Churchill Archives Centre Blog

Roskill Memorial Lecture, 22 February 2012

February 24th, 2012

On Wednesday 22 February, Mr Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group, visited Churchill College to give the fourteenth Roskill Lecture, on "Modernizing Multilateralism: Learning from Military History".

Robert Zoellick giving the 2012 Roskill Lecture. Image courtesy of Graham Wiltshire.

Mr Zoellick became the 11th president of the World Bank Group on July 1, 2007. Prior to joining the bank, Mr Zoellick served as Vice Chairman, International of the Goldman Sachs Group. From 1985-1993, Mr Zoellick served at the Treasury and State Departments, and he served in President Bush’s Cabinet as the 13th U.S. Trade Representative from 2001 to 2005 and as Deputy Secretary of State from 2005 to 2006.

He said, “As the international economy struggles to recover from the greatest blows since the 1930s, developing countries are compensating for the stumbling industrialized world. Over the past five years, developing countries have provided two-thirds of global growth.”

“As the world moves toward multiple poles of growth, multilateral institutions will need to play a role in connecting developed and developing countries to work cooperatively. The solution is not to abandon multilateral institutions, with all their imperfections. The duty of leadership is to “modernize multilateralism” for vastly different circumstances.”

See Varsity magazine for a report on the lecture. The complete text of the lecture can be found at the World Bank.

Posted in Archives Centre, News and events | Add a comment »

Family connections and Northern Irish Politics in the Papers of Sir Robin Chichester-Clark

January 27th, 2012

We have just completed cataloguing, and preparing for use by readers, the papers of Sir Robin Chichester-Clark. Sir Robin was the brother of James Chichester-Clark (later Lord Moyola), the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1969-71. As of yet there is no archive of James Chichester-Clark’s personal papers but the papers transferred to us by Robin Chichester-Clark will be very useful for the study of Northern Irish politics in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and particularly the relationship between the Westminster and Stormont parliaments. In January 1971 Robin Chichester-Clark wrote to his brother, “I find Unionist members here rather anxious about the lack of liaison between themselves and the Northern Ireland Government”. [Letter from Robin Chichester-Clark to James Chichester-Clark. 21st Jan 1971. Churchill Archives Centre, The Papers of Sir Robin Chichester-Clark, CCLK 3/22.]

Sir Robin was also an intimate of Edward Heath, having served under him in the whips’ office from 1958 -1960. This friendship resulted in Chichester-Clark hosting Heath’s visits to Northern Ireland – and the Republic – and in advising on Heath’s speeches on Northern Ireland in opposition and in government.

However, when Heath was elected Prime Minister at Westminster in 1970, Chichester-Clark was not given a ministerial position because of the Premiership of his brother at Stormont. [Notes by an aide to Edward Heath on Heath’s “The Course of My Life”. Churchill Archives Centre, The Papers of Sir Robin Chichester-Clark, CCLK 1/21.]

The Prime Minister and Government Whips, 1959

CCLK 5/1: Signed photo of the Prime Minister and The Government Whips. 1959.
Edward Heath’s signature is faint but he is to the left of Harold Macmillan, the Prime Minister. Chichester-Clark is standing one in from the right.

The archive includes a fascinating account by one of Edward Heath’s aides of the day of Stormont’s suspension (March 1972). Chichester-Clark was smuggled into No 10 Downing Street through the garden to see Heath, who confided that “this has been the worst day of my life”. [Notes by an aide to Edward Heath on Heath’s “The Course of My Life”. Churchill Archives Centre, The Papers of Sir Robin Chichester-Clark, CCLK 1/21]. Later, Chichester-Clark served the Heath government as Minister of State for Employment at a time of considerable union unrest.

When I began work on the papers most of them were already catalogued, but section 6 was unsorted and consisted of bundles of press cuttings jammed into boxes. Some were in files with dates, but these were not always correct. As I started to sort through and try to make sense of these cuttings I noticed patterns and repeated themes so was able to impose an order. The sorting and cataloguing process was quite a challenge, but I think now they are potentially a valuable resource for researchers looking for press reaction to events in Northern Irish politics.

