FINEST HOUR THE JOURNAL OF AND HIS TIMES • WINTER 2017 • NO. 175

The Churchill Women

Jennie Jerome • Mrs. Everest • Pamela Plowden Clementine Churchill • Sarah Churchill Edwina Sandys: A Day at Chartwell

Published by the International Churchill Society • www.winstonchurchill.org The International Churchill Society UNITED STATES • • 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 will be conducted through the joint resources of the National Churchill Library & Center at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and the National Churchill Museum at College in Fulton, Missouri.

Business Office Executive Director Webmaster PO Box 58279, Washington, DC 20037 Michael F. Bishop John David Olsen Tel. (202) 994-4744 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Board of Trustees Board of Academic Advisers The National Churchill Dr. Benjamin Akande, Randy Barber, Professor James W. Muller, Chairman Library and Center Philip Boeckman, Sir David Cannadine, University of Alaska, Anchorage Jack Churchill, Randolph L. S. Churchill, Michael F. Bishop, Director [email protected] Laurence Geller CBE, Phil Gordon, Dr. Rob The George Washington University Professor Paul Alkon Havers, Robert Kelly, Jean-Paul Montupet, Washington, DC 20052 University of Southern California Tel. (202) 994-4744 Robert Muehlhauser, Harold B. Oakley, John Olsen, Allen Packwood OBE, Professor Christopher M. Bell Lee Pollock, Phil Reed OBE, Dalhousie University The National Churchill Museum Andrew Roberts, William Roedy, The Hon. Piers Brendon Timothy Riley, Director Edwina Sandys, Dr. Monroe Trout Churchill College, Cambridge Westminster College Professor Antoine Capet Fulton, MO 65251 University of Rouen Tel. (573) 592-5369 Professor João Carlos Espada Catholic University of Portugal Honorary Members Professor David Freeman The Rt Hon David Cameron, MP California State University, Fullerton Robert Hardy CBE Professor Barry M. Gough The Lord Heseltine CH PC Wilfrid Laurier University The Duke of Marlborough Colonel David Jablonsky Gen. Colin L. Powell KCB U.S. Army War College Amb. Paul H. Robinson, Jr. Professor Warren F. Kimball Rutgers University President Professor John Maurer Randolph L. S. Churchill U.S. Naval War College Allen Packwood OBE Chairman Churchill Archives Centre Laurence Geller CBE Professor Paul A. Rahe Hillsdale College Vice-Chairman Professor David Reynolds FBA Jean-Paul Montupet Christ’s College, Cambridge Professor Christopher H. Sterling The George Washington University

Board of Advisers Elliot Berke, Gregg Berman, A. V. L. Brokaw III, Marina Brounger, Paul Brubaker, Alison Carlson, Jennie Churchill, MP, Lester Crown, Robert DeFer, Kenneth Fisher, Tina Santi Flaherty, VADM Michael Franken, Esther Gilbert, Richard Godfrey, Earle H. Harbison, Jr., Craig Horn, William C. Ives, Hjalma E. Johnson, R. Crosby Kemper III, Gretchen Kimball, Barbara D. Lewington, Peter Lowy, Richard J. Mahoney, Jonathan Marland, J. W. Marriott, Jr., Chris Matthews, John R. McFarland, Harold L. Ogden, William R. Piper, Jon Meacham, Michael Michelson, Joseph Plumeri, Mitchell Reiss, Suzanne D. Richardson, The Hon. Celia Sandys, Duncan Sandys, Sir John Scarlett, James M. Schmuck, Michael Scully, Cita Stelzer, Roger Stillman, Linda Gill Taylor, William H. Tyler, John C. Wade

The Churchill Bulletin is a free, online newsletter published monthly by the International Churchill Society. To receive email notification, please visit www.winstonchurchill.org. All back issues are archived online. Internet Services Twitter: @ChurchillCentre | Twitter: @ChurchillToday | YouTube: YouTube.com/ChurchillCentre

