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CHURCHILL (WINSTON) Collection of material relating to Sister Mary Bigmore, who nursed Winston Churchill for a few months at Chartwell after his stroke in June 1953, including a signed presentation copy of Lord Randolph Churchill, signed photograpy by Vivienne, 1951 and Sister Bigmore's diary and letters home, Chartwell, July 1953 image 1
CHURCHILL (WINSTON) Collection of material relating to Sister Mary Bigmore, who nursed Winston Churchill for a few months at Chartwell after his stroke in June 1953, including a signed presentation copy of Lord Randolph Churchill, signed photograpy by Vivienne, 1951 and Sister Bigmore's diary and letters home, Chartwell, July 1953 image 2
Lot 248

CHURCHILL (WINSTON)
Collection of material relating to Sister Mary Bigmore, who nursed Winston Churchill for a few months at Chartwell after his stroke in June 1953, including a signed presentation copy of Lord Randolph Churchill, signed photograph by Vivienne, 1951 and Sister Bigmore's diary and letters home, Chartwell, July 1953

24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £2,250 inc. premium

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CHURCHILL (WINSTON)

Collection of material relating to Sister Mary Bigmore, who nursed Winston Churchill for a few months at Chartwell after his stroke in June 1953, comprising: Winston S. Churchill, Lord Randolph Churchill, author's presentation copy inscribed "From Winston S. Churchill To Sister Bigmore 1953" on front free endpaper, publisher's cloth, front free endpaper detached, dust jacket torn with some loss, 8vo, Odhams Press Ltd., [1952]; photograph by Vivienne, 1951, signed on mount ("Winston S. Churchill") and on the photograph by the photographer ("Vivienne/London") showing Churchill seated half-length in black formal jacket and bow-tie, image 154 x 110mm.; three autograph letters signed, to her mother, giving an account of life at Chartwell and progress of "the patient", warning her "Don't repeat any of this will you", 16pp, with envelopes, 8vo, Chartwell, 5 to 15 July 1953; "All British" desk diary for 1944 in which she later wrote her reminiscences; with a packet of 'La Corona Winston Churchill' cigar bands, two printed Christmas cards from the Churchills, a printed letter of thanks from Clementine Churchill and newspaper cuttings from 1953 regarding her appointment

Footnotes

'HE SEEMS TO BE ABLE TO TODDLE AROUND ON HIS OWN A BIT'; Churchill's private nurse describes his remarkable recovery after stroke. On the evening of June 26, 1953, Sister Mary Bigmore was summoned amidst great secrecy to attend the Prime Minster at Chartwell with his physician Lord Moran. She was well known to the family, having already nursed him at Hyde Park Gate during a minor illness in 1951, and as soon as she arrived "it was obvious he had suffered a major stroke... the left side of his face slightly drawn and left arm and hand paralysed" – there was doubt he would survive the weekend. In these chatty, conversational letters to her mother and her diary in which she has written her experiences, partly in note form, she describes in detail the physical symptoms of "the patient" (or "Sir W."), his treatment and routine, gives reports of his progress ("...he seems to be able to toddle about on his own a bit..."), and describes the house and the comings and goings of the family and various members of the government. Throughout her stay she was acutely conscious for the need for discretion and secrecy (although writing on Chartwell headed paper would surely have given it away) – "don't tell anyone what has been wrong" she writes to her mother and wonders how her story has got into the press.

Churchill was clearly most grateful for her care - "I'd like you to stay with me until my dying day", he tells her. As he improved he was soon "...back to cigars and whisky. Took off cigar bands and always gave them to me... I still have them – photo and book signed... We seem to be quite good friends..."

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