Onwards To Victory : War Speeches by the Right Hon. Winston S. Churchill C.H., M.P. 1943

London: Cassell and Company. Good in Good+ dust jacket. (1944). First Edition. Hardcover. Front free endpaper cut out. The half-title leaf which has the Churchill inscription and the frontispiece have been detached and re-glued. A little bruising to corners of boards. Foxing to page edges. Some foxing to endpapers and preliminary leaves. 75mm tear across head of dust-jacket spine. Some chips and tears to corners of dust-jacket and ends of dust-jacket spine. Gummed paper repair at head of dust-jacket spine on reverse side. Dust-jacket protected in archival mylar cover. ; This copy inscribed and signed by Winston S. Churchill on half-title page. "To F. W. Doidge / from / Winston S. Churchill / 1945". Also loosely included is a typed signed letter dated July 6 1945 from Churchill's aide-de-camp C. R. "Tommy" Thompson, on letterhead paper of the Prime Minister, to the recipient of the book F. W. Doidge. The letter reads, "Dear Mr. Doidge, You will remember when you were at Chequers Mr. Churchill said that he would gladly sign his latest book of speeches for you, and I now have much pleasure in enclosing a copy, which he asks me to send to you with his best wishes. Yrs sincerely C. R. Thompson". The recipient is Frederick Widdowson Doidge (1884-1954), born New South Wales, Australia, emigrated to New Zealand in 1902. "An advocate of a coalition government during the Second World War, in May 1940 Doidge demanded the internment of all aliens, the removal of labour barriers to production, the conscription of all men of military age and the sending of 200,000 troops to Britain. In 1943 he supported the Second New Zealand Division’s deployment in Europe rather than the Pacific: ‘What would our men think if they were not allowed to be in at the kill?’ In May 1945, while on a trip to Europe with the leader of the opposition, S. G. Holland, he visited the Belsen concentration camp, an experience that shook him to the core. [. . .] Doidge was appointed high commissioner for New Zealand in the United Kingdom in 1951. The twin summits of his career in London were the Coronation of Elizabeth II and the Commonwealth prime ministers’ conference. Renewing his contacts with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and with Beaverbrook, he pressed the dual causes of New Zealand – British trade and the Commonwealth connection. He was appointed a KCMG in 1953." - Te Ara / The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, online, entry on "Doidge, Frederick Widdowson," accessed December 2023. "Commander Charles Ralfe "Tommy" Thompson, CMG, OBE (22 November 1894 – 11 August 1966) was a British naval officer and Prime Ministerial aide-de-camp. [. . .] Throughout Churchill's tenure as Prime Minister, Thompson remained at the Admiralty, but it is in his function as Prime Minister's Aide-de-camp that he is best remembered. During World War II, Thompson was rarely absent from Churchill's side and was present during major conferences and events in London and abroad." - Wikipedia entry on "Tommy Thompson (Royal Navy officer)," accessed December 2023. x, 278 pages + frontispiece + 5 illustrations on 2 plate leaves. Blue cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine. Page dimensions: 215 x 135mm. "The fourth volume of Winston Churchill's War Speeches" - from front panel of dust-jacket. First printing. [Reference: Woods / ICS A101a; Langworth "Connoisseur's Guide" pp. 222-4 - "The fourth war speech volume takes a decidedly more upbeat tone as the fortunes of war turn in favour of the Allies and Churchill begins to envision victory."] ; Signed by Author .