A lovely association copy, presented by one of Churchill’s personal assistants to another, inscribed by the author to Grace Hamblin OBE (1908-2002), in blue ink to the front free endpaper: ‘To dear Ham with love from Elizabeth Nel, Port Elizabeth’.
Elizabeth Nel (née Layton, 1917-2007) worked as a personal secretary to Churchill from 1941-1945, before marrying a South African soldier and emigrating from Britain in 1946. Her final wartime work for Churchill was taking dictation in preparation for his VE-Day speech. Churchill initially objected to the publication of the present memoir, dispatching a telegram to South Africa in protest.
Grace Hamblin, on the other hand, enjoyed far more longevity in her work with the Churchill family. Hamblin originally served as a junior secretary to Churchill from 1932-1937 during the so-called “Wilderness Years”, then acting 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 Chartwell’s first Curator 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.
Jacket rather creased and edge worn, still quite a pleasing example.
