Lot 70
Churchill, Sir Winston S. (1874-1965)
Marlborough
Auction: 16 June 2026 from 10:00 BST
Description
His Life and Times. New Edition, Revised. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1939. Presentation copy, inscribed by Churchill ‘To Admiral Sir William James, from Winston S. Churchill, Feb. 1941’ on the front free endpaper of volume 1, 4 volumes, 8vo, original purple cloth, spines faded, pen-mark to spine of volume 1, volume 2 front joint split, volume 4 misbound (lacking quire 2P and intervening plate of Duke of Buckingham), all text and plates otherwise present (4)
Provenance
By direct descent from Admiral Sir William James.
Footnote
An outstanding association copy of Churchill's tribute to his illustrious martial forebear, inscribed to a key figure in the British war effort, who, in an echo of Churchill's own dual career as a writer and wartime leader, was also a naval historian and biographer of primary importance, many of whose books became the standard works on their subjects.
In 1941 Sir William James was serving in the ‘important post of commander-in-chief, Portsmouth’ (ODNB), which he held between 1939 and 1942. He was subsequently chief of naval information from 1943 to 1944, his final naval post. Having been talent-spotted and appointed to the naval intelligence division during the First World War, he quickly ascended the ranks as a staff officer during the interwar period. As deputy chief of naval staff in the late 1930s he was heavily involved in Admiralty policy in the critical few years leading up to the declaration of war. The grandson of John Everett Millais and Effie Gray, Sir William James also achieved famed in a manner about which he might have harboured mixed feelings: as a child he had been the sitter for his grandfather's painting of a young boy watching a floating soap bubble, which was subsequently used by Pears soap company for their famous advert, the title of which, ‘Bubbles’, remained with James as his life-long nickname.