WARTIME

[Ernest Bevin, Labour Party politician, Minister of Labour in Churchill’s wartime coalition.] Typed Letter Signed to Sir David Ross

Author: 
Ernest Bevin (1881-1961), Labour Party politician, Minister of Labour in Churchill’s wartime coalition [Sir David Ross [W. D. Ross] (1877-1971), Scottish philosopher, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford]
Publication details: 
17 May 1940. On embossed letterhead of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, Montagu House, Whitehall S.W.1 [London]
£56.00

See the entries for Bevin and Ross in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘Sir David Ross, K.B.E., LL.D.’ and signed ‘Ernest Bevin’. Begins: ‘Dear Sir David, / In connection with my general plans I wish as soon as possible to make definite proposals concerning the Fair Wages Clause.’ He understands that ‘discussions between the T.U.C.

[Ernest Bevin, Labour Party politician, Minister of Labour in Churchill’s wartime coalition.] Typed Letter Signed to [Sir David Ross,] the Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, regarding ‘the visit of the Greek Regent to this country’.

Author: 
Ernest Bevin (1881-1961), Labour Party politician, Minister of Labour in Churchill’s wartime coalition [Sir David Ross [W. D. Ross] (1877-1971), Scottish philosopher, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford]
Ernest Bevin
Publication details: 
1 September 1945; on letterhead of the Foreign Office, S.W.1. [Whitehall, London]
£80.00
Ernest Bevin

See the entries for Bevin and Ross in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to ‘The Vice Chancellor, / Oxford University’. The two lines of Bevin’s autograph valediction ascending and converging at the same time: ‘Yours sincerely / Ernest Bevin’. He was glad to receive Ross’s letter ‘about the visit of the Greek Regent to this country’. He feels sure that ‘the Regent will wish to accept an invitation to visit Oxford’. He gives tentative dates for his stay, undertaking to ‘have a day at least set aside for this purpose’.

[The growing First World War pensions crisis discussed by a member of the government.] Autograph Letter Signed from William Hayes Fisher [the future Lord Downham] to Willoughby Hyett Dickinson, discussing the problem ‘full of difficulty’.

Author: 
William Hayes Fisher [Lord Downham] (1853-1920), Conservative politician, President of Local Government Board and Minister of Information in Lloyd George's War Cabinet [Sir Willoughby Hyett Dickinson]
Publication details: 
25 October 1915. 13 Buckingham Palace Gardens, S.W. [London.]
£90.00

See Fisher’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Earlier in 1915 he had joined the Asquith government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, and he would retain this post until June of 1917, when Lloyd George would promote him to the cabinet as President of the Local Government Board. The recipient Willoughby Hyett Dickinson (1859-1943), later an influential proponent of the League of Nations, began his career as a Liberal MP. He was knighted in 1918, and elevated to the peerage as Baron Dickinson of Painswick in 1930, the same year in which he joined the Labour Party.

[Ronnie Tritton, War Office Publicity Officer.] Two Autograph Letters Signed ('T' and 'R.') [to his wife Andrina], written during the 'Phoney War', writing with evocative immediacy about Claridge's, the Savoy, and a host of friends and acquaintances.

Author: 
Ronnie Tritton [Ronald Edward Tritton] (1907-1990), War Office Publicity Officer 1940-1945 [his wife, née Andrina Frances Schweder; Savoy Hotel, London; The Phoney War, Second World War]
Publication details: 
One: 12 September 1939. On letterhead of White's [gentleman's club in St James's Street, London]. Two: 'Wed.' [no date, but 1939]. On letterhead of the Savoy Hotel, London.
£56.00

Tritton was educated at Winchester College, and in later life held the office of High Sheriff of Essex. He served as War Office Publicity Officer between 1940 and 1945 (the first civilian to hold the post). The present items exhibit the candour and evocative immediacy for which his wartime diaries were praised on their publication in 2012. Two long letters to 'Darling', both 2pp, 4to. Both in good condition, lightly aged, and folded twice. ONE (signed 'R.'): Thirty-eight lines of text. He is writing her a second letter of the day, prompted by boredom and the want of something else to do'.

[John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley, Churchill's 'Home Front Prime Minister' after whom Anderson Shelters are named.] Typed Letter Signed as Home Secretary to Sir James Marchant on 'the Government's plans for a war time regional organisation'.

