CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965) and H.M. KING ABDULAZIZ BIN ABDUL RAHMAN AL SAUD (1875-1953)

Lot 242
12.07.2023 00:00UTC +00:00
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£ 2 772
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 993198
Lot 242 | CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965) and H.M. KING ABDULAZIZ BIN ABDUL RAHMAN AL SAUD (1875-1953)
Estimate value
£ 2 000 – 3 000
CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965) and H.M. KING ABDULAZIZ BIN ABDUL RAHMAN AL SAUD (1875-1953)

[Group of five black and white press photographs. British press Services: Auberge du Lac, Fayoum, Egypt, February 1945.]

Rare contemporary images of Churchill's wartime meeting with H.M. King Ibn Saud on 17 February 1945.



A group of 5 press photographs, BPS serial numbers RAD1614-1618 (145 x 230mm), with manuscript descriptions on right-hand margins of rectoes, stamps of British Press Services, Ministry of Information and 'Passed by Censor No. 9' on versoes (loose, extracted from an album, the photographs held in place by photo-corners and with remnants of tissue guards from album, images with faint creasing to extremities).



After meeting the American President, Franklin D Roosevelt, on 14 February 1945 aboard the American destroyer USS Quincy in the Suez Canal, Ibn Saud proceeded to Fayoum, arriving on the USS Murphy at Fayoum on 17 February. Churchill described it thus: 'Ibn Saud ... had been transported to the conference with the President in he American destroyer Murphy, and travelled with all the splendour of an Eastern potentate, with an entourage of some fifty persons, including two sons, his Prime Minister, his Astrologer, and flocks of sheep to be killed according to Moslem rites' (The Second World War VI, pp.397-398). Churchill's own habits posed a delicate social and diplomatic problem: 'I had been told that neither smoking nor alcoholic beverages were allowed in the Royal Presence. As I was the host at luncheon I raised the matter at once, and said to the interpreter that if it was the religion of His Majesty to deprive himself of smoking and alcohol I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them. The King graciously accepted the position. His own cup-bearer from Mecca offered me a glass of water from its sacred well, the most delicious I had ever tasted.' With the war drawing to a close, it was necessary for Churchill to meet Middle Eastern leaders, particularly with a view to British rule in the Mandate of Palestine and the forseeable influx of Jewish migrants there. The access to, and supply of oil, and the flow of trade traffic through the region, especially through the Suez Canal, were also discussed. The photographs also show Churchill with H.M. King Farouk of Egypt, H.M. Haille Selassie, and Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden meeting the Egyptian Prime Minister.

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