Robin Chichester Clark and his brother were not the only politicians in the family. Their grandmother was Dame Dehra Parker who was one of two women elected to the first Northern Irish Parliament in 1921. She went on to have a long and successful career as a Unionist MP in the Northern Irish Parliament, becoming Minister for Health and Local government, until she retired in 1960. Dame Dehra Parker held the seat for South Londonderry from 1933 to 1960 when she was succeeded by her grandson, James Chichester-Clark.

Chichester-Clark’s great-great-great Grandfather was George Robert Dawson (1790-1856) who was friends with Robert Peel, married Peel’s sister (Mary) and became his private secretary when Peel was Chief Secretary to Ireland in 1812. He was also Tory MP for County Derry [Londonderry] from 1815. During the Irish famine in the 1840s Dawson opened up a soup kitchen at Castledawson. [See A Web of English History ]

By a nice coincidence, the Centre also holds the papers of Sir William Bull, the grandfather of Robin Chichester-Clark’s second wife, Caroline Bull. Although William Bull represented an English constituency, he was Political Secretary to Sir Walter Long (founder of the Ulster Defence League). On the outbreak of the First World War, Bull was involved in running guns to the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Press cutting from the Papers of<br />
Sir William Bull, 1913

Press cutting from the Papers of Sir William Bull, BULL 4/8. 8 June 1913

The catalogue of Sir Robin Chichester-Clark’s papers is available online on the Janus webserver.

Madelin Terrazas.

Tags: Northern Ireland, Sir Robin Chichester-Clark
Posted in Archives Centre, Our collections | Add a comment »

Sir William Hawthorne: Engineer, Master, and … magician

December 14th, 2011

Hawthorne in Russia in 1968, travelling for an exchange programme between the Royal Society and the USSR Academy of Sciences. Reference: Hawthorne Papers, HATN 10/5.

Our collections are not all about politics and military strategy; we also collect material in the areas of science and technology, and on the history of Churchill College. The papers of the late Sir William Hawthorne fall under both categories: a professor of applied thermodynamics who helped developed the jet engine, Sir William was the second Master of Churchill College, from 1968 to 1983.

Sir William is most famous for his work in 1940-1941 with Frank Whittle on the combustion chambers that were used in Britain’s first jet planes. His research folders notably include a copy of notes scribbled by Flight Lieutenant P.E.G. Sayer on his knee pad during the test flight of the Gloster E28/39 jet equipped with Whittle’s engine, which took place on the 15th May 1941 at RAF Cranwell.

Notes taken during the test flight of the Gloster E28/39, 1941

Notes made by Flight Lieutenant P.E.G Sayer during the test flight of the Gloster E28/39, 1941. Reference: Hawthorne Papers, HATN 2/5.

Also of interest are his papers on the “Dracone” project, developed in response to the Suez Crisis in 1956 and the resulting oil shortage. To increase efficiency in oil transport, Hawthorne had the idea of using flexible vessels made of rubberised cotton dinghy fabric as oil barges, to be towed by existing tankers. When empty, the vessels – coined “dracones” or sea serpents – could be rolled up and returned more quickly to the source of supply. Here you can see a later version of the Dracone, the Draconella, being tested on the river Ouse in 1947.

Draconella being filled from a tanker lorry, 1957. Reference: Hawthorne Papers, HATN 4/3/1.

Some of Hawthorne’s papers show a more unexpected side of his life – his passion for conjuring. One member of the audience present at the sawing act that Hawthorne, president of the Pentacle Club of magic, performed in 1983, commented that cold shudders ran through him as Hawthorne cut his own daughter in two, wiping the bloody weapon on a white towel to great effect!

Those and other documents in memory of Sir William Hawthorne are currently on display at Churchill College, at the entrance of the dining hall.

Hawthorne’s Pentacle Club of Magic membership card. Reference: Hawthorne Papers, HATN 6/6.

Laure Bukh.

