̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Winston Churchill

Churchill Archives Centre shares digitised treasures to celebrate 50 years

ta385 — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 11:10:39 +0000

̽��ֱ��Churchill Archives Centre is a world-leading collection of 20th century history, holding a wide-range of documents generated by more than 570 political, military & scientific luminary figures from the Churchill era and beyond. To mark its 50th anniversary, the Centre has launched a free Access Portal which allows researchers to explore archival material which is being shared online for the first time.

This material includes Clementine Churchill's photo albums, plus a selection of her letters to Winston Churchill, such as one hurriedly written in crayon in 1914, where Clementine begged Winston not to fly (Image 8 of 48). Like many of her letters, she signed it off with a doodle of a cat.

̽��ֱ��Access Portal is open to all, and a useful resource for researchers, teachers and anyone looking to examine British history from mid-twentieth century onward. It provides a window into the collections of the Archives Centre, which includes digital images of documents, photo albums, correspondence, alongside oral history interviews and video footage.

̽��ֱ��Access Portal also shares a lifetime of letters from Sarah Churchill to her mother, Clementine, from childhood and schooldays to her career as a dancer and actress, including a wartime interlude in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force when she accompanied her father, Winston, to the Yalta Conference.

Visitors can also find a selection of private diaries penned by diplomat Alexander Cadogan, dating from the 1930s and 40s, where he wrote about colleagues and foreign policy making in characteristically brisk and candid style.

Recordings of the biennial Roskill Lecture, a lecture series, have also been added to the Portal. Covering topics such as international security, foreign policy, war, public policy, and the history of science, the series was initially set up to honour the Senior Research Fellow and historian, Captain Stephen Roskill, who played a vital role in setting up the Archives Centre.

They are joined by over 100 podcast interviews with female MPs, which were originally broadcast on Women’s Parliamentary Radio, covering subjects such as the centenary of women’s suffrage to debates over Brexit.

Over the coming months, the team will be adding more material to the Access Portal, which supplements a range of other freely access historical documents, including documents relating to Margaret Thatcher via the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, as well as classroom-ready resources centered on the Churchill era via the Churchill Archives for Schools website.

Professor Dame Athene Donald, Master of Churchill College, said: “Since joining the College, I have found the Archives Centre to be a special place, offering so much to individuals at every stage of their career. I am grateful to all here at Churchill College who have contributed to its inception, growth and continuing success. It is a truly unique resource for the study of so many aspects of our recent past.”

Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre said: “ ̽��ֱ��main challenge of our first half century was to create something sustainable: to gather the collections, to build the Archives Centre and to put in place the funding to secure the operation for the longer term. Going forward, we will need to be imaginative in growing access, widening participation, embracing new technologies and providing more remote services. In that sense, the Access Portal is a very real link between the past and the future, a vital first step in helping to take the raw material of history to a wider audience.”

̽��ֱ��Access Portal launch is part of a year of celebrations to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Churchill Archives Centre. ̽��ֱ��team have also launched its ‘50 stories for 50 years’ series which spotlights stories told by researchers, staff, and volunteers about their experiences at the Archives Centre.

̽��ֱ��highlight of the Anniversary celebrations will be a free 2-day conference on the 25th and 26th September 2023, open to the public and featuring a range of high-profile speakers and researchers. It will be held in-person and streamed online and will explore the history of the Archives Centre, its impact, and what the future of Archives might look like. More information and booking a place.

Letters sent to Winston Churchill by his wife are among an array of fascinating historic papers and recordings which can now be explored via the Archive Centre's new Access Portal.

̽��ֱ��Access Portal is a very real link between the past and the future, a vital first step in helping to take the raw material of history to a wider audience

Allen Packwood

Jane Liechty photography

Entrance to the Churchill Archives Centre

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How Churchill Waged War

sjr81 — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 09:24:05 +0000

Read our full Shorthand story here.

A newly-published book by Churchill Archives Centre Director Allen Packwood illuminates the agonising decisions faced by the Prime Minister during some of the darkest and most uncertain moments of the Second World War.

Imperial War Museum

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Churchill Papers added to UNESCO’s list of the world’s greatest cultural treasures

sjr81 — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 01:00:01 +0000

Held at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Churchill College, the Churchill Papers contain a priceless collection of more than one million documents written by or belonging to the former British Prime Minister, who was born 141 years ago today.

̽��ֱ��Churchill Papers now joins treasures such as the UK’s Magna Carta, France’s Bayeux Tapestry and Iran’s Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh in being added to the Memory of the World Register.

̽��ֱ��Memory of the World Project is an international initiative to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, the ravages of time and climatic conditions, and wilful and deliberate destruction. It calls for the preservation of valuable archive, library and private collections all over the world, as well as the reconstitution of dispersed or displaced documentary heritage, and the increased accessibility to and dissemination of these items.

