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CHURCHILL, Winston S.
Signed Photograph of Churchill and A.V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty outside Downing Street, Winter 1941.
Churchill and Alexander are shown on a snow-covered Downing Street, both wearing heavy top coats and with highly Churchillian cigars. Churchill is waving his hat to the photographers. Boldly signed and dated by Churchill on the snowy part of the image, Alexander has signed across the bottom of his coat, so that his signature is a little indistinct. Despite having clashed with Churchill in the past over his protectionist policies whilst Chancellor, Alexander was one of the Labour ministers who pushed for Churchill as leader of a coalition government. At the end of April 1940 Alexander, Clement Atlee and Sir Archibald Sinclair met with Churchill to discuss the formation of a coalition, a process that Chips Channon described in his diary as "Churchill prematurely choosing his cabinet." In early May when he did become PM Churchill invited Alexander and Sinclair to become First Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary of State for Air respectively. Alexander enjoyed a good working relationship with Churchill, carrying some of the latter's inspirational enthusiasm to the Admiralty whilst patiently representing their practical concerns to the PM. An appealing war-time image with contemporary signature.
Good large press photograph, (258 × 175 mm), mounted on card. Very slight damage at the top left-hand corner, but overall very good contemporarily mounted on card and framed and glazed.
