips with other Chur- chillians and got to meet Lady Soames and Celia Sandys.
“After my husband died in 1994, I continued attending Churchill gatherings. I look forward to each one and meeting with all the wonderful peo- Ruth Lavine with Mary Soames at the ple. I love history, and each conference gives me 20th International Churchill Society more insight about one of the greatest statesmen in conference in Bermuda in 2003. history.” ,
America’s National Churchill Museum at Westminster College gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the following individuals, corporations, and foundations who made leadership gifts in support of the Museum’s 50th Anniversary in 2019. More than $1 million was raised to support ongoing preservation of the Museum and Sir Christopher Wren’s church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury.
Dowd-Bennett LLC Deborah G. Lindsay* Philip J.* and Erin K. Boeckman Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr.* Colin W. Brown* The Edwin Malloy Jr. Trust Emerson Jean-Paul* and Isabelle Montupet Richard J.* and Barbara Mahoney Roy Pfautch G. Robert* and Regina L. Muehlhauser Linda Sternberg Shirk Kenneth H.* and Aimee Murer In memory of Frederick C. Sternberg* Mr. William R.* and Mrs. Piper Wells Fargo Advisors David M. Rubenstein* *Member, Association of Churchill Fellows Clementina Santi Flaherty* of Westminster College William* and Susanne Tyler William T. Kemper Foundation and Commerce Trust Company Dr. Monroe E.* and Sandra L. Trout* Ameren of Missouri Elizabeth Sternberg Canaga in memory of Frederick C. Sternberg* Lewis Rice L.L.P.
50 | FINEST HOUR The International Churchill Society Affiliated organizations board information
International Churchill Society (US) Board of Directors Randy Barber Phil Gordon Lee Pollock Philip Boeckman Dr. Rob Havers Andrew Roberts Sir David Cannadine Robert Kelly William Roedy Jack Churchill Dr. Fletcher Lamkin The Hon. Edwina Sandys Randolph L. S. Churchill, Jean-Paul Montupet, Linda Gill Taylor President Vice Chairman Lord Watson of Richmond Laurence Geller CBE, Robert Muehlhauser Chairman Harold B. Oakley
International Churchill Society (UK) Board of Directors Randolph Churchill Scott Johnson, Andrew Roberts Laurence Geller CBE, Treasurer The Hon. Celia Sandys, Chairman Lord Marland Honorary President Stephen Rubin OBE
America's National Churchill Museum Board of Directors
Philip J. Boeckman, G. Robert Muehlhauser Lord Watson of Richmond Senior Fellow Harold B. Oakley James Bennett William Piper Emeriti and Ex Officio Nancy E. Carver Suzanne D. Richardson Hjalma E. Johnson Robert L. DeFer William H. Roedy Donald P. Lofe, Jr. Earle H. Harbison, Jr. The Hon. Edwina Sandys MBE John R. McFarland R. Crosby Kemper III James M. Schmuck, Ph.D James C. Morton, Jr. Barbara D. Lewington Judith D. Schwartz, Ph.D. Rev. Harold L. Ogden Deborah Lindsay Linda Gill Taylor Timothy S. Riley Richard J. Mahoney Monroe E. Trout, M.D. William H. Tyler Jean-Paul L. Montupet John C. Wade
Board of Academic Advisers
Professor James W. Muller, Chairman Professor Barry M. Gough Professor John Maurer University of Alaska, Anchorage Wilfrid Laurier University U.S. Naval War College Professor Christopher M. Bell Christopher C. Harmon Kenneth O. Morgan Dalhousie University Marine Corps Univeristy King's College, London Piers Brendon Colonel David Jablonsky Professor Paul A. Rahe Churchill College, Cambridge U.S. Army War College Hillsdale College Professor Antoine Capet Professor Klaus Larres Professor David Reynolds FBA University of Rouen University of North Carolina Christ’s College, Cambridge Professor João Carlos Espada Justin D. Lyons Professor Christopher H. Sterling Catholic University of Portugal Cedarville University The George Washington University
International Churchill Society Honorary Members
The Duke of Marlborough The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH The Rt. Hon. David Cameron 2020 VIRTUAL CHURCHILL CONFERENCE Churchill: Leadership in Adversity
23 and 24 October 2020 Sessions begin at 9am ET, 2pm BST
SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Sir John Major Paul Rafferty Lord Hague Professor David Reynolds Jonathan Dimbleby Catherine Katz Professor Andrew Roberts Timothy Riley Rear Admiral Dr. Chris Parry Lord Dobbs Dr. Karin von Hippel The Hon. Celia Sandys Katherine Carter Randolph Churchill Barry Phipps Lady Williams
Join us for the 37th International Churchill Conference. Learn more at: winstonchurchill.org/london2020