Charting Churchill: Riding School, Blenheim Palace

Riding School, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock 2014

Winston Churchill’s grandmother, the Duchess of Marlborough, gave him a pony to ride during his frequent stays with her at Blenheim Palace. The photograph above shows the riding school at Blenheim as it appears today. In May 1882, seven-year-old Winston mentions the riding school and his pony, Robroy, in a letter to his mother.

“My Dear Mama I hope you are quite well when are you coming to Blenheim again Jack and I both want you very much please do come soon I rode Robroy to day round the Park and rode him all by myself in the school. with love and kisses From your loving Winston.”

The letter quoted here was part of a Library of Congress exhibition entitled: Churchill and The Great Republic. The original letter is housed in the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, U.K.

Young Winston often expressed a longing to spend more time with his mother, Lady Randolph. In his book My Early Years, Churchill wrote of his mother: “She shone for me like the Evening Star. I loved her dearly – but at a distance. My nurse was my confidante. Mrs. Everest it was who looked after me and tended to my wants.” Elizabeth Ann Everest was Winston’s beloved nanny whom he called Woomany. As a little boy, Winston had three significant women in his life: his nanny, his mother and his grandmother.

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: River Glyme, Blenheim Palace

River Glyme, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock 2014

Winston Churchill was sent to boarding school at the age of seven, and he missed his parents greatly. Even when he was home in London, Lord & Lady Randolph Churchill were frequently conspicuous in their absence, as they busily pursued their own social and political interests. Young Winston often spent school holidays with his grandparents at Blenheim Palace. There his paternal grandmother, Frances, 7th Duchess of Marlborough, took an active interest in his well-being and played a personal role in his upbringing.

On September 15th, 1883, Winston wrote to his mother from Blenheim. “My dear Mamma I hope you are quite well. I went out fishing today. I caught my first fish by myself. Jack and I are quite well. With love and kisses Winston.” That day, eight-year-old Winston was likely fishing in the Main Lake located just beyond the bend in the River Glyme pictured above. At that time, Winston was on holiday at Blenheim with his younger brother Jack and his twelve-year-old cousin Sunny. “Sunny” Marlborough was known as the Earl of Sunderland until 1883, the year this letter was written. Born Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, Sunny went on to become the 9th Duke of Marlborough and he remained a close lifelong friend of Sir Winston Churchill.

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

Charting Churchill: South Facade, Blenheim Palace

South Facade, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock 2014

As a small boy, Winston Churchill lived with his parents, Lord & Lady Randolph Churchill, and his baby brother Jack, at 29 St. James’s Place in the heart of London. Their townhouse was very close to Green Park, and not far from Hyde Park. These huge public parks provided Winston with expansive green spaces to explore close to home.

Away from home, Winston often visited his grandparents, the Duke & Duchess of Marlborough, at Blenheim Palace. Here was Winston’s preferred playground. Over 2,000 acres of private parks and gardens surrounded the palace. From Blenheim, Winston wrote to his mother: “The gardens and Park are so much nicer to walk in than the Green Park or Hyde Park.”

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace in 1874. Today, Blenheim Palace, a World Heritage Site, is described by UNESCO as follows. “The Palace sits within a large walled landscape park, the structure by Vanbrugh overlaid by the designs of Lancelot “Capability” Brown from 1761 onwards. The design and building of the Palace between 1705 and 1722 represented the beginning of a new style of architecture and its landscaped Park, designed by Lancelot “Capability” Brown, is considered “a naturalistic Versailles.”

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

Charting Churchill: 29 St. James’s Place, London

Churchill Residence, 29 St. James’s Place, London 2014

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace in 1874. His first recorded memories are of the years in Ireland when the family lived in Little Lodge, Dublin. His father, Lord Randolph, served as secretary to his own father from 1876 to 1879. The family moved back to London in 1880, after the birth of Winston’s brother John Strange Spencer Churchill.

In April 1880, when Winston was five, Lord and Lady Randolph moved their growing family into the house above, at 29 St. James’s Place in London.

In his book My Early Life, Winston Churchill wrote about his time in this house as he faced the miserable prospect of being sent away to school for the first time. “After all, I was only seven, and I had been so happy in my nursery with all my toys. I had such wonderful toys: a real steam engine, a magic lantern, and a collection of soldiers already nearly a thousand strong.”

Churchill’s birthplace, Blenheim Palace, had an enormous influence on his life. As a boy, he often visited his grandparents there. During the time that his family was living in the London house shown above, eight year old Winston wrote a letter to his mother from Blenheim. “My Dear Mamma, I hope you are quite well. I thank you very very much for the beautiful presents those Soldiers and Flags and Castle they are so nice it was so kind of you and dear Papa I send you my love and a great many kisses Your loving Winston”

Winston’s childhood interest in toy soldiers appears prophetic. During World War II, Churchill became Prime Minister on May 10th, 1940, and he is widely regarded as the inspirational leader who saved western civilization from Nazi tyranny. He also achieved fame as a soldier, writer, orator and parliamentarian.

