Description:

Churchill Winston 1874 - 1965 Winston Churchill files his income taxes for 1949-1950, including income from his multi-volume history of the Second World War.

Partly printed Document Signed, "W S Churchill," 2 pages, front and verso, 7" x 9.25", Chartwell, Westerham, Kent, November 29, 1950, being a portion of his tax return for the tax year ending on April 5, 1950. Usual folds, trimmed along right margin with minor loss at top right affecting a few lines of printed text, a few minor marginal tears, else very good condition.

On the recto, Churchill lists his income and expenses for the year, totaling Σ23,268, 17/4 in income and 17,905, 13/3 in "CHARGES," leaving a taxable balance of Σ5,363, 4/1.

Within three months of the end of hostilities in Europe, Winston Churchill found himself forced out of power with the Conservative defeat at the July polls. When his physician bemoaned the 'ingratitude' of the British public, Churchill countered, saying "I wouldn't call it that. They have had a very hard time." Indeed, many voters who voted against the Conservatives in that election still loved Churchill and hoped he would still remain Prime Minister-though this was constitutionally impossible (Martin.Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair: 1945-1965. 1988, pp. 57, 107-09). As leader of the opposition in Parliament for the next six years, Churchill found time to author his epic six-volume history of the Second World War, which began appearing in print in 1948. Indeed for much of his political career, despite his patrician background, Churchill had supported his extravagant lifestyle by writing books and articles for magazines. (Until 1946, Ministers of Parliament received only a nominal salary, and prior to 1911, nothing at all). In 1953, his work earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Needless to say, Churchill, like most of us, was no fan of taxes. In 1905 he commented that "We conŒtend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosŒperŒity is like a man standŒing in a bucket and tryŒing to lift himŒself up by the hanŒdle." ("Why I am a Free Trader," W. T. Stead, ed., Coming Men on Coming Questions, 1905, p. 11).

Provenance: Steve Forbes collection. A similar tax document signed by Churchill sold at a New York auction for a hammer price of $3,000 twenty years ago (R. M. Smythe, New York, June 8, 1995, lot 56).

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