Tags: Engineering, William Hawthorne
Posted in Archives Centre, Our collections | Add a comment »

Fire-fighters come to Churchill Archives Centre

December 6th, 2011

They came in large numbers – about 25 or so – but thankfully not to put out a fire but to familiarise themselves with our buildings, fire prevention systems and Emergency Plan. We were amused to see that the officers from the Cambridge crew were sporting moustaches for Movember!

Cambridgeshire Fire Service asked us to provide familiarisation training for some of the Cambridge crew but also for the retained officers from the surrounding villages. As the writer of the Disaster Contingency Plan, it fell to me (mainly) to provide this.

So, on the appointed day, one of the fire engines came down the College fire road right to the back of the Archives Centre. The head gardener was happy for them to do this in order to test the resilience of the fire road. All went well.

The assembled fire-fighters being introduced to the Archives Centre by director, Allen Packwood.

They were treated to a presentation about our fire detection and gas suppression systems as well as a little bit on our written Plan and particularly on how they might help us if we needed to salvage our collections after a disaster. It’s quite a difficult subject to put across in an interesting way … They were very glad of tea and biscuits after that! Then there was a tour of the Archives Centre and various other parts of the college such as the ‘operations areas’ we have identified as temporary storage, packing or treatment areas. The highlight for some was probably the opportunity to see one of Margaret Thatcher’s handbags at first hand in our strongroom store.

There was some really good feedback from this event including suggestions about colour coding our priority collection shelves and even considering some kind of emergency chutes for removal of collection boxes in emergency. All their comments will be taken into consideration when the Plan is updated.

They liked this image of Churchill we used in the presentation and a copy of it has been presented to one of the crews to adorn the wall of their station and remind them of our existence.

Churchill walking past firemen during the Blitz, 1940

Churchill walking past firemen in bomb damaged street, London 10 Sept 1940. Reference: Churchill Press Photographs, CHPH 12/F1/43

By the end of the day, all the biscuits had gone.

Sarah Lewery.

Posted in Archives Centre, News and events, News from the Conservators | Add a comment »

Opening of the papers of Max Born

October 10th, 2011

This month sees the opening of the papers of Professor Max Born, allowing researchers access to the personal papers of one the twentieth century’s most important physicists.

When I was first asked to catalogue the papers – my first major cataloguing project – I had little idea of the wealth and variety of material they would contain. For although the figure of Max Born is at the heart of the collection, this is also a family archive, with documents and photographs dating back to the early nineteenth century, and forward almost to the present day. In them we see not only the progress of science, but also world events and social history.

Extract from a letter by Born on the atomic bomb

Passage from a letter sent by Max Born to his son, Gustav Born, after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan. Born was opposed to the use of nuclear weapons, and was one of the founders of the Pugwash movement. Reference: Born Papers, BORN 3/3/6, Aug. 1945

Max Born

Professor Max Born, c. 1930s. Reference: Born Papers, 6/2/8.

Max Born is most famous as one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics, work for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1954. He is also one of the many German scientists of Jewish origin who left Germany after being expelled from their university posts by the Nazi regime. He numbered amongst his friends many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein, Paul Dirac, Otto Hahn and James Franck. He also loved music, and music and science run as twin themes throughout the Born family history (Max’s father and son achieved great distinction in their scientific fields, and his granddaughter is the well-known singer and actress, Olivia Newton-John).

Music book of Born's mother, with Brahms's signature

Page from a book belonging to Max Born’s mother, Margarethe Kauffmann, showing the signature of her friends, Johannes Brahms. Reference: Born Papers, BORN 4/2/13

In 1933 Max came to Cambridge to lecture in Applied Mathematics, before moving to Edinburgh in 1936, where he remained until his retirement and return to Germany in 1953. On his death in 1970 he left papers including lecture notes, documents concerning his expulsion from Germany, material concerning his family history and that of his wife, photographs of trips to the US, Russia and India, and a great quantity of letters. His three children also collected the letters he wrote to them, and letters they wrote to each other. The archive also includes the papers of Max’s wife, Hedwig ["Hedi"], and artefacts including his Nobel Prize medal.

