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Overview
This acclaimed biographical masterpiece opens with Winston S. Churchill’s return to Conservatism and to the cabinet in 1924. The narrative unfolds into a vivid and intimate picture of his public life as well as his private world at Chartwell between the wars.
With ample access to Churchill’s private papers, Martin Gilbert strips away decades of accumulated myth and innuendo, showing the stateman’s true position on India, his precise role (and private thoughts) during the abdication of Edward VIII, his attitude toward Mussolini, and his profound fears for the future of European democracy. Even before Hitler came to power in Germany, Churchill saw the dangers of a Nazi victory. And despite the unpopularity of his views in official circles, he persevered for six years in sounding the alarm against fascism.
This book reveals for the first time the extent senior civil servants, and even serving officers of high rank, came to Churchill with secret information, having despaired at the magnitude of official lethargy and obstruction. Within the Air Ministry, the Foreign Office, and the Intelligence Services, individuals felt drawn to provide Churchill with full disclosures of Britain’s defense weakness, keeping him informed of day-to-day developments from 1934 until the outbreak of war. People of all parties and in all walks of life recognized Churchill’s unique qualities and demanded his inclusion in the government, believing he alone could give a divided nation guidance and inspiration.
“A milestone, a monument, a magisterial achievement . . . rightly regarded as the most comprehensive life ever written of any age.” —Andrew Roberts, historian and author of The Storm of War
“The most scholarly study of Churchill in war and peace ever written.” —Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780795344602 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | RosettaBooks |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2018 |
| Series: | Winston S. Churchill Biography , #5 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 1197 |
| Sales rank: | 534,432 |
| File size: | 7 MB |
About the Author
During forty-eight years of research and writing, Sir Martin published eighty books, including The First World War, The Second World War, and a three-volume History of the Twentieth Century. He also wrote, as part of his series of ten historical atlases, Atlas of the First World War, and, most recently, Atlas of the Second World War.
Sir Martin’s film and television work included a documentary series on the life of Winston Churchill. His other published works include Churchill: A Photographic Portrait, In Search of Churchill, Churchill and America, and the single volume Churchill: A Life.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Out of Parliament: 'Getting Much Better in Myself'
Following his defeat at Dundee in the General Election of October 1922 Churchill was without a seat in Parliament for the first time in twenty-two years. After five years of unbroken Cabinet office, first as Minister of Munitions, then as Secretary of State for War and Air, and finally as Colonial Secretary, he welcomed the chance of a prolonged holiday. He was determined also to finish the first two volumes of his war memoirs, which he had begun while still a Cabinet Minister. In the second week of November his friend General Spears, who had only just been elected to Parliament for the first time, offered to give up his seat in order that Churchill could return to the Liberal benches. But Churchill replied on 18 November, from his home at 2 Sussex Square:
My dear Louis,
I am greatly touched by the extreme kindness of yr offer & the willing sacrifice that it involves. It is a splendid proof of yr friendship. I cd not accept it from you. I want you to enjoy yr seat in Parliament & I shall like to feel I have one or two friends there. I am off to Rome for the winter; & meanwhile if I or my work are assailed in the House I shall rely upon you & Archie to defend me.
The Whips will find me a seat if I wanted one; but what I want now is a rest. ...
On 2 December 1922 Churchill left England, not for Rome as he had originally planned, but for the South of France, staying for six months at the Villa Rêve d'Or near Cannes. Twice during those six months he returned briefly to England, in order to supervise the rebuilding of Chartwell, which he had purchased at the end of 1922, and to discuss the technical aspects of his memoirs with various naval experts.
Writing to his wife on January 30, during his second visit to London, Churchill described his work in finishing his first volume. 'I am so busy,' he wrote, 'that I hardly ever leave the Ritz except for meals.' His main news was about the book's title, and the help which The Times was giving him on it:
Geoffrey Dawson, the new Editor of the 'Times', came to see me yesterday and suggested himself the title of 'The Great Amphibian', but I cannot get either Butterworth or Scribner the American publishers to fancy it. They want 'The World Crisis' or possibly 'Sea Power and the World Crisis' or 'Sea Power in the World Crisis'. We have to settle tomorrow for certain.
