by David Lough
18. 8 Dec 1919 JSC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/134/73; 19 Nov, 16 Dec 1919 B. Buckingham ltrs to WSC, 8/35/3, 4. Churchill bought £3,000-worth of shares through Bailey and committed to buy up to £2,000 through Vickers da Costa. By the time he was due to pay Vickers, he no longer had £2,000 left, so he asked for a £1,000 bridging loan until he received £1,500 for his recent newspaper articles.
19. 18 Dec 1919 NM ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/134/75.
20. 6 Jan 1920 E. Cassel ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/137/1; 6 Jan 1920 WSC letter to WHB, 28/143/156. 7 May 1920 NM letter to WSC, CHAR 1/137/49, 26 May 1923 LlBk statement of WSC 1920 receipts 1/130/118. In May 1920, after spending money on essential works, Churchill sold the lease to a former army friend Herbert Spender-Clay for £3,150. In the absence of Churchill’s bank records between April 1919 and January 1921, it is unclear whether Churchill repaid Sir Ernest Cassel’s loan of £2,300: no correspondence on the subject with either Sir Ernest or his executors (after his death in 1921) survives.
21. 20 Feb 1920 WSC schedule, CHAR 1/148/84.
22. 10 Feb 1920 WHB ltr to WSC, CHAR 28/143/166.
23. 20–21 Sep 1920 WHB note, CHAR 28/143/182.
24. 27 Apr, 28 May, 3 Jun 1920 WSC ltrs to NM, CHAR 1/137/44, 54, 58; 10 Jul, 23 Sep 1920 WSC ltrs to WHB, 28/143/181, 183.
25. 30 Jul, 1 Sep, 9, 28 Oct 1920 Oct A. Watt corresp with WSC, CHAR 8/38/8, 20, 23, 35. The reference is to a book to be collected from Churchill’s recent newspaper articles, suggested by Watt on behalf of US publisher G. H. Doran, who was prepared to pay an advance of £100 for US rights. Watt was confident of obtaining £300–500 for British rights. Churchill gave up when Hodder & Stoughton made the highest offer, of only £200.
26. 22 Sept 1920 WSC ltr to WHB, CHAR 28/143/183.
27. 23 Sep 1920 R. Cox comment on WHB memo, CHAR 128/143/184.
28. 24 Mar 1920 F. Macmillan ltr to WSC, CHAR 8/38/4. Until December 1916 cabinet ministers enjoyed an unfettered right to retain and quote from their official papers. Prime Minister Lloyd George introduced a new cabinet secretariat led by Sir Maurice Hankey. After the war Sir Maurice drafted new instructions, specifying that minutes and papers ‘were not the personal property of members and on the Minister leaving office it is the duty of the Secretary to recover from him... all cabinet papers issued to him.’ Sir Maurice’s proposal was omitted from the final version of the new rules debated in cabinet on 4 November 1919. Instead the cabinet agreed a rule in order to safeguard secrecy that ‘no-one is entitled [to] make public use of cabinet documents without permission of the king’. See D. Reynolds, In Command of History, pp. 23–4, citing J. Naylor, A Man and an Institution: Sir Maurice Hankey, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Custody of Cabinet Secrecy, pp. 67–9.
29. 1 Nov 1920 A. Dakers ltr to WSC, CHAR 8/38/37, 38–41.
30. 9 Nov 1920 TB ltr to WSC, CHAR 8/38/43.
31. 8 Dec 1920 WHB Note, CHAR 28/144/1. Signed on 28 November 1920, the contract included a royalty of 33? per cent on the publication price of 1½ guineas. It also specified a length of 100,000 words; Churchill dictated 160,000, mostly to a ministerial private secretary H. A. Beckenham, whom he paid £350.
32. The contemporary model of publishing divided a work’s rights into ‘volume’ (or book), ‘first serial’ and ‘second serial’ rights; and geographically between British Empire, America and other ‘foreign’ rights. ‘First serial’ rights were sold to a newspaper or magazine, allowing it to publish up to 40 per cent of the book’s content in advance of the launch of the ‘volume’. ‘Second serial’ rights were sold to less well-known newspapers or magazines and, if sold, usually preceded any ‘cheap’ or ‘popular’ book edition.
