CHURCHILL, Winston S. Autograph letter signed to C.M.P. Mayo (of Harrow School), Colonial Office, 18 October 1906, four pages, 8vo, bifolium, on half-mourning paper; envelope. Provenance: Sotheby's, 16 December 1996, lot 236.

CHURCHILL, Winston S. Autograph letter signed to C.M.P. Mayo (of Harrow School), Colonial Office, 18 October 1906, four pages, 8vo, bifolium, on half-mourning paper; envelope. Provenance: Sotheby's, 16 December 1996, lot 236.

A TRIBUTE TO HIS OLD MATHEMATICS TEACHER. Churchill has been touched by praise for Lord Randolph Churchill from an old teacher at Harrow ('It was a labour of love to me'), and pays ringing tribute to Mayo's efforts: 'You were the only person who ever succeeded in teaching me any mathematics, or indeed -- let me add -- in making me work at anything that did not excite my interest. I regard my work at mathematics under your care as the most salutary mental discipline I ever received', though he adds firmly 'It is a detestable subject & I rejoice to think I have never since had occasion to pursue it further than the simplest forms of addition & subtraction'.

Mayo was to be among the guests at Churchill's wedding two years later.
Writings of Sir Winston Churchill © Estate of Winston S. Churchill