Lord Watson, of Britain’s House of Lords, to Address Westminster Audience
Watch Lord Watson’s speech live.
A recreation of the day’s activities when Sir Winston Churchill made his famous visit to deliver the “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College will be held Thursday, October 13, in honor of the Right Honorable Lord Alan Watson of Richmond, an award winning BBC broadcaster and former President of the Liberal Party, and Churchill’s granddaughter Edwina Sandys.
Sandys is the sculptress responsible for the magnificent “Breakthrough” sculpture on the Westminster College campus, which she created from eight actual panels of the Berlin Wall.
Lord Watson and honored guests will be served the same luncheon menu Churchill enjoyed, complete with Callaway County ham, at noon in the National Churchill Museum.
At 2:15 p.m. Lord Watson will formally open the Museum’s new exhibition, “’Sinews of Peace and the Power of Prose.” This exhibition will focus on Churchill’s mastery of language and how the words in his famous “Sinews of Peace” speech, or the “Iron Curtain” speech as it is more commonly known, changed the course of history.
The center piece of the exhibition will be Churchill’s original draft of the “Iron Curtain” speech with handwritten corrections dictated by Churchill to his secretary Edith Nina “Jo” Sturdee. This marks the first time the speech has been exhibited in its draft form.
“Viewers will be able to experience Churchill’s edits to his most famous post-war speech, hear rare audio, watch video clips and see photographs and never-before exhibited documents, including correspondence between Churchill, President Harry Truman and Westminster College President Franc McCluer,” said Timothy Riley, Sandra L. and Monroe E. Trout Director and Chief Curator of the National Churchill Museum.
The exhibition is made possible, in part, by the Sandra L. and Monroe E. Trout Endowment at Westminster College.
A public reception hosted by the Mid-Missouri Friends of the National Churchill Museum will be held following the ribbon cutting of the Museum and Lord Watson will sign copies of his latest book, Churchill’s Legacy Two Speeches to Save the World. His new book analyzes the impact of Churchill’s two greatest post-World War II speeches, which he delivered at Westminster College and later that year in Zurich, Switzerland.
At 6 p.m. Lord Watson will deliver a speech on “Churchill’s Legacy: A Speech to Save the World” in the same Historic Gymnasium where Churchill delivered the “Iron Curtain” speech. Lord Watson’s speech is free and open to the public.
Immediately following the speech, a dinner will be held at 7 p.m. for Lord Watson in the Mueller Leadership Hall. Tickets to the dinner can be purchased through the Museum at https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/lord-watson56056.html or by contacting Meda Young at Meda.Young@westminster-mo.edu or 573-592-5602.
All the events are being held in conjunction with the 70th anniversary of Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech.
