Admiralty Arch, The Mall, London 2014

© Leslie Hossack

In October 1911, Winston Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. This was a cabinet post that he relished, and in many ways he had been preparing for it throughout his entire life. In this role, Churchill made many significant decisions in the years leading up to the outbreak of World War I, in August 1914. However, in 1915 he proposed the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns that failed and ultimately lead to his resignation as First Lord of the Admiralty in May 1915.

In 1912, early in Churchill’s tenure at the Admiralty, construction of the Admiralty Arch was completed. King Edward VII commissioned the building in memory of his mother, Queen Victoria. The Latin inscription across the top reads: “In the tenth year of King Edward VII, to Queen Victoria, from most grateful citizens, 1910.” During Churchill’s time, Admiralty Arch contained offices and was connected to the Old Admiralty Building via a bridge that can be seen on the right side of the above photograph. To this day, Admiralty Arch provides a ceremonial entrance from Trafalgar Square onto The Mall and along to Buckingham Palace.

The image featured above is part of the limited edition collector’s portfolio created by Leslie Hossack to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill. She presents locations that chart Churchill’s personal and political life, from his birth at Blenheim Palace in 1874 until his death in London in 1965. THE CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHS are part of Hossack’s larger body of work that explores Nazi architecture in Berlin, Stalinist structures in Moscow, contested sites in Jerusalem, a Cold War bunker in Ottawa, NATO’s Headquarter Camp in Kosovo, and buildings linked to the Japanese Canadian internment during World War II.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website.  lesliehossack.com