Sir Winston Churchill has become a global icon and his stand against fascism in 1940 is widely seen as a critical moment in 20th century history. ̽��ֱ��archive in Cambridge contains a wealth of unique drafts, letters and papers that are not duplicated elsewhere.

Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, said: “ ̽��ֱ��archive of Sir Winston Churchill is unique and irreplaceable. It is the evidence that underpins the story of one of the most remarkable leaders of the modern era, whose stand against fascism in 1940 helped shape the world of today.

“It includes his original annotated notes for his famous international broadcasts and correspondence with the great politicians, military leaders, authors, scientists and thinkers of his age.”

Churchill’s post-1945 papers were passed to Churchill College in 1969 by his widow Clementine Churchill. ̽��ֱ��college built and opened the Churchill Archives Centre in 1973 and Sir Winston’s pre-1945 papers were transferred to the Centre from Oxford’s Bodleian Library in 1974-75.

̽��ֱ��archive allows unrivalled access into the life, times and mind of Churchill; from his early correspondence with his family, right through to letters from the 1950s where he called for a summit with the Soviet Union.

But it is the material related to his stand against Hitler and fascism that represents the heart of the collection. Among the notes and drafts for his many great speeches are his annotated copies of his ‘finest hour’ speech in June 1940.

Packwood said: “ ̽��ֱ��page is covered with his handwritten annotations in red and blue ink. It highlights how much care and attention Churchill put into this speech. He knew how much was riding on this. ̽��ֱ��country was facing a huge national crisis. France had capitulated and Britain was facing the prospect of attack and invasion.

“As you move from first draft to finished speaking notes the speech undergoes a transformation. ̽��ֱ��final note is set out in a blank verse format, set out like the Book of Psalms. It looks like poetry, it brings it to life, it gives him, I think, the rhythm, it enables that great Churchill oratory. Nowhere is that more evident in this speech than in the very final page, that great crescendo.”

All images are reproduced with the permission of the Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust. Images of the speech and childhood letter are also copyright of the Estate of Winston S Churchill courtesy of Curtis Brown, London.

Other treasures of the archive include his speeches on the rise of Nazism and Munich in 1938, his opposition of communist domination of Eastern Europe in 1946 – including the speech where he coined the term ‘iron curtain’ – and letters where he wrestled with the destructive power of the hydrogen bomb.

̽��ֱ��Churchill Papers also contain material relating to political reform and social change in Britain, British policy in India, the shaping of the Middle East and Europe and the rise of the United States as a global power.

As well as his letters to US Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower, the archive holds letters to Charles De Gaulle, Stalin, six British Prime Ministers, Gandhi, Nehru and writers, painters and actors such as HG Wells, Walter Sickert and Laurence Olivier.

Dr Alice Prochaska, Chair of the Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust, which owns the papers for the nation, said: “It is a fantastic privilege and a very great pleasure to see the Sir Winston Churchill Archive inscribed at as part of the Memory of the World. This amazing documentary resource brings benefit to scholars, schools and citizens: a legacy to future generations from one of the world’s greatest leaders; and a source of endless fascination and inspiration for students and citizens in every nation.”

Winston Churchill’s vast archive – including his wartime speeches, letters to Stalin and three US Presidents – has been added to UNESCO’s International Memory of the World Register.

̽��ֱ��archive of Sir Winston Churchill is unique and irreplaceable.

Allen Packwood

reproduced with the permission of the Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust

Sir Winston Churchill, 1945

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Churchill Archives Centre celebrates 40th year with UNESCO award

amb94 — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 14:30:37 +0000

̽��ֱ��Churchill Archive, the personal papers of Sir Winston Churchill, which contains over one million items, including originals of his best-known phrases and speeches, has been recognised by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), as part of its Memory of the World Programme.

̽��ֱ��collection will now appear on the UK National Register, highlighting its particular importance to the heritage of Britain. Churchill is joined this year by ten other British collections of note, including Hitchcock's Silent Movies and ̽��ֱ��Domesday Book.

“Churchill's words continue to resonate.” said Sir David Wallace, Master of Churchill College, home to the Churchill Archives Centre and the collection. “ ̽��ֱ��notes for his great speeches, the drafts for his many books, and his rich correspondence are the raw material for the study and understanding of his legacy. It has to be right that they are now included on the National Register of our Documentary Heritage.”

UNESCO’s UK Register follows the larger, International Register of Documentary Heritage established in 1997. This list contains many types of globally important documentary, from ancient clay inscriptions and writings on papyrus, to modern digital sound recordings. UK entries to the list include the 1916 film, ̽��ֱ��Battle of ̽��ֱ��Somme and ̽��ֱ��Magna Carta.

