WINSTON CHURCHILL, BRITAIN'S MAN OF ACTION - An original press photograph from the first days of the Second World War of 30-year-old Winston S. Churchill, captioned and circulated on 5 September 1939, two days after Britain declared war on Nazi Germany and Churchill was re-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.
ACME NEWSPICTURES Inc., 5 September 1939. Photograph. This original press photograph was captioned and circulated by ACME Newspictures Inc. on 5 September 1939, two days after Britain declared war on Nazi Germany and Winston S. Churchill was re-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.
The head and shoulders image, taken when Churchill was 30 years old, is printed on glossy photo paper measuring 7 x 5.125 inches. Everything about the image – the timing, the modifications, the captioning – is compelling. The image itself was hand-painted by an unidentified newspaper’s art department, the background grayed to isolate Churchill and various small modifications made to his countenance to sharpen his hair and features. Red crop lines are also clearly visible. The verso of the photograph features the extensive original printed caption of ACME newspictures, tipped on, partly obscuring both the ACME ink stamp and the date stamp “SEP 1939”.
Below the identification number “12996” the caption is titled “WINSTON CHURCHILL, BRITAIN'S MAN OF ACTION”. The full caption reads: "Winston Churchill, again First Lord of the Admiralty and again Great Britain embarks on a World War, may become England’s Man of the Hour as well as being England’s Man of Action. With the war less than a week old, Britain’s inner circles buzz with talk that Churchill will be the next Prime Minister when Neville Chamberlain finds the burdens of war and age weighing too heavily. Soldier, statesman, and bitter foe of Nazi foreign organizations, Churchill has a flair for decisive action. In the World War he ordered marines to Antwerp in an attempt to protect the Allies’ left flank; ordered the Dardanelles expedition, and later, as Lloyd George’s Secretary of War, sent a military expedition to Russia to help the Whites against the Reds. Though none of these things turned out too well, he has lost nothing in prestige and is back at the helm of Britain’s naval forces. This picture was taken when Churchill was 30 years old. Credit Line (ACME) 9/5/1939 Burs Can #1 LVL (GW)”
Churchill spent most of the 1930s out of power and out of favor, warning against the growing Nazi threat and often at odds with both his Party leadership and prevailing public sentiment. As the Second World War approached, he passed into his sixties with his own future as uncertain as that of his nation. Then, on 3 September 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. That same day Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, a position that he had held nearly a quarter of a century before during the First World War.
As the unusually substantive caption on this photograph indicates, at the onset of war Neville Chamberlain was regarded as a prime minister out of his depth and Churchill as a candidate – albeit a controversial one – for the premiership. On 26 September, just three weeks after this image was published, Churchill set the stage for his impending ascent to the premiership with his first speech to the House of Commons in his new post – indeed his first speech from the dispatch box in more than a decade.
This speech, and others like it in the following months, were augury of his indispensable wartime premiership. Just after a déjà vu quip about returning to the Admiralty, Churchill had glanced down at the Prime Minister and stated “I have no conception how this curious change in my fortunes occurred.” Indeed, Chamberlain’s appointment of his rival all but assured Churchill’s ascendance. “Before Churchill could become prime minister he had to look like one” – something the 30-year-old Churchill in this photograph certainly did not. But as Britain’s new wartime First Lord of the Admiralty, “Churchill had the freedom now to make uplifting speeches on life-and-death issues, ones that regularly put any other rivals in the shade with their sense of purpose and humour.” (Roberts, Walking with Destiny) Churchill became prime minister seven and a half months later on 10 May 1940. Item #008956
Price: $250.00