Member: National Council for History Education • Related Group: American Political Science Association Successor to the Winston S. Churchill Study Unit (1968) BOOKS, ARTS, AND CURIOSITIES was removed from the Admiralty at New City College of Technology It would not be fair to call the in May 1915. When Sir William (CUNY) and author of The Lion’s Roar amity that evolved between Chur- Orpen, a famous portrait painter, (2011). chill and Sax a mere “functional” attempted to paint Churchill at friendship. Too deep was Chur- that time, he described his subject C’est beau, chill’s appreciation for Sax, his as “sitting quietly in a chair…hold- mais c’est faux wife and daughters, and above all ing his bowed head in his hands.” for some of the fine Swiss paint- Philipp Gut, Champagner mit In task-positive mode, Chur- Churchill: Der Zürcher Far- ers, which Sax brought along on chill became alive and was able to benfabrikant Willy Sax und some of his visits with Churchill. work his way out of his depression der malende Premierminister, One such was Cuno Amiet, one of by focusing on what he was doing Stämpfli Verlag, 2015, 176 pages, the greatest Swiss painters of the in the moment. We again see this €39.00. ISBN 978–3727214554 twentieth century. When embark- pattern of turning to painting ing on the journey to Chartwell, when Churchill was voted out of of- Review by Werner Vogt Amiet—an octogenarian who was fice in 1945. Werner Vogt’s review not prone to strong drink—had his on this page of Philip Gut’s biog- first whisky on the ferry to Dover raphy of Willy Sax, manufacturer hen Winston Churchill just to make sure that he would of the oil paints used by Churchill, visited Switzerland in the be ready for the challenge if need illustrates this perfectly. Wsummer of 1946, vari- should arise. Attenborough’s own book is ous remarkable things happened. filled with information that is prob- With his “Let Europe Arise” speech, ably not well known to the average addressed to the academic youth of Churchillian. I was surprised to the world and delivered at the Uni- learn that Clementine Churchill versity of Zurich [see FH 173], the had become “seriously mentally ill wartime Prime Minister and then in the autumn of 1963.” I was re- Leader of the Opposition confirmed minded after reading the book that his position as a leader of thought. Churchill’s daughter Diana suffered On the same day, Churchill invited from depression and in 1963 took Willy Sax to his hotel for a drink be- her life by overdosing on sleeping fore dinner. Here was conversation pills. Not much attention, howev- more to Churchill’s liking, for Sax er, is given to Randolph Churchill, was the Swiss owner of the small who died at fifty-seven of a sudden paint factory that supplied Chur- heart attack brought on by years of chill’s needs. Churchill recognised drinking and smoking. I was also that Sax had not only an excellent disappointed that Attenborough knowledge about the composition did not speculate on what Chur- of his paints but also about mixing Gut proves to be a good racon- chill’s diagnosis would be and painting techniques. teur of lovely anecdotes. Amiet, from the perspective of DSM-V, the Out of this informal conversa- we learn, did not mince his words diagnostic and statistical manual tion developed a friendship that when confronted with Churchill’s used by all medical and mental lasted nearly twenty years; Sax died paintings. When asked on one health professionals to arrive at a less than a year before Churchill. occasion in Southern France to diagnosis for a patient. Philipp Gut, who is a deputy editor comment on a particular canvas by Nevertheless, this good and of the staunchly Conservative mag- Churchill, Aimet­—conversing in worthwhile book is informative azine Die Weltwoche and a historian French because Sax’s conversation- and easy to read if you are looking by training, gives a detailed account al English was insufficient—said: to understand Churchill from a of Sax’s numerous journeys to “C’est beau, mais c’est faux” (It’s psychological perspective. , Chartwell as well as to the South of beautiful, but wrong). Churchill France, whither Sax was repeatedly took some time—and lunch—to Martin Garfinkle is a professor in the invited when Churchill went there digest the blow and eventually an- Health and Human Services Department for painting holidays. swered in his inimitable way: “You

