On September 1, 1939 - the day that Germany invaded Poland - Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain bowed to public and parliamentary sentiment and invited Winston Churchill to join his cabinet. Chamberlain’s offer was “firm but not precise,” lacking any mention of a specific role. Churchill sat in limbo and frustration until two days later, when, shortly after Chamberlain announced Britain’s declaration of war on Germany, the Prime Minister asked Churchill to return as First Lord of the Admiralty. Churchill had previously served as First Lord from October 1911 through May 1915.

Churchill was thrilled to return to his former role and his old office. A naval aide observed Churchill’s return to the Admiralty on the evening of his appointment. “As soon as Winston reached his old room he told me to look and see whether there was a chart case fixed to the back of a large sofa at the east end of the room. There was: I pulled out the charts and Winston looked at them and said they were the ones he has used up to the time he left the Admiralty in 1915.”
 
The apex of the story of Churchill’s return to the Admiralty is the three-word cable that was sent to all ships in the fleet on the night of his return: “Winston is back.”
 
First Lord is a Civilian appointment, roughly equivalent to Secretary of the Navy in the United States. I’ve learned a great deal about Churchill’s time at the Admiralty, but there was one thing I never thought about until a few weeks ago … whose place did he take?
 
James Stanhope, the 7th Earl Stanhope, was First Lord of the Admiralty from October 1938 until the morning that Churchill replaced him. 
 
Churchill, whose sense of grace is an under-appreciated aspect of his character, wrote to Stanhope on Monday, September 4:
 

My dear Stanhope,

Fortune of war which chased me a quarter of a century ago from the Admiralty, has now reversed its action. I am sure you know that I have done nothing to disturb you. Indeed I had already accepted a deal in the War Cabinet ‘without portfolio’, when a change of plan brought me into this office. The few hours I spent there last night show me the excellent condition in which you have left it; and I have no doubt that this impression will be deepened as my knowledge grows. I should like very much however to learn from you the points you had especially in mind, in order that nothing may be overlooked in changing guard. Perhaps you will let me know when I may call upon you.
 
I hope we are to be colleagues as well as neighbors, and that I may count on your assistance.
 
Believe me,
 
Yours very sincerely,
Winston S. Churchill

 
In this case, Churchill displayed an abundance of grace. The two men could not have been more different, especially in their level of engagement with naval affairs. Stanhope was described by historian William Manchester as “a Gilbert and Sullivan first lord, celebrated for his ignorance of ships, of naval strategy, even of the sea. ‘Tell me,’ he once asked a sea lord, what is a ‘lee’ exactly?” (I can answer that! I used to own a boat. The lee is the side away toward which the wind is blowing).
 
Eight months later, when Churchill became Prime Minister, he assembled a remarkable cabinet of distinctive personalities. American broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow observed: “To me, one of the most interesting things about Mr. Churchill’s Cabinet is this: he appears to be putting outstanding critics in positions where they must by their deeds refute their own criticism.”
 
Churchill, however, had little interest in dissent over the conduct of naval affairs. His selection to replace himself as First Lord of the Admiralty - Albert Victor “A.V.” Alexander - was dismissed by some royal navy officers for his deference to the Prime Minister. In a letter to his wife Barbara later in the war, Admiral Sir James Somerville wrote: “Alexander is completely in [Churchill’s] pocket and says ‘OK Chief’ to everything.’
 
Churchill’s personal private secretary John Colville noted in his diary that Alexander “had many virtues.” But, he added, “They did not include modesty. He annoyed [First Sea Lord] Dudley Pound and others by talking about ‘my navy’, until one day the King pointed out that it was his.”
 
Thanks for reading. Believe me,
Bill