Letter from "Goonie" [Lady Gwendeline Churchill, earlier Lady Gwendeline Bertie] (41 Cromwell Road, [London]) to WSC, 21 Jan 1916

Item

Reference Code: GBR/0014/CHAQ/1/1/4/4-7

Scope and Contents

On subjects including being distressed that WSC and his battalion [6th Royal Scots Fusiliers] would go into the trenches in five days; WSC's satire of [Edwin] Montagu [Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster] which had delayed a decision in the Cabinet on whether there should be a minister for all 18 committees at the Foreign Office; the likely formation of an air ministry and suggesting WSC should be Air Minister; missing Jack [Churchill] and not knowing exactly where he was, though he was probably in Egypt with [General Sir William] Birdwood; and criticism of the government and telling WSC that the country will need him [in politics].

Includes a transcript of discussions in the Cabinet between Sir Edward Grey, Prime Minister [Herbert Asquith], [Edwin] Montagu, and Lord Curzon about the question of a minister being appointed to be responsible for the committees in the Foreign Office.

Dates

Creation: 21 Jan 1916

Conditions Governing Access

From the Fonds:

The Churchill Papers are made available to researchers using Churchill Archives Centre and worldwide in digital format. The digital edition of the Churchill Papers is published by Bloomsbury Academic and is available online to subscribing institutions at churchillarchive.com. The Churchill archive is freely available in our reading rooms and onsite at Churchill College (via the Churchill College wireless network). Researchers can download images of documents directly from churchillarchive.com and so are encouraged to consider bringing a laptop or other device for this purpose. For conservation reasons, the fragile originals are no longer issued to researchers.

This digital edition is open to researchers unless otherwise marked in the catalogue. Some material has been closed by the Cabinet Office or by Churchill Archives Centre in accordance with data protection legislation.

Extent

1 item(s)

Additional Description

Former/Other Reference

WCHL 14/1/37-40

Bibliography

Extracts of this letter are published in 'Winston S. Churchill' volume III 'The Challenge of War' by Martin Gilbert, pp.644-645, and in 'The Churchill Documents' volume 7 'The Escaped Scapegoat, May 1915-December 1916' by Martin Gilbert, pp.1386-1388.