CHURCHILL, Winston S. Autograph letter signed to Florence Gwendoline, Lady Jellicoe (wife of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, later 1st Earl, Commander of the British Grand Fleet), Admiralty, 11 September 1914, asking if he may submit her name to launch HMS Valiant, the first such ceremony to have taken place since the war began, 'I am sure that both the Navy and the country would rather it were performed by you than by anyone else', 1¼ pages, 8vo, bifolium.
Only a month previously, Churchill had abruptly sidelined the commander of the Home Fleet, Admiral George Callaghan, replacing him with his deputy, Jellicoe, against the latter's repeated protests, with the new title of Commander of the Grand Fleet.
CHURCHILL, Winston S. Autograph letter signed to Florence Gwendoline, Lady Jellicoe (wife of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, later 1st Earl, Commander of the British Grand Fleet), Admiralty, 11 September 1914, asking if he may submit her name to launch HMS Valiant, the first such ceremony to have taken place since the war began, 'I am sure that both the Navy and the country would rather it were performed by you than by anyone else', 1¼ pages, 8vo, bifolium.
Only a month previously, Churchill had abruptly sidelined the commander of the Home Fleet, Admiral George Callaghan, replacing him with his deputy, Jellicoe, against the latter's repeated protests, with the new title of Commander of the Grand Fleet.
