Editing Chartwell (section)

==== 1939 to 1965 ====

Chartwell was mostly unused during the Second World War.{{efn|Churchill's own History describes only two visits during the war. The first, in April 1942, saw Churchill inspect a Young Soldiers battalion detailed to Chartwell for his personal protection, and write to the [[Secretary of State for War]] and the [[Chief of the Imperial General Staff]] demanding to know why the battalion reported as being short of [[Bren gun]]s and [[Universal Carrier|carriers]].{{sfn|Churchill|1951|p=774}} The second, in 1943, was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Ivan Maisky, who drove down from London to deny charges made by the [[Polish government-in-exile]] of Russian responsibility for the [[Katyn massacre]].{{sfn|Churchill|1951|p=680}}}}{{efn|[[John Martin (civil servant)|John Martin]], appointed Churchill's Principal Private Secretary in May 1941, also recorded the second of these visits in his diary, "April 16, 1943: ...at [[Pelham Place, London|Pelham Place]]. Picnic lunch in the garden. To Chartwell with PM. Thence to [[Chequers]]".{{sfn|Martin|1991|p=101}} This is the only mention of Chartwell in the diary which begins on 21 May 1940, on Martin’s becoming one of Churchill’s Private Secretaries and concludes on 30 June 1945 with the following entry, “Although it was not easy to work for Churchill, it was tremendous fun”.{{sfn|Martin|1991|p=196}}}}{{sfn|Reynolds|2004|p=3}} Its exposed position in a county so near to [[German-occupied France]] meant it was vulnerable to a German airstrike or commando raid.{{efn|[[Commander]] [[Tommy Thompson (Royal Navy officer)|Tommy Thompson]], Churchill's [[aide-de-camp]] from 1939-1945, recorded that the house's siting on the Wealden Ridge, and the proximity of the series of lakes, meant that it could easily be identified by [[aerial reconnaissance]].{{sfn|Pawle|1963|p=83}}}}{{sfn|Pawle|1963|p=83}} As a precaution the lakes were covered with brushwood to make the house less identifiable from the air.{{sfn|Fedden|1974|p=10}} A rare visit to Chartwell occurred in July 1940, when Churchill inspected aircraft batteries in Kent. His Principal Private Secretary at the time, Eric Seal, recorded the visit; "In the evening the PM, Mrs C and I went off to Chartwell. One of the features of the place is a whole series of ponds, which are stocked with immense goldfish. The PM loves feeding them".{{efn|Recording a post-war visit, the historian [[A. L. Rowse]] described the goldfish; "I have never seen such fat, spoiled fishes: they were addressed as 'darlings'—as Rufus the poodle had been—and came to the rattle of his cane".<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/visit-to-chartwell/|title="There was Once a Man": A Visit to Chartwell, 1955|first = A. L.|last=Rowse|publisher=The Churchill Project|date=29 February 2016}}</ref>}}{{sfn|Gilbert|1983|p=654}} The Churchills instead spent their weekends at [[Ditchley House]], in [[Oxfordshire]], until security improvements were completed at the Prime Minister's official country residence, [[Chequers]], in [[Buckinghamshire]].{{sfn|Gilbert|1983|p=900}} At dinner at Chequers, in December 1940, [[Jock Colville|John Colville]], Churchill's [[Private Secretary|assistant private secretary]] recorded his master's post-war plans, "He would retire to Chartwell and write a book on the war, which he had already mapped out in his mind chapter by chapter".{{sfn|Gilbert|1983|p=943}}

[[File:PanzersJune1941.jpg|thumb|left|German Panzers at Tobruk, June 1941. Closed up during the war, Chartwell remained Churchill's bolthole at times of crisis]]
Chartwell remained a haven in times of acute stress{{sfn|Gilbert|1983|p=1113}}—Churchill spent the night there before the [[fall of France]] in 1940.{{sfn|Hastings|2010|p=19}} Summoned to London by an urgent plea from [[Lord Gort]] for permission to retreat to [[Dunkirk evacuation|Dunkirk]], Churchill broadcast the first of his wartime speeches to the nation; "Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour...for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation..."{{sfn|Hastings|2010|p=20}} He returned again on 20 June 1941, after the failure of [[Operation Battleaxe]] to relieve [[Siege of Tobruk|Tobruk]], and determined to sack the Middle East commander, [[General Wavell]]. [[Jock Colville|John Colville]] recorded Churchill's deliberations in his diary; "spent the afternoon at Chartwell. After a long sleep the P.M. in a purple dressing gown and grey felt hat took me to see his goldfish. He was ruminating deeply about the fate of Tobruk and contemplating means of resuming the offensive".{{sfn|Colville|1985|pp=402–403}} Churchill continued to pay occasional, short, visits to the house; on one such, on 24 June 1944, just after the [[Normandy landings]], his secretary recorded that the house was "shut up and rather desolate".{{sfn|Gilbert|1986|p=837}}

