(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)
When Churchill became Prime Minister on May 10, 1940, he "inherited" John (Jock) Colville.
Colville worked in Chamberlain’s Private Office and Churchill kept Colville on in order to assure a smooth transition in the PM’s office in those desperate days.
Colville had been a supporter of appeasement and no admirer of Churchill. But his view of Churchill gradually changed. He became not just an admirer but a friend. In Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship Jon Meacham includes this Colville description of Churchill :
He behaved in public just as he behaved in private. There were no two faces, no mask that would drop when the audience had retired….Most others who worked closely with Churchill have said things very similar to what Colville says about “no two faces, no mask.”
If Churchill was not in the mood, he found it difficult, he found it difficult to put on an act of affability even when circumstances demanded it; and in so far as he had good manners (which many would have denied) they came from fundamental kindness of heart. They were in no way cultivated, and it was unnatural for him to display a sentiment he did not genuinely feel.(pgs. 9-10)
In that regard what a contrast we have between Churchill and FDR, almost all of whose intimates record, often with admiration, his ability to wear any number of “masks,” depending on the occasion and the people he was with. Historians are still uncertain regarding how many people FDR told in 1944 he’d like to have as his Vice-Presidential running mate. They also dispute whether Truman was really his preferred choice or "pushed" on him by party bosses.
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