CHURCHILL, Winston S.

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Typed letter signed, to Charles Masterman, on a proposed Home Office appointment. In a lengthy letter marked "Secret", Churchill, as Home Secretary, endorses the Labour MP David Shackleton for a Home Office post while questioning the cost of removing him from Parliament and the labour movement.Masterman had strongly recommended to Churchill that Shackleton (1863–1938) be brought into the Home Office as a labour adviser (his letter of 7 September 1910 is in the Churchill Archives, CHAR 12/2/77). Churchill responds: "There could be no question that he is far and away the best man for the post, and the Home Office would gain enormously by his services. But can he be spared from the House of Commons? I think his departure would be a very serious loss to the democratic forces and the Lib-Lab Coalition - at the same time, also a tremendous come-down for him. Yet, on the other hand, it is very hard that a man's own virtues and qualities should exclude him from rendering useful and honourable services to the State, and condemn him to the sordid anxieties of Labour politics". Churchill extended the invitation, and Shackleton left Parliament in November 1910, entered the Home Office, and quickly rose to Permanent Secretary at the newly created Ministry of Labour, becoming the first working-class person to attain so senior a post.Churchill also discusses their planned Home Office work and its timing, given officials' annual leave. He wishes to focus on choosing a period to "resume activ

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