Author: 
John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley (1882-1958), civil servant and politician, 'Home Front Prime Minister' in Churchill's war cabinet [Sir James Marchant (1867-1956), eugenicist and social reformer]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Home Office, Whitehall, S.W.1. [London] 14 February 1939.
£150.00

Anderson served as Home Secretary, Lord President of the Council and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Marchant headed the National Vigilance Association and the National Council of Public Morals. 2pp, 4to. On two leaves stapled together. In fair condition, lightly aged, with some staining from rusted staples. Folded three times. A good letter, giving an indication of civil defence preparations on the eve of the Second World War.

[V-Letter from Karl Shapiro to George Barker, written in publication year of Shapiro's 'V-Letter and other Poems'.] A V-Mail [Victory Mail] letter (i.e. photographic print of autograph letter), praising Barker and criticising current 'War Poetry'.

Author: 
Karl Shapiro [Karl Jay Shapiro] (1913-2000), American poet [George Barker (1913-1991), English poet]
Publication details: 
A V-Mail [Victory Mail] letter. San Francisco. February 1944.
£500.00

An interesting communication from one noted twentieth-century English-language poet to another, and of additional significance as a V-Letter written in the year of publication of Shapiro's first successful collection, the Pulitzer Prize winning 'V-Letter and Other Poems' (1944). (See Diederik Oostdijk, 'The Wartime Success of Karl Shapiro's V-Letter' (2006).) The present item is a V-Mail [Victory Mail] letter: a 13.5 x 11 cm photograph print of an autograph letter bearing the censor's stamp.

[ First World War printed pamphlet. ] The National Party to promote Reform, Union and Defence. A Statement of Policy.

Author: 
The National Party, London [ First World War ]
Publication details: 
Published by The Provisional Committee of The National Party, at 22, King Street, St. James', London, S.W.1. [1917]
£150.00

15pp., 8vo. Stapled. With stamp on cover of the 'Secretary – National Party, | 23 Kilvert's Buildings, | Withy Grove, | Manchester.' In good condition, lightly aged and worn. List at front of 27 'Members of both Houses of Parliament and other public men' who issued the 'original Manifesto', from 'Colonel Lord Ampthill, G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.' to 'Lt.-Col. Lord Stafford, D.S.O.' Headings include 'Failure of the old Party System' and 'Aims of the National Party'.

[ 'The Need of a National Party', 1890-1920. ] Material from the papers of J. Cuming Walters, editor of Manchester City News, regarding the formation of a national party, including drafts of autograph letctures by him, pamphlet, cuttings, proofs.

Author: 
[ National Party, United Kingdom, 1890-1921 [ John Cuming Walters (1863-1933), editor of the Manchester City News, 1906-1932, journalist and author; Winston Churchill ]
Publication details: 
Manchester and London. Between 1890 and 1920.
£280.00

A useful background guide is Geoffrey Russell Searle's 'Country before Party: Coalition and the Idea of "National Government' in Modern Britain, 1885-1987' (London, 1995). As the manuscripts in this collection indicate, Cuming Walters cherished the idea of a national party from the 1890s, and he was able to re-use material from that period on the formation of the National Party in 1920 (not to be confused with the party of the same name, a pamphlet relating to which is present, dating from 1917).

[ Robin Wallace, British artist in the Second World War. ] Ten items including three Typed Letters Signed from Arnold Palmer of the Committee on the Employment of Artists in Wartime, Pilgrim Trust Grant, and the War Office and Ministry of Labour.

Author: 
Robin Wallace (1897-1952), English landscape artist [ Arnold Nottage Palmer (1886-1973), artist and arts administrator; the Committee on the Employment of Artists in Wartime, Pilgrim Trust Grant ]
Publication details: 
Palmer's three letters on letterheads of the Committee on the Employment of Artists in Wartime, Pilgrim Trust Grant, The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London. Also items from the War Office and Ministry of Labour.
£200.00

Wallace, a well-known painter of landscapes and still life subjects in oil and water-colour, was born at Kendal in the Lake District and studied in Kensington at the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole School of Art. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1922, and at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painters, and with the Lake Artists' Society. He was a full member of the Royal Society of British Artists. The present collection casts an interesting light on the efforts of a good English artist to be of use to the war effort. Ten items.

[British anti-German Second World War propaganda pamphlet, printing the transcript of a BBC broadcast.] The Woman from Poland.

Author: 
W. J. Brown [Second World War; occupation of Poland; Polish; Nazi war attrocities; fascism; BBC]
Publication details: 
'10/41 [i.e. printed October 1941] A., P. & S., Ltd.' 'Broadcast in the Home Service of the B.B.C. on Tuesday, 23rd September, 1941.'
£220.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly-aged and creased. Beneath the cover on the front page are four quotations: 'I don't know what astonishes me most about you British - your kindness and your courage, or your blindness.'; 'Not one in ten of you knows what a German victory would mean to you.'; 'Wake up.

