Charting Churchill: Buckingham Palace, London

Buckingham Palace, London 2014

Winston Churchill was called to Buckingham Palace on May 10th 1940 by King George VI and asked to form a government. Five years later, on May 8th 1945, Prime Minister Churchill stood on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with King George, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret waving to the cheering crowds. Throughout the day and evening, the Royal Family made several appearances. The square in front of the Palace, shown above, was packed with people celebrating VE Day; Germany had surrendered unconditionally.

Churchill also greeted the massive crowds on Whitehall, from balcony of the Ministry of Health. Here he made two appearances, one during the day and another at 10:30 pm when he wore his famous siren suit. He proclaimed: “This is your victory! It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land. In our long history we have never seen a greater day than this…” At the conclusion of his brief remarks, the band played Land of Hope and Glory, and everyone joined in the singing, including Churchill.

On May 8th 1945, the Prime Minister also made a broadcast to the nation from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street. Announcing Germany’s unconditional surrender, he said: “Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, but in the interests of saving lives the “Cease fire” began yesterday to be sounded all along the front, and our dear Channel Islands are also freed today.” He repeated the words of the broadcast in the House of Commons, with a paragraph added. Churchill then concluded by saying: “I therefore beg, Sir, with your permission to move: That this House do now attend at the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster, to give humble and reverent thanks to Almighty God for our deliverance from the threat of German domination.”

To learn more about events of 1945, please visit the BBC World War II Timeline. This BBC summary, prepared by Bruce Robinson, was last updated in 2011.

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

Charting Churchill: Church House, London

Hoar Memorial Hall, Church House, Dean’s Yard, London 2014

A panel in Hoar Memorial Hall, unveiled in 1948 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee and Winston Churchill, reads as follows.

THIS HALL OF CHURCH HOUSE WAS AS OCCASION REQUIRED DURING THE YEARS 1940 1941 & 1944 THE CHAMBER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. WITHIN ITS WALLS THE PRIME MINISTER WINSTON CHURCHILL IN THE DARKEST DAYS OF THE WAR SPOKE TO THE COMMONS AND TO THE NATION THE WORDS HERE RECORDED.

Today, in inaugurating the new Session of Parliament, we proclaim the depth and sincerity of our resolve to keep vital and active, even in the midst of our struggle for life, even under the fire of the enemy, those parliamentary institutions which have served us so well, which have proved themselves the most flexible instruments for securing ordered unceasing change and progress: which, while they throw open the portals of the future, carry forward also the traditions and glories of the past and which, at this solemn moment in the world’s history, are at once the proudest assertion of British freedom and an expression of an unconquerable national will. 21st November 1940

On May 24th 1941, Prime Minister Churchill took to the stage in Hoar Hall to announce the sinking of the Bismark. “Great as is our loss in the Hood, the Bismark must be regarded as the most powerful as she is the newest battleship in the world, and this striking of her from the German Navy is a very definite simplification of the task of maintaining the effective mastery of the Northern seas and the maintenance of the Northern blockade.”

Recalling 1941, Churchill addressed the House of Commons in October 1943. “On the night of May 10, 1941, with one of the last bombs of the last serious raid, our House of Commons was destroyed by the violence of the enemy, and we have now to consider whether we should build it up again, and how, and when. We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us. Having dwelt and served for more than forty years in the late Chamber, and having derived very great pleasure and advantage therefrom, I, naturally, should like to see it restored in all essentials to its old form, convenience and dignity.”

During World War II, Parliament met at Church House in November-December 1940; April-June 1941, when the House of Commons Chamber was destroyed; and June-August 1944, when London was threatened by V1 flying bombs.

To learn more about events of 1944, please visit the BBC World War II Timeline. This BBC summary, prepared by Bruce Robinson, was last updated in 2011.

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

Charting Churchill: The Cenotaph, Whitehall, London

The Cenotaph, Whitehall, London 2014

In 1915, Winston Churchill resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty, after the failure of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns that he had championed. He remained in the cabinet, in the lowly post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was somewhat despondent but soon, while at Hoe Farm, he took up painting, a pastime that would bring him pleasure for the rest of his life.

However, as always, Winston craved action. In November 1916, when he was a 42-year-old married man with three small children, he resigned from the cabinet and went to France to command the Royal Scots Fusiliers in the trenches. Here he seemed to be seeking solace and redemption. After six months, Churchill returned to London and the House of Commons, still representing Dundee. In July 1917 and in December 1918, he was again elected there.

The year 1918 marked the birth of the Churchills’ fourth child, Marigold Frances. It also signaled the end of Word War I on Armistice Day, November 11th 1918. During the conflict, the British Empire suffered over 1,00,000 military deaths. Fortunately, Winston was not one of them. The Cenotaph, shown above, was completed in 1919 and commemorated the losses during Word War I. Eventually, it was also consecrated to the memory of individuals who died during World War II. Over his long career of public service, in the military and in the House of Commons, Winston Churchill attended many memorial services at the Cenotaph on Whitehall.

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

Charting Churchill: Big Ben and House of Commons, London

Big Ben and House of Commons, Houses of Parliament, London 2014

In October 1900, Winston Churchill was first elected to the House of Commons as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Oldham. This was the second of twenty-one elections that he contested. He lost in 1899, 1908, 1922, 1923 and 1924 but won the other sixteen elections. Thus Winston was a Member of Parliament for just over 62 years, spanning the time period 1900 – 1964. For further details, please visit The Churchill Centre.

Churchill had been preparing for this role for some time. In his book Churchill Style (2012), Barry Singer describes the self-tutoring program that Winston had embarked upon in India in 1896, when he asked his mother to send him a Parliamentary history of the last 100 years. “Once a set was supplied, the young scholar devised his own unique method for reading the twenty-seven volumes of the Annual Register of parliamentary debates. He did not read a debate until he had written down on paper his own opinion about its subject. After reading the debate, he reexamined his initial written view and then rewrote it.”

Winston’s father would have taken part in several debates recorded in the Annual Register. Lord Randolph Churchill was first elected to Parliament in 1874, the year he turned 25. Winston, who was born that same year, always looked up to his father. In 1900, it appeared Winston was following closely in his father’s footsteps when he was first elected to the House of Commons at the age of 25.

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