The variety of content, media and provenance of the papers provided some interesting challenges when it came to arranging and cataloguing the collection. It is hoped that the resulting catalogue both facilitates the work of researchers and reflects the multi-faceted life of Max Born and his family.

Max Born (second left) with fellow scientists and their wives, 1925. Max’s wife, Hedwig (‘Hedi’) is at the far right of the picture. Reference: Born Papers, BORN 6/1/18

Lynsey Robertson.

Tags: Max Born, Physics
Posted in Archives Centre, News and events, Our collections | Add a comment »

Putting Lloyd online

September 16th, 2011

As this blog is a look behind the scenes at the Archives Centre, I thought I’d describe one of the tasks of the archives assistants: retroconversion. Despite the slightly off-putting title, this is actually one of my favourite activities. The name is shorthand for "retrospectively converting" older, typewritten catalogues into online, searchable catalogues. Although the majority of our catalogues are online, and every collection held at the Centre has an introduction and brief description on our website, there are still some which are not listed in full (the same is true of probably every archives repository in the country).

In retroconverting, the information is entered onto the Cantab database, with fields for "reference number", "title", "scope and content", "date", and so forth, and from there it is uploaded onto the internet by one of our clever archivists in a process I do not pretend to understand!

Page from George Lloyd's passport

George Lloyd’s diplomatic passport, c. 1924, including stamps for Bombay, Cairo, and Port Said.
Reference: GLLD 1/12

At present, I am working on the collection of George Lloyd, Lord Lloyd of Dolobran, a widely-travelled diplomat who served as an intelligence officer in World War I, was a friend of T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), and was Governor of Bombay and later High Commissioner of Egypt. During World War II he was Secretary of State for the Colonies and Leader of the House of Lords, but sadly died aged 62. It is a large collection, and rich in material for the first half of the 20th century, both for the history of world affairs and for social history.

Photograph of T. E. Lawrence and George Lloyd in 1916. Reference: GLLD 3/8

Although generally a fairly straightforward exercise, there are times when I come across a description of a file which puzzles me, and which I feel compelled to investigate to describe more clearly if possible. The collection on which I am currently working, for example, had three files entitled "vouchers". Did this mean Lord Lloyd secretly hoarded the 1911 version of supermarket money-off coupons? No, it transpires these are files of receipts and accounts. Where possible, I sometimes give an improved description to files otherwise listed as "miscellaneous". At the end of the process, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have opened up the collection to a much wider audience, and as a personal bonus, feel better acquainted with the collection. As most people now come to the Centre through online searches, there is a risk that if the full catalogue is not online, it will not be explored, and so not be used to its full potential.

Lynsey Robertson

Posted in Archives Centre, Our collections | Add a comment »

Visited by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary

September 7th, 2011

Yesterday the Archives Centre was visited by Sir Winston Churchill and Lord Halifax. Or rather, we were visited by the actors Warren Clarke and Jeremy Clyde playing the respective roles in the play “Three days in May” currently on stage at the Cambridge Arts Theatre as part of a national tour.

Warren Clarke and Jeremy Clyde shaking a cast of Churchill's hand

Shaking hands with a bronze cast by Oscar Nemon of Sir Winston Churchill’s hand

Our visitors consulted Sir Winston Churchill’s papers for the short but crucial period in May 1940 when the Prime Minister ultimately convinced his cabinet not to make peace overtures to Nazi Germany but to fight on.

Warren Clarke and Jeremy Clyde consulting the archive

Consulting the archive with Allen Packwood, Director of the Archives Centre (images reproduced by kind permission of Olivia Abbott, Cambridgeshire Agenda)

Clarke had played Churchill already, for television back in 1974. Now, close to Churchill’s age when he became PM in 1940, he is rediscovering the role.

Andrew Riley.

Posted in Archives Centre, News and events | Add a comment »

Three Sisters

August 23rd, 2011

It’s fun to choose documents for a display, not least because I often seem to stumble across things I never knew we had. This week I was getting ready for a visiting group from Shanghai and remembered these photographs of Soong May-ling, who hailed from a wealthy Shanghai family. She is pictured here with her husband, the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, sightseeing during the Cairo Conference in 1943.

