An original press photograph of Winston S. Churchill affectionately touching his grandson, Sir Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames, on the date of his christening in March 1948

Published by Published by The Daily Telegraph 29 March 1948, London, 1948

About this Item

This original press photograph shows a smiling Winston S. Churchill in late March 1948 looking down into the pram bearing his grandson while tickling the infant s cheek. The silver gelatin press measures 11.5 x 7.5 in (29.25 x 19.05 cm). The condition is good plus, with edge wear, a closed tear to the top that intersects Churchill s hat along with associated wrinkling and a small chip. There are small pieces missing to three corners of the photo and creasing to the upper and lower edges. Despite the wear and flaws, the image of Churchill s countenance and hand are notably sharp and quite charmingly sentimental.Affixed to the verso is the clipped newspaper caption from original publication, the right edge of which is missing, making a word or two of each line difficult to determine. The caption reads: "Mr. Churchill with the infant son of daughter, Mrs. Christopher Soames. The baby was christened Arthur Nicholas Winston at West__ yesterday, in the 14th century font in which C__ Wolfe, conqueror of Quebec, was christened in 1__. Large crowds gathered on the village green to g__ Mr. and Mrs. Churchill on their way to the chu__." The verso also contains a number of handwritten publication notes, a faded copyright stamp, a fragment of the original typed caption, and a Daily Telegraph stamp indicating that the image was originally published on "29 Mar 1948". Baroness Mary Soames, nee Mary Spencer-Churchill (1922-2014), was the youngest and longest-lived of Winston and Clementine's five children. She was raised at Chartwell. During the Second World War, Mary joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, serving in anti-aircraft batteries. Later in the war, Mary accompanied her father on several of his journeys abroad, including his journey to Quebec and the Potsdam summit with Truman and Stalin. She demobilized in 1946 and in February 1947 Winston walked Mary up the aisle when she married Arthur Christopher John Soames.Sir Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames (born 12 February 1948), pictured here in his pram with his grandfather, is the eldest son of Mary and Christopher. Nicholas Soames became a Conservative Member of Parliament in 1983, serving until 2019, first for Crawley, then for Mid Sussex. Soames was Minister of State for the Armed Forces from 1994 to 1997 in the government of John Major. This press photo once belonged tothe working archive of The Daily Telegraph. During the first half of the twentieth century, photojournalism grew as a practice, fundamentally changing the way the public interacted with current events.Newspapers assembled expansive archives, including physical copies of all photographs published or deemed useful for potential future use, their versos typically marked with ink stamps and notes providing provenance and captions. Photo departments would often take brush, paint, pencil, and marker to the surface of photographs themselves to edit them before publication. Today these photographs exist as repositories of historical memory, technological artifacts, and often striking pieces of vernacular art. Seller Inventory # 005430

Bibliographic Details

Title: An original press photograph of Winston S. ...

Publisher: Published by The Daily Telegraph 29 March 1948, London

Publication Date: 1948

Binding: Photograph