WINSTON CHURCHILL'S GRANDSON CHRISTENED - An original 2 November 1936 press photograph of Winston S. Churchill with his eldest daughter, his son-in-law, and his first grandson at his grandson's christening in the chapel in the House of Commons crypt.
London: Wide World Photo, Inc., 2 November 1936. Photograph. This is an original 2 November 1936 press photograph captured at the christening in the chapel in the House of Commons crypt of Winston S. Churchill’s first grandson, the first child of his eldest child, Diana Sandys. In the image, Churchill, at left, smiles, his hands in his pockets, beside his son in law and daughter, who is holding his grandson.
The image, printed on glossy photo paper, measures 9 x 7.125 inches. Condition approaches very good. The image is bright and clear, with only superficial scuffing visible under raking light. There is a touch of soiling to the center left blank white margin, and two creases at the lower left corner. The verso features the copyright stamp of “WIDE WORLD PHOTOS, Inc.” which is partially obscured by the original printed caption. Headed “WATCH YOUR CREDIT LINE: PHOTO FROM WIDE WORLD 860341” above the title “WINSTON CHURCHILL’S GRANDSON CHRISTENED”. The caption reads in full: “London – Scene in the House of Commons Crypt where the first grandson of Winston Churchill, British statesman, was christened Julian George Winston Sandys. The child is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Sandys. LEFT TO RIGHT: Winston Churchill; Mr. Sandys; and Mrs. Sandys (holding the grandson), shown in the Chapel in the Crypt. H-11/9/36”. The photograph is protected within a clear, removable, rigid sleeve.
Diana Spencer Churchill (1909-1963), the eldest child of Winston and Clementine Churchill, married Duncan Edwin Sandys (1908-1987) on 16 September 1935, after the dissolution of her first marriage earlier that same year. Born on 19 September 1936, Julian George Winston Sandys was Winston Churchill’s first grandson.
The christening in the chapel in the House of Commons crypt was doubly apropos. Winston had already served more than three decades in the House of Commons and Duncan Sandys had recently been elected to Parliament on 14 March 1935, winning a by-election for the Conservative Party in the Norwood constituency of south London, the beginning of his own, long political career. Often called the crypt chapel, the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft sits beneath St Stephen’s Hall, which stands on the site of the medieval St Stephen’s Chapel, where the Commons met from 1548 until the great fire of 1834. Item #009023
Price: $250.00