CHURCHILL’S HOME

Grey River Argus, 12 August 1946, Page 4

CHURCHILL’S HOME

BOUGHT BY FRIENDS FOR THE NATION LONDON, August 9. Chartwell House, in Westerham, Kent, which is to belong to the nation, has been Mr Churchill’s country home for the past twentyfour years. A group of Mr Churchill’s friends of various political parties, who desire to remain anonymous, headed by ‘‘Mr X”, have bought tne house and eighty acres. Mr Churchill and his family will continue to live there during his lifetime. It will then be handed to the National Trust as a permanent memorial to the part Mr Churchill has played in history. It is stated that .the idea of buying the house originated during one of the darkest periods of the war. Someone asked Mr Churchill which of the war’s hardships he felt most, and he answered: “Being unable to go down to Westerham”. Mr Ch'urchill, in his own phrase, spent many days) there “mupking about” in the ornamental lake, and putting up walls ah his own bricklayer. After his lifetime the house and grounds will' be open to the public, and the rooms in which he worked yill be preserved as a museum.Mr Churchill, with some members of his family, will leave atput August 25 for a holiday in Switzerland. Friends have placed a villa at their disposal on Lake Geneva. They will go to Berne on September 16 as guest? of the Swiss Government at the Chateau de Lohn for two or .three days before returning to England.