FINEST HOUR 175/ 45 BOOKS, ARTS, AND CURIOSITIES are right, Mr. Amiet, my truth is behind the winners, but, at thir- The latest petit livre appeared wrong, and your error is right.” ty-six, he was hardly an innocent. in December 2016, just in time for Gut’s narrative is based on The National Front in Switzerland the festive season and the presents Sax’s diary and correspondence was a far-right movement, which associated with it. The title Winston with Churchill still in the family was not so extreme or—as we now Churchill has nothing special to archives. He was helped as well know—so dangerous as the Nazis attract the buyer. The sales pitch by a booklet Sax’s daughter Maya in Germany. Nevertheless, the only comes with a small logo below compiled twenty years ago, which “Frontists,” as they were called, it giving the name of this new contained the main facts about the were by no means harmless. They series (the next book is to be on Churchill-Sax relationship, albeit in were anti-Socialist, anti-liberal, Marie-Antoinette—another sure an amateur narrative. The result is and—above all—anti-Semitic. crowd-puller): “Biographie gour- a beautiful tale about a friendship Some of their activists did condone mande” (a food-lover’s biography). founded in the sunset of two men’s and perpetrate political violence. No doubt there is a market for lives. The simple tale of the Swiss The behaviour of Sax could be such a book in France. The pity is entrepreneur enjoying excellent explained as the foolish actions of that the author has only an embar- food and drink in abundance, someone with no gift for , rassingly superficial knowledge of discussing everything from but, unfortunately, this is not her subject, and she piles up cliché (Churchill), heart attacks (Sax), covered in the book. Painting the upon cliché, along with all the old politics, and—above all—art, is a full picture of Sax’s pre-Churchill “canards,” on Churchill’s drinking beautiful story. life rather than just a sketch would in particular. There is, however, a huge dis- have made Gut’s book stronger and crepancy in the author’s treatment more honest. , of Churchill and Sax. The reader learns nothing new about Chur- Werner Vogt is the author of Winston chill’s career, but the main facts Churchill und die Schweiz reviewed in are covered in sufficient detail. Yet FH 173. on Willy Sax we learn surprisingly little. There is, of course, his date Mauvais appétit of birth and the mentioning of his hobbies: Sax was a talented musi- Catherine Heyrendt- cian (violin, piano, accordion) who Sherman, Winston Churchill: even played in the Tonhalle orches- Biographie gourmande series. tra in Zurich—the equivalent of Paris: Payot-Rivages, 2016, London’s Royal Albert Hall or St. 160 pages, €15. ISBN: 978– Martin-in-the-Fields. We learn also 2228916547 that Sax was a keen fisherman, who Review by Antoine Capet caught his fair share of pike and trout in the rivers near his home. If she has such a scanty knowl- What we do not learn about he “Churchill industry” does edge, one may ask, where did she Sax from Gut’s book are answers to not only operate in the An- find the material to fill 130 pages questions like: How did his family Tglophone publishing world. of text? Very honestly, she lists in business develop under his lead- France has seen a number of recent the endnotes all the sources for the ership? Where was he educated? publications, which add little if many figures and anecdotes which When, where, and how did he take anything to our knowledge of the she gives. But then the reader can on Churchill as a client? great man, his entourage, and his see that most of the notes refer Most importantly, why did times. See for instance my reviews to two books in English: Churchill: Gut not reveal that Sax was not so of Frédéric Ferney’s Tu seras un A Life by Sir Martin Gilbert and apolitical as claimed in Maya Sax’s raté, mon fils! in FH 169 and Chur- Dinner with Churchill by Cita Stel- booklet? Sax was in fact a National chill: La femme du Lion by Philippe zer. The book is in fact a re-hash in Front candidate in his hometown Alexandre and Béatrix de l’Aulnoit French of some of the indications of Dietikon in 1934. He finished far in FH 172. given in these two English-language

FINEST HOUR 175 / 46