A special ceremony will take place on July 9 at the Council Chamber of Tamworth Town Hall where staff from the Churchill Archives will be presented with the award.

“We hope [the] announcement will encourage people to discover these items and collections, as well as some of the other great documentary heritage near them.” said David Dawson, Chair of the UK Memory of the World Committee.

For further information on accessing the archives go to: http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives

̽��ֱ��Cambridge archives which hold the papers of Sir Winston Churchill and Lady Thatcher is celebrating the inclusion of its core collection on the UK National Register of Documentary Heritage, a standard linked to the United Nations Cultural arm.

̽��ֱ��Churchill Archives

Sir Winston Churchill

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Uncovered: ̽��ֱ��“lost” paper Churchill kept from publication

bjb42 — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��remarkable document, written in 1937 by the future Prime Minister and entitled How ̽��ֱ��Jews Can Combat Persecution, was unearthed by Dr Richard Toye, after apparently lying unnoticed since the early months of World War II.

Churchill's private office stopped its publication by the Sunday Dispatch in March 1940, weeks before he was suddenly elevated to the post of Prime Minister. ̽��ֱ��newspaper's editor was told that it would be "inadvisable" to print and the article has since remained in the Churchill Archives which are now fully catalogued and available, allowing such material to be easily identified.

Dr Toye speculates in his new book, Lloyd George & Churchill that the future Prime Minister's actions may have been due to the essay's controversial content. While Churchill clearly disapproved of the Jews' persecution, he also argued: "they have been partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer."

Churchill argued that "the wickedness of the persecutors" was not the sole reason for the ill-treatment of Jews down the ages. Although he described Jews as "sober, industrious and law-abiding" and praised their willingness to fight and if necessary die for the country they lived in, he added: "Yet there are times when one feels instinctively that all this is only another manifestation of the difference, the separateness of the Jew."

In some ways foreshadowing modern-day debates about multiculturalism, the paper criticised the "aloofness" of Jewish people from wider society and urged them to make the effort to integrate themselves more. Otherwise others would continue to see Jews as "Hebrew bloodsuckers" - a view that Churchill himself did not share.

Churchill criticised Jewish employers in the clothing trade - in which the labour force was also predominantly Jewish - and their use of sweated labour. ̽��ֱ��fact that refugee Jews escaping the Nazi regime in Germany were also willing to work for lower wages was, in his view, "bad citizenship" - because it forced English workers out of jobs - and "bad policy", creating anti-Semitism.

"While most people would accept that Churchill was no anti-Semite, this sheds fascinating new light on his views about Jews, which were very inconsistent," Dr Toye said.

"At the time publication was attempted he was trying to keep his head down in political terms and avoid controversy. It is quite possible that he had second thoughts about what he had written three years earlier."

"It was perverse to argue that low-paid Jewish workers were the victims of their Jewish bosses and, at the same time, that they were acting unfairly by taking employment from 'English people'."

Churchill's article was originally offered to the US publication Liberty in 1937. It was withdrawn when Collier's, another magazine for which he wrote, objected to any of his articles appearing in a rival magazine. Churchill nevertheless then tried to have it run in the British Strand Magazine - but they had already taken a similar article by former Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

Early in 1940, the Sunday Dispatch editor Charles Eade came across the unpublished article while republishing some of Churchill's old journalism. On March 7th of that year he wrote to Churchill's secretary, Kathleen Hill, enthusing about its content and asking for permission to publish. Churchill, now First Lord of the Admiralty, refused. In May he became Prime Minister, and Britain was soon under threat of invasion.

̽��ֱ��essay itself does not appear in subsequent collections of Churchill's writing and may have remained buried in the archives until it was found by Dr. Toye.

"It appears to have been overlooked - I think a lot of people thought that the file it was in only contained copies of articles that had already been published," he said. "I was looking for any reference to do with his relationship with Lloyd George, but at the time I thought I was doing the archival equivalent of bin-raking! We can only speculate as to why Churchill suppressed its publication. ̽��ֱ��reply from his secretary simply says that he deemed it 'inadvisable'."

Dr Toye's book, Lloyd George & Churchill; Rivals for Greatness is published by Macmillan on March 16th.

An article that Winston Churchill wrote but then banned from publication because of its “perverse” messages about the persecution of Jews has been uncovered by a Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� historian.

While most people would accept that Churchill was no anti-Semite, this sheds fascinating new light on his views about Jews, which were very inconsistent."

