Patrick Kinna (or Peter, as he was known while working for Winston Churchill) was born on 5 Sept 1913. Before the war he worked as a shorthand teacher, then in September 1939 he went to Paris as a member of the War Cabinet secretariat. Kinna worked for a short time as clerk to the Duke of Windsor [earlier King Edward VIII], but on the occupation of France, when Duke became Governor of the Bahamas, Kinna remained with the War Cabinet, returning to England in 1940 on the fall of France.

Kinna was then sent to Washington [United States] with the Joint Staff mission for six months. On his return he took the place of Kathleen Hill as personal assistant to Winston Churchill, in order to accompany him to Newfoundland [later part of Canada] aboard HMS Prince of Wales for the Atlantic Charter meeting with President Roosevelt in August 1941. (It was thought that a man would be less likely to be offended by the sailors' language).

Kinna stayed with Churchill throughout the war as his shorthand typist, particularly on the overseas journeys to the various conferences, which were thought unsuitable for women, but after the loss of the 1945 election, he decided to move on, and became Private Secretary to Ernest Bevin, Foreign Secretary. He died on 14 March 2009.