A SMALL ARCHIVE OF CORRESPONDENCE FROM ADMIRAL DUDLEY NORTH ...

Estimate

£80 - £120

A SMALL ARCHIVE OF CORRESPONDENCE FROM ADMIRAL DUDLEY NORTH TO LORD ELIBANK, AND VICE VERSA, 1954-5

written mainly on blue stationery (one on ex-RY V&A) from Beaminster in reply to Elibank with one copy of Elibank to North, often railing against key figures of the wartime government, notably Churchill: When I think of Churchill's monstrously-unjust and indescribably mean treatment of you...and provoked by Montgomery stating on the wireless that Churchill was 'the greatest Englishman of all time'

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Admiral Dudley North (1881-1961) was appointed Flag Officer Commanding Gibraltar and Mediterranean Approaches in November 1939 and was promoted Admiral on 8 May 1940. He was relieved of his command in December 1940 on the grounds of his failure to challenge a Vichy French naval squadron some three months previously. He was later exonerated of blame and Ludovic Kennedy considered the failure to challenge the squadron the fault of people in London, a view heavily emphasised in this group of letters.