CHURCHILL - THE EVIDENCE

The above is the title of an exhibition which was put on by the National Library of Scotland during the recent festival in Edinburgh. As many of you are already aware Winston Churchill held the Dundee seat at parliament from 1908. His ministerial responsibilities kept him away from his constituency. There were also clear differences in lifestyle and background between Churchill and most of his constituents. By the time of the 1922 election, support for the Labour party had grown and the local newspapers were hostile to Churchill.

Worse still, appendicitis kept him from active campaigning. Clementine spoke in her husband's place, but was spat upon for wearing pearls. When the result was declared, Churchill was left, as he wryly observed, without a seat, without a party and without an appendix. The result gave a Scrimgeour the seat instead.

However, I learned from the exhibition that in 1943 Dundee Town Council voted to award Winston Churchill the freedom of the city, by only 16 votes to 15. Churchill turned this down without explanation.

The council then wrote to him asking for a reason, and I quote:

"I understand from Mr Harvie Watt that the members for Dundee say there is a good deal of disappointment among those responsible for the invitation to you to accept the freedom regarding the nature of your reply. The members (Mr Foot and Miss Horsburgh) suggest that it would be a good thing if they could put it about that your refusal had nothing to do with past political history, but that you felt that it was impossible to accept in view of the division of opinion in the Town Council and the large vote against the invitation. Perhaps they might add to this that you greatly appreciated the motive of the people who wished to do you this honour?"

to which Churchill replied:

"I have nothing to add to the reply which has already been sent".

There is a lot more information on the web-site produced by the library to support the exhibition and this can be found at www.churchill.nls.ac.uk.