The 'Times' is very friendly and helpful. They have turned some of their best men on to try to find mottoes for the chapter headings I have been unable to fill. Garvin has read it all through and is absolutely satisfied with it. He is going to write a tremendous review in the 'Observer' when the time comes.
* * *
At the beginning of February, Churchill returned to the Rêve d'Or where, as he had hoped, he spent most of his time painting. He also corresponded with his brother Jack about financial affairs, as he was expecting an advance payment of £5,000 for his memoirs, due to be paid at the end of February. 'Let us have a good scheme of investment,' he wrote. To his insurance broker, W. H. Bernau, Churchill commented, on February 17, on a personal note: 'The weather here has been indifferent, but I am getting much better in myself.'
While he was in France, Churchill received two letters about political developments in England. On March 8 his brother Jack sent him news of the Labour Party's success in two by-elections, one at Mitcham, the other at Willesden. At Mitcham Labour had won the seat from the Conservatives; at Willesden East a Liberal fighting with Labour support had likewise won a previously Conservative held seat. Unless Liberals and Conservatives came together again in a Coalition, Jack warned, 'the Labour Party will be in in 4 years time'. On March 14 Sir James Stevenson, who had worked under Churchill at the Ministry of Munitions, the War Office and the Colonial Office, wrote to him praising his 'wonderful energy, high ideal and work for the State', and adding:
Don't lie low too long. Things are in the 'melting pot'. L.G. is playing what looks like a good game but it isn't. Nobody trusts him. They are sick of Simon and Asquith. They want a leader all right and if you would only formulate a programme and cast it on the breeze I am sure it would draw. There can only be two parties. That is the line of country to ride.
There are hundreds of thousands who wont vote at all at present. They have no party. But they are anti labour. Dont overlook the fact that they are learning to govern. The passivity of the present Govt is beyond belief. They settle nothing. Baldwin is scared of the Treasury officials. ...
Churchill did not respond to these promptings. 'It has been vy pleasant out here,' he wrote to his cousin the Duke of Marlborough on April 7, '& such a relief after all these years not to have a score of big anxieties & puzzles on one's shoulders. The Government moulders placidly away. But I must confess myself more interested in the past than the present.'
The first volume of Churchill's war memoirs had been serialized in The Times from February 8, and was published on April 10, entitled The World Crisis. J. L. Garvin wrote the review he had promised, describing the book in the Observer as 'a whale among minnows', and expressing his confidence that Churchill had sent his critics 'to the bottom by the whacks of his tale'. In his Preface Churchill wrote: 'I hope that this account may be agreeable to those at least who wish to think well of our country, of its naval service, of its governing institutions, of its political life and public men; and that they will feel that perhaps after all Britain and her Empire have not been so ill-guided through the great convulsions as it is customary to declare'. A total of 7,380 copies were printed, but the sales were so rapid that the publishers ordered a reprint of 2,500 three days later, and a third of 1,500 on May 3. The book received many reviews: the Daily Telegraph praised its 'exceptional frankness' and felt that it deserved a place 'on the best shelf' in the vast library of war books already published. The New Statesman was certain that history would vindicate Churchill's actions at the Admiralty. 'He has written a book which is remarkably egotistical,' it concluded, 'but which is honest and which certainly will long survive him.'
Churchill had sent copies of his book to many of his friends. One of the first to thank him was the Prince of Wales, who wrote from St James's Palace on April 12 that he had already begun to read it, and added: 'I'm so glad you've had a lot of polo & are fit enough again to enjoy it. Its great news to hear you are playing in London this coming season & I hope we'll get lots of games together.' Another correspondent was Margot Asquith, who wrote to him on May 4: 'I think your book a great masterpiece, written with a warmth of words, an economy of personal laudation, swiftness of current, selection, lucidity & drama unexcelled by Macaulay. I started and finished it in a night & having closed it determined to write this one line ...' Margot Asquith ended with political advice:
Lie low; do nothing in politics, go on writing all the time & painting; do not join yr former colleagues who are making prodigious asses of themselves in every possible manner: Keep friends in every port — lose no one. Pirate Ships are no use in times of Peace.
Your man of war is for the moment out of action but if you have the patience of Disraeli with your fine temper glowing mind & real kind unvindictive nature you cd still command a great future.