Dr Richard Toye

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Churchill borrowed some of his biggest ideas from HG Wells

bjb42 — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Dr Richard Toye, a Lecturer in History at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, has found that the phrase " ̽��ֱ��Gathering Storm" - used by Churchill to depict the rise of Hitler's Germany - had in fact been conjured up by Wells decades earlier in ̽��ֱ��War Of ̽��ֱ��Worlds, which depicts an attack on Britain by Martians.

And he has also spotted stark similarities between a speech Churchill made 100 years ago and Wells' book A Modern Utopia.

Tellingly, just two days before Churchill gave the speech in Glasgow on October 9 1906, he had also written to Wells to enthuse about the book, admitting "I owe you a great debt".

"It's a bit like Tony Blair borrowing phrases from Star Trek or Doctor Who," Dr Toye said.

Dr Toye made the discoveries whilst researching a forthcoming book on Churchill. He has identified several points at which Churchill appeared to use Wells' ideas. These include:

• State support for ordinary citizens

Like Wells, Churchill said the state should support its citizens, providing pensions, insurance and child welfare. Wells wrote: " ̽��ֱ��State will stand at the back of the economic struggle as the reserve employer of Labour." Churchill said: " ̽��ֱ��State should increasingly assume the position of the reserve employer of labour."

• ̽��ֱ��competitiveness of men

Wells wrote that man was a naturally "competitive creature". While that meant he was always prone to devastating failure, the State could help "make the margin of failure endurable". Churchill said: "I do not want to see impaired the vigour of competition, but we can do much to mitigate the consequences of failure".

• Utopia

Wells entitled his book A Modern Utopia. Churchill, two days after expressing his "debt" to Wells, described his own vision of the supportive state as a "Utopia".

• Selective Breeding

Wells advocated the idea of selective breeding, arguing that people should only be able to have children if they met certain conditions - including physical fitness and financial independence. Churchill told Wells he particularly admired "the skill and courage with which the questions of marriage & population were discussed" in his book. Not long after reading the book, Churchill was described by a friend as "a strong eugenist" - a supporter of selective breeding.

• ̽��ֱ��English-Speaking Peoples

In Anticipations Wells predicted the political unification of 'the English-Speaking states' and that there would develop 'a great federation of white English-speaking peoples'. He also mentioned the idea of 'interchangeable citizenship', under which British citizens could become US citizens - and vice versa - if they changed domicile. In subsequent years, Churchill often argued for to the 'fraternal association' or 'unity' of the English-speaking peoples, and even wrote a four volume History of the English-Speaking Peoples. In 1943, as he recalled in his memoirs, he proposed to US officials that 'There might even be some form of common citizenship, under which citizens of the United States and the British Commonwealth might enjoy voting privileges after residential qualification'.

• ̽��ֱ��Gathering Storm

̽��ֱ��term famously became the title of Churchill's first book about World War II, but it may well have been taken from ̽��ֱ��War Of ̽��ֱ��Worlds. ̽��ֱ��phrase crops up twice in Wells' book as a metaphor to describe pending Martian attacks. Perhaps it stuck in the iconic Prime Minister's mind as he similarly sought to depict the threat of German invasion years later.

"People look at politicians in the 20th century and presume their influences were big theorists and philosophers," Dr Toye said. "What we forget is that Churchill and others were probably not interested in reading that stuff when they got home after a hard day in the House of Commons. They wanted to read a book that was full of ideas but was also going to be fun. H. G. Wells was perfect for that.

"Churchill was definitely a closet science-fiction fan. In fact, one of his criticisms of A Modern Utopia was that there was too much thought-provoking stuff and not enough action."

Dr. Toye argues that Wells was an important intellectual influence on Churchill during the formative period of his career. In 1901, having already written some of his best-known works including ̽��ֱ��War Of ̽��ֱ��Worlds and ̽��ֱ��Time Machine, Wells wrote Anticipations - a book of predictions about the future calling for the establishment of a scientifically-organised "New Republic".

His publishers sent a copy to Churchill, and the future Prime Minister wrote a long letter back, in which he told Wells: "I read everything you write" - adding that he agreed with many of his ideas. They met in 1902 and several times thereafter, and kept in touch in person and by letter until Wells' death in 1946. In 1908, Wells supported Churchill when he stood in a by-election for the seat of Manchester North-West. In 1931, Churchill even admitted that he could "pass an exam" in H. G. Wells' work.

"We need to remember that there was a time when Churchill was a radical liberal who believed these things," Dr. Toye added. "Wells is often seen as a socialist, but he also saw himself as a liberal, and he saw Churchill as someone whose views were moving in the right direction."

Winston Churchill was a “closet science-fiction fan” who borrowed the lines for one of his most famous speeches from H. G. Wells, a Cambridge academic has discovered.

It's a bit like Tony Blair borrowing phrases from Star Trek or Doctor Who.

Dr Richard Toye

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Winston Churchill

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