Sir
Winston S. Churchill
Person of the Century
At the corner of Spring Garden
Road & Grafton Street, in Halifax's downtown, is located a large statue of
Winston Churchill. It faces west on a lawn in front of the main branch of
the city library, with the Great Man caught in mid-stride, a look of great
concern on his face. In summer, it's a busy spot with buskers playing
music, kids hacky-sacking or generally lazing about, and office workers enjoying
their lunch-hour. One wonders how many acknowledge this figure of the man
to whom they owe so much.
By the spring of 1940, the
German push into the Low Countries and France was about to begin. On the
morning of May 10, word arrived in London of the German army's invasion of
Holland and Belgium. Chamberlain's leadership of the war effort had come
under increasing fire during the previous weeks, and his Government had now
fallen. King George VI called upon Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the
Admiralty, to form a new government. At age 65, the politician, soldier,
journalist and adventurer was setting out to face the greatest challenge of all, the
battle for freedom over totalitarianism.
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"... as I went to bed at
about 3 a.m., I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had
the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as though I
were walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation
for this hour and for this trial. Eleven years in the political wilderness
had freed me from ordinary party antagonisms. My warnings over the last
six years had been so numerous, so detailed, and were now so terribly
vindicated, that no one could gainsay me. I could not be reproached either
for making the war or with want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a
great deal about it all, and I was sure I should not fail. Therefore,
although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering
dreams. Facts are better than dreams."
| -- The
Gathering Storm, WSC |
| The
Second World War, Volume 1 |
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| Statue raised by:
unknown |
Date raised: unknown |
In his classic history of
Halifax, "Warden of the North" (McLelland and Stewart, 1971, Toronto),
the late Thomas Raddall discussed German u-boats harassing the entrance to
Halifax harbour.
A happier and much more welcome visitor was Winston Churchill, on
his way back from the Washington Conference in 1943. He spent several hours moving about the city, strolled through the Public Gardens, and
inspected the port from the top of Citadel Hill. The great man was in a jovial mood (Italy had surrendered a few days before) and when he was
recognised and cheered by groups of townsmen and servicemen he stopped and shook hands with many of them, made his famous V sign, playfully pinched a
little boy, and told Mayor Lloyd, "Now, sir, we know your city is something more than a shed on a wharf." He sailed from Halifax in a
battleship on September 14.
A year later he was back again, this time with a large staff and
accompanied by Mrs. Churchill, entering the harbour aboard the Queen Mary on September 10 en route to the Quebec Conference. Hundreds of servicemen
and citizens recognized the Prime Minister and his inevitable cigar. They gathered at a respectful distance about the train; and again "Winnie" rose
to the occasion, asking the guards to stand aside, making a little speech from the platform of his car, and finally leading the crowd in a sing-song
- "When the Lights Go On Again", "Tipperary", "O Canada" and "God Save the King". Once before this a British Prime Minister had made a speech in
Halifax (Stanley Baldwin, with his memorable reference to "this old British city on which the flag was never lowered") but Churchill's
informal chat from the train, and his "something more than a shed on a wharf", pleased the Haligonians more.
Having lead the triumph over Nazism, Churchill rose once again to show the way to victory against the 20th
century's second scourge, communism. Churchill himself fired the first shot
of the Cold War on March 5, 1946, at Westminster College in Fulton,
Missouri. In his controversial speech, "The Sinews of Peace",
which became known as the "Iron Curtain" speech, Churchill alerted the
West to the Soviet threat. He prescribed the formula for the victory that
would be won four and a half decades later -- to never allow the situation to
exist where the Soviet Union would find itself in a balance of power with the
West, as it would not take long for the aggressive Soviets to test that balance
in a trial of strength. The West listened, and won.
Please visit the official
website of The Churchill Center, Washington, D.C. at www.winstonchurchill.org.
Many prominent groups and publications named Winston Churchill their
Person
of the Century. A fine article describing the basis for this was written
by Christopher Matthews, syndicated columnist and host of CNBC's "Hardball"
-- the article sits on The Churchill Center website and is entitled "The
Very Model of a Democratic Statesman" -- check it out. The
article appeared in The Weekly Standard's
January 10, 2000 edition naming Churchill as Man of the Century. Another
great piece by Chris was published Christmas Day 1999 in The San Francisco
Examiner, titled "Churchill's
fighting words saved the century".
Early in 2001, one of the
United States Navy's newest and most powerful ships will join the Atlantic fleet
at Norfolk -- the
U.S.S. Winston S. Churchill
(DDG81), an Arleigh Burke class AEGIS guided missile destroyer. The ship's motto, "In War: Resolution. In Peace:
Goodwill", is taken from part of the moral of
Churchill's war memoirs. The 20th century's greatest defender of freedom
stands as a proud namesake for a great ship that shall be sailing the oceans in defence of freedom in the 21st
century. WSC will always be welcome at Halifax.
Never have so many owed so
much...