Churchill returned to England from France in the second week of May, but he made no immediate effort to return to Parliament. In a speech to the Aldwych Club in London on May 24 he said, of his own political future: 'After seventeen rough years of official work I can assure you that there are many worse things than private life. To see so many things being done, or left undone, for which one cannot possibly be blamed oneself, for which other people are being most heartily blamed, has afforded me great refreshment. ...'
On May 30 Churchill's political future was discussed by Lord Riddell and Sir Robert Horne. Riddell recorded in his diary:
Horne suggested to Baldwin that he would be wise to invite Winston to join the Government, as he would thus secure a powerful colleague and an excellent debater. Baldwin was evidently impressed by the idea, but doubtful of giving effect to it. Horne had lunch with Winston the other day and asked him where he stood politically. He replied, 'I am what I have always been — a Tory Democrat. Force of circumstance has compelled me to serve with another party, but my views have never changed, and I should be glad to give effect to them by rejoining the conservatives.'
At the beginning of August Churchill was offered a private commission which could greatly augment his finances. In return for a fee of £5,000 two oil companies, Royal Dutch Shell and the Burmah Anglo-Persian Oil Company, asked him to represent them in their application to the Government for a merger with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, in which the Government held the majority share. A year earlier, at the time of the Coalition Government, the Cabinet had turned down the companies' application following the recommendation of a Cabinet Committee presided over by Stanley Baldwin, then President of the Board of Trade. In May 1923 Baldwin had become Prime Minister. The two oil companies were eager to re-apply, and approached Churchill to be their representative. At first he hesitated, but following a further approach from Sir Robert Waley Cohen, Churchill agreed to consider the oil companies' request.
That summer Churchill's wife and children stayed at Cromer, by the North Sea, while he himself remained at Sussex Square, working on the proofs of his second volume, and studying the oil merger documents. On August 13, writing to his wife, he expressed his 'general agreement' with the British Government's Note to France, in which Britain had rebuked France for its occupation of the Ruhr. Churchill had been told of the contents of the Note on the telephone by his friend Lord Beaverbrook. 'It is a very strong Note,' Churchill added, 'and will produce serious internal reactions in the Conservative Party.' He felt that the Note should not be criticized publicly, telling his wife: 'I think when the Government deliberately take a step of this kind towards a foreign country, no one should try to weaken its effect.'
On August 14 Churchill went to see Baldwin at 10 Downing Street. It was their first meeting since Baldwin had become Prime Minister. On the following day Churchill sent his wife an account of the meeting, and of his other activities:
My interview with the PM was most agreeable. He professed unbounded leisure & recd me with the utmost cordiality. We talked Ruhr, Oil, Admiralty & Air, Reparations, the American Debt & general politics. I found him thoroughly in favour of the Oil Settlement on the lines proposed. Indeed he might have been Waley Cohen from the way he talked. I am sure it will come off. The only thing I am puzzled about is my own affair. However I am to see Cohen on Friday. It is a question of how to arrange it so as to leave no just ground of criticism. My talk with the PM was quite general & I did not raise the personal aspect at all at this preliminary & noncommittal stage. Masterton in whom I confided was vy shy of it on large political grounds. However I shall proceed further before making up my mind.
I entered Downing Street by the Treasury entrance to avoid comment. This much amused Baldwin. However Max rang up this morning to say he hoped I had had a pleasant interview, & that I had greatly heartened the PM about the Ruhr! He is a little ferret. He has to go to Scotland tonight so I am going to dine at the Vineyard instead of his coming here.
Keyes came down last night & we had long jolly talks about the war & what they killed each other for. I purchased in London two delicious young lady grouses wh were the feature of dinner. This morning we rode. The rides on the common are lovely — but vy little grass. However there is beautiful park in wh we trespassed, but wh we can easily get permission to use. The work progresses quite well. I have just returned from a 3 hours inspection, wood sawing etc. The water flows. There will be lots for you to see when you return.
I did a further deal in the franc, realizing to date about £150 profit. I have 8 articles to write as soon as the book is finished £500, 400, & 200 = 1100. We shall not starve.
I do hope you are enjoying yrself my beloved & not tiring yrself out. The happy mean. ...
