Handwritten condolence letter from Winston Churchill on display in Saint Andrews
CBC
Winston Churchill is one of the most recognizable names of the 20th century.
During the Second World War, Churchill led Britain from the brink of defeat, through rousing and oft-quoted speeches, to the Allied victory against Nazi Germany.
His godfather, Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook and generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-born newspaper publisher whose philanthropic deeds live on in New Brunswick, where he grew up.
On this day in 1964, the New York Times ran this headline about Beaverbrook's death, "Lord Beaverbrook Dead at 85; Founder of Newspaper Empire; Member of Churchill's War Cabinet Guided Britain's Aircraft Production."
So a handwritten letter of condolence from Churchill to Lady Beaverbrook is a big deal.
That letter is now on display in Saint Andrews, explained Barry Murray, the past president of the Saint Andrews Civic Trust.
It's part of a large collection of Churchill memorabilia that was given to the trust by Doug Young, a former provincial and federal Liberal politician who once served as federal fisheries minister.
Young bought the collection from the estate of Dalton Camp, a New Brunswick-born journalist, political strategist and commentator.
Murray said Young initially called him about putting the letter on display for New Brunswickers to see, but by the time he showed up in Saint Andrews to drop off the letter, he decided to donate the entire collection of more than 100 items.
"Doug and his wife opened the back of the SUV and said, 'We need help.' And we received boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff. … I was overwhelmed, to be quite honest," said Murray.
He said there were dozens of letters from Churchill, as well as signed photographs, a commemorative tea set and coins with his likeness, audio recordings of some of his speeches and various other items connected to him.
Young wanted the items to be put on display in memory of a former colleague, Fred Drummie, who had lived in Saint Andrews and died in 2018.
The letter was unveiled by the trust during an open house, recently, and will be on display at the Ross Memorial Museum in Saint Andrews for the summer. Some of the other items will also be included in a newly created section on Winston Churchill.
Murray said they're still "figuring out what to do with with all of these things."
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