33. 14, 16, 17 Dec 1920 H. Wickham Steed corresp with WSC, CHAR 8/38/53–4, 55, 58; 21 Dec 1920 W. Lints Smith corresp with WSC 8/38/59; 29 Dec 1920 WSC ltr to CB; Christie’s sale catalogue 28 November 2011, Malcolm Forbes Collection. The Times paid Churchill £2,000 on signature.
34. 8 Dec 1920 WHB note, CHAR 28/144/1.
35. 20 Dec 1920 C. Kingsley ltr to C. Scribner III, Scribner’s Archive, Author Files 1 C0101, box 31/1, PUFL.
36. 7 Jan 1921 TB ltr to C. S. Scribner II, ibid.
37. 25 Jan 1921 C. Scribner II cable to TB, ibid.
38. 1 Feb 1921 ACB ltr to WSC, CHAR 8/40/10, 14 Mar 1921 Scribner’s Archive Box Author Contracts Box 5/19, PUFL. Scribner’s contract provided for a book of 150,000–200,000 words in two volumes, the first to cost $5. Churchill’s royalty was set at 20 per cent, or 10 per cent on cheaper editions. His advance was split: $4,000 on signature; $5,000 on the first volume’s delivery, $2,500 on its publication; $3,500 on the second volume’s delivery and $3,500 on its publication.
39. Lord Hartwell, William Camrose: Giant of Fleet Street, pp. 95–6; D. Reynolds, In Command of History, p. 24, citing F. Owen, Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George and his Life and Times (London, 1954), pp. 699–70; George W. Egerton, ‘The Lloyd George War Memoirs: A Study in the Politics of Memory’, Journal of Modern History 60 (1988), esp. pp. 57–61. Curtis Brown represented both Lloyd George and Churchill; the lead buyer for Lloyd George’s rights package in both Britain and the United States was William Berry, later Lord Camrose.
40. U/d 1930s LlBk literary earnings 1920s, CHAR 1/185/26–8, u/d WSC schedule Literary Profits War Book contracts, 1/148/55. Churchill paid £500 to a naval adviser, Admiral Jackson; £280 for printer’s proofs and presentation copies.
41. The new post paid the same £5,000 a year salary as his old one. After an earned income allowance of £200, £4,800 a year was taxed. Income tax of 6s. per £ (30 per cent) was levied at source; if due, super-tax was assessed separately, one year in arrears.
42. 28 Jan 1921 WSC ltr to A. Chamberlain, CHAR 1/138/7.
43. 1 Feb 1921 A. Chamberlain ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/38/8.
44. 27 Jan 1921, WSC ltr to CSC, SFT:224.
45. 6 February 1921 WSC letter to CSC, Spencer–Churchill Papers, 4C2:1333–1334. The articles were to be reused in Thoughts and Adventures (1932) and Painting as a Pastime (1948).
46. J. Pringle, Cambrian Railways Accident at Albemule 26 January 1922, University of Leicester Library.
47. 3 Apr 1913, 24 Jun 1915, 16 Apr 1919 Lumley & Lumley ltrs to WSC, CHAR 1/108/10, 1/120/16, 1/134/17. Sales of houses to the tenants around Carnlough had raised £76,250, the Grosvenor Square property £4,440 and the fire-damaged Garron Tower Hotel £8,000.
48. 27 Jan 1921 T. Lumley ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/148/3.
49. 28 Jan 1921 Cox & Co. statements, CHAR 28/144/2, 1/156.
50. 7 February 1921 CSC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/139/3.
51. 8 February 1921 CSC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/39/10.
52. 9, 10, 24 Feb 1921 CSC corresp with WSC CHAR 1/139/11, 14, 45. ‘Too good to miss,’ was the reaction of Churchill, who hoped sell the articles to America for another £600. Ray Long’s International Magazine Company, part of William Hearst’s publishing empire, offered $1,000, equivalent to £200. Churchill held out for more, but Curtis Brown failed to place them at a price acceptable to Churchill – CHAR 8/40/71.
53. 28 Feb 1921 Lord Londonderry ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/151/15. The silver that Churchill inherited was valued by the goldsmiths Garrard & Co at £1,450.
54. 19 Feb 1921 WSC ltr to CSC, CHAR 1/151/5–6.
55. 19, 21 Feb 1921 WSC correspondence with CSC, CHAR 1/151/5–6, 1/139/35.
10. A Country Seat at Last, 1921–2
1. 7 May 1921 Lumley & Lumley ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/151/29.
