N.Z. Churchilliana May Be Sold In U.S.

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30892, 27 October 1965, Page 9

N.Z. Churchilliana May Be Sold In U.S.

"The Press" Special Service

WELLINGTON, Oct. 25.

A substantial collection of Churchilliana—almost certainly the only one in New Zealand—has been revealed by a Seatoun man who was formerly Sir Winston Churchill’s bodyguard.

Mr R. E. Golding, who followed Sir Winston Churchill like a shadow for 18 months in 1946 and 1947, has numerous mementos of his brief but close association with the great man.

Among them are:— A painting, untitled, by Churchill—the only one in New Zealand.

More than a dozen cigars, all handed to him by Churchill at various times, but not smoked because Mr Golding does not smoke. A testimonial in which Churchill wrote that Mr Golding “in every way gave me satisfaction.” A complete collection of Commonwealth peace issue stamps, with Churchill’s autograph. A collection of Churchill’s books, most of them with his autograph on the fly leaf.

Photographs of Churchill, with Mr Golding with him in his role of bodyguard.

Mr Golding joined the London Metropolitan Police in 1935, became attached to the Special Branch in 1936, and became an officer navigator in the Royal Air Force in 1941. After the war he returned to the Special Branch, and was seconded as Sir Winston Churchill’s personal security man in 1946. Sir Winston Churchill was then Leader of the Opposition, and lit was a period of his life when he did much painting. Mr Golding lived with him at his London house at Hyde Park Gate and at Chartwell, and travelled with him in Europe and elsewhere. Mr Golding remained with the Special Branch after his 18 months with Sir Winston Churchill, but left in 1951 to come to New Zealand, where he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force, was a security officer with the Royal tour, and became Deputy Director of Intelligence before leaving the R.N.Z.A.F. in 1958 to become a public relations consultant.

Mr Golding is oft on a business trip round the world this week and this is the reason, coupled with the overseas boom in Churchilliana,

why he has unearthed his various Churchill mementos. He said he would take them with him, and if the price was right he would sell them in the United States. He has noted that a Texas oil millionaire recently paid £14,000 for a Churchill painting. His own painting was given

to him by ChurchMl one night at Chartwell about 10 p.m. He asked for it, he said, while with Churchill in his studio. Churchill kicked a canvas to him along the floor and said: “You can have this one.”

“It wasn’t the one I really wanted,” said Mr Golding. “But I wasn’t going to argue.”

Churchill was not one to argue with, or to make small talk with, said Mr Golding. But his supposed brusqueness was not bad—it was of the same order as the casual 'brusqueness which existed among members of a family, with the trappings of politeness cut away.

Mr Golding said he enjoyed working with Churchill, and had only one bad moment, when he lost him once. But Churchill made a joke of it. There were moments of

crisis, and there were arrests, but there was never a real attempt on Churchill’s life while he was bodyguard. Mr Golding said he had a much more dangerous assignment when matched against I.R.A. agents before the war. This week’s overseas trip will provide Mr Golding with another interesting assignment. He is going to promote “Delicious Country Foods” in America.

This is the New Zealand export company of which Mr Graham Kerr is a director. It intends to combine the choice foods products of about 20 firms under one label for export to many countries. Mr Golding hopes that American hotels, big restaurants, and supermarket chains will be interested in the New Zealand brand.