Early VINTAGE POSTCARD of Winston Churchill

Description

Half-length, hand-colored formal portrait by J. Russell & Sons of a very young Winston Churchill, hands clasped at his desk, with his full signature PRINTED across lower portion of image. Postcard is creased, but in very good condition overall. Verso, which is stamped and postmarked, “Manchester. 8:30 PM-Jan. 14 06,” contains a very tidy, inked roster of the winners in Manchester’s just-concluded Parliamentary election, along with their individual majorities, including: “Churchill – – 1241.” Manchester in 1906 was the greatest manufacturing city in Lancashire and a Tory stronghold. Having just crossed over from the Conservative Party, after serving almost six years as the Parliamentary member from nearby Oldham, Churchill was adopted as the Liberal candidate for North-West Manchester – one of six parliamentary constituencies in the city, only one of which was represented by a Liberal. Churchill had just been appointed Under-Secretary of the Colonies in the Liberal Government of P.M Campbell-Bannerman. Polling in Manchester was conducted on January 13. Running as a Free Trader, Churchill won this, his first election as a Liberal, in a landslide, leading five other Liberal party candidates to victory in Manchester, all of whom are listed here. A marvelous window into early-Churchillian history. Interestingly, Churchill in 1899 had issued as a campaign piece this very same portrait postcard during his first-time (ultimately losing) campaign in Oldham.