Phillips Winston's Bandits

Churchill and His Maverick Friends
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-78590-926-9
Verlag: Biteback Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 480 Seiten

T Though today he is hailed as one of Britain's greatest leaders, throughout his career, Winston Churchill was an outsider, accumulating a reputation for bad judgement and untrustworthiness. Only risk-takers and fellow outsiders would back him - but these strong and often feuding personalities proved to be vital to his decision-making in war and peace alike. Winston's Bandits provides, for the first time, a detailed account of his greatest friendships. These friends were Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, a press baron who craved power but only on his own terms; Frederick Lindemann, later Lord Cherwell, an ascetic and quarrelsome scientist who believed in Churchill's intellectual genius; Brendan Bracken, an Irishman from a humble background who reinvented himself as a major force in financial publishing and gave Churchill unconditional support; the young Bob Boothby, who would earn notoriety for adventurous sexual conduct and dubious financial dealings; Randolph Churchill, who was often a disappointment and burden to his father; and Duncan Sandys, who reaped the full benefits of being Churchill's son-in-law in his political career. Together, they were Winston's bandits. This remarkable book explores how Churchill's relationships with these forceful and intriguing sparring partners provide the key to understanding his greatest triumphs and disasters.

After working for twenty years as an investment analyst in London and Frankfurt, Adrian Phillips returned to university to study history, which has been a lifelong passion. His postgraduate thesis investigated the mechanisms of power at the top level of government and considered how major decisions can be taken far outside the regular democratic political process, hidden from public sight. He has put this understanding to full use in his books on the abdication of Edward VIII (The King Who Had to Go and The First Royal Media War), appeasement (Fighting Churchill, Appeasing Hitler) and rearmament (Rearming the RAF for the Second World War). He maintains a popular blog, Eighty Years Ago This Week, and appears as a commentator on TV and radio. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. www.adrianphillips.co.uk

Autoren/Hrsg.