While Chartwell was being rebuilt, Churchill rented a house near by — Hosey Rigge — on the road from Westerham to his new property. Churchill had nicknamed the house 'Cosy Pig', and in a letter to his wife on August 17 he told her of his plans to entertain their children there. 'I am going to amuse them on Saturday and Sunday,' he wrote, 'by making them an aerial house in the lime tree. You may be sure I will take the greatest precautions to guard against them tumbling down. The undergrowth of the tree is so thick it will be perfectly safe, and I will not let them go up except under my personal charge.'
At the end of August Clementine Churchill was taken ill with a throat infection. She therefore stayed at Hosey Rigge, where she supervised the work at Chartwell which her husband had put in train, while he left England for France, where he was the guest of his friend the Duke of Westminster, aboard the Duke's yacht Flying Cloud. On September 2 he wrote to his wife from Bayonne, describing his surroundings. 'It is absolute quiet & peace,' he wrote. 'One need not do anything or see anybody.' Churchill also told his wife that he had at last decided to accept the oil companies' request to represent them, having talked the matter over with his former Civil Lord of Admiralty, Lord Southborough, who, he wrote, 'considers it my duty & in every way appropriate'. If Baldwin were to agree, he added, 'I think I shall have no doubts about going forward'.
The rest of Churchill's letter concerned financial affairs, and the move to Chartwell. For several months his wife had worried about the move: she was uneasy about leaving London, and felt no special attraction towards the new house. 'At first,' she later recalled in a conversation with the author, 'I did not want to go to Chartwell at all. But Winston had set his heart on it.' Much of her worry was financial: the cost of the rebuilding had already risen from £13,000 to £15,000 and she doubted their ability to find such large sums, or to maintain the property as it ought to be maintained. But Churchill made a determined effort to set her mind at rest:
My beloved, I do beg you not to worry about money, or to feel insecure. On the contrary the policy we are pursuing aims above all at stability. (like Bonar Law!) Chartwell is to be our home. It will have cost us £20,000 and will be worth at least £15,000 apart from a fancy price. We must endeavour to live there for many years & hand it on to Randolph afterwards. We must make it in every way charming & as far as possible economically self contained. It will be cheaper than London.
Eventually — though there is no hurry — we must sell Sussex & find a small flat for you & me. ...
Then with the motor we shall be well equipped for business or pleasure. If we go into office we will live in Downing Street!
Churchill calculated that during 1924 he would receive £5,000 for the second volume of The World Crisis which 'will furnish Chartwell finally & keep us going for six or seven months with the surplus'; a further £8,000 for the third volume; and £1,200 for three articles he was writing. 'The cheaper we can live, of course, the better,' he wrote. 'But I am budgeting to spend about £10,000 p.a. apart from the capital expenditure on Chartwell, or the payment of bills ...' His letter ended: 'Add to this my darling yr courage & good will and I am certain that we can make ourselves a permanent resting place, so far as the money side of this uncertain & transitory world is concerned. But if you set yourself against Chartwell, or lose heart, or bite your bread & butter & yr pig then it only means further instability, recasting of plans & further expense & worry.'
Churchill went on to report his good progress with the second volume of The World Crisis, on which he was working for three or four hours each day. He hoped to finish the proofs by the following day and had already sent a set to Garvin, who replied that he had been 'at the proofs all day, sombrely enthralled'. History, Garvin believed, would vindicate both the Dardanelles campaign and Churchill himself. Garvin added: 'Mind you true tragedy, supreme tragedy are not the worst in life, far from it: the squalid morass of unattempting impotence is the stifling of the soul and hope of man. It's wonderful how you've done it: again the technical part so sober, the imaginative part so throbbing.'
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Winston S. Churchill Volume V The Prophet Of Truth 1922–1939"
by .
Copyright © 2015 Hillsdale College Press and RosettaBooks.
Excerpted by permission of Hillsdale College Press RosettaBooks.
