Footnotes

A CIGAR FROM CHEQUERS AND A NOTE FROM DOWNING STREET: SOUVENIRS AND PERSONAL REMINISCENCES FROM CHURCHILL'S AUDITOR.

The recipient of the cigar and signed note was Leonard Herbert Norman of Price Waterhouse & Co. who acted as Auditor of the Chequers Trust from 1949 to 1957 and was thus required to attend their regular meetings, chaired by the incumbent Prime Minister. The Trust had been set up in 1917 when the estate was donated to the state for the Prime Minister's use by the then owner Sir Arthur Lee. Norman's memoirs, included in the lot, describe his first meeting with Attlee and subsequent meetings with Churchill, Eden and Macmillan. He appears most in awe of Churchill and was much impressed by his attention to detail and his extreme courtesy, despite increasing deafness and a propensity to leave cigars burning in an ash tray during meetings. On 14 November 1953 he attended a lavish lunch hosted by the Churchills at Chequers and describes in entertaining detail how the cigar came into his possession. After attempting (and failing) to keep up with the PM "drink for drink" during lunch and enjoying wide-ranging conversation "...the cigar box was circulated for the second time I didn't feel equal to smoking another... but I did take one and hastily put it unseen (I think) into an inner pocket and still have it today...".

At the same lunch Norman left a note with Churchill's private secretary which was duly returned a week later signed by Churchill. The Downing Street headed paper had been used by Norman at a Trustees Meeting on 11 December 1951 to make some swift pencil calculations. Under discussion had been the number of weekends spent at Chequers by the previous Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, who was entitled to receive the sum of £15 per visit from the Trust: "...Churchill turned to the secretary and said... 'And how many week-ends is that?' (David Eccles grinned at me & said sotto voce 'Every bloody one I should think')... I was too flustered to be sure of doing a sum of simple division with Churchill looking on so I seized a sheet of 10 Downing Street notepaper lying on a table... at a later date one of the private secretaries obtained Churchill's autograph... (it was 48 weekends)...".

A typed memo recording a conversation with Lord Goddard in 1966 also included in the lot gives a further insight into the generous hospitality on offer at Chequers. After a long dinner, he writes, "...the table was littered with empty magnums of champagne... Sir Winston had drunk about a bottle of brandy and had regaled them the whole time, he rang the bell and demanded whisky and soda. They retired to bed at 4am.... At 9.30am... he had to get up to Downing Street for a cabinet meeting... so he had a light breakfast of a piece of toast and a whisky and soda...".

Provenance: Leonard Herbert Norman; thence by descent to the present owner.