Curio

State Library of New South Wales

Design, proofs and finished bookplate featuring Sir Winston Churchill’s coat-of-arms, November 1955

Pencil, ink on paper

DGA 70


Sir Winston Churchill became one of the most recognised public figures of the 20th century by serving England as a soldier and politician for over 70 years. Soon after his death on 24 January 1965, the Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies launched a nationwide appeal for funds to create a Trust in Churchill’s memory. Australia’s World War II Returned Servicemen and women demonstrated their admiration and respect for Churchill by conducting the greatest one-day door knock in Australian history. The appeal raised over 2 million pounds and the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established to administer the funds and the Churchill Fellowship award scheme. 2015 marks the 50th anniversary. 


’50 years on: Australia’s reaction to Winston Churchill’s death’

By JR Nethercote, ’50 years on: Australia’s reaction to Winston Churchill’s death’, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 January 2015

Australia has honoured the Briton's memory, though he was never particularly fond of this country.

Sir Winston Churchill, twice prime minister of Britain, holder of many other great offices of state between 1905 and 1955, regarded by many as the saviour of his country for his heroic leadership during World War II, died on January 24, 1965, just half a century ago.

His death occurred on the 70th anniversary of Lord Randolph Churchill's passing. Lord Randolph, the father whose affection Winston had craved, died a disappointed man and a failed politician.

When he spoke in cabinet about 'the troublesome attitudes of the colonies', it seemed Australia was the chief offender.

His son, by contrast, was "the man of the century". The first prime minister of Britain to receive a state funeral since William Ewart Gladstone, a political rival of Lord Randolph's, back in 1898, Churchill's body lay in state for three days. In bitterly cold weather, more than 300,000 people passed through Westminster Hall to pay their respects. The Queen and other members of the royal family attended the funeral in St Paul's Cathedral. Five other monarchs came, and more than 20 heads of state.

Churchill's death had long been expected. Even during World War II itself, he had suffered heart attacks and strokes. His second prime ministership, 1951-55, was interrupted in 1953 by a massive stroke from which few thought he would recover. After leaving office in 1955, he declined slowly, confiding on one occasion that "life was over but not yet ended".

A member of the House of Commons until 1964, the British election of that year was the first in the 20th century at which he had not been a candidate. When he celebrated his 90th birthday on November 30, 1964, 70,000 people sent messages, more than double the number who had done so on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

His birthday appearance at the window of his home in Hyde Park Gate to acknowledge the cheers and singing of well-wishers was his last public appearance. But it was not his last engagement; that occurred on December 10, when he dined for a final time at the Other Club, a dining group he and others founded more than half a century earlier after they had been excluded from more demure gatherings on grounds of excessive rowdiness.

A stroke on January 10, 1965 was the beginning of the end. Thereafter he drifted in and out of consciousness. The public was first alerted six days later. A medical bulletin reported that "after a cold Sir Winston Churchill has developed circulatory weakness and there has been a cerebral thrombosis".

The Canberra Times' headline shortly informed readers: "Churchill sinking, but clings to life." Another headline said simply that he was "near death". On January 25, readers learnt Churchill had died "peacefully in his sleep ... a strange hush seemed apparent almost everywhere". The editorial was headed: "The greatest man of his age".

Australia's prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies, was on the other side of the Pacific as the news reached Australia. Following a half-Senate election campaign, he had boarded the P&O liner Arcadia for several weeks' vacation. Leaving the ship in Los Angeles, he flew to London as chief representative of the nation in a group which included the former prime minister, Lord Bruce, a Gallipoli veteran (though with a British regiment).

Another Australian representative was Lord Casey, an Anzac veteran. He first met Churchill on the western front in 1916, later serving as British minister in the Middle East, 1942-44, and as governor of Bengal. The opposition leader, Arthur Calwell, was also cruising the Pacific. He had just arrived in Auckland and decided that distance prevented his attendance.

Menzies was appropriately chosen as Commonwealth representative among the pall-bearers; the others were drawn from the great and the good in Westminster and Whitehall, and sundry lofty figures from the armed services.

