2nd November 2005 - John Butcher
“Churchill”
This was a most unusual presentation in that the membership expected a lecture on the life and history of Sir Winston Churchill as found in most text books or indeed as outlined in the website recommended for further reading at the end of this report. But John (left) surprised us all by his excellent presentation, because from the start he assumed the speech and mannerisms of the great man and carried this format throughout his talk, indeed even into question time, matched with the characteristic bow tie and (pretend) cigar!, recounting some of the key events of ‘his’ life and several anecdotes, including ones involving George Bernard Shaw, Lady Astor, Monty, Bessie Braddock and Clement Attlee.
He explained how ‘he’ and two other Prime Ministers, to whom ‘he’ was related, with two sovereigns, linked Queens Anne and Elizabeth II. ‘He’ confessed to having been a teenage vandal, but then went straight and became Home Secretary! ‘He’ told us of the ‘land ships’ that ‘he’ invented, to cross the trenches in the First World War, and why they came to be known as ‘tanks’.
For the benefit of Charlie Peall, who served in the 1940 Norway campaign, ‘he’ told us of the protectors (normally used for a quite different purpose) used to cover rifle barrels against the cold and how, by supplying them in boxes marked “British: medium sized”, the Germans would see that we were really the master race! Our guest also gave extracts from the great man’s famous speeches such as “their finest hour” and the tribute to “the few”.
As John uses the same script for every presentation he has quite rightly no wish to have his speech word perfectly recorded on this or any web site, the research and effort put into such a revealing, humorous and cutting aspects of Churchill's sayings and witty remarks needs careful nurturing and perhaps will not be reflected well in cold print, whilst John effortlessly portrayal of the great man was superb and he hit the punch lines perfectly which the membership greatly enjoyed.
If you are a Probus Club within the area covered by John, we the Ewell club certainly recommend this speaker, you will be entertained and learn history in a different context. One could perhaps be critical and say it was all scripted and this was a shallow depth of Churchill's life, but John deflated this assumption in question time, when the very wide range of question on many different topics or time frames, John showed his full grasp in that speaking in the "I am" Churchill mode not only fully answered each question but put them into the background context so that members who were not aware of that action were fully informed.
One was about the possibility that ‘he’ had suppressed intelligence that Japan would attack Pearl Harbour, so that the United States would be sure to be brought into the war – but ‘he’ urged us to take that with a pinch of salt. On being asked about a visit to ‘his’ home, Chartwell, in the 1930’s by Guy Burgess, the notorious spy for Russia, our guest claimed that this had slipped ‘his’ memory! ‘He’ explained why the 1915 Gallipoli campaign had been a disaster, because of bad inter-service planning and inadequate command structure – and how this lesson was turned to our advantage for D-Day in 1944.
Brian Cousins gave the vote of thanks for an excellent and well presented "lecture" and the membership responded with enthusiastic applause, well done John.
Please visit http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/1965Txt.html this excellent site for much more detailed information about Churchill, all text on this specified site is copyright Churchill-Society.