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

Sir Winston Churchill’s 140th Birthday

Sir Winston Churchill’s Birth Room, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, 2014

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born 140 years ago at Blenheim Palace on the 30th of November 1874. His father, Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, was the Member of Parliament for Woodstock, and his mother was American Jennie Jerome.

When Winston was born, his parents were visiting his grandparents. Winston’s grandfather was the 7^thDuke of Marlborough; Blenheim Palace had been built to honour the 1^st Duke of Marlborough’s victory over the French in 1704.

Blenheim Palace had an enormous influence on Sir Winston Churchill during his long and remarkable life. In 1951 he wrote: “I am proud to be born at Blenheim.”

The image above shows Winston Churchill’s birth room at Blenheim Palace. It is the first in a series of photographs by Leslie Hossack that examines the extraordinary life of Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, from his birth in 1874 until his death in 1965.

Churchill became Prime Minister on May 10th, 1940, and he is widely regarded as the resolute, inspirational leader who saved western civilization from Nazi tyranny. He also achieved fame as a soldier, writer, orator and parliamentarian. In addition, he is known as a man who loved his family and the life of luxury.

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

25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall

The Berlin Wall, Detail #5 from The Wall, Niederkirchner Strasse

The Berlin Wall, Detail #6 from The Wall, Niederkirchner Strasse

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall. For almost thirty years the Berlin Wall divided a city and defined a generation around the world. This photograph surveys one of the last remnants of the wall, an iconic relic of the Cold War, protected for posterity behind a fence. The wall was badly damaged in 1989/90 by “wall-peckers” who attacked it with hammers during the nights after the border was opened on November 9^th, 1989.

At 2 a.m. on August 13^th, 1961, East German soldiers began building the wall with barbed wire. Soon, West Berlin was enclosed by a fortified frontier 160 km long. Officially known as the Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart, the wall was really put up to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West. Eventually, the barbed wire was replaced with a concrete wall measuring 3.6 metres high. There were up to 14 border crossings, including Checkpoint Charlie.

In 1962, a second barrier was added approximately 100 metres behind the original wall, thereby creating a “no man’s land” between the two walls. The two images above show a strip of the border or outer wall that was built in the style known as the Grenzmauer 75. This was the “fourth generation” of the Berlin Wall and it began replacing earlier versions in the mid-1970s. It consists of L-shaped pre-cast concrete sections topped by an asbestos-concrete pipe 40 centimetres in diameter.

In Berlin today, little evidence of the wall remains. This 200-metre section runs along the south side of Niederkirchner Strasse. Leslie Hossack’s photographic installation entitled The Wall, Niederkirchner Strasse meassures over 18 feet long. It is on view at the 25 BERLIN exhibit at The Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War Museum until March 31st, 2015.

The Wall, Niederkirchner Strasse is part of Hossack’s larger body of work that includes 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 Sir Winston Churchill’s London. To view more images, please visit her website. lesliehossack.com

REGISTERED Artist Panel 14 Sept. 2:00 pm

REGISTERED, The Japanese Canadian Experience During World War II, is an exhibition of photographs by Leslie Hossack on view until 23 September 2014 at Trinity Gallery, Shenkman Arts Centre, 245 Centrum Boulevard, Ottawa.

ARTIST PANEL Sunday 14 September 2:00 – 3:30

PANELISTS

Alan Neal, host of All In A Day, CBC Radio One, 91.5 FM, will moderate the artist panel. All In A Day is music, news, current affairs, culture, theatre, movies, politics, history, humour and conversation airing weekdays from 3 to 6 pm.

Tetsuo (Ted) Itani, a third-generation Japanese-Canadian, was interned from 1942 to 1949 before joining the Canadian Army and serving for 37 years, including a number of NATO assignments and UN peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.

Sachiko Okuda is also third generation, and her parents and grandparents were interned. Her community work dates from the 1980s, when she volunteered for the campaign resulting in the 1988 redress agreement between Canada’s federal government and the National Association of Japanese Canadians.

Ann Sunahara is an historian, lawyer, and author of The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians During the Second World War (1981). The book documents how Canadian officials abused the human and civil rights of Japanese Canadians for political ends.

Leslie Hossack is a photographer whose exhibition REGISTERED explores the experience of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia during World War II when they were registered, rounded up and removed. This exhibition looks at the people, the places and the press. Hossack’s interpretative work includes photographs of places of power and persecution, and reproductions of public and private documents.

To view images by Leslie Hossack, please visit her website. lesliehossack.com

REGISTERED

Trinity Art Gallery, Shenkman Arts Centre, 245 Centrum Blvd. in Orleans

Ottawa, 2014

Exhibition: 21 August – 23 September

Vernissage: 24 August from 1:00 – 3:00

Artist Panel: 14 September at 2:00

REGISTERED, an exhibition of photographs by Leslie Hossack, explores the story of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia during World War II when they were registered, rounded up and removed. Hossack’s interpretative work includes photographs of places of power and persecution, and reproductions of public and private documents.

To view images by Leslie Hossack, please visit her website. lesliehossack.com