A Churchill Society Press Statement. December 1st 2003.
Daily Telegraph.
Churchill letters to his first love go up for sale.
By John Shaw
(Filed: 24/11/2003)
More than 40 personal and affectionate letters written by Winston Churchill to Pamela Plowden, the first great love of his life, are to be sold at Christie's, South Kensington, on Dec 2.
They range from his first efforts to engage her interest when he was a 21-year-old officer in India to the mellow affection of old age, recalling in 1950 that he had proposed to her exactly 50 years before.
But Pamela, whose father was the governor of Bengal and acting viceroy of India, married the second Lord Lytton, of Knebworth House, Herts.
Nicholas Woodhouse of Wadham College, Oxford, OX1 3PN, writes to us to say John Shaw is in error in that I notice in his DT aricle on my grandmother, Pamela Plowden, he writes:
"But Pamela, whose father was the governor of Bengal and acting viceroy of India, married the second Lord Lytton, of Knebworth House, Herts."
In fact her father was head of police in Assam. It was Lord Lytton himself, my grandfather, who was Governor of Bengal).
Churchill also married another but his friendship with Pamela remained constant throughout the years. For at least three years, she was the most important person in his life.
He wrote constantly. The hand-written letters from various addresses are being sold individually. The estimates range from £1,000 to £25,000-£35,000.
When he first met her at a polo match in India in 1896, it was love at first sight. "She is," he wrote to his mother, "the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. We are going try and do the city of Hyderabad together - on an elephant."
The relationship in its early years was hampered partly by his lack of income and clear prospects, whereas she was the daughter of a leading official in India.
But by the time of his Boer War excursion as a correspondent, they were very close. The notes range from one at the front - "I am really enjoying myself immensely" - to a letter from a Boer prison camp: "Not a very satisfactory address to write from."
When he escaped, Pamela's response was direct. Her telegram read tersely: "Thank God - Pamela." Before he returned, Churchill's mother wrote to him: "Pamela is devoted to you and, if your love has grown as hers, I have no doubt it is only a question of time for you 2 to marry."
But the relationship had its ups and downs. In one letter, she suggested he was incapable of affection but he replied: "I shall be constant. My love is deep and strong. Nothing will ever change it. I might, it is true, divide it. But the greatest part would remain true - will remain true until death."
After his marriage, he remained on affectionate terms with Pamela and continued to write to her for the rest of his life including two sympathetic letters after the deaths of her sons: Anthony, the eldest, in a 1933 air crash and John, at El Alamein in 1942.
After the war, he sent her copies of his memoirs and in 1950 reminded her it had been 50 years since he proposed.
Their correspondence ends in 1961 with an ember of his past affection. "It is very nice to see your handwriting again." Churchill died four years later.
_____________
PRESS STATEMENT.
It was Sir Winston and Lady Churchill's wish that his papers should be deposited at the Churchill College Cambridge and to this end at vast public expense, the purpose designed, specially air conditioned Churchill Archive Centre was built, and staffed with expert conservationists and the papers deposited and properly insured.
The news on the 50th anniversary of VE Day in 1995 that Mr Winston Churchill was to be paid by John Major's Conservative Government a total of £12.500,000 to withdraw his threat to publicly auction his grandfather's papers came as a tremendous shock to the nation. (See below).
We do not recall at the time of 1995 payment that either Churchill's daughter Mary Soames, or her MP son Nicholas, offered any public family explanation.
Again (to date) they remain silent about this latest sale.
The first thing to enquire is whether the vendors are in fact the Churchill family and secondly whether other letters and papers have been withheld from the Churchill Archive Centre?
If the vendor's are the family, it discloses the fact that some letters were withheld and we are entitled to ask why?
If the family are the vendors; cannot they see that the sale of their grandfather's youthful love letters places them in the same disgraceful category as that of the infamous James Hewitt trying to get money for HRH Princess Diana's private letters?
If the family are the vendors it is a tragedy that they do reflect upon the enormous hurt Sir Winston would feel at this behaviuor were he alive.
It is a tragedy that the family do not take the public into their confidence and explain.
We also ask whether Pamela Plowden's descendants have given permission for such private letters to be sold?
We are also entitled to ask whether Lady Churchill and Sir Winston's wishes applied to his medals, recently presented 'upon loan' to the Cabinet War Rooms by the present Mr Winston Churchill.
For fuller details we refer you to Prof Charmley's and Lord Rothschild's letters et al :-
But far more alarming - it yet again brings again into question the safety of the contents of Chartwell.
Imagine Chartwell minus its contents!
See National Trust correspondence re this:-
http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/ChartPps.html
http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/Greed.html
Yours faithfully
Norman Harvey Rogers
General Secretary
PS.
Please read the following URL;-
http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/PRNov03.html
__________________________________ The Churchill family to pay back The Lottery Money.
The High Court (London) proceedings. Who owned the Chartwell Papers?
At risk? Churchill's Medals.
How safe are the contents of Chartwell?
Copy of correspondence with The National Trust.
Churchill's daughter Mary Soames,
Churchill's grandson Nicholas Soames,
Churchill's grandson Winston Churchill minor.
Important information.____________________ The Churchill Society London
c/o 18 Grove Lane Ipswich Suffolk
IP4 1NR
Telephone 0044-01473-413 533 2 lineshttp://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/index.html
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