Description
Typed letter on embossed ”Ministry of Information” letterhead, to “J.R. Colville, Esq.” from Samuel Hood, Secretary to the Minister of Information, Duff Cooper, dated “9th October, 1940:”
Dear Jock [in ink, all in Hoods’ hand]
I promised that I would let you have a note about the error which was made here when communicating the Prime Minister’s letter to Mr. Chamberlain to the Press.
As I told you on the telephone, the mistake was made in the News Division here who, in their anxiety to issue the announcement and exchange of letters as rapidly as possible, did not check the hand-out properly.
We deeply regret that this mistake should have been made and we have taken steps to ensure that there shall be no recurrence of this sort of thing.”
Yours ever Sammy [in ink, again in Hoods’ hand]
Churchill has looped in red the first names (”Jock” and “Sammy”) and written disapprovingly below: “It is better to be more formal in official correspondence. WSC 11.x.”
At the end of September 1940 an ailing Neville Chamberlain asked Winston Churchill for permission to resign as Lord President of the Council and return to private life. Churchill at first attempted to dissuade Chamberlain but finally accepted his resignation. The news of Chamberlain’s resignation was apparently mishandled by the Ministry of Information, as per this letter. Churchill further chastises Samuel Hood, the Ministry secretary, for bad form in his nomenclature.
The letter is in very good condition, with the standard mailing folds. It has been matted and framed superbly with a caricature (not the original) by the eminent cartoonist David Low of Churchill marching at the head of his War Cabinet. The cartoon ran in the May 14, 1940 edition of The Evening Standard.
This letter was acquired from the estate of Sir John Colville (1915-1987), Winston Churchill’s Private Secretary during the war, and after, right through Churchill’s second stint as Prime Minister. No one was closer to Churchill at work than Sir John Rupert Colville, familiarly known as “Jock.”
Framed ORIGINAL WORLD WAR II TYPED LETTER to JOHN COLVILLE with INITIAL-SIGNED INK ANNOTATIONS BY WINSTON CHURCHILL
From the Estate of Sir John Colville
1940
7 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches (Framed: 15 1/2 x 23 inches)
Item Number: 210637
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Description
Typed letter on embossed ”Ministry of Information” letterhead, to “J.R. Colville, Esq.” from Samuel Hood, Secretary to the Minister of Information, Duff Cooper, dated “9th October, 1940:”
Dear Jock [in ink, all in Hoods’ hand]
I promised that I would let you have a note about the error which was made here when communicating the Prime Minister’s letter to Mr. Chamberlain to the Press.
As I told you on the telephone, the mistake was made in the News Division here who, in their anxiety to issue the announcement and exchange of letters as rapidly as possible, did not check the hand-out properly.
We deeply regret that this mistake should have been made and we have taken steps to ensure that there shall be no recurrence of this sort of thing.”
Yours ever Sammy [in ink, again in Hoods’ hand]
Churchill has looped in red the first names (”Jock” and “Sammy”) and written disapprovingly below: “It is better to be more formal in official correspondence. WSC 11.x.”
At the end of September 1940 an ailing Neville Chamberlain asked Winston Churchill for permission to resign as Lord President of the Council and return to private life. Churchill at first attempted to dissuade Chamberlain but finally accepted his resignation. The news of Chamberlain’s resignation was apparently mishandled by the Ministry of Information, as per this letter. Churchill further chastises Samuel Hood, the Ministry secretary, for bad form in his nomenclature.
The letter is in very good condition, with the standard mailing folds. It has been matted and framed superbly with a caricature (not the original) by the eminent cartoonist David Low of Churchill marching at the head of his War Cabinet. The cartoon ran in the May 14, 1940 edition of The Evening Standard.
This letter was acquired from the estate of Sir John Colville (1915-1987), Winston Churchill’s Private Secretary during the war, and after, right through Churchill’s second stint as Prime Minister. No one was closer to Churchill at work than Sir John Rupert Colville, familiarly known as “Jock.”