Phillips, Adrian

Leseproben

Dramatis Personae
This section aims to provide sufficient information to situate individuals within the narrative of the book. It makes no attempt to provide a balanced assessment of their careers and, still less, an exhaustive list of their titles, honours and decorations. The titles and ranks used in the text are those held at the periods in which they are discussed. Readers seeking fuller information are directed to the relevant entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Who Was Who, respectively. Amery, Leopold (1873–1955)
Conservative MP and passionate imperialist. At Harrow School with Churchill, who once threw him into the swimming pool. Out of office through the 1930s but was not deeply engaged over India or appeasement. Made devastating contribution to the Norway debate in May 1940 when he used Cromwell’s words on Chamberlain, ‘Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.’ India office minister outside Cabinet in Churchill government. Anderson, Sir John (1882–1958)
Civil servant turned MP and minister. Governor of Bengal 1932–37. Joined Chamberlain government. Lord Privy Seal, 1938–39; Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security, 1939–40; Lord President of the Council, 1940–43; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1943–45. Highly influential in domestic policy. Attlee, Clement (1883–1967)
Labour politician. Leader of the Opposition, 1935–40; Lord Privy Seal, 1940–42; Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 1942–43; Lord President of the Council, 1943–45; Deputy Prime Minister, 1942–45; Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, 1945–51. Led the Labour Party into the National government under Churchill and then into its landslide victory in the 1945 general election. Baldwin, Stanley (1867–1947)
Conservative politician. Financial Secretary to the Treasury, 1917–21; President of the Board of Trade, 1921–22; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1922–23; Prime Minister, 1923–24, 1924–29 and 1935–37; Lord Privy Seal, 1932–34 (de facto Deputy Prime Minister); leader of the Conservative Party 1923–37. The dominant inter-war politician. Accused Beaverbrook of seeking ‘power without responsibility; the prerogative of the harlot’ when he tried to impose his empire free trade policy on the Conservative Party in opposition. Beaverbrook, Lord (1879–1964)
Financier, press proprietor and politician. Minister of Information, 1918; newspaper titles included Daily Express and London Evening Standard; Minister for Aircraft Production, 1940–41; Minister of State, 1941; Minister of Supply, 1941–42; Lord Privy Seal, September 1943–July 1945. Personal friend of Churchill but favoured appeasement. Bevin, Ernest (1881–1951)
Trade union leader and Labour politician. Minister of Labour and National Service 1940–45. One of the dominant figures in the Labour Party, rival to Herbert Morrison. Blackett, Patrick (1897–1974)
Scientist. Professor of physics, Birkbeck College, 1933–37; Langworthy Professor of physics, University of Manchester, 1937–53. Nobel Prize for Physics, 1948. From 1935, was a member of Tizard’s air defence committee. Scientist RAF Coastal Command from March 1941 and then the Admiralty from January 1942 to the summer of 1945. Advised on anti-U-boat warfare and argued for its importance. Lindemann preferred using air resources to attack German cities and frowned on Blackett’s left-wing politics. Bonar Law, Andrew (1858–1923)
Anglo-Canadian politician and industrialist. Leader of the Conservative Party, 1911–21; Prime Minister, 1922–23. Closely allied to Beaverbrook. Boothby, Bob (1900–86)
MP East Aberdeenshire, 1924–58; parliamentary private secretary to Churchill as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1926–29; Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Food, 1940–41; military service as RAF staff officer; a British delegate to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, 1949–57. Bracken, Brendan (1901–58)
Press publisher and Conservative politician. MP North Paddington, 1929–45; MP Bournemouth, November 1945–February 1950; MP East Bournemouth and Christchurch, 1950–51; parliamentary private secretary to the Prime Minister, 1940–41; Minister of Information, 1941–45; First Lord of the Admiralty, 1945; director of Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd; chairman of Financial News; managing director of Economist; chairman of Union Corporation. Bridges, Sir Edward (1892–1969)
Cabinet Secretary 1938–46; Permanent Secretary to Treasury and head of the civil service 1945–56. Bruce-Gardner, Sir Charles (1887–1960)
Industrialist. Industrial adviser to Bank of England 1930–38; chairman of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors, 1938–43. Trusted by Chamberlain and Wilson to run the programme of air rearmament, he was accordingly influential. Bruce Lockhart, Robert (1887–1970)
Journalist and public servant. Editorial staff, Evening Standard, 1929–37; Political Intelligence Department, Foreign Office, 1939–40; Deputy Under-Secretary of State, Foreign Office; director-general of Political Warfare Executive, 1941–45. Knew Beaverbrook well from working for him as a journalist and worked closely with Bracken as Minister of Information. Butler, Richard ‘Rab’ (1902–82)
Conservative politician. Under-Secretary of State, India Office, 1932–37, where he fought Churchill over the India Bill; Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Labour, 1937–38; Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1938–41, where he presented the policy of appeasement, which he supported vigorously, to the House of Commons; Minister of Education, 1941–45. Recognised the importance of progressive policies for post-war Britain. Cadogan, Sir Alexander ‘Alec’ (1884–1968)
Permanent Secretary to Foreign Office, 1938–46. Cartland, Ronald (1907–40)
Conservative MP for King’s Norton, Birmingham. Opposed appeasement and killed in action age thirty-three. Brother of the romantic novelist Barbara Cartland. Chamberlain, Sir Austen (1863–1937)
Conservative politician. Half-brother of Neville Chamberlain. Financial Secretary to Treasury, 1900–02; Postmaster General, 1902–03; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1903–06; Secretary of State for India, 1915–17; resigned, 1917; Member of the War Cabinet, April 1918; Chancellor of the Exchequer, January 1919–21; Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons, 1921–22; Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, November 1924–June 1929; negotiated Locarno Pact for which he was awarded Nobel Peace Prize and Knighthood of the Garter; First Lord of the Admiralty in National government August–October 1931. Chamberlain, Neville (1869–1940)
Conservative politician. Chancellor of the Exchequer 1931–37; Prime Minister, 1937–40; Lord President of the Council, 1940. Attempted to bring peace to Europe through a policy of positive engagement with Hitler and Mussolini, usually known as appeasement, but was also convinced of the need to rearm. Channon, Henry ‘Chips’ (1887–1958)
Conservative MP. Parliamentary private secretary to Rab Butler, 1938–41. Strong supporter of appeasement. Socialite and diarist. Churchill, Clementine ‘Clemmie’ (1885–1977)
Married Churchill in 1908 Churchill, Pamela (née Digby, later Harriman) (1920–97)
Married Randolph Churchill in 1939, divorced in 1946. Married Averell Harriman in 1971. Churchill, Randolph (1911–68)
Journalist and author. MP for Preston, 1940–45. Churchill, Winston (1874–1965)
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