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"THE GOVERNMENT
 IS THE SERVANT
 OF THE PEOPLE
 AND NOT ITS MASTER"

Winston Churchill
Oslo 1948

Sir Martin Gilbert - Guest Speaker at the 20th Annual Churchill Society Dinner

By Glynne Jenkins

Volume 15 Issue 2 Fall 2003

At the Royal York Hotel on November 18^th, Martin Gilbert will be the guest speaker with whom we celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of the Churchill Society annual dinner.  This is both a special occasion and appropriate; for it was Martin who was our guest speaker at the Royal York Hotel in 1983 for our first dinner.

When invited to speak this November, Martin’s first remark, in accepting our invitation, was, “oh good, now I can finish the speech I started in 1983”.

His lighthearted joke recalled the event.  The first dinner was a grand affair and set the tone for future dinners, but left a little to be desired in terms of timing.  Martin was not called on to speak until about 10.30 pm.  Judging that his audience might be wilting a little, he reduced his speech so that he could finish well before 11.30 pm.  Martin has been assured that he will be on his feet much earlier this time!

And one thing we can be assured is that one of the world’s greatest living historians will be as exciting and interesting to listen to as the first time:  as he is every time he speaks.

Throughout the world, the demand for his presence at dinners, conferences and educational workshops and tours is as great as ever.  He comes to us this November straight from speaking at a Churchill conference in Bermuda, and teaching workshops in Los Angeles.

Martin was born in London in 1936.  In July 1940, he was evacuated to Canada on board the Duchess of Bedford in a convoy of fifty ships, five of which were sunk by U boats.

Martin was only three years old.  Churchill had been asked to give the oldest child a letter of appreciation for MacKenzie King, the Canadian prime minister.  Churchill was opposed to this scheme of evacuation, and said, “I will not send any message through the eldest child, or through the youngest child either!”

In 1994, Martin wrote, “Thus I missed the chance to hold a Churchill letter in my hands, and deliver it”.  He was years later to handle hundreds of Churchill letters as biographer. 

In the summer of 1944 Martin returned to England and went as a boarder to Highgate school.  There he soon developed his love of history.  He also developed his enquiring mind for the truth, and by the age of 15, could be found at Speaker’s Corner near Hampstead Heath challenging the views of speakers many times his age, standing on their soapboxes.  At school, whilst others majored in football and cricket, Martin worked hard and won a scholarship to Oxford University.  After two years military service in the Intelligence Corps (where else?) he read modern history at Magdalen College, Oxford.  It was whilst he was a student at Oxford that Martin was alerted, in discussions with both fellow students and faculty members, to opinions that Winston Churchill could, if recalled at all, be a controversial figure and not just the universally admired great war leader.

In 1962 he was elected to a fellowship at Merton College, Oxford where he taught and did research for many years.  It was also in 1962 that he became one of the research assistants to Randolph Churchill, then starting to write his father’s official biography.

Working for Randolph Churchill was an invigorating experiencing.  Martin was fired on at least one occasion, only to be re-instated next day when Randolph’s wrath had subsided.  He soon got used to the modus operandi of Churchill’s son, and worked with him on the first two volumes of the biography for five years.

On Randolph’s death in 1968, Martin was asked to complete the Churchill biography; but not without other candidates also being considered, including Winston Churchill the grandson, and Lord Birkenhead.  Fortunately, for history, common sense prevailed and Martin was appointed.  It became his life’s work.  The eighth and final volume was published in 1988.  In addition to these narrative volumes, Martin has continued to the present day to edit sixteen documentary volumes of Churchill’s letters and documents, with another seven to come.

It was in the early days of his work as research assistant that Martin also co-authored his first book, “The Appeasers” in 1963.  This was only the start of a prodigious body of work which to date covers seventy two books, the latest being “Churchill at War: his finest hour in photographs”.  This was successfully launched this summer at the Imperial War Museum in London, the venue for several launches of his books.

Martin has written eight important books on the Holocaust as well as biographies of some political figures of the 20^th century, and books on Jewish history.

Martin’s recognition as a leading historian has also involved him in television documentaries, including the four part BBC Churchill biography in 1991/92.

Martin loves maps; so it is no surprise that he has been a pioneer in the design and publication of eleven historical atlases, brilliantly combining historical information with geography.

In 1995 he was knighted “for services to British History and International Relations”.  In 1999 he was awarded a Doctorate of Literature by Oxford University, but one of the many academic awards he has received in recent years.

Sir Martin lives in North London, but continues to travel extensively, which is lucky for us.  For on November 18^th at our annual dinner, we can hear him speak on “Churchill and the Middle East”.

We can be promised an outstanding and insightful talk on a topic of particular relevance to today.  It should not be missed.