Charting Churchill: Westminster Hall, London

Westminster Hall, Houses of Parliament, London 2014

On November 30th 1954, Sir Winston Churchill celebrated his 80th birthday in Westminster Hall, shown above. At that time he was Prime Minister, and he continued to serve in that position until he resigned on April 5th 1955. He made his last political speech on March 1st 1955, advising: “Never flinch, never weary, never despair.” Certainly, Churchill himself did not seem to weary. In May 1955, he was once again elected to serve as Member of Parliament for Woodford, and the following year, he began publishing his opus A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (four volumes, 1956-1958).

Sir Winston Churchill won his final election in October 1959, and he represented Woodford until he retired in 1964. At that time, the House of Commons presented him with a Vote of Thanks for more than 60 years service as a Member of Parliament. October 1964 marked the first general election that he did not contest since first running for Parliament in 1895.

The year 2015 commemorates the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill. On January 24th 1965, he died at the age of 90 in his home on Hyde Park Gate, London. He was granted a State Funeral and his coffin lay in state in Westminster Hall, in the Houses of Parliament, on the exact spot from which the above photograph was taken. During a three-day period, more than 300,000 peopled filed past the catafalque to pay their respects to Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill.

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: The Defining Years, 1892-1908

Part 2, The Defining Years, 1892 – 1908

On November 30th, 2014, Sir Winston Churchill’s 140th birthday, Haute Vitrine started publishing images from the series THE CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHS by Leslie Hossack.

Yesterday’s post marked the end of Part 2, The Defining Years, 1892–1908. During these years, Sir Winston Churchill defined himself as an adventurer, lecturer, journalist, author, Member of Parliament, cabinet minister, and married man. Photographs featured in Part 2, The Defining Years can be reviewed below.

To view the photographs from Part 1, The Early Years, 1874-1892, please visit the Haute Vitrine posts of November 30th through December 9th, 2014.

Leslie Hossack’s CHARTING CHURCHILL will continue into January 2015, the month that marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill.

Portico, Old College, Royal Military College, Sandhurst 2014

Churchill Family Plot, Saint Martin’s Churchyard, Bladon 2014

Stable Court, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock 2014

Hatchard’s Bookseller, 187 Piccadilly, London 2014

James J. Fox Cigar Merchant, 19 St. James’s Street, London 2014

105 Mount Street, London 2014

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

Temple of Diana, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock 2014

Saint Margaret’s Church, Parliament Square, London 2014

12 Bolton Street, London 2014

The images featured above are 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. To find out how these images are linked to Churchill, please see the previous posts here on Haute Vitrine.

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: Temple of Diana, Blenheim Palace

Temple of Diana, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock 2014

The years 1901 to 1908 were the foundation years of Winston Churchill’s adult life. These were extremely busy years; he worked hard and made many significant decisions in his professional, political and personal life. As he later reflected: “At Blenheim, I took two important decisions: to be born and to marry. I am happily content with the decisions I took on both occasions.” On August 11th, 1908, Winston proposed to Clementine Hozier in the Temple of Diana at Blenheim Palace, shown above.

That same month in 1908, Churchill was sworn into the Cabinet, as President of the Board of Trade. He had first taken his seat in the House of Commons in February 1901, and had launched his career as a parliamentarian with a maiden speech delivered from the seat his father had occupied when he resigned. Churchill left the Conservative Party in 1904 to join the Liberals, and he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1905. In 1906, he was elected Liberal M.P. for Manchester Northwest. He was subsequently defeated there in a 1908 by-election, but was elected M.P. for Dundee that same year.

Throughout all of these political changes and challenges, Winston was still busy writing. He published Mr. Brodrick’s Army (1903), Lord Randolph Churchill (1906), For Free Trade (1906) and My African Journey (1908). And last, but not least, he found time to fall in love with Clementine and win her hand in marriage. What characteristics of Winston eventually won her over? His “dominating charm and brilliancy” according to Churchill Trivia, The Churchill Centre.

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

Charting Churchill: 105 Mount Street, London

105 Mount Street, London 2014

The last year of the 19th Century saw Winston Churchill resign from the army and return to England. His first bid for a seat in Parliament was unsuccessful so he headed off to South Africa as a war correspondent. After being captured by the Boers, Winston escaped and made his way back to London. In August 1900, he moved into his first bachelor flat at 105 Mount Street, shown above. Two months later, he was elected to Parliament and began his life of public service.

As the 20th Century dawned, Winston Churchill, a child of Victorian England, was starting to settle down. However, he did not give up travel entirely. After his election in 1900, he sailed to the United States for a lecture tour that lasted through January 1901. The tour was hugely successful and helped to establish his international reputation as an outstanding orator. Winston had left England during the reign of Queen Victoria, and he returned to take up his duties as an elected Member of Parliament during the reign of Edward VII.

By now, Churchill was well known as an adventurer, lecturer, journalist and author. As of 1900, he had published countless newspaper articles and several books. These include: The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898), The River War (1899), Savrola, his only novel (1900), London to Ladysmith via Pretoria (1900) and Ian Hamilton’s March (1900). To view a complete list of the 43 books written by Sir Winston Churchill, please visit The Churchill Centre.

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