8 June 1946 press photo of Churchill and other leaders at V-Day celebrations for Sale

8 June 1946 press photo of Churchill and other leaders at V-Day celebrations For Sale

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8 June 1946 press photo of Churchill and other leaders at V-Day celebrations:
$280.00

VICTORY DAY - An original press photograph capturing leaders of the Empire - Prime Minister Clement Attlee, former Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, and South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts - at the post-Second World War London Victory Day Celebrations on 8 June 1946

Condition: Approaching Very Good

This original press photograph captures iconic leaders Attlee, Churchill, King, and Smuts at the London Victory Day Celebration on 8 June 1946. The unusually large gelatin silver print on matte photo paper measures 9.5 x 12 inches (24.1 in x 30.5 cm). Condition approaches very good. The paper is clean and bright with pin holes to the four corners and minor wear and curling to extremities. The verso features two ink stamps and three original captions, once printed, two typed. A copyright stamp attributes the image to “P.A. Reuter” while a “PUBLISHED” stamp of “The Daily Telegraph ART DEPARTMENT” is dated “10 JUN 1946”.

A newspaper caption from original publication (uncharitably overlooking Smuts) reads “Mr Attlee, Mr. Churchill and Mr. Mackenzie King watching the Victory Parade from the saluting base in the Mall.” A typed caption on blue paper titled “VICTORY DAY”, and dated “June 8th 1946”, reads: “The Saluting Base in Mall. Watching the March Past, left to right, Mr. C. R. Attlee, the Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, Mr. Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, and Field Marshal Smuts; behind are the Duchess of Kent and her daughter, Princess Alexandra.” Affixed to the verso, extending below the image, an additional typed caption names those in the image. Interestingly, this caption’s verso reads, “The Art Editor regrets that he is not able to make use of the enclosed.” The caption presumably precedes 10 June 1946, when the image was published.

Less than a year earlier, on 26 July 1945, Churchill had lost his wartime premiership to a landslide General Election victory for the Labour Party. Hence he was the only man in the image not a sitting prime minister. The London Victory Celebrations of 1946 were part of British Commonwealth, Empire, and Allied victory commemorations. In London there was a military parade and a night time fireworks display. At The Mall stood a saluting stand where the royal family and wartime leaders were honored. Among them were military leaders, heads of state, and architects of victory whose importance exceeds our ability to encapsulate and just a small portion of whom are captured in this photograph.

In the image, on the far left is Clement Richard Attlee (1883-1967), the socialist Labour leader who famously replaced Churchill as Prime Minister in July 1945 and whom Churchill would in turn defeat and replace in October 1951. On the other side of Churchill sits William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950) Canada’s wartime (and longest-serving) Prime who played a major Allied role, not least of which was facilitating the relationship between Britain and America; in their final meeting, Churchill would tell King You have built a bridge between the United States and the United Kingdom.”

Of the figures here pictured, the last, South African Prime Minister Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950). Churchill’s life was entwined with that of all three men with whom he sat, but it was Smuts who had the oldest and perhaps most interesting and personal relationship with Churchill. Their acquaintance began inauspiciously. In 1899 Winston Churchill, age 24, was captured during the Boer War. Churchill’s Afrikaner interrogator was Jan Smuts, age 29. Smuts opposed Churchill’s release. Churchill famously escaped. They met again in 1906, when Churchill was at the Colonial Office, and Smuts had become a Commando general. Their agreement to “a fresh start… between Briton and Boer” led to formation of a self-governing Union of South Africa. (Roberts, WWD, p.105) Smuts served as its second prime minister from 1919-1924. Both men attended War Cabinets in the First World War. The September 1939 parliamentary vote that brought South Africa into the Second World War on the Allied side also resulted in the return of Smuts to the premiership (1939-1948). Churchill became prime minister in May 1940. By 1941 Smuts had joined the British War Cabinet, been appointed a Field Marshal in the British Army and become a critical advisor to Churchill.

Ref #: 005351
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