The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
THE STUFF OF HOLLYWOOD...
The remarkable story of wartime love, triumph and tragedy
Among history’s forgotten tales is the tragic story of the doomed love affair between talented US ambassador John Gilbert Winant, and the actress daughter of Winston Churchill. As the anniversary of one of the many honours bestowed on Winant approaches – in this case the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen – we look back on the story of an accomplished, but doomed, man.
UNSHAKEABLE BOND
It is impossible to list all the factors that helped the Allies defeat Hitler and the Axis powers during the Second World War, but high on the list must be the strong and unshakeable bond between Churchill and President Roosevelt. Also one man, largely forgotten today, who helped forge and foster that bond: John Gilbert Winant, the US Ambassador to Britain from 1941 until 1946.
He was of the old school, who got the job purely on merit, rather than today when US ambassadors are rich businessmen with few
diplomatic skills, but who poured millions into the president’s election coffers.
Winant arrived in March when Britain was at its lowest ebb. True, the RAF had trounced the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, but the UK was suffering millions of tonnes of shipping sunk by U-boats and the unremitting nightly Blitz, with London the top target.
Indeed, Winant’s predecessor, Joseph Kennedy (President Kennedy’s father), had advised Washington that Britain was doomed and he couldn’t wait to scurry back across the Atlantic.
INSTANT NATIONAL HERO
However, Winant was made of sterner stuff. When he landed at Bristol airport (after hazardous flights via Bermuda and Lisbon) he told the assembled press: “There is no country on Earth where I would rather be,” than Britain. Those words made front-page headlines in every UK newspaper and made him an instant national hero.
Words are one thing, deeds are another. However, Winant was a man of deeds who
quickly established a strong relationship with King George VI, Churchill, Antony Eden and the entire Cabinet.
True, he was Britain’s most important foreigner, but he proved to be the right man in the right place at the right time. From the start, despite the Blitz, he shunned the official ambassador’s residence and lived with his wife Constance in a small flat close to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.
In early 1941, America was still officially neutral, but President Roosevelt and other US leaders hated everything Hitler and Mussolini stood for and saw embattled Britain as the frontline against fascism. That said, the president faced a diehard isolationist undercurrent in US political circles.
In 1940, the US offered Britain – desperate for more warships – 50 obsolete destroyers in exchange for the right to establish US bases in the Caribbean and Commonwealth. Then came Lend-Lease, whereby the US supplied Britain with war materials on a buy-now, paylater basis.
Not that everything always went smoothly. The Commonwealth countries had to agree to accept the US bases. The US worried that war materials sent to the UK might get diverted into non-military exports that might undercut rival US products. This meant intense negotiations and carefully worded agreements, all taking time.
Luckily, Winant was a born diplomat with a head for detail and, as US involvement in the war grew, his embassy staff rose from modest numbers to about 4,000.
Ambassadors to the UK are well-known in Foreign Office and diplomatic circles, but unknown to the wider public. However, thanks to his Bristol airport declaration, he was frequently in the papers and recognised in the street. As things developed, that caused problems.
A MEDIOCRE STUDENT
Winant was born in 1889 in New Hampshire, the son of a prosperous estate agent and developer. He went to university but was a mediocre student and flunked out. He went into state politics as a Republican and was elected three times as Governor of New Hampshire. In 1919 he married Constance Rivington Russell, a New York socialite, and they had a daughter, also Constance, and two sons, John and Rivington. John jun became a US bomber pilot, was shot down and, once the Nazis identified him, they threatened to shoot him and later tried to use him, and other prominent POWs, as bargaining chips with the Allies.
Although a Republican, Winant strongly supported Roosevelt’s New Deal to reduce unemployment and improve social security.
In 1935 he was appointed head of the US Social Security Board and, in 1939, director general of the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva. His time there allowed him to travel extensively in Europe and elsewhere, studying working conditions and social security systems. In 1940, thanks to an offer from Canada, the ILO moved to Montreal until hostilities ended.
UTOPIAN JOHN
Roosevelt, who called him “Utopian John”, summoned him to Washington early in 1941 and interviewed him at great length, but Winant left none the wiser. Then four days later, back in Montreal, he was ordered to London.
He and Churchill quickly became great friends and Winant was frequently a weekend guest at Chequers, the prime minister’s official country residence. These were happy occasions when they could briefly unwind.
It is said he and Churchill actually danced at Chequers when news of Pearl Harbour
came through in December 1941, but neither Winant’s nor Churchill’s memoirs mention
this. To them, it was the key turning point of the conflict, as both knew it would irrevocably bring the US into the war.
During Winant’s visits to Chequers, he met — and charmed — Churchill’s family, especially his daughter Sarah, an actress 25 years his junior and estranged from her husband, radio comedian Vic Oliver. He and Sarah began a passionate affair they went to great lengths to conceal, although it is said Churchill, and many others, had their suspicions. It eventually proved a disaster for Winant, with tragic consequences.
NATIONAL RESOLVE
As ambassador, he could have stuck within the safe circuit of other diplomats, government ministers and top military brass. But Winant toured the entire UK, visiting bombed towns and villages and talking to ordinary folk, gaining an ever-growing admiration for the national resolve to see the war through to victory, despite deprivations and hardships few of his American compatriots back home could ever imagine.
The British also took to him and he received many honours and awards. With General Dwight Eisenhower, he was the only American to receive Britain’s Order of Merit. And on July 27, 1943, he also became the only “full American” to be given The Freedom of the City of Aberdeen as well as an honorary Doctorate of Laws by Aberdeen University. Apart from surviving the Blitz and later the V1 and V2 rockets raining on London, Winant escaped death on several occasions.
In mid-1941, he flew back to Washington for meetings with Roosevelt and key officials and, inexplicably, the US Embassy issued his flight schedule and other details. The Germans sent warplanes to shoot down his plane, but the escorting RAF fighters shot down the attackers.
DURING VISITS TO CHEQUERS, HE MET — AND CHARMED — CHURCHILL’S FAMILY, ESPECIALLY SARAH
He remained as ambassador through all the great events of the war — Operation Barbarossa (Hitler’s invasion of Russia), the Atlantic Charter, Stalingrad, the conferences of Yalta and Potsdam, Roosevelt’s death, Hiroshima and the three great days — D-Day, VE Day and VJ Day. He also saw Labour’s landslide in 1945 and much else, all from the best front-row seat.
LIFE FELL APART
With such a CV, he expected high office in the Truman government and hoped to be named as first Secretary General of the just-created United Nations, but that went to Norwegian Trygve Lie. And somehow his professional and private life fell apart. There were many causes, but one stands out — his affair with Sarah Churchill.
He was deeply in love with her and always thought she felt the same way. She had divorced her husband and his marriage to Constance was on the rocks. He resigned as ambassador in 1946 and rented a house for Sarah and himself near Grosvenor Square. But she ditched him and went off to Italy
after getting a role there in a new film. She later bitterly commented that she “only brought unhappiness to the people she loved”.
Crestfallen and saddled with debts, he returned to America and a contract to write his three-part memoirs. Part One, A Letter from Grosvenor Square, came out in November 1947. The day it was published, he spoke on the phone to Sarah, then went upstairs and shot himself.
Few glittering careers have ended so tragically. Yet his sons, John and Rivington, had notable public service careers and now, almost 75 years on, Rivington has succeeded in erecting a statue to his father in his home town of Concord, New Hampshire.
A belated but deeply merited memorial.