CIRCA 1940

Winston Churchill came to power as Prime Minister of Great Britain on 10 May 1940 as the head of a cross party coalition government following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. This was a critical and bleak moment in The Second World War, which saw massive enemy advances culminating in the fall of France and the mass evacuation of allied troops from Dunkirk, with Britain left standing alone against the Axis Powers.

It was against this grim backdrop that Churchill began to rally the country and stir the resolve that would allow Britain to fight on until the tide of the war would eventually turn, ultimately leading to victory and the preservation of the free world.

Embossed with the Royal Cypher of H.M. King George VI and the title ‘Prime Minister’, this despatch box would have been amongst those delivered to Churchill daily containing vital papers relating to the war as well as cabinet, foreign and commonwealth documents requiring his immediate attention. Its use during the war and preservation thereafter in the collection of the Foreign Office, prior to entering the present collection, suggests that it was always considered historically important (alongside the deedbox, which formed part of the same gift, lot 52) and one can only imagine the contents of the papers it must have contained and the critical moments to which it bore silent witness.

Only one other Prime Ministerial despatch box is known to have been offered at auction, sold as part of the Collection of The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, LG, OM, FRS, Christie’s, London, 15 December, 2015, lot 26 – that ‘box’ made £242,500, setting the extant world record for any despatch box at auction.