Lot 520
Churchill, Sir Winston Spencer. The Second World War, 6 volumes, first editions, half-titles, maps and charts, original cloth, bookplate of Alan Lascelles, 8vo, London: Cassell & Co., 1948-1954
INSCRIBED COPY. Volume Six with a sheet affixed to the front pastedown, inscribed 'To Tommy from Winston 1.1.54', the remaining volumes with facsimile signatures similarly pasted, 'With all good wishes from Winston S. Churchill [1948]'.
Writing to Nigel Nicolson in 1966, Alan Lascelles made clear he was 'devoted to Winston', as his detailed war-time diaries attest. On 30 May, 1944, he writes, 'Winston, lunching with the King today, revealed that he proposed to watch the opening of 'Overlord' from one of the bombarding cruisers, and when the King said he would do ditto, did not (according to the King) discourage him. This will never do; but I think I shook the King by asking him whether he thought the project would be quite fair to the Queen; and whether he was prepared to face the possibility of having to advise Princess Elizabeth on the choice of her first Prime Minister, in the event of her father and Winston being sent to the bottom of the English Channel.' And the following day, 'I persuaded the King, without much difficulty, that it would be wrong, from many points of view, for either him or Winston to carry out their projected 'Overlord' jaunt. He bade me take a letter from himself to Winston, written in his own hand, to 10 Downing Street - which I did after dinner, and handed it over to John Martin. I found that Winston, who is just like a naughty child when he starts planning an escapade, has said nothing about this one to Martin, who was much relieved to hear that the King was trying to deter him.'
