This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Size | About 50 items |
Abstract | Samuel Musgrove Howes was chauffeur to Sir Winston Churchill from 1928 to 1936. The collection includes correspondence, pictures, a scrapbook, and clippings of Samuel Musgrove Howes. Items all relate to Churchill and his family, and include three letters from Churchill and six from Churchill's wife, Lady Clementine Spencer Churchill. |
Creator | Howes, Samuel Musgrove, 1907-1988. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Rare Book Literary and Historical Papers. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Gina Overcash, September 1988
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
This collection was processed with support, in part, from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Samuel Musgrove Howes was born in West Ham, London, in 1907. He was educated (by Trade Scholarship) at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation, Poplar, 1921-1923. He apprenticed as a motor mechanic at a Ford Service Depot, Nottingham, 1923-1926.
Howes began work as a chauffeur in 1926, obtaining a First Class Chauffeur's Certificate from the Royal Automobile Club in 1928. He served as Sir Winston Churchill's chauffeur from 1928 to 1936. In 1932, he married the Churchills' parlour maid, Olive. After Howes worked as an engineer in Great Britain, he and his wife moved to Canada in 1955 and to California in 1957. He retired as Group Engineer at the Solar Aircraft Company in San Diego, Ca., in 1970.
Howes died in California in 1988. He maintained correspondence with Churchill; Churchill's wife, Lady Clementine Spencer Churchill; and Churchill's daughter, Mary Soames, throughout his life.
[Adapted from Winston S. Churchill, Martin Gilbert. Companion Volume 5, Part 3, p. 502.]
Back to TopThe collection includes correspondence, pictures, a scrapbook, and clippings of Samuel Musgrove Howes, chauffeur to Sir Winston Churchill from 1928 to 1936. Items all relate to Churchill and his family, and include three letters from Churchill and six from Churchill's wife, Lady Clementine Spencer Churchill.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Letters to Samuel M. Howes and recommendations for him, mainly from or about the Churchill family. Howes maintained contact with Sir Winston and Lady Clementine Churchill until their deaths. He also corresponded with their youngest daughter, Mary Churchill Soames. Undated items are primarily Christmas cards from either Mary, Lady Soames; there is also one from Lady Clementine shortly before her death in 1977. In 1981, Martin Gilbert, Churchill's biographer, asked Howes for recollections about Churchill and both Gilbert's letters and Howes's response, in the form of photocopies of Gilbert's book, are located in the first folder.
Folder 1 |
1936-1987 |
Folder 2 |
Undated |
Howes's resume; copies of memorial services and funeral programs for Winston Churchill, Clementine Churchill, and Sarah Churchill; blank postcards of Chartwell, Churchill's house in Kent, and of Churchill; and a genealogical poster of Churchill's family. There are also a few clippings on three pages of an album of Howes's.
Folder 3 |
Other Items |
Folder 4 |
Clippings |
Scrapbook containing magazine and newspaper clippings about Churchill and his family. The scrapbook has been removed from its binder, but pages are in original order.
Folder 5 |
Folder not used |
Oversize Volume SV-11040/1 |
1960s-1980s, 30 pp. Scrapbook of Howes. |