charwell branch news #21 - september 2012
DESCRIPTION
The Churchilll Centre UK's Chartwell Chapter Newsletter.TRANSCRIPT
CHARTWELL BRANCH TCC(UK) PRESIDENT: Mr RANDOLPH CHURCHILL
THE NEWSSeptember 2012
Cheffins Auctioneers have been appointed to auction a unique Series 1 Land Rover presented to Sir Winston Churchill on the occasion of his 80th birthday on the 30th November 1954.
The vehicle goes into Cheffins’ Vintage Sale on 20th October at Sutton Sale ground near Ely.
It comes complete with the original buff logbook, registered as UKE 80 in the name of the Rt Hon. Sir Winston Spencer Churchill KG. OM. CH. MP. Chartwell, Westerham, Kent, although his signature is absent.
The estimate is £50000-£60000 - don’t think we can afford it!
Issue No: 21A REGULAR NEWSLETTER
GIVING INFORMATION AND
UPDATES TO THOSE INTERESTED
IN ALL THINGS ‘CHURCHILL’
(PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS TO
ANYONE YOU THINK MAY BE INTERESTED.)
UKE 80
COMMENTITMA!
No it’s not ‘It’s That Man Again’ (who remembers that?) but ‘It’s That Month Again’ when annual subs are due.It is the same as last year £7 and is due by 30th September.Do hope that as many of you as possible will renew to keep the Churchill flag flying.Please send cheques payable to ‘Chartwell Branch TCC’ for this amount to:
Mike Long, Flat2, Springwood Court6 Birdhurst Road, South Croydon CR2 7EA
Please also consider completing a standing order for future years and also a gift aid form so that we can recover funds from HMRC. Appropriate forms available upon request.
CAMBRIDGE TRIP -9th OctoberSlight change of timing - please be at
the main Westerham car park by 10.00am for departure at 10.15am
THE NEWS! PAGE2
90 YEARS YOUNG
OUR VERY BEST WISHES TO THE LADY SOAMES
ON HER 90TH BIRTHDAY
AN EVENING TO REMEMBER
On Thursday 6th September, 2012 a group of members representing our Chartwell Branch accepted the invitation from The Rt. Hon. Nicholas Soames to a drinks reception at the Palace of Westminster to celebrate the greatest parliamentarian and to toast his daughter the Lady Soames as she approaches her ninetieth birthday. After an airport style security check we made our way through Westminster Hall stopping to read the brass plate on the floor to remind ourselves of the three days, January 27th to 30th 1965 where Sir Winston Churchill lay in state. We continued along the corridors passing statues of previous parliamentarians until we reached the Strangers Dining Room where the reception was to be held. The evening was an informal gathering of some members of the family and members of The Churchill Centre giving the opportunity to make new friendships. The people I spoke to were interested in hearing about our Chartwell Branch and my connection with Chartwell. One gentleman was visiting Chartwell the following Saturday and was pleased to meet Dorothy and myself, both on duty on that day. After enjoying the wine and delicious canapés speeches were given by The Rt. Hon. Nicholas Soames and The Lord Watson of Richmond. Nicholas proposed the toast to Lady Soames and she was presented with a bouquet of flowers. It was a very special evening and I am sure I am speaking for the other Branch members attending the reception `an evening to remember`. Beryl Nicholson
The Right Honourable
The Lady SoamesLG, DBE, FRSL
THE NEWS! PAGE3
I am dictating this (thanks to the latest Apple software update) whilst using our running machine, the exercise cycle waits patiently in the other corner of the garage and my mountain bike hangs expectantly from the wall.... I am sure that we have all been inspired by Team GB and the current Paralympic athletes to take up more exercise.
In fairness I must come clean and state that I am sitting on a box on the running machine having tried to find some speaker cable that I know is in here somewhere alongside assorted plugs and cables I have removed from broken electrical equipment. The exercise cycle is acting as a clothes horse for my winter coat and the mountain bike is a very suitable hanger for my game bag with all my dog training equipment - regrettably I am not very sporting and to be honest didnʼt watch much of the Olympics.
I did, however, do quite a lot of reading during July/August and not all Churchill related. I am something of a bibliophile and love the feel of a proper book, but my Kindle has also been much to the fore. I have been able to download four books with the total cost of 77p, these include ʻSavrolaʼ a freebie but not a very good digitised copy although readable, ʻParades Endʼ which I have always been intending to read and when I saw it was coming to TV got a download for 77p. In addition my find of the month was in the Marie Curie outlet at £1.95 being a collection of essays and book reviews by A J P Taylor, a really great read.
Just to prove I am not a total cheapskate I did purchase the latest publication of ʻGreat Contemporariesʼ. This new edition edited by Professor James W. Muller Ph.D., joins his earlier edition of ʻThoughts and Adventuresʼ and complements that publication brilliantly. Originally written by Churchill in the decade before he became prime minister, he profiles major figures of the period including Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Lawrence of Arabia, Leon Trotsky, Charlie Chaplin, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling and George Bernard Shaw. It also includes five previously unpublished essays by Churchill and more than 30 photographs.
I have a 1942 version, now slightly the worse for wear so this was a great buy.
OLYMPIAN SUMMER(?) READING