CHURCHILL, Winston S. (ed.).

£9,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The British Gazette. Signed on an initial leaf by Winston Churchill, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, and John C. C. Davidson MP. A preceding leaf records in a calligraphic hand: "British Gazette / May 5th - 13th 1926 / Complete set of 17 editions / one of 12 such sets in existence".As the General Strike shut down most newspapers, Baldwin called on Churchill to organize an emergency newspaper to present the government's case. Churchill took over the offices of the Morning Post and scraped together enough strike-breaking newspapermen to produce it. Davidson oversaw the publication while Churchill served as editor. The first number of 5 May sold 232,000 copies, and by the final number on 13 May sold over two million."Churchill ran the British Gazette not merely as a medium for Government announcements and propaganda, but also as an avowedly strike-breaking weapon, to such an extent that in the subsequent Parliamentary debate, he was bitterly attacked by Labour MPs. His retort is one of his best-known; 'I utterly decline to be impartial as between the Fire Brigade and the fire'" (Woods, p. 162).This set includes the variant forms of the early issues, and the extended form of No. 8 containing "The Birth and Life of the British Gazette". It was evidently produced to commemorate the event for those closely involved in the Gazette's production. We have not encountered any of the 11 other sets described as "in existence".

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