Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Menzies’ Wartime Tour – England (1941)

play Please note: this clip is silent
clip At home with the Churchills education content clip 3

Original classification rating: not rated. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

This clip from a home movie filmed by the Australian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, begins with a title card that says ‘At home with the Churchills’ and shows footage of London during the Blitz in 1941 and Sir Winston Churchill at home with his family including his daughter Sarah Churchill and colleagues including John Winant, Lord Cranbourne and W Averell Harriman. It ends with rare footage of Winston Churchill relaxing in his garden.

Curator’s notes

This clip, shot on 16mm colour film, includes close-ups of Sarah Churchill, Sir Winston’s daughter, the actress who starred in feature films including Royal Wedding opposite Fred Astaire.

Among Sir Winston Churchill’s colleagues in this clip, is a close-up of John Winant, US Ambassador to Great Britain during the Second World War and chairman of the Social Security Board in the USA.

This is followed by John Harriman, who served President Franklin Roosevelt as special envoy to Europe, and was present at the Atlantic Charter, the meeting between Winston Churchill and the US President at Placentia Bay in August of 1941. He served as the US Ambassador to the Soviet Union between 1943 and 1946 and the Ambassador to Britain in 1946. He was later the chief US negotiator at the Paris peace talks on Vietnam.