CHURCHILL, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer (1874-1965). Eight typed letters signed to Baron Harvey of Prestbury [as Squadron-Leader, and later Air Commodore, Arthur Vere Harvey], Chartwell, Admiralty and 28 Hyde Park Gate, 23 March 1939 - 3 February 1948, 8 pages, 4to and 8vo ; and a letter signed by Clementine Churchill and autograph letter signed by Mary Soames; with a photograph showing Harvey with Churchill, in flying kit, climbing out of the open cockpit of a biplane on a visit to 615 Squadron at Kenley on 16 April 1939, 170 x 225mm, framed and glazed; and a cartoon by Lewil, showing Churchill in Honorary Air Commodore's uniform visiting 615 Squadron, and offering a cigar to a bushily moustached RAF officer, the caption 'Thank you, sir -- but there's already a cigarette in there somewhere!', pen and ink on paper, 260 x 220mm, framed and glazed. THE ORIGINS OF THE UNIFORM OF HONORARY AIR COMMODORE, WHICH CHURCHILL WORE ON A NUMBER OF PUBLIC OCCASIONS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR. In the earliest letter, Churchill writes understandingly that 'all the formalities have to be gone through'; in April 1939 he is 'grieved to hear of ... casualties', and 'will pay you another visit when the uniform is ready'; in May he writes discussing an unspecified difficulty about which he is unwilling to trouble Sir Kingsley Wood; the following month he promises to dine with [615] Squadron, and enquires 'By what process do I recover from the Government the £40 allowance for the uniform?'; in July he is too busy to visit 'the Selsey Camp'. On 13 August 1939 Churchill is 'off tomorrow for a tour of the Rhine Sector of the Maginot Line ... if there is no crisis I might stay abroad a little longer' and adds 'I have written to the Secretary of State about using compulsory powers'; writing from the Admiralty on 8 December he is 'glad to hear that the Squadron is fit and settling down nicely', and responds to enquiries from Vere Harvey about the requisition of his family's fleet of 'steam-drifters': 'Our demands for drifters and other fishing craft have greatly increased recently, and it has often been found necessary for us to take up craft at very short notice. No one appreciates more deeply than I the way in which the war is hitting trawler and drifter owners, but none the less I fear it is impossible for us to give you any special undertaking'. The last letter, in February 1948, is an invitation to lunch. Arthur Vere Harvey was the founder of 615 County of Surrey Squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force, and invited Churchill to be its first Honorary Air Commodore. Harvey commanded the squadron in France, 1939-40, being mentioned in despatches twice. He was later MP for Macclesfield from 1945 until he was made a life peer in 1971.
CHURCHILL, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer (1874-1965). Eight typed letters signed to Baron Harvey of Prestbury [as Squadron-Leader, and later Air Commodore, Arthur Vere Harvey], Chartwell, Admiralty and 28 Hyde Park Gate, 23 March 1939 - 3 February 1948, 8 pages, 4to and 8vo ; and a letter signed by Clementine Churchill and autograph letter signed by Mary Soames; with a photograph showing Harvey with Churchill, in flying kit, climbing out of the open cockpit of a biplane on a visit to 615 Squadron at Kenley on 16 April 1939, 170 x 225mm, framed and glazed; and a cartoon by Lewil, showing Churchill in Honorary Air Commodore's uniform visiting 615 Squadron, and offering a cigar to a bushily moustached RAF officer, the caption 'Thank you, sir -- but there's already a cigarette in there somewhere!', pen and ink on paper, 260 x 220mm, framed and glazed. THE ORIGINS OF THE UNIFORM OF HONORARY AIR COMMODORE, WHICH CHURCHILL WORE ON A NUMBER OF PUBLIC OCCASIONS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR. In the earliest letter, Churchill writes understandingly that 'all the formalities have to be gone through'; in April 1939 he is 'grieved to hear of ... casualties', and 'will pay you another visit when the uniform is ready'; in May he writes discussing an unspecified difficulty about which he is unwilling to trouble Sir Kingsley Wood; the following month he promises to dine with [615] Squadron, and enquires 'By what process do I recover from the Government the £40 allowance for the uniform?'; in July he is too busy to visit 'the Selsey Camp'. On 13 August 1939 Churchill is 'off tomorrow for a tour of the Rhine Sector of the Maginot Line ... if there is no crisis I might stay abroad a little longer' and adds 'I have written to the Secretary of State about using compulsory powers'; writing from the Admiralty on 8 December he is 'glad to hear that the Squadron is fit and settling down nicely', and responds to enquiries from Vere Harvey about the requisition of his family's fleet of 'steam-drifters': 'Our demands for drifters and other fishing craft have greatly increased recently, and it has often been found necessary for us to take up craft at very short notice. No one appreciates more deeply than I the way in which the war is hitting trawler and drifter owners, but none the less I fear it is impossible for us to give you any special undertaking'. The last letter, in February 1948, is an invitation to lunch. Arthur Vere Harvey was the founder of 615 County of Surrey Squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force, and invited Churchill to be its first Honorary Air Commodore. Harvey commanded the squadron in France, 1939-40, being mentioned in despatches twice. He was later MP for Macclesfield from 1945 until he was made a life peer in 1971.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