2. Jun 1921 Cox & Co. schedule of investments, CHAR 28/144/51.
3. 12 Feb 1921 W. Hozier ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/138/14.
4. U/d 1917 NM schedule of LyRC liabilities, CHAR 1/128/31–4. Jennie owed £40,000: £20,000 to Norwich Union and Phoenix Assurance; £10,000 to other official lenders, £4,200 to nine unofficial moneylenders and £3,750 to tradesmen, most of it for clothes. Churchill calculated that she had received an income of £70,000 from her trusts over the previous twenty years, but spent £45,000 of it on paying interest.
5. 6 Feb 1921 WS
C ltr to CSC, 4C2:1333–4.
6. 4 Feb 1921 WSC ltr to CSC, CHAR 8/40/11; Mar 1921 H. Wodehouse LyRC account 1921, 8/124; Apr, May 1921 LyRC statement Banca Scaretti, Rome, 28/141/4–5.
7. Vittoria Sermonetta, Sparkle Distant Worlds, p. 11, cited A. Sebba, Jennie Churchill, p. 315.
8. 10 May 1922 H. Wodehouse ltr to W. Haynes, CHAR 1/1616/63; 27 Jan 1922 WSC ltr to CSC, SFT:248; 26 Jul 1922 EHM ltr to WHB, CHAR 28/144/156. The list of creditors included Sir Ernest Cassel’s executors and the Enemy Debts Office, acting for Theodore Einstein & Co. Each eventually received half of what they were owed after Churchill family members waived their own claims.
9. 1921–3 WSC corresp with NM, Marshall & Co., Lincoln Trust, CHAR. 1/149/1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 14, 15, 19, 21, 34, 36, 38, 42, 46, 51–2, 55, 56, 60, 61, 62; 1/161/33, 36–7; 1/169/6, 20. The dollar weakened to $4:£1 by November 1921, having stood at $3.70:£1 when Jennie died in June 1921. Churchill considered suing over the delays, but settled for a contribution of $5,000 by the Manhattan Club towards the brothers’ legal expenses.
10. 21 Oct 1921 NM ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/150/43–4. Churchill’s half-share of Lord Randolph’s will trust was worth £16,500 (half of it already used to buy his Sussex Square lease). His marriage settlement was worth £37,500, after transfers from his parents’ ‘English’ and ‘American’ settlements.
11. 5 Jul 1921 WHB note of mtg with WSC, R. Cox, CHAR 28/144/46.
12. 11 Aug 1921 WSC ltr to Cox & Co., CHAR 28/144/68, 1/148/36–7.
13. 17 Aug 1921 WHB note of mtg with WSC, CHAR 28/144/66.
14. For more background on Chartwell and its history, see S. Buczacki, Churchill & Chartwell, pp. 105–13.
15. 10 Jul 1921 CSC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/139/58.
16. 11 Jul 1921 CSC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/139/62.
17. 20 Jul 1921 CSC ltrs to WSC, CHAR 1/139/85, 86.
18. S. Buczacki, Churchill & Chartwell, p.101.
19. Jul 1921–Mar 1922 Nicholl Manisty account, CHAR 1/169/9.
20. 20, 28 Mar 1922 NM ltr to WSC, schedule, CHAR 1/161/19–21,22–3. For more information about the controversy over the use of trusts in 1921–2, see M. Daunton, Just Taxes, pp. 109–11.
21. 19, 22 Aug 1921 Barker & Co. (Coachbuilders) ltr & account, CHAR 1/153/24,27.
22. 18 Aug 1921 CSC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/139/70.
23. WSC conversation with AMB, cited A. Montague Browne, Long Sunset, p. 147.
24. 23 Aug 1921 W. Blackburn & Son account, CHAR 1/153/38.
25. Nov 1922 Cox & Co. statement, CHAR 1/156.
26. 16 Dec 1921 WSC notes, CHAR 1/148/90. Churchill’s personal assets comprised Garron Tower investments of £46,000, South African shares of £14,000, ‘book money’ and ‘[silver] plate’ of £5,000.
27. 29 Dec 1921 WSC ltr to CSC, 4C3:1706–7.
28. See footnote, 4C3:1713.
29. 1 Jan 1922 WSC ltr to CSC, 4C3:1708–9.
30. Jan 1922 Cox & Co. statement, CHAR 1/156.
31. 4 Jan 1922 WSC ltr to CSC, SFT:247.
