Winnie On Tour

[RichardB]

An original menu card signed by Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, from a 16 April 1951 dinner in Sheffield honouring Winston Churchill on his admission to the Honorary Freedom of the City of Sheffield.

Having done so much to win the war, Churchill faced frustration of his postwar plans when his wartime government fell to Labour in the General Election of July 1945. Churchill would remain Leader of the Opposition until the British General Election of October 1951, when the Conservatives won 321 seats to Labour’s 295, returning Churchill to Downing Street at the age of 77. He would remain Prime Minister until April 1955.

Mid-April 1951 found Churchill hard at work on completion of the final volumes of his war memoirs and arguing with Clementine over the presence of Churchill’s proof-reader, C. C. Wood, in a small studio room at their Hyde Park Gate home which Clementine wanted to reclaim. In the House of Commons, deliberations and political theatre were underway concerning the seventh budget introduced since Labour had come to power. Churchill spoke in the House of Commons on the budget and economy on 10 April and was preparing to speak in the House on defence on 19 April.

On the 11th of April, Churchill had sent President Truman a telegram about the President’s dismissal of General MacArthur: ".your action in asserting the authority of the civil power over military commanders, however able or distinguished, will receive universal approval in England."

Only half a year thereafter, Churchill would return to the premiership. He would, however, lose the battle for the continued presence of Mr. Wood, who eventually agreed to work from home rather than at Hyde Park Gate, despite Churchill’s emphatic protestations to Clementine ("I will not have him turned out now. We are at the crisis of the book - I use him on the book every hour of the day."). Apparently the Wood issue was not enough to disturb marital comity. On Monday, 16th April, 1951 Winston and Clementine attended a dinner at Town Hall in Sheffield in honour of Churchill being admitted to the Honorary Freedom of the City. Here is an original menu from that dinner, signed on the blank verso by both Winston and Clementine Churchill. The menu measures 8 x 4.5 inches, and is printed in gilt and black on cream card stock with the gilt embossed arms of Sheffield.

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