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Table of Contents
Illustrations,
Preface,
Acknowledgements to the New Edition,
Acknowledgements,
PART ONE: RETURN TO CONSERVATISM 1922–1924,
1 OUT OF PARLIAMENT: 'GETTING MUCH BETTER IN MYSELF',
2 1924: TOWARDS THE CONSERVATIVES,
3 RETURN TO PARLIAMENT: 'THE JOLLIEST BIT OF NEWS FOR MONTHS',
PART TWO: CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 1924–1929,
4 A REFORMING CHANCELLOR: 'GREAT ISSUES IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE',
5 RETURN TO THE GOLD STANDARD,
6 PREPARING THE 1925 BUDGET: 'KEEPING HIS NOSE TO THE GRINDSTONE',
7 CHURCHILL'S FIRST BUDGET: 'THE APPEASEMENT OF CLASS BITTERNESS',
8 1925: 'ALARM BELLS RINGING',
9 THE GENERAL STRIKE AND THE BRITISH GAZETTE,
10 'TONIGHT SURRENDER: TOMORROW MAGNANIMITY',
11 THE COAL STRIKE: THE SEARCH FOR A SETTLEMENT,
12 'THE SMILING CHANCELLOR',
13 DE-RATING: 'A PLAN FOR PROSPERITY' 1927–1929,
14 THE 1928 BUDGET: 'EVERYONE BUT YOU IS FRIGHTENED',
15 TOWARDS THE FIFTH BUDGET: 'VY INDEPENDENT OF THEM ALL',
16 1928–1929: THE LAST YEAR OF THE BALDWIN GOVERNMENT,
PART THREE: WARNINGS AND FOREBODINGS 1929–1935,
17 1929: TRAVELS IN THE NEW WORLD,
18 1929-1930: A GROWING ISOLATION,
19 INDIA AND FREE TRADE, 1930–1931: 'A REAL PARTING OF THE WAYS',
20 INDIA 1931: 'THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY IS WITH ME',
21 THE FORMATION OF THE COALITION: CHURCHILL'S FINAL ISOLATION,
22 VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES: A SERIOUS ACCIDENT,
23 1932: 'NOT EXHIBITING THIS YEAR',
24 GERMANY 1932–1933: 'TELL THE TRUTH TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE',
25 INDIA 1933: A PARTY DIVIDED,
26 GERMANY 1933: 'THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE',
27 1933–1934: AUTHORSHIP, INDIA AND REARMAMENT,
28 INDIA 1934: THE COMMITTEE OF PRIVILEGES,
29 1934: ARMAMENTS, 'SOUNDING A WARNING',
30 INDIA 1934–1935: 'A VERY STERN FIGHT BEFORE US',
31 INDIA 1935: THE FINAL CHALLENGE,
PART FOUR: 'THE PROPHET OF TRUTH' 1935–1939,
32 1935: GERMAN AIR STRENGTH: 'WE CAN NEVER CATCH UP',
33 THE NEED FOR WAR PREPARATIONS: 'EVERY DAY COUNTS',
34 THE 1935 ELECTION: NO PLACE FOR CHURCHILL,
35 WINTER 1935–1936: HOPING FOR A CABINET POST,
36 TURNING TO CHURCHILL,
37 DEFENCE PREPARATIONS: 'A REMORSELESS PRESSURE',
38 JULY 1936: THE DEFENCE DEPUTATION,
39 FOREIGN AFFAIRS: TOWARDS FRANCE OR GERMANY?,
40 'THE ILLUSION OF SECURITY',
41 THE ABDICATION,
42 JANUARY-JUNE 1937: 'EVERYTHING IS VERY BLACK',
43 'INFORMATION IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST',
44 EDEN'S RESIGNATION: 'THE VISION OF DEATH',
45 THE GERMAN ANNEXATION OF AUSTRIA: 'SURRENDERING THE FUTURE',
46 PRELUDE TO MUNICH: 'WE ARE IN AN AWFUL MESS',
47 THE MUNICH AGREEMENT: 'THE WORST OF BOTH WORLDS',
48 THE MUNICH DEBATE AND AFTER: 'A DEFEAT WITHOUT A WAR',
49 'I FEEL MUCH ALONE',
50 'THE BEST CHAPTER IN HIS CROWDED LIFE',
51 APRIL-JUNE 1939: 'ENGLAND OWES YOU MANY APOLOGIES',
52 JULY 1939: 'BRING BACK CHURCHILL',
53 THE COMING OF WAR,
List of Sources,
Endnotes,