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PROPERTY OF A NOBLE FAMILY REMOVED FROM KNEBWORTH HOUSE, HERTFORDSHIRE
CHURCHILL, Sir Winston Spencer (1874-1965). Autograph letter signed ('Winston S. Churchill') to Pamela Plowden, 35a Great Cumberland Place, London, 28 June 1899.
Details
CHURCHILL, Sir Winston Spencer (1874-1965). Autograph letter signed ('Winston S. Churchill') to Pamela Plowden, 35a Great Cumberland Place, London, 28 June 1899.
2 pages, 203 x 128mm, bifolium. Envelope. Provenance: Pamela, Countess of Lytton; and by descent.
Feverish campaigning in his first election, at Oldham. Churchill has spoken for fifty minutes without exacerbating a sore throat; he is understanding but disappointed that Pamela will not be there, but will have all the local papers sent to her, and his mother will give her a full account. 'I have no idea how this will turn out ... but I think there is no doubt that as men – in all that makes for popularity – in all that ensures attention Mawdsley & I are far superior to the Radical Candidates'.
At the age of 24, Churchill had been selected as one of two Conservative candidates in a double by-election at Oldham. The contrast between the aristocratically-born Churchill and the second party candidate, James Mawdsley, General Secretary of the Lancashire branch of the Amalgamated Association of Cotton Spinners, gave rise to much amusement: they were dubbed 'The Scion and the Socialist'. In spite of Churchill's hard work, both Oldham seats were won by the Liberal candidates: but when Churchill stood again for the same seat in the 1900 general election, he won with a narrow majority, no doubt in part thanks to the publicity around his intervening exploits during the Boer War. The recipient of the letter, Pamela Plowden (later Countess of Lytton) was the first great love of Churchill's life: the two were briefly engaged in 1900.
2 pages, 203 x 128mm, bifolium. Envelope. Provenance: Pamela, Countess of Lytton; and by descent.
Feverish campaigning in his first election, at Oldham. Churchill has spoken for fifty minutes without exacerbating a sore throat; he is understanding but disappointed that Pamela will not be there, but will have all the local papers sent to her, and his mother will give her a full account. 'I have no idea how this will turn out ... but I think there is no doubt that as men – in all that makes for popularity – in all that ensures attention Mawdsley & I are far superior to the Radical Candidates'.
At the age of 24, Churchill had been selected as one of two Conservative candidates in a double by-election at Oldham. The contrast between the aristocratically-born Churchill and the second party candidate, James Mawdsley, General Secretary of the Lancashire branch of the Amalgamated Association of Cotton Spinners, gave rise to much amusement: they were dubbed 'The Scion and the Socialist'. In spite of Churchill's hard work, both Oldham seats were won by the Liberal candidates: but when Churchill stood again for the same seat in the 1900 general election, he won with a narrow majority, no doubt in part thanks to the publicity around his intervening exploits during the Boer War. The recipient of the letter, Pamela Plowden (later Countess of Lytton) was the first great love of Churchill's life: the two were briefly engaged in 1900.
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