Real Press Photograph: Winston Churchill bids good-night to the Queen, Elizabeth II, after a final dinner at Downing Street, 4 April 1955, the night before he retired as Prime Minister.

About this Item

20 cm x 15 cm. Near fine condition. Small crease at corner. Written description lightly on the back not showing through.  Real press photograph developed at the time for use in the newspapers of South Africa.

According to the Daily Mirror, the Queen reportedly wrote Sir Winston a heartbreaking, handwritten letter after he retired in 1955, saying how much she would miss him. She wrote that no other Prime Minister would "ever for me be able to hold the place of my first prime minister, to whom both my husband and I owe so much and for whose wise guidance during the early years of my reign I shall always be so profoundly grateful". At his funeral she insisted on arriving at the ceremony before his family out of respect for them, despite the strict rule that the sovereign always arrives last for any event. Seller Inventory # 80351