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Articles
The Churchill Day Book for 1928: Other Years Welcome
- By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
- | July 27, 2023
- Category: Personal Matters Resources
The Churchill Day Book
The Churchill Day Book is an old project, sporadically revived but never finished. It was first proposed by Dalton Newfield, the accomplished editor of Finest Hour from 1970 to 1975, lost to us far too young in 1982. Others have attempted to take up the job, which proved formidable. In the digital age, perhaps some kind readers may collaborate with us and move it along. (Contact [email protected].)
Mr. Newfield’s objective was deceptively simple: He wanted a single reference (today it can be online) pinpointing Churchill’s location and activities day by day for every day of his life. He was undaunted by the fact that the book would have to cover about 33,000 days.
Given that number, detail would have to be avoided. That is provided by the Official Biography and legions of books from biographies to specialized studies. Ideally, one-line entries would suffice. Knowing where Churchill was, with the briefest description of what he was doing, would be invaluable to researchers, students, scholars, or just the casually curious.
Shorts’ flying boat
The following entries for 1928 comprise an example. They came about by accident. We were researching a photograph from the archives of a Belfast company named “Shorts.” The year was known, but not the circumstances. We searched in vain for a 1928 visit to Northern Ireland. None had occurred, but luck was at hand: photo #184 in Sir Martin Gilbert’s Churchill: A Photographic Portrait (1974). It was the same event, occurring on the London Thames on 2 August 1928. Churchill was inspecting Short Brothers’ new “Calcutta” flying boat, moored opposite Parliament. “Throughout his life,” Sir Martin wrote, WSC “retained a keen interest in new inventions and means of transport.”
That investigation led us to many other interesting events which helped to track and understand how Churchill passed 1928. (The cynic might say that was the last “normal” year until 1946—or later.)
We publish this 1928 chapter hoping it may inspire readers to send us notes for other years. By adding them to a web page, the Day Book may constantly expand. Readers of Martin Gilbert’s Official Biography can be particularly helpful. His chronological approach will enable you to jot down events virtually as you read.
1928 Overview
Churchill, 54, was Chancellor of the Exchequer, the senior Cabinet position under Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. His main issue was “de-rating,” a kind of supply-side economics. He wished to reduce Local Rates (property taxes) on factories and farmers by £30 million. (That sum is roughly equal to £2 billion today.)
Churchill’s antique notion in 1928 was to make up loss in revenue from tax cuts from other sources. He proposed an increased tax on petrol. He hoped to recover the rest through modest reductions in government spending and increased revenues generated by an improving economy. His scheme was bitterly opposed by Minister of Health Neville Chamberlain. A rift grew between them which would affect their relationship later.
A second issue, later in 1928, was war debt—still hanging over former combatants ten years after the Armistice. Churchill needed to claw back enough of what was owed by former allies to balance what Britain owed the United States. President Calvin Coolidge was intransigent on the subject. He famously remarked: “They hired the money, didn’t they?” Churchill referred to Coolidge as a “New England backwoodsman,” and hoped to delay a settlement until President Hoover was inaugurated in March 1929. None of them, of course, foresaw the October stock market crash and subsequent Depression. That would upset Churchill’s modest plans for the Exchequer, and many other things. The “Gathering Storm” of another World War can be traced to that time.
In the literary field, Churchill’s main writing project for 1928 was The Aftermath. Published in 1929 as Volume IV of The World Crisis, it chronicled the messy decade after the “War to end wars.” References are to the Official Biography (OB) or its Companion Volumes (OB, CV).
January
1-8: Chartwell; political correspondence.
9-10: France; two days’ hunting wild boar with “Bendor,” Duke of Westminster.
11-15: Chartwell.
16-31: London.
20: Cabinet meeting, London; at Treasury Chambers.
25: Policy Committee; WSC proposes de-rating to start by October 1929.
29-30: Treasury Chambers and 11 Downing Street.
February
1-4: London.
5-6: Chartwell.
7-11: London.
7: Commons debate on 1928 Speech from the Throne, which WSC supports.
9: Treasury Chambers.
12-13: Chartwell, where Clementine Churchill is ill.
14-28: London.
14: Treasury Chambers.
15: Treasury Chambers; death of former Prime Minister H.H. Asquith.
16: Downing Street; Cabinet meeting in respect for Asquith.
17: Cabinet Meeting agrees to WSC’s economic plans.
27: Policy Committee meeting.
March
5: Policy Committee; dispute over de-rating, mainly with Chamberlain.
6-9: London; Treasury Chambers.
12: Policy Committee meeting on de-rating.
18: London, 11 Downing Street.
23: London; Treasury Chambers.
26: London, Policy Committee meeting.
28: London Policy Committee; further debate with Chamberlain.
April
1-4: London.
2: London, Cabinet meeting.
3: WSC skips Cabinet for Policy Committee meeting.
4: Cabinet reaches compromise on de-rating scheme.
4-23: Chartwell; brief forays to London for Cabinet and Parliament.
24-27: London.
