Grace Hamblin (1 January 1908 – 15 October 2002) served as secretary to both

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

and Lady Clementine Churchill from the early 1930s, until their deaths. She subsequently served as the first curator at

Chartwell Chartwell is a English country house, country house near Westerham, Kent, in South East England. For over forty years, it was the home of Sir Winston Churchill. He bought the property in September 1922 and lived there until shortly before his ...

, the Churchills' country home in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

Life

Hamblin was born in Kent in 1908, the daughter of the head gardener at an estate adjacent to Chartwell. Joining Churchill's staff as a junior secretary in 1932, in 1940 she moved with the Churchills to

Downing Street Downing Street is a gated street in City of Westminster, Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In a cul-de-sac situated off Whiteh ...

, becoming private secretary to Clementine Churchill. Hamblin received the

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in Churchill's resignation honours list in 1955. In 1965, she was one of the very few non-family members invited to attend Churchill's interment at

St Martin's Church, Bladon St Martin's Church in Bladon near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, is the Church of England parish church of Bladon-with-Woodstock. It is also the mother church of St Mary Magdalene at Woodstock, which was originally a ch ...

. Hamblin became the first administrator when Chartwell was opened to the public by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

in 1966, and, in conjunction with Lady Churchill and her daughter

Mary Soames Mary Soames, Baroness Soames (; 15 September 1922 31 May 2014) was an English author. The youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, she worked for public organisations including the Red Cross and the Women's ...

, was largely responsible for the organisation and arrangement of the house following Churchill's death.

Robin Fedden Henry Robin Romilly Fedden, CBE (26 November 1908 – 20 March 1977) was an English writer, diplomat and mountaineer. He was the son of artist Romilly Fedden and novelist Katherine Waldo Douglas. Life Raised mostly in Chantemesle, Seine-et-Oise, ...

, Deputy Director-General of the Trust and author of the first guidebook to Chartwell, recorded her 33 years service to the Churchill family and to the house. Famously discreet throughout her life, Hamblin achieved some notoriety in 2015 when her leading role in the destruction of

Graham Sutherland Graham Vivian Sutherland (24 August 1903 – 17 February 1980) was a prolific English artist. Notable for his paintings of abstract landscapes and for his portraits of public figures, Sutherland also worked in other media, including printmakin ...

's portrait of Churchill was revealed. Presented to Churchill by the Houses of Lords and Commons as an 80th birthday present, the realistic portrait was detested by both Churchill and his wife and, acting on Lady Churchill's instructions, Hamblin and her brother removed the painting from Chartwell at some point in the mid-1950s and burnt it. Hamblin retired from the post of Administrator at Chartwell in 1973. Hamblin died in 2002 at her home at

Westerham Westerham is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 3.4 miles east of Oxted and 6 miles west of Sevenoaks, adjacent to the Kent border with both Greater London and Surrey. I ...

, Kent, which she had bought with funds from the sale of one of Churchill's own paintings. A collection of her papers, mainly consisting of notes for speeches she gave about her life with the Churchills, is held at the

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers ...

Churchill College Churchill College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but retains a strong interest in the arts ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Notes

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamblin, Grace 1908 births 2002 deaths Winston Churchill Officers of the Order of the British Empire Private secretaries