Winston Churchill

A hand-written letter from Winston Churchill to Sir Algernon West.

• Sir Winston Churchill (English).
• London: 1902.
• Letter signed in ink from Sir Winston Churchill to Sir Algernon West thanking him for the three parcels of papers he needs, for researching the biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill.
• On headed paper.

The letter reads:

"5. Oct. 1902

My dear Sir Algernon,

Many thanks for 3 packets of papers of which I will take the greatest care & will diligently study. But when I come to the subject of The Abandoned Budget I must have a long morning with you. Do you know Knowles of the 19th Century: because he has hurt the feelings of a friend of mine - Ivor Guest; who took the greatest trouble to write an article on Registration reform - UK, as I know, was quite as good as usual that is printed - who has only received the curtest & most formal acknowledgement; & not article appears. He is much discouraged and my labours in interesting him in politics as a democratic Tory, proportionately increased. Can you assist matters?

Yours sincerely,

Winston S. Churchill"

The ‘Abandoned Budget’ referred to is that of his father’s, Lord Randolph Churchill (1849 -1895), who was a precociously influential figure in the Conservative Party and chancellor of the Exchequer in 1886, at the age of 37, and seemed certain to be prime minister in due course. However, his own miscalculation in his first budget ended his political career before the year was over. In the budget he reduced the Military Services estimates, which was unacceptable to W.H. Smith, the secretary of state for war. On December 20, 1886, Churchill sent Salisbury his resignation contingent on the prime minister’s choice between the policies of the Exchequer and the War Office.

Ivor Churchill Guest, 1st Viscount Wimborne, KP, PC (1873 – 1939), known as Lord Ashby St Ledgers from 1910 to 1914 and as Lord Wimborne from 1914 to 1918, was a British politician and one of the last Lords Lieutenant of Ireland, serving in that position at the time of the Easter Rising. He was elected to Parliament for Plymouth in a by-election in February 1900 (a seat he had unsuccessfully contested in 1898) as a Conservative, and retained his seat in the general election of 1900. In 1904, during the controversy within the Conservative Party over adopting protectionism, he and other members of his family followed Churchill into the Liberal Party in support of free trade. Provenance: Sir Algernon Edward West GCB PC; 1832 – 1921, recipient (English civil servant, acted as Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister William Gladstone).