24: House of Commons, 1928 (fourth) Budget Speech (3 1/2 hours).
24-27: Treasury Chambers.
28-30: Chartwell.
May
1-13: Chartwell, recovering from influenza.
13: Night express to Scotland and Duke Westminster’s house, Rosehall.
14-19: Rosehall, Sutherland. Reads, fishes, reviews Beaverbrook’s Politicians and the War.
20-31st: Chartwell; preparing for Budget Debate.
June
5: London; introduces Budget Bill.
5-8: London; Commons debate on Budget and Finance.
19: London; Treasury Chambers.
July
5: Meeting of Committee of Imperial Defence; Ten Year Rule renewed.
22: London; Treasury Chambers.
August
1: London, Cabinet.
2: London. Inspects Short Brothers “Calcutta” flying boat on Thames.
3: Chartwell; cables 61st birthday greetings to Stanley Baldwin.
4-8: Chartwell.
9: Chartwell; lunch with Bernard Baruch.
10-11: Chartwell with Victor Cazalet, son Randolph, Frederick Lindemann.
September
21: Chartwell guests include H.J. Scrymgeour-Wedderburn.1
22-23rd: Chartwell
24: By rail, London-Rugby-Perth; car to Balmoral).2
25: Balmoral: “Not at all tired after a racketing journey.” (OB V, 1349.)
25-27: Balmoral; with King George V, continues work on The Aftermath.
28-30: London.
October
1-2: Cabinet meeting plans general election for 30 May 1929.
3-9: Chartwell.
10-31: London.
10: London, Cabinet meeting.
17: London, Cabinet meeting.
19: Paris for discussion of War Debts with Prime Minister Poincare.
25: Essex. Constituency speech, “A Disarmament Fable.”3
29: London, Cabinet meeting.
31: London; Treasury Chambers.
November
1-29: London.
5: Baldwin’s eve-of-session dinner.
11: Dinner and film show at Beaverbrook’s house.
19: Cabinet; WSC says naval disarmament “would be a great mistake.”
21: “Baldwin has gone to Scotland & I am in charge.” (OB, CV 5/1, 1383.)
29: Birthday dinner, Commons; Sassoon, Lindemann, Harmsworth, Laski.
30: Chartwell; WSC’s 54th birthday.
December
3: London; Treasury Chambers.
4: Eaton Hall, near Chester, visiting the Duke of Westminster.
25-31: Chartwell.
Endnotes (from OB, vol. 5, 303)
1 Henry James Scrymgeour-Wedderburn, MP for Renfrew, Scotland (1931-45), wrote:
Winston is building with his own hands a house for his butler, and also a new garden wall. He works at bricklaying four hours a day, and lays 90 bricks an hour, which is a very high output. He also spends a considerable time on the last volume of his war memoirs….
His ministerial work comes down from the Treasury every day, and he has to give some more hours to it. It is a marvel how much time he gives to his guests, talking sometimes for an hour after lunch and much longer after dinner. He is an exceedingly kind and generous host, providing unlimited champagne, cigars and brandy. Even poor old Prof who is really a teetotaller is compelled to drink ten cubic centimetres of brandy at a time, because he was once rash enough to tell Winston that the average human being could imbibe ten cc of brandy without causing any detectable change in metabolism.
2 Stag hunting at Balmoral. “The King is well,” WSC wrote Clementine, “but ageing. He no longer stalks but goes out on the hill where the deer are ‘moved about for him,’ & it may be at some loyal stag will do his duty.”
3 WSC, Aldersbrook, Essex, 24 October 1928: The nations were examining “all sorts of imaginary and immature possibilities which will never be translated into reality if any of the great and free democracies of the world are able to make their opinion prevail. In order not to give offence to anyone. I will use a parable”…
“A Disarmament Fable”
Once upon a time all the animals in the Zoo decided that they would disarm, and they arranged to have a conference to arrange the matter. So the Rhinoceros said when he opened the proceedings that the use of teeth was barbarous and horrible and ought to be strictly prohibited by general consent. Horns, which were mainly defensive weapons, would, of course, have to be allowed.
The Buffalo, the Stag, the Porcupine, and even the little Hedgehog all said they would vote with the Rhino, but the Lion and the Tiger took a different view. They defended teeth and even claws, which they described as honourable weapons of immemorial antiquity. The Panther, the Leopard, the Puma, and the whole tribe of small cats all supported the Lion and the Tiger.
Then the Bear spoke. He proposed that both teeth and horns should be banned and never used again for fighting by any animal. It would be quite enough if animals were allowed to give each other a good hug when they quarreled. No one could object to that. It was so fraternal, and that would be a great step towards peace. However, all the other animals were very offended with the Bear, and the Turkey fell into a perfect panic.
The discussion got so hot and angry, and all those animals began thinking so much about horns and teeth and hugging when they argued about the peaceful intentions that had brought them together, that they began to look at one another in a very nasty way. Luckily the keepers were able to calm them down and persuade them to go back quietly to their cages, and they began to feel quite friendly with one another again.