32. 30 Jan, 2 Jun 1922 VdaC contracts, accounts, CHAR 1/162/various, 28/144/109, 112. The Churchill brothers’ investment approach was tactical: Victory Bonds bought on 30 January were sold ten weeks later for a profit of 7 per cent; Local Loans bought on 15 February were sold within a month for a profit of 8 per cent, re-bought in April and resold six weeks later.
33. Feb 1922 JSC schedule of WSC investments, CHAR 1/1/162/18. The value of Churchill’s personal portfolio had risen to £60,000, of which three-quarters was invested in bonds, the balance almost all in South African mining shares.
34. 7 Feb 1922 WSC ltr to CSC, 4C3:1757.
35. Apr 1922 Cox & Co. statements, CHAR 1/156, 171.
36. See D. Reynolds, In Command of History, p. 25.
37. Jun 1922 Cox & Co. statement, CHAR 1/156. Churchill bought a mixture of Brazilian bonds and shares of British companies including Imperial Tobacco, Courtauld, Fine Cotton Spinners and J & P Coats.
38. 20 Jul 1922 WSC ltr to CSC, SFT:258.
39. 7, 9 Aug 1922 WSC ltrs to CSC, 4C3:1950.
40. 8 Aug 1922 CSC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/158/44–5. The Frinton house cost £210 to rent for August.
41. 18 Aug 1922 WSC ltr to CSC, 4C3:1958–9.
42. 8 Aug 1922 CSC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/158/44–5.
43. 14 Sep 1922 KFR ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/159/20.
44. 14, 15 Sep 1922 WSC corresp with KFR, CHAR 1/159/20/22.
45. Recollections of H. N. Harding, M. Gilbert, In Search of Churchill, p. 299.
46. S. Churchill, A Thread in the Tapestry, p. 22.
47. 22 Sep 1922 WSC ltr to WHB, CHAR 1/162/68; 28/144/61. £3,000 of the £25,000 was represented by a contract for American serial rights, which Churchill described as ‘in view’. Curtis Brown had told Churchill nine days earlier that, after struggling to sell these rights, they now had ‘some hope’ that the United Press Syndicate would pay $15,000 (£3,000). The sale did not materialize.
48. Ibid.
49. 13 Oct 1922 WSC ltr to DoM, CHAR 1/161/75–8.
50. 11, 13, 17 Oct 1922 DoM corresp with NM, WSC, CHAR 1/159/17, 1/161/75–8, 1/161/84.
51. The Times (17 Oct 1922).
52. 7 Nov 1922 WSC ltr to WHB, CHAR 1/162/79. Churchill sold his Brazilian government bonds for £11,250 to raise a net £1,250 after cutting back his bank loan by £10,000. He then borrowed a fresh £4,500 for a year from Cox & Co., using Chartwell as security. In addition, Lord Randolph Churchill’s will trust lent Churchill £4,000 against a mortgage on Chartwell, after he and Jack had agreed how to divide the trust’s assets between them – see Feb 1923 Nicholl Manisty account, 1/169/9
53. WSC, Thoughts and Adventures, p. 213.
11. Out of Office, 1923–4
1. 18 Nov 1922 T. E. Lawrence ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/157.
2. Dec 1922 LlBk statements, CHAR 1/171. The Rêve d’Or cost 15,400 francs (£243) to rent for three months; the Citroën cost 5,000 francs (£81).
3. R. James (ed), Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, 29 Jan 1935, cited S. Buczacki, Churchill & Chartwell, p. 121.
4. 25 Aug 1926 T. Jones, Whitehall Diary 2:67, cited R. Toye, Lloyd George & Churchill: Rivals for Greatness, p. 232.
5. P. Tilden, True Remembrances: The Memoirs of an Architect, p. 115.
6. 6 Nov 1922 WSC ltr to CSC, 4C3:2118–9.
7. 28 Nov 1922 TB ltr to WSC, CHAR 8/41/112–3.
8. 27 Jan 1923 WSC ltr to CSC, 5C1:18.
9. 3 Mar 1923 WSC ltr to A. Bonar Law, 5C1:32–6.
10. 10 Jan 1923 WSC ltr to JSC, 5C1:15–6.
11. 4, 10, 30 Jan, 16 Feb 1923 WSC ltrs to JSC, CSC, CHAR 28/152/233, 234; 5C1:23–6, 28.