Chiang Kai-shek and his wife at the Cairo conference, 1943

Chiang Kai-shek and his wife at the Cairo conference, 1943.

But a little bit of browsing in the catalogues also brought to light letters from her sister, Soong Ching-ling (or Madame Sun Yat-sen), written to Violet Seymour, the wife of Horace Seymour, wartime British Ambassador to China. Written throughout her life, but mainly in her later years 1971-80, the letters are an entertaining mix of news, weather reports, gardening tips, health complaints and gossip. Here are some political comments that caught my eye:

Describing Madame Mao (and one of her biographers)

The Red Guards

Pat Nixon in China

Selecting documents for the exhibition and preparing the captions, gave me the chance to find out more about the Soong sisters and the extraordinary part they played in the history of twentieth century China. Now I’m on the look out for something in our collections about their eldest sibling, Soong Ai-ling, so I can reunite the three sisters in one of our displays.

Sophie Bridges.

Tags: Chiang Kai-shek
Posted in Archives Centre, Our collections | Add a comment »

The Other Mr Churchill

August 1st, 2011

Here at the Archives Centre we are probably best known for having the papers of Sir Winston Churchill, but his archive is greatly enriched by being surrounded by the papers of his colleagues, secretaries and various members of his family, which we also hold.

One of the most exciting recent accessions to the Archives Centre has been the papers of Winston’s younger brother, Jack Churchill. Poor Jack has been largely forgotten; many people do not realise that Winston had a brother at all, but Jack, doomed to be the steady, sensible one out of the brilliant Churchill family, had his own part to play in supporting his famous brother, and his archive is a treasure in itself.

Jack and Winston Churchill with Marlborough and Viscount Churchill at army camp, Blenheim, 1911

Jack (seated on right) and Winston Churchill with the Duke of Marlborough and Viscount Churchill at army camp, Blenheim, 1911. Reference: Randolph Churchill Papers, RDCH 9/1/2D pt 4

Jack’s papers were held by his younger son, Peregrine, who hoped to use them to write a new family history, bringing his father back to his rightful place in history. Upon Peregrine’s death in 2002, the biographers Celia and John Lee took on this task. Once they had finished with various sections of the archive, the papers arrived here for safe keeping, in small, tantalising increments over the last six years.

Gradually the extent of the archive became clear: first there came the family letters, including files of personal letters from Jack’s and Winston’s mother, the beautiful, brilliant (and extremely expensive) Lady Randolph Churchill, their father, Lord Randolph Churchill, the short-lived star of the Conservative Party in the 1880s, letters from Winston and a dozen files of Jack’s own family correspondence. Then there was a whole series of photograph albums, two amazing house books kept by Lady Randolph (featured elsewhere on this blog), and finally, arriving this July, a file of extremely touching letters to Jack from his old nurse, Elizabeth Everest, and Lady Randolph’s only known diary, from 1882.

Celia Lee with Lady Randolph’s diary

Find out more about Jack’s papers on the Janus webserver.

Tags: Churchill family, Jack Churchill
Posted in Archives Centre, Our collections | 2 Comments »

Students in gowns, with proud parents in tow, can mean only one thing – Graduation Day!

July 5th, 2011

The Archives Centre is at the heart of Churchill College and always opens for a special exhibition on Graduation day for the College’s new graduates (usually the last Saturday in June, or the first Saturday in July). This year was no exception and after the new graduates had had lunch and drained their celebratory champagne, many toured the Archives Centre with their families. This event – and the annual student quiz we organise – are part of an active outreach programme hosted by the Centre. The Centre is keen to collect material about student life for the College archive from former members of the College. The exhibition featured a range of original and facsimile documents, a cast of Sir Winston Churchill’s hand and one of Margaret Thatcher’s famous handbags.

Visitors to the Archives Centre on Graduation Day, 2011

Andrew Riley

Tags: Churchill College
Posted in Archives Centre, News and events | Add a comment »