[CHURCHILL, Winston S.]. Harrow School Song Book. Harrow School Book Shop, 1938 (reprinted 1949).
[CHURCHILL, Winston S.]. Harrow School Song Book. Harrow School Book Shop, 1938 (reprinted 1949).
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[CHURCHILL, Winston S.]. Harrow School Song Book. Harrow School Book Shop, 1938 (reprinted 1949).

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[CHURCHILL, Winston S.]. Harrow School Song Book. Harrow School Book Shop, 1938 (reprinted 1949).

4o. Blue cloth stamped in blind and gilt on upper cover. In a clamshell case. Provenance: N. M. Bolingbroke-Kent (signature on front pastedown). A copy of the song list and an issue of the Daily Harrovian included with the lot.

SIGNED ON FRONT FLYLEAF: "WINSTION S. CHURCHILL." A WARM MEMENTO FOR THE "NEW BOY" OF CHURCHILL'S 27 NOVEMBER 1953 VISIT TO HARROW. A Churchillian verse dated 18 December 1940 is pasted in on p.93, with instructions to substitute it for the final verse of "Stet Fortuna Domus": "Nor less we praise in sterner days The leader of our nation And CHURCHILL'S name shall win acclaim From each new generation While in this fight to guard the Right Our country you defend, Sir Here grim and gay we mean to stay, And stick it to the end, Sir." Churchill returned to Harrow every year beginning in December 1940. A copy of The Harrovian of 2 December 1953 (included with the lot) notes that the boys gave "an unusually hearty and heart-felt" rendition of "Stet Fortuna." The event always featured a solo by a designated "New Boy," in this case, 13-year old Noel Bolingbroke-Kent. The Daily Mail reported the next day that Bolingbroke-Kent's performance of "Five Hundred faces" "brought vigorous applause from Sir Winston." In his remarks to the students Churchill said of the Songbook: "I certainly believe this book is one of the most precious possessions that any school in this land has got...There is a really complete vocabulary in the Harrow Songs..."

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