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Details
CHURCHILL, Sir W.L.S. Autograph letter signed ('W') to Pamela, Countess of Lytton, Chequers, 19 July 1942, 2 pages, 4°; envelope.
'[OUR] HEROES HAVE NOT GIVEN THEIR LIVES WITHOUT A PURPOSE BEING FULFILLED'. A moving and rousing message of condolence, in words reminiscent of his wartime speeches, on the death of Pamela's second son, John, in the battle of El Alamein: 'My heart bleeds for you ... Both yr gallant, splendid sons ... have given their lives with all their hope and promise for our country & its cause. I pray you may be comforted ... words are vain'; remembering again the day of Antony's burial, and his vision of her emerging from the gates of Knebworth 'beautiful & undaunted'; remembering too their youth 'when all was young & the world to dare', and expressing a vision of the 'long, strange journeyings' of their lives drawing to a close: 'Soon will come the signal wh. we do not fear that our part is over, that our message is delivered & that our work is done. Let us thank God that after its fearful peril England - for whom all may be offered - stands safe & glorious, & that its heroes have not given their lives without a purpose being fulfilled'; foreseeing an elevation of spirit in Pamela, and that the glory of raising such men as her sons 'will outshine the agony of shattered hopes and bitter separation'; ending on a quieter note with an offer to visit the following morning, before his week's work begins.
'[OUR] HEROES HAVE NOT GIVEN THEIR LIVES WITHOUT A PURPOSE BEING FULFILLED'. A moving and rousing message of condolence, in words reminiscent of his wartime speeches, on the death of Pamela's second son, John, in the battle of El Alamein: 'My heart bleeds for you ... Both yr gallant, splendid sons ... have given their lives with all their hope and promise for our country & its cause. I pray you may be comforted ... words are vain'; remembering again the day of Antony's burial, and his vision of her emerging from the gates of Knebworth 'beautiful & undaunted'; remembering too their youth 'when all was young & the world to dare', and expressing a vision of the 'long, strange journeyings' of their lives drawing to a close: 'Soon will come the signal wh. we do not fear that our part is over, that our message is delivered & that our work is done. Let us thank God that after its fearful peril England - for whom all may be offered - stands safe & glorious, & that its heroes have not given their lives without a purpose being fulfilled'; foreseeing an elevation of spirit in Pamela, and that the glory of raising such men as her sons 'will outshine the agony of shattered hopes and bitter separation'; ending on a quieter note with an offer to visit the following morning, before his week's work begins.
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