Among the democracies represented, Menzies alone had dealt with Churchill on a head of government basis during the war's early days. Indeed, when Menzies became prime minister in April 1939, Churchill was still in the wilderness.

Many others present, including newly elected prime minister of Britain Harold Wilson Canadian prime minister Lester Pearson, former US president Dwight D. Eisenhower and French president Charles de Gaulle had been, during the early years of war, only in staff posts of varying significance.

After the funeral, from the crypt of St Paul's, Menzies made an eloquent and justly famous speech: "I lived in Churchill's time."

Before leaving London he joined in launching the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. A Commonwealth-wide scheme, its purpose was to provide opportunities for people from all walks of life to study and travel abroad. Upon returning to Australia, details of the national scheme were announced, with Menzies as president and the other two party leaders, John McEwen (Country Party) and Arthur Calwell (Labor), as vice-presidents.

Sunday, February 28, was designated Churchill Sunday. A nationwide door-knock mainly organised by the RSL yielded nearly £1 million, which meant that, with contributions from governments and corporations, Australia raised double the targeted sum, a performance unmatched elsewhere in the Commonwealth.

Herein is the irony, the paradox, the mystery. For, of all the self-governing dominions it was, throughout his career, with Australia that Churchill most frequently locked horns.

In his earliest days as a minister he sought, unsuccessfully, to block Deakin's invitation to President Theodore Roosevelt for the US Great White Fleet, as it cruised the Pacific, to include Australia. Within a decade he had a very major hand in the Gallipoli campaign, a conflict which, even in the late 1950s, according to celebrity researcher Ann Moyal (who knew him), "still haunted him".

In the 1930s and early years of World War II, Empire defences in the Pacific were a major source of friction. Australian participation in the ill-fated Greek campaign was another source of contention.

After Japan entered the war, relations reached a low ebb over, first, recall of Australian troops from the Middle East, and then Churchill's attempt to divert the troop convoys to Burma. In these tense times he noisily complained that nothing much better could be expected from "bad stock". When he spoke openly in cabinet meetings about "the troublesome attitudes of the colonies", it seemed that Australia was the chief offender. In his second prime ministership he struggled, again without success, for incorporation of Britain within the ANZUS Pact.

Churchill never visited Australia: he once told his doctor that "they want me to go to Australia and New Zealand, but I haven't the heart or strength or life for it". One historian has observed that Churchill's name and image was the "source of division in Australian party politics" that had no equivalent in New Zealand, Canada or the United States.

Curiously, Clementine Churchill spent a day (February 7, 1935) in Sydney when she travelled to New Zealand on the motor yacht Rosaura. After several hours at Taronga Park zoo, she acquired two pairs of black swans to take home.

Gayfield Shaw

By Design & Art Australia Online

Early in the twentieth century there was a western revival in etching and by the end of the Great War artistic etching had also become popular in Australia. Gayfield Shaw seems to have been instrumental in establishing, in August 1920, the Australian Painter-Etchers’ Society. 

While many respected bookplate artists (such as Lionel Lindsay and Adrian Feint) were attracted to woodblock printing in the 1930s, Shaw specialised in fine detail etched images. 

One Shaw bookplate won the 1932 International Award for Best Etched Bookplate of the Year in Los Angeles and in 1939 the American Society of Bookplate Artists devoted a major part of their Annual Yearbook to Shaw’s work.

Shaw continued to produce bookplates throughout the 1930s, 40s and early 50s. One of his last bookplates was for Sir Winston Churchill (1955). He retired from etching in 1956, aged 71. The artist died in Sydney in 1961. 


Remarkable fine etched and engraved plates

By P Neville Barnett, Souvenir of Australian Book-Plates … , 1951

'Shaw is an artist who has produced a large number of remarkable fine etched and engraved plates, which have enriched the Australian series enormously. He sprang into full world-stature so quickly once he began and so noble is his series that regret can be felt that he did not start with book-plates earlier in life.’