Churchill letter is donated to gallery

A PIECE of history: Council leader Councillor Jim McMahon presents Sir Winston Churchill’s letter to Dinah Winch, senior exhibitions co-ordinator at the gallery

Council leader buys piece of history
A PRIVATE letter from Sir Winston Churchill is now taking pride of place amongst Gallery Oldham’s collection of historic documents after being donated.

The letter — dated November 8, 1950 — was written by the then leader of the Opposition in reply to an invitation to visit Oldham. It has been bought by Oldham Council leader Councillor Jim McMahon, who presented it to mark the end of Local Democracy Week.

Churchill served as one of Oldham’s two MPs from October, 1900, to January, 1906, initially as a Conservative and then, from 1904, as a Liberal after “crossing the floor” over the issue of tariff reform.

The letter is a reply to Hamilton W Kerr Esq MP — another former Oldham MP who held office between 1931-45. He had written to ask when Churchill planned to visit and formally receive his official scroll in recognition of being earlier admitted as a Freeman of the Borough on April 2, 1941.

Councillor McMahon said: “Winston Churchill was obviously a hugely important international figure and statesman of the 20th century – and he is also a significant person in the history of our borough.

”Although he was not Prime Minister at the time of writing this letter there is always huge interest from collectors, especially Americans, in any documents or correspondence in relation to his life and time in politics.

“Gallery Oldham was recently approached by an individual who had been given this letter many years ago by Sir Hamilton Kerr. They didn’t have any appropriate funding available so I decided to buy it myself and donate it to their collection.

”As a keen historian I wanted to see this document kept in our civic archives so that future generations of local residents can see it, rather than it going to auction and falling into the hands of a private collector.

”It does seem a great shame in hindsight that Churchill never found the time to come back to the borough to officially collect this honour because I’m certain he would have received a great reception.”

The document will be added to Gallery Oldham’s collection which already includes a portrait of Churchill as an Oldham MP, a bust of him by Jacob Epstein, plus a large selection of campaign posters from his 1900 General Election campaign.

The letter was sent from Churchill’s personal residence at 28 Hyde Park Gate, London, where he died in January, 1965.

Churchill, who returned to the post of Prime Minister within a year of sending the letter — in October 1951 — responds to Hamilton Kerr’s request to set a date to visit.

He writes: “Thank you for your letter of October 19. I am so sorry not to be able to make any plans at the present time to go to Oldham to receive the Freedom of the Borough.

“I am constantly bearing the matter in mind, but until the pressure of my commitments decreases, I am afraid I can not add to my engagements. Thank you nevertheless for drawing my attention to it.”