PRESENTATION COPY FROM WINSTON CHURCHILL’S STEP-FATHER The Life and Letters of Admiral Cornwallis

Smart copy of the life of Nelson’s friend Admiral William Cornwallis written and inscribed by Winston Churchill’s step-father, a man just 16 days older than his distinguished stepson. The subject of the biography, Admiral Cornwallis, an ancestor of the author, was the brother of the defeated British general at Yorktown, Charles Cornwallis, and himself Commander in Chief of the Channel Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars.

Bound in bright blue buckram, square and unmarked. Spotting to the foreedges and to the preliminary and final leaves of the book. Inscribed on the front flyleaf: ‘To Inez Quilter with the Author’s good wishes. Xmas 1928’. Quilter was a schoolgirl poet of the Great War and daughter of the MP Sir William and his wife Gwynned Quilter. The author, George Cornwallis West (1871-1945) was first married to Jenny Spencer-Churchill, widowed following the death of her second husband, Randolph Churchill, and later to Stella Campbell - Mrs Patrick Campbell - for whom George Bernard Shaw wrote the part of Eliza Doolittle. Quite a concatenation of association!