SIR WINSTON HAS MONTY AS BIRTHDAY GUEST - An original 30 November 1957 press photograph of Sir Winston S. Churchill on his 83rd birthday at his country home, Chartwell, accompanied by guest Field Marshal Viscount Bernard "Monty" Montgomery.
London: The Daily Telegraph, 30 November 1957. Photograph. This original 30 November 1957 press photograph captures Sir Winston S. Churchill on his 83rd birthday at his country home, Chartwell, with party guest Field Marshall Viscount Bernard Montgomery. Churchill and Montgomery are captured together, each smiling as they walk down the steps at Chartwell together, Churchill in the foreground right, Montgomery just behind and to the right of Churchill.
The gelatin silver print is on glossy photo paper measuring 10 X 8.125 inches. Condition is very good, the print clean and complete with no creasing and only minor edge wear. The verso features the original copyright stamp, which is mostly obscured by the original typed caption. This caption reads: “SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL | This pictures supplements previously issued series and current pictures. | SIR WINSTON HAS MONTY AS BIRTHDAY GUEST | Feb 24th 1958 PAR 67718-4 (L-J) | SIR WINSTON HAS MONTY AS BIRTHDAY GUEST | Sir WINSTON CHURCHILL looked fit and cheerful as he celebrated his 83rd birthday, on November 30, 1957, at his country home, Chartwell, near Westerham, Kent, with Field Marshall VISCOUNT MONTGOMERY as a guest. | Feb 24th 1958 PAR 657718-4 (L-J) | PICTURE FROM LIBRARY”. An additional oval ink stamp states that this photograph was “RECEIVED” by “The Daily Telegraph” on “FEB 1958”.
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC (1887-1976) earned his fame in North Africa during the Second World War. In August 1942, Churchill gave Montgomery command of the Eighth Army – after Churchill’s first choice was killed when his plane was shot down by the Germans. Montgomery famously beat Rommel and oversaw defeat of Axis forces in North Africa. He went on to command the Eighth Army in Sicily and Italy, and Allied ground forces during Operation Overlord. After the war he would rise to Chief of the Imperial General Staff and be elevated to Viscount Montgomery of Alamein. He retired in 1958 as deputy commander of NATO's European forces.
Montgomery and Churchill remained friends, but Montgomery’s later years proved less elevated than those of Churchill. The outspoken and politically inept Montgomery seldom missed either controversy or an opportunity for self-promotion. During the war he was often criticized by Allied commanders for his caution and slowness to strike. In the years immediately following this photograph, he would conspicuously court controversy.
Uncharitable accusations made in Montgomery's postwar memoirs, published the year after this image was captured, lost him the friendship of President Eisenhower and forced Montgomery to publicly apologize to a fellow Field Marshal whom - ironically and perhaps hypocritically - he accused of being too slow to fight. In late 1959, Montgomery visited South Africa, where he was regarded as praising South Africa’s Apartheid regime. In 1960 and 1961, he visited communist China, thereafter choosing to praise Mao Tse-tung for his virtue and sincerity.
This press photo once belonged to the working archive of The Daily Telegraph. During the first half of the twentieth century, photojournalism grew as a practice, fundamentally changing the way the public interacted with current events. Newspapers assembled expansive archives, including physical copies of all photographs published or deemed useful for potential future use, their versos typically marked with ink stamps and notes providing provenance and captions. Photo departments would often take brush, paint, pencil, and marker to the surface of photographs themselves to edit them before publication. Today these photographs exist as repositories of historical memory, technological artifacts, and often striking pieces of vernacular art. Item #005382
Price: $150.00