A superb autographed photo of Winston Churchill aboard Nelson's HMS Victory has been consigned to a Bonhams auction.
 The photograph was signed for Captain WT Horton, the official War Office photographer |
Visiting the naval dockyard of Portsmouth during the second world war, Churchill famously said: "We shall come through. We cannot tell when. We cannot tell how. But we shall come through."
Capturing this memorable moment from wartime Britain, the signed photograph is valued at £3,000-4,000 ($5,016-6,688) in the March 19 auction in London.
Churchill's tour of Portsmouth took place in January 1941, during the period he famously dubbed the country's "darkest hour" - the period between the fall of France in June 1940 and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, when Britain was under direct threat of invasion.
At a time when the greatest fear was the German threat in the skies, Churchill's visit to the ship of Lord Nelson, one of Britain's greatest naval heroes, was a reminder to the British public of the nation's might on the seas.
"There are many photos to connect Churchill and the Royal Navy during the twentieth century, but it's hard to imagine a single image that could more effectively link him to Britain's long and glorious naval past," commented Professor Christopher M Bell, author of Churchill and Sea Power (2012).
Following Churchill down the gangplank is Admiral Sir William Wilbourne James, commander in chief Portsmouth, who was the grandson of the pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais. James served as a deputy in "Room 40", the headquarters of naval intelligence and a forerunner to Bletchley Park and GCHQ.
Paul Fraser Collectibles has an excellent signed letter from Winston Churchill, which sees the then-secretary of state for war championing the rights of foreign troops following the first world war. We also have a collection of documents from Churchill's funeral.