Following [[VE Day]], the Churchills first returned to Chartwell on 18 May 1945, to be greeted by what the horticulturalist and garden historian [[Stefan Buczacki]] describes as, "the biggest crowd Westerham had ever seen".{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=226}} But military victory was rapidly followed by political defeat as Churchill lost the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|July 1945 general election]]. He almost immediately went abroad, while Clementine went back to Chartwell to begin the long process of opening up the house for his return{{sfn|Soames|1998|p=533}}—"it will be lovely when the lake camouflage is gone".{{sfn|Soames|1998|p=538}} Later that year, Churchill again gave thought to selling Chartwell, concerned by the expense of running the estate. A group of friends, organised by [[Lord Camrose]], raised the sum of £55,000 which was passed to the National Trust allowing it to buy the house from Churchill for £43,800. The excess provided an endowment.{{efn|Details of the sale of the house were not made public and sources provide somewhat differing views as to the sums involved. Josh Ireland suggests that the Camrose consortium paid £85,000 for the estate, with £35,000 going to the National Trust as an endowment, and the remaining £50,000 going to Churchill.{{sfn|Ireland|2021|p=276}}}}{{sfn|Lough|2015|p=320}} The sale was completed on 29 November.{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=304}} For payment of a rent of £350 per annum, plus rates,{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=304}} the Churchills committed to a 50-year lease, allowing them to live at Chartwell until their deaths, at which point the property would revert to the National Trust.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=6}} Churchill recorded his gratitude in a letter to Camrose in December 1945, "I feel how inadequate my thanks have been, my dear Bill, who (...) never wavered in your friendship during all these long and tumultuous years".{{sfn|Reynolds|2004|p=20}} 
[[File:Plaque on wall at Chartwell - geograph.org.uk - 1421613.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque at Chartwell recording the names of those who raised the funds for the purchase of the house by the National Trust in 1945]]

In 1953, Chartwell became Churchill's refuge once more when, again in office as prime minister, he suffered a debilitating [[stroke]].{{efn|When Churchill was returned to the premiership in 1951, Chartwell was again closed up as the effort of running 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's official country house [[Chequers]], and Chartwell was too great for Lady Churchill. [[Anthony Montague Browne]], Churchill's last [[Private Secretary]], recalled a discussion at Downing Street in the early 1950s: "WSC – 'I shall go to Chartwell next weekend'. CSC – 'Winston, you can't! It's closed and there will be no one there to cook for you.' WSC – 'I shall cook for myself. I can boil an egg. I've seen it done.'"{{sfn|Browne|1995|pp=117–118}}}} At the end of a dinner held on 23 June at [[10 Downing Street]], for the Italian Prime Minister [[Alcide De Gasperi]], Churchill collapsed and was barely able either to stand or to speak.{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|pp=846–847}} On the 25th, he was driven to Chartwell, where his condition deteriorated further. Churchill's doctor [[Baron Moran|Lord Moran]] stated that "he did not think the Prime Minister could possibly live over the weekend".{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=849}} That evening Colville summoned Churchill's closest friends in the press, [[Lord Beaverbrook]], Lord Camrose and [[Brendan Bracken]] who, walking the lawns at Chartwell, agreed to try to ensure a press blackout to prevent any reporting of Churchill's condition.{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=852}} Colville described the outcome, "They achieved the all but incredible success of gagging [[Fleet Street]], something they would have done for nobody but Churchill. Not a word of the Prime Minister's stroke was published until he casually mentioned it in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] a year later".{{sfn|Colville|1985|p=669}} Secluded and protected at Chartwell, Churchill made a remarkable recovery and thoughts of his retirement quickly receded.{{sfn|Colville|1985|p=673}} During his recuperation, Churchill took the opportunity to complete work on ''Triumph and Tragedy'', the sixth and final volume of his [[The Second World War (book series)|war memoirs]], which he had been forced to set aside when he returned to Downing Street in 1951.{{sfn|Reynolds|2004|p=441}}

On 5 April 1955, Churchill chaired his last [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|cabinet]], almost fifty years since he had first sat in [[10 Downing Street#Cabinet Room|the Cabinet Room]] as [[President of the Board of Trade]] in 1908.{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=1112}} The following day he held a tea party for staff at Downing Street before driving to Chartwell. On being asked by a journalist on arrival how it felt no longer to be prime minister, Churchill replied, "It's always nice to be home".{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=1125}} For the next ten years, Churchill spent much time at Chartwell, although both he and Lady Churchill also travelled extensively.{{efn|Churchill was a lifelong opponent of physical exercise, Jock Colville recording his comment on it, made during his master's last years at Chartwell: "I get my exercise as a [[pallbearer]] to my many friends who exercised all their lives".{{sfn|Roberts|2019|p=953}}}} His days there were spent writing, painting, playing [[bezique]] or sitting "by the fish pond, feeding the [[Ide (fish)|golden orfe]] and meditating".{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=35}} Of his last years at the house, Churchill's daughter, [[Mary Soames]], recalled, "in the two summers that were left to him he would lie in his 'wheelbarrow' chair contemplating the view of the valley he had loved for so long".{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=1345}}

Catherine Snelling served Churchill as one his last secretaries. In the oral histories of a number of such secretaries compiled by the Churchill Archive, she recalled the dwindling number of visitors Churchill received at the house in his later years. They included Clementine's cousin, [[Edward Stanley, 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley|Sylvia Henley]], [[Violet Bonham Carter]], daughter of [[H. H. Asquith]] and a lifelong friend, [[Harold Macmillan]] and [[Bernard Montgomery]].{{sfn|Stelzer|2019|p=290}} On 13 October 1964, Churchill's last dinner guests at Chartwell were his former [[Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|principal private secretary]] [[Leslie Rowan|Sir Leslie Rowan]] and his wife. Lady Rowan later recalled, "It was sad to see such a great man become so frail".{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=1357}} The following week, increasingly incapacitated, Churchill left the house for the last time. His official biographer [[Martin Gilbert]] records Churchill was, "never to see his beloved Chartwell again".{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=1357}} After his death in January 1965, Lady Churchill relinquished her rights to the house and presented Chartwell to the National Trust.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=6}} It was opened to the public in 1966, one year after Churchill's death.{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=278}}