A very fine association copy, inscribed by the author to Grace Hamblin OBE (1908-2002), “the longest-serving member of Churchill’s secretarial staff” (Stelzer), in blue ink to the front free endpaper of Vol. 1: ‘To Grace Hamblin from Winston S Churchill 1947 Christmas’; and additionally initialled by Churchill ‘WSC’ in blue ink to the front free endpaper of Vol. 2.
Grace Hamblin originally served as a junior secretary to Churchill from 1932-1937 during the so-called “Wilderness Years”, briefly leaving the Churchills service in 1937 to care for her ageing mother, before returning as Clementine Churchill’s assistant from 1939-1945, accompanying Clementine on her post-war tour of red cross hospitals in the Soviet Union. After the war, Hamblin was appointed secretary and administrator at Chartwell, continuing in her role as the first Curator of Chartwell after the house became a National Trust property in 1966. In 1965, Hamblin was one of the very few non-family members invited to attend Churchill’s burial service at St Martin’s Church, Bladon. “Grace Hamblin died in 2002, aged ninety-four. She had spent seventy of those years working with the Churchills and strengthening and promoting their memory, the longest-serving member of Churchill’s secretarial staff” (Stelzer, Working with Winston, p. 45). Hamblin earned some posthumous notoriety when her apparent role in the suppression of Graham Sutherland’s controversial portrait of Churchill was revealed.
The present inscribed copy of Churchill’s huge biography of his ancestor the first Duke of Marlborough is a particularly pleasing association; Grace Hamblin had assisted Churchill in the writing of the book during her initial stint as his assistant secretary, working long into the night taking dictations and typing up the manuscript.
The first two-volume edition of Churchill’s huge life of the first Duke of Marlborough, his ancestor who led allied forces to victory against Louis XIV, originally published in four volumes between 1933 and 1938.
A very good copy indeed, faint spotting to edges and endpapers, a touch of creasing to two of the folding plates in Vol. 2, light shelf wear to tips of spines and corners.
Cohen, A97.6.a.
