Hi Everyone

On the weekend of celebrations for DDay, I thought you might be interested in the story of Churchill's Bust in Monaco.

Its the 40th anniversary of the unveiling of Oscar Nemon's statue of Churchill by Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco as a tribute from Monaco for the work of Churchill during the War.

Photo attached which shows (from the left) Oscar Nemon, Mary Soames (Churchill's youngest daughter who is still alive and visits us at Chartwell regularly) Christopher Soames ,Princes Grace and Prince Rainier at the unveiling 40 years ago. With Churchill looking on in the background!

But there is another facinating story within the story.

When Oscar Nemon was commissioner to build the bust of Churchill for Monaco the Prince set the unveiling date before Oscar had fully finished the work. So he had to rush the final work to be ready for the unveiling. He continued working on a second bust and finished it to his exacting standards so 2 years later one dark night the statues were switched. The first work has sat in the Palace of Monaco for 38 years gathering dust.

I have instigated a plan to have it donated to Chartwell and put on show with other Oscar Nemon Statues of Churchill and Clemmy. It will be interesting to see how it fares but it is an interesting story non the less.

I usually carry a Standard at the Remembrance Day ceremony at Churchill's statue in Monaco - see a photo of that for last year.

Finally Jenny and I have been on duty at Chartwell yesterday for special D Day activities and I was wearing my medals along with my other volunteer colleagues. 2 DD vets came out to Chartwell and were presented with bronze busts of Churchill.

Regards

Lindsay