The Homburg was donated by Lady Churchill to a Tory Party fund raising event in the Village of Westerham in the late 1950's where it was purchased by one of the inhabitants of Westerham. Winston Churchill's private secretary of forty years, an official archivist, remembers helping Lady Churchill select the hat for the charity auction. She remembers that Churchill did not particularly like this grey hat for everyday use but always wore it on more sombre and important occasions.