CHURCHILL (Winston). Autograph letter signed "Winston" to Le - Lot 170

CHURCHILL (Winston). Autograph letter signed "Winston" to Leonie Leslie. London, August 1, 1943. 1p. in-4, engraved armorial letterhead "Prime Minister" addressed to "10,Downing Street, Whitehall". Framed under glass with photographic portrait. Extremely rare war letter from Winston Churchill "Dearest Leonie, Shane tells me he is going over to see you next week, so Isend by him these few lines. It is always a great pleasure to me to feel that you have been watching so intently all the tremendous matter of war State in which Ihave my part, have followed month by month our steady march from mortal peril to what is now almost certain victory. You have sent me a lot of charming messages which have cheered me... on this long journey. They give me, what no one else can give me, the link with my youth with my mother. Ilove to feel your presence on this distracted but triumphant scene. May you long be spared to wave me all of us onward. Your ever loving Winston" Translation: "Dearest Leonie, Shane [the diplomat, writer and Irish nationalist John Randolph, known as Shane, son of Leonie Leslie, and therefore cousin of Winston Churchill] tells me he's going to make the crossing [Leonie Leslie was then living in her castle in Ireland] to see you next week, so I'm passing these few lines on through him. It is always a great pleasure to me to feel that you have watched so closely the whole tremendous business of war and state in which I hold my part, have followed month after month our irresistible march from mortal peril to what is now almost certain victory. You have sent me many charming messages that have given me courage on this long journey. They give me what no one else can, the link with my youth and my mother. I love to feel your presence on this demented but triumphant stage. May you long be spared from wishing me, and all of us, well. Your ever affectionate Winston..." "The whole tremendous business of war and state..." Winston Churchill was the soul of resistance to the Nazis in Europe, and from 1940 to 1945, he was the energetic and inflexible Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a country that had to endure the terrible bombardments of the "Blitz" and that remained alone in Europe against Germany. Although the Axis forces had reached the height of their power in 1942, the situation began to change in 1943, thanks to the joint action of the British, Americans and the Soviet Union - in Africa, Russia, Asia and the Pacific. The Allies had just gained a foothold in Italy, causing Mussolini to be deposed, and while the principle of a landing in France had just been adopted at the Washington Conference, Churchill had also obtained the conciliation of Generals Giraud and de Gaulle. Leonie Leslie, Winston Churchill's beloved aunt Born into American high society, Leonie Leslie (1859-21 August 1943) was the daughter of Leonard Jerome, a businessman nicknamed "the King of Wall Street", but spent part of her youth in Paris, where her mother ran a successful salon. She married a wealthy Anglo-Irish aristocrat and British army officer, John Leslie, but, being brilliant and beautiful, became the intimate of a cadet of Queen Victoria, the Duke of Connaught, with whom she appears to have had an affair. Her sister Jennie, a close associate of the future Edward VII, also married into the English aristocracy, marrying the Duke of Marlborough's grandson, Randolph Churchill, to whom she bore two sons, including Winston Churchill.