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Lot 247

CHURCHILL (WINSTON)
My Early Life; a Roving Commission, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED "To Nurse Dorothy Pugh from Winston S. Churchill February 1943" on front free endpaper, 8vo, Macmillan, 1941; and Pugh's five-year manuscript diary for 1942-46 (some blank days), with insertions (2)

24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £2,500 inc. premium

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CHURCHILL (WINSTON)

My Early Life; a Roving Commission, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED "To Nurse Dorothy Pugh from Winston S. Churchill February 1943" on front free endpaper, publisher's dark blue cloth, front cover creased [Woods A37 note "a number of sheets were transferred to Macmillan who republished the book in 1941 with a cancel title"], 8vo, Macmillan, 1941; and Pugh's five-year manuscript diary for 1942-46 (some blank days), with insertions (2)

Footnotes

Dorothy Pugh (1919-2003) was a staff nurse at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, when she was selected to nurse Churchill. Her diary gives many details: "Arrived at 2 Storeys Gate Buildings. Met Sir C. Wilson who duly introduced me to Mr. W.S.C. Met Mrs. C a little later. Both of them very nice indeed... P.M. had a better night... A. Eden came just before lunch... and going to live in" (20-21 February 1943). In September 1944 Churchill specifically asked for Nurse Pugh to attend him on the crossing to the Quebec conference; "I'm to go on the trip to Canada!" she writes excitedly, travelling aboard the Queen Mary with the Prime Minister and a penicillin expert, Brigadier Whitby (see Martin Gilbert, VII, p.950 where Pugh is quoted at length). The diary insertions include photographs of Pugh and three appreciative letters to her from Gilbert.

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