Gordon Hamilton Compiled (2 results)

Illustrated stapled wraps. 32cm. pp. 32. Very Good. Blue marker to top cover (hiding owner?), erasable pencil check marks.

Hardcover. First edition. This posthumous "collection of Reminiscences" of Winston's Churchill's uncle and political colleague is triply compelling in provenance. First, it is warmly inscribed, signed, and dated by the editor and compiler to Winston S. Churchill. Second, it was subsequently owned by Winston's only son, Randolph S. Churchill. Third, it was thereafter part of the noted collection of Donald Scott Carmichael. The inscription is inked in seven lines on the half title: "To | Winston Churchill | in remembrance of his friend, uncle, | & colleague | from | Ishbel Aberdeen | January 1910". To each pastedown (front and rear) is affixed the bookplate of Winston's only son and first official biographer, Randolph S. Churchill. Tipped onto the front free endpaper recto is the printed ownership plate of "The Winston S. Churchill Collection of Donald Scott Carmichael." Carmichael (1912-2008) was a noted collector of both Churchill and Roosevelt material. The book is remarkable for provenance, not condition, which is very good but a bit unsightly externally. The red cloth binding is square and tight, but significantly spine-faded, with further differential toning to the covers, as well as light shelf wear to extremities and a few small scuffs and blemishes. The contents are quite good, the book unread, with most signatures following the "CONTENTS" page remaining uncut. Spotting appears confined to the first and final few leaves. We have left unerased pencil marks on the front and rear pastedowns - a check mark and "Presentation Copy" on the front pastedown, an inscrutable "y." and "L. | 21.9.76" on the rear pastedown. The binding is protected beneath clear, removable mylar and the book is housed in a stout, black cloth Solander case, with an inset red Morocco spine label, gilt spine print, and red paper-lined interior. The Solander is near fine, with a bruised upper front corner.The editor and compiler of this book was the sister of Edward Marjoribanks, second Baron Tweedmouth. Ishbel Marie Marjoribanks Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair (1857-1939) was, at turns, vice-regal consort, author, philanthropist, and women's rights advocate. As Vice-Regal Consort to Governor General John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, from 1893 until 1898, Lady Aberdeen organized the National Council of Women in Canada, became first sponsor of the Women's Art Association of Canada and helped found the Victorian Order of Nurses. Lady Aberdeen was the first woman to address the House of Commons and the first woman to receive an honorary degree in Canada.Her brother, for and about whom this volume was compiled, was Winston Churchill's uncle by marriage, having wed the third daughter of the seventh Duke of Marlborough in 1873. Lady Fanny Octavia Louisa (1853-1904) was sister to Winston's father and a force in her own right, "endowed with a native gift for society" and sharing "her husband's labour in bringing together Liberal politicians of all shades of opinion." She was in the gallery in 1901 when her nephew made his maiden speech in Parliament and, a few days before illness claimed her life in 1904, bid her husband, Edward, convey to Winston that "she takes the greatest interest in your career and hopes you will make a great name for yourself and your family."The subject of this book, Edward Marjoribanks, second Baron Tweedmouth (1849-1909) sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament from 1880 to 1894, when the death of his father elevated him to the peerage and removed him to the House of Lords as Lord Tweedmouth. He was invited by Prime Minister Lord Rosebery to join the cabinet as Lord Privy Seal and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, where his "sure grasp of the internal mechanism and sentiment of the party gave him due weight in the inner counsels of the ministry" until Rosebery's government fell in 1895. This was not the end of his political career. Of note, Marjoribanks preceded his nephew, Winston, as First Lord of the Admiralty, from 1905 to 1908 during the premiership of Campbell-Bannerman - in whose Government young Winston served as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. The 1904 death of his wife, Winston's aunt, from cancer, dealt Marjoribanks "a blow from which he never completely recovered." Soon after relinquishing the Admiralty and becoming Lord President of the Council in 1908 under Prime Minister Asquith, Marjoribanks was "stricken down by a cerebral attack" from which he never rallied. His sister, Lady Ishbel Aberdeen, who inscribed this book to Winston in January 1910, cared for Marjoribanks during the final months before his death in September 1909. References: Gilbert Vol. II; ODNB; The Canadian Encyclopedia.