Second World War Autograph Diary of Mrs Sheila Stopford of Saxham, Suffolk, wife of Captain James Coverley Stopford, RN, mixing descriptions of day-to-day rural life with informed comment on the course of the war.

Author: 
Mrs Katherine Sheila Stopford [née Macleod] (d.1986) of Saxham, Suffolk, wife of Captain James Coverley Stopford (1909-1985), RN, OBE [Geoffrey Keyes (1917-1941), VC]
Publication details: 
Mostly from Saxham, Suffolk. 24 December 1941 to 29 November 1942.
£400.00

219pp., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper, in worn red-cloth binding. Closely and neatly written in a ruled exercise book, with frank and detailed entries throughout providing much information relating to the day-to-day life of women of the rural middle-classes ('country families') in wartime England. A few items including newspaper cuttings loosely inserted. Like her husband, Mrs Stopford came from a military family (her father was Captain G.

County Borough of Derby Police traffic officer's note book, compiled in 1941, and filled with manuscript signed statements relating to traffic offences.

Author: 
[County Borough of Derby Police, traffic officer's notebook, 1941]
County Borough of Derby Police traffic officer's note book,
Publication details: 
19 February-22 September 1941; Derby.
£150.00
County Borough of Derby Police traffic officer's note book,

15.5 x 7.5 cm notebook, 108 pp (4 pp blank). With 102 pp of manuscript, in the hand of the anonymous police officer, on 53 numbered two-page openings. Stapled. In original brown wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper, in slightly-worn binding. Manuscript statements relating to around thirty cases in two sequences, one, of 35 pp, beginning at one end of the notebook (openings 1 to 18), and the other, of 67 pp, at the other (backwards over openings 53 to 20).

Autograph Letter Signed (by which of the above is unknown) to [Tom Driberg, at that time a Beaverbrook hack], about the denial of paper to the Channel Islands Review.

Author: 
P. Gray and F. Lewis, Guernsey C.I. and Jersey C.I. respectively
Publication details: 
'Riemore', Yewstock Crescent West, Chippenham, Wilts., 11 May 1942.
£65.00

Two pages, grubby but text clear and complete, with obscure stamp (information about acknowledgment?). The order from the Paper Control forbidding the publication of the Channel Islands Review is a real hardship to Refugee Islanders also to some of the 9,000 serving soldiers and seamen many of whom have wives, children and relatives in the occupied islands. | As the Review was only supplied on order and copies were passed on to friends the quantity of paper used must have been very small.

Letters mainly from egg-producers to the National Egg Laying Test, Milford, nr Godalming, mainly to J.O. Strong, Secretary

Author: 
[National Egg Laying Test]
Letters mainly from egg-producers to the National Egg Laying Test
Publication details: 
1939-41
£180.00
Letters mainly from egg-producers to the National Egg Laying Test

60+ items of correspondence, including a few carbons of Strong's letters and some postcards. Correspondents (mainly in Poultry industry)sometimes multiple); H.R. Hunter (Specialist breeder); Y. Watanabé; Jack Wrennell; Camp Unami for Boys, R. & E. Charteris Ltd, Gerald Gill; Poultry World; bird insurance; railway use; W.M. Golden; Major H. Whaley; National Poultry Council; The Accredited Poultry Breeders Federation; Charles Allsop (manufacturers of rings); G.H. Kidner; The Framer & Stock Breeder; Dr. A.

[Pamphlet; offprint] Our Food-Supply in Time of War.

Author: 
Rear-Admiral C.C. Penrose Fitzgerald
Our Food-Supply in Time of War.
Publication details: 
William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1903
£56.00
Our Food-Supply in Time of War.

Reprinted from Blackwood's Magazine. 16pp., printed wraps, good condition.

The Official Theatre Guide of London [EPHEMERA]

Author: 
[LONDON THEATRE 1939; BROCHURE-cum-POSTER]
Publication details: 
Complete run from 2 January to 9 September 1939, issued weekly.
£180.00

Thirty-six weekly issues. As poster, c.29 x 39cm, fold marks indicate possible use as a brochure, good condition. Information given on verso: Theatre, Nearest Tube, Eves. & Mats, Play, Description of Play. At the bottom information about "Official Ticket Agents for All London Theatres" and a line encouraging smoking (especially Abdullas). Information given on recto: Garges in Theatreland, Contractors to West End Theatres, the title "page", and two columns of "Theatre Notes". The only MS. annotations are: Issue for 2-7 Jan.

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