Overall: 32cm (12.5in) x 28.5cm (11.2in)
Original head and shoulders portrait of the wartime leader in his famous siren suit set against a back drop of a wall with banded rustication. Forcefully signed in the lower centre of the image in ink in Churchill’s hand ‘Winston Churchill’, to the extent the pen nib has scratched into surface. Image size: 16.5cm (6.5in) x 14cm (5.5in).
The Prime Minister wore his famous Siren Suits at Chartwell, 10 Downing Street and during official visits to meet leaders of Allied countries, including one during the Battle of Britain, while meeting with President Franklin D Roosevelt in Washington DC, setting a precedent, perhaps, for President Zelensky’s clothing choice.
The particular version of the Siren Suit worn in this image bears favourable comparision with images of Churchill taken during his visit to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force at Southwick Park, Hampshire in May 1944 during the run up to D-Day. Moreover, Churchill, it has been said, was looking for a way to head to Normandy himself on the bridge of a battleship. The military commanders were equally concerned that Churchill’s prolonged presence might blow open the elaborate deception that fooled Hitler into believing the Allied invasion would come from Kent to the Pas-de-Calais. General George Patton, commander of the US Third Army, recorded Montgomery saying: “If Winnie comes, he’ll be a great bore, but may well attract undue attention here. Why in hell doesn’t he go and smoke his cigar at Dover Castle. It would fix the Germans’ attention to Calais.”