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Great Contemporaries
Harold Begbie: “The Man Who Did God for the Westminster Gazette”
11
Mar
2021
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
"All Mr. Churchill needs is the direction in his life of a great idea. He is a Saul on the way to Damascus. Let him swing clean away from that road to destruction and he might well become Paul on his way to immortality. This is to say, that to be saved from himself. Mr. Churchill must be carried away by enthusiasm for some great ideal." —Harold Begbie, 1921
Great Contemporaries: Archibald Sinclair, the Last War Casualty
28
Feb
2021
Great Contemporaries: Harry Hopkins, “Lord Root of the Matter”
25
Feb
2021
Great Contemporaries: Eamon de Valera and a Long, Fraught Relationship
22
Jan
2021
By CHARLES LYSAGHT
Winston Churchill was not a man to bear grudges, and firmly admired the Irish. Yet he was strangely oblivious to the widespread, albeit not universal, hostility still felt towards him in nationalist Ireland. In 1953 he faced a libel action in Ireland arising out of his memoirs. It was brought by Eric Dorman-Smith, an Irish-born general whom he had dismissed during the Desert War. He expressed doubt that “an Irish jury would necessarily be unfair or that they would be prejudiced against me.” His legal advisers knew better. They made sure the case was settled before it got to be heard before a jury in Dublin. When Churchill died in 1965, de Valera, now President of Ireland, lauded him as a great Englishman. He could not omit to add the rider that Churchill had been a “dangerous enemy” of the Irish people.
Great Contemporaries: Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman
05
Jan
2021
3
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Pamela Harriman, said Jacques Chirac, was “elegance itself...a peerless diplomat.” That old Francophile, her father-in-law, would have smiled.
Tags:
Averell Harriman,
Caspar Weinberger,
David Margesson,
Everard Digby,
Gunpowder Plot,
Jacques Chirac,
Jesse Helms. Paul H. Robinson Jr.,
John Churchill,
Legion d’Honneur,
Leland Hayward,
Minterne Magna,
Norman Ornstein,
Pamela Harriman,
Richard Holbrooke,
Richard M. Langworth,
Thomas Maier,
Winston Churchill (grandson),
Winston S. Churchill,
Great Contemporaries: Alan Brooke, the Thoroughbred Professional
19
Dec
2020
1
By CHRISTOPHER C. HARMON
Still visible above swirls of pettiness, heroes remain: Brooke, the great general; above him, looming ever larger, the man who saved liberty.
Great Contemporaries: Orde Wingate – “A Man of the Highest Quality”
08
Oct
2020
By BRADLEY P. TOLPPANEN
Wingate “lives on in the long-range penetration groups, and all these intricate and daring air and military operations.” —WSC
Tags:
Abyssinia,
Alan Brooke,
American Air Commandos,
Archibald Wavell,
Bradley P. Tolppanen,
Burma Campaign,
Chaim Weismann,
Chindits,
David Ben-Gurion,
East African Campaign,
Gideon Force,
Haile Selassie,
James Wolfe,
Joseph Stillwell,
Louis Mountbatten,
Moshe Dayan,
Palestine,
Quebec Conference,
Reginald Wingate,
Special Night Squads,
T.E. Lawrence,
Winston S. Churchill,
Great Contemporaries: T.E. Lawrence – No Greater Churchillian
15
Aug
2020
1
Great Contemporaries: Richard Haldane, “Prodigy, Paragon and Philosopher-Statesman”
05
Aug
2020
By ANDREW ROBERTS
With his many achievements, Haldane stood as warning that the apex of politics, there was no such thing as friendship. Except perhaps with Churchill.
Tags:
Albert Einstein,
Andrew Bonar Law,
Andrew Roberts,
Beatrice Webb,
Edward Carson,
Edward Grey,
H.H. Asquith,
Haldane Mission,
Herbert Samuel,
John Morley,
Lord Beaverbrook,
Lord Northcliffe,
Prince Louis of Battenberg,
Richard Burdon Haldane,
Sidney Webb,
Stanley Buckmaster,
Winston S. Churchill,
Great Contemporaries: Philip Sassoon – A Friend at the End of an Era
01
Aug
2020
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
Throwback to vanished age, Sassoon served his country in war and peace, and entertained the glitterati at his palatial mansions. He died too young.
Tags:
Anthony Eden,
David Lloyd George,
Douglas Haig,
Fred Glueckstein,
Gallipoli,
Gallipoli campaign,
John French,
Kenneth Clark,
Marthe Bibesco,
Philip Sassoon,
Philip Tilden,
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother,
Richard Tauber,
Robert Boothby,
Samuel Hoare,
Siegfried Sassoon,
Stanley Baldwin,
Winston S. Churchill,
Great Contemporaries: Sir Harold Alexander, Churchill’s Favorite General
18
Jun
2020
1
By BRADLEY P. TOLPPANEN
Among his generals, Churchill thought Alexander “the best we had.” Alex for his part was ever faithful, saying, “I can’t simply refuse Winston.”
Tags:
Alan Brooke,
Andrew Cunningham,
Anzio,
Baltische Landeswehr,
Bernard Montgomery,
Bradley Tolppanen,
Dunkirk,
Dwight Eisenhower,
El Alamein,
Erwin Rommel,
George Patton,
Gothic Line,
Harold Alexander,
Harrow School,
Heinrich Von Vietinghoff,
Latvia,
Mark Clark,
Monte Cassino,
Viscount Gort,
Winston S. Churchill,
Great Contemporaries: Sir Ernest Cassel: “A Few More Years of Sunshine”
23
Apr
2020
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
The Churchills, father and son, had close friendships with prominent, talented Jews. One was Nathaniel Mayer “Natty” Rothschild, First Baron Rothschild, head of the British branch of the famous banking family. He was the first Jewish member of the House of Lords. Another was Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel, also of Jewish origin, though he became a Catholic in 1880. A renowned merchant banker and financier, Sir Ernest was young Winston’s mentor, financial consultant and lifelong friend.
Tags:
Aswan Low Dam,
Clementine Churchill,
Edwina Mountbatten,
Ernest Cassel,
Frances Duchess of Marlborough,
John Strange Spencer Churchill,
King Edward VII,
Lord Alfred Douglas,
Lord Randolph Churchill,
Marquess of Queensberry,
Maurice de Hirsch,
Mountbatten of Burma,
Nathaniel “Natty” Rothschild,
National Bank of Egypt,
Oscar Wilde,
Winston S. Churchill,