12. 10 Feb 1923 WSC ltr to JSC, CHAR 28/152/236.
13. 16 Feb 1923 WSC ltr to JSC, 5C1:27–8.
14. 7 Mar 1924 Price Waterhouse & Co. Report on Examination of Safe Custody Securities of Cox’s Nominees Ltd. LBGA A56/2/b/3, pp. 34–52. Bank mergers, under way since the 1880s, had accelerated after the war: National Provincial Bank with Union of London & Smiths Bank; London County Bank with Westminster Bank and Parr’s; London City & Midland Bank with London Joint Stock Bank; Barclays Bank with London, Provincial & South Western Bank; Lloyds Bank with Capital & Counties Bank. See D. Kynaston, The City of London, 3:44.
15. 9 Jul–30 Oct 1918 B. Cockayne corresp with R. Cox, LBGA A56/B/104. A Royal Air Force contact had tipped off the Bank of England’s deputy governor that a £30,000 loan to an aircraft company had taken Cox & Co. outside its area of expertise. The bank’s main political contact was Andrew Bonar Law.
16. 3 Feb 1923 H. Bell ltr to Bank of England, LBGA A56/C/11; O. Hoare ltr to M. Baird LBGA 56/B/104; 9 Jul 1918 B. Cockayne ltr to R. Cox, ibid. Lloyds Bank demanded and received guarantees against loss: it was to treat Cox & Co. as a separate unit for four years, at the end of which it would share any surplus 50:50 with the Bank of England, but the central bank would guarantee losses up to £900,000. The Cox & Co. unit of Lloyds Bank lost £350,000 during 1923–4, then almost broke even in 1925.
Lloyds Bank claimed £450,000 against its guarantees, but its payment was reduced to take account of Cox & Co.’s tax losses. Lloyds Bank kept Cox & Co.’s Gracechurch Street and Pall Mall offices (in the latter of which its Cox & Kings branch still trades). LBGA A/56/C/40, 11.
17. 17, 24 Feb 1923 WSC corresp with WHB, CHAR 28/144/183.
18. 4 Jan 1923 WSC ltr to JSC, 5C1:12; 5 Jan 1923 V. Cazalet diary, cited 5C1:13.
19. Jan–Mar 1923 LlBk statements, CHAR 1/171/various.
20. LlBk pass book, CHAR 1/155.
21. M. Soames, Clementine Churchill, p. 72.
22. 29 Mar, 16 May, 2 Aug 1923 TB ltrs to WSC, CHAR 8/50/1–3, 8,21–2; 22 Jun 1923 CSIII ltr to WSC, Scribner’s Archive box 31/1, PUFL. Published in America at $6.50 per copy on 6 April (sales remained below 4,000 in February 1924); in Britain at 30s. on 10 April.
23. 26, 27, 29 Sep, 16 Oct 1923 WSC corresp with W. Lints Smith, TNL Archive Sir Winston Churchill Managerial File MAN/1; 1 Apr 1923 WSC ltr to CSIII, Scribner Archive box 31/2, PUFL; 2 Jun, 2 Aug 1923 TB ltrs to WSC, CHAR 8/5/20,21. Scribner agreed an advance of $6,000.
24. Mar 1923 WSC ltr to P. Tilden, Philip Tilden Papers, cited S. Buczacki, Churchill & Chartwell, p. 128.
25. 10 Jul 1923 P. Tilden ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/395/3–4.
26. 23, 30 Aug 1923 P. Tilden corresp with WSC, CHAR1/167/22,23; 1/395/13; 29 Aug 1923 WSC schedule 1/395/8. The Churchills also specified Gothic windows, wood panelling and other extras to increase the estimate by £320.
27. See M. McMenamin, ‘Winston Churchill and the Litigious Lord’, Finest Hour 95, summer 1997 issue, The Churchill Centre; a summary of a longer article that first appeared in the publication Litigation, winter 1995.
28. 11 Oct 1923, Apr 1924 NM accounts, CHAR 1/169/36; 1/174/6.
29. See M. McMenamin, ‘Winston Churchill and the Litigious Lord’, ibid.
30. See H. Montgomery Hyde, Lord Alfred Douglas, and M. McMenamin, ‘Winston Churchill and the Litigious Lord’, ibid. Lord Douglas was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison.
