Churchill, his lover and a sultry portrait
BRITAIN: The year is 1942 and Britain’s wartime prime minister is at the White House for a summit with the president of the United States to discuss the progress of the war against Nazi Germany.
Tobruk has just fallen to German and Italian troops and Winston Churchill is desperate to retain the support of the American public.
But he also has a pressing personal matter on his mind.
At the same time as leading Britain in the war in Africa and Europe, and trying to emphasise the need for the US to stand shoulder to shoulder with this country in the face of a totalitarian dictatorship, Churchill is trying to arrange for the return to the UK of an old acquaintance, the glamorous London socialite Doris Castlerosse.
In fact Lady Castlerosse was an old flame of Churchill’s and the full details of the brief, but passionate affair that began nearly eight years earlier can now be revealed for the first time.
It has emerged that arranging for his former lover’s safe passage was not just a matter of sentiment.
Historians have discovered that Churchill was keen for her to return to London before the American public got wind of their previous relationship.
Indeed, the last thing he wanted was Lady Castlerosse revealing details of their affair to the newspapers, including the fact that during their relationship he had painted sensuous portraits of her, one of which she had kept in her possession.
The discovery in the Churchill Archives by Dr Warren Dockter, a lecturer in international politics at Aberystwyth University, of a taped interview with Jock Colville, the prime minister’s private secretary, confirmed the long-rumoured affair.
The fling between Churchill and Lady Castlerosse - who happens to be the great-aunt of Cara Delevingne, the model and actress - took place when they holidayed together on four occasions between 1934 and 1936 at a chateau owned by an American actress in the south of France.
It was here that Churchill, a keen amateur artist, painted Lady Castlerosse’s portrait. One canvas shows her reclining languidly on a couch. Churchill’s marriage to Clementine was going through a rocky patch, his political career was in the doldrums and friends say he sought refuge in her arms.
Castlerosse’s niece Caroline Delevingne, Cara’s aunt, says: ‘‘They had an affair. Both my parents talked about it and knew about it.’’
A never-before-seen letter, discovered by Professor Richard Toye, of Exeter University, lays bare how close the pair were. In 1934 Churchill wrote to Doris: ‘‘What fun we had at Maxine’s. It was beautiful having you there. You were once again a manifest blessing and a ray of sunshine around the pool. I wonder whether we shall meet again next summer.’’ They did, but by 1937 the affair had run its course. Churchill threw himself back into front-line politics.
Their paths crossed again in the June of 1942, by which point Castlerosse was living in New York but, with no means of supporting herself, was desperate to return to Britain.
With all available ships being used to ferry troops and supplies to Britain, passage home was hard to find.
During his visit to Washington Churchill sneaked away for a private dinner with his former lover. Here, according to Castlerosse’s husband Valentine, Churchill expressed his concern that the sultry portrait he painted of her might fall into the hands of US gossip magazines.
Dockter tells a forthcoming Channel 4 documentary: ‘‘He was vulnerable to being blackmailed.’’
In the summer of 1942 Castlerosse wrote to President Roosevelt thanking him for his efforts on Churchill’s behalf to get her safe passage home and shortly after she was found a space on a seaplane for the return flight back to Blighty - taking the portrait home with her.
Churchill and Lady Castlerosse never had the chance to meet again. On December 9 1942, she died of an overdose of sleeping pills at the Dorchester Hotel, in London’s Park Lane.
star Emma Chambers has died aged 53, her agent has confirmed.
The actress, who portrayed the dim but lovable Alice Tinker opposite Dawn French’s Geraldine Granger in the long-running BBC comedy, died from natural causes.
She would be ‘‘greatly missed’’, her agent John Grant said in a statement.
Doncaster-born Chambers also starred as Hugh Grant’s sister Honey in Richard Curtis’ Baftawinning film Notting Hill.
The Vicar Of Dibley, also written by Curtis, originally ran from 1994 to 1998 but returned for numerous festive and comic relief specials, with the latest episode airing as recently as 2015.
Curtis’ wife, broadcaster Emma Freud, was among one of the first to pay tribute to the couple’s ‘‘beautiful friend’’.
She wrote on Twitter: ‘‘We’re very very sad. She was a great, great comedy performer, and a truly fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being.’’
French paid tribute to Chambers, telling the Press Association: ‘‘Emma was a very bright spark and the most loyal and loving friend anyone could wish for. I will miss her very much.’’ - AAP