EDEN, Anthony.

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Typed letter signed, lamenting Winston Churchill's physical decline. A poignant private account of Churchill's failing health in his final years, sent by Eden to Lord Beaverbrook, a close friend and ally of both men.Eden, Churchill's closest political lieutenant, served as his foreign secretary during most of the Second World War and again from 1951 until succeeding him as prime minister in 1955. Beaverbrook, the powerful press magnate and one of Churchill's oldest friends, served under him as minister of aircraft production in 1940.Churchill spent considerable periods of his final years holidaying abroad as the guest of wealthy friends, including eight cruises aboard Aristotle Onassis's yacht Christina between 1958 and 1963. On 26 March 1961, Churchill called in aboard the Christina at Bequia, where Anthony and Clarissa Eden, Churchill's niece, had a holiday home. Eden writes, "I must tell you of our meeting with Winston at Bequia. We saw him in bed in the morning and agreed at once that he could not come ashore. He looked very frail. We came back to the boat for luncheon and stayed with him until after four. The general state of his health, however, and the setting made us very sad". Churchill had suffered a further stroke and fractured a thoracic vertebra in November 1960. By early 1961, he had recovered sufficiently to appear occasionally in the Commons and travel abroad, but the episode marked a significant stage in his physical decline.Eden nevertheless saw "occasional

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