This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/15/2015
Partly printed Document Signed, "Winston S. Churchill," 2 pages, front & verso, 7" x 9.25", Chartwell, Westerham, Ken, January 20, 1954, being a portion of his tax return for the tax year ending on April 5, 1953. Usual folds, trimmed along right margin with minor loss at op right affecting a few lines of printed text, a few minor marginal tears, else very good condition.
On the verso, Churchill lists his income and expenses for the year, totaling £29,122, 1-4 in income and £15,530 18-7 in "CHARGES", leaving a taxable balance of £13,591. In the schedule he notes several sources of income including "author" from which he earned £21,141-while farming he noted as a "loss".
Within three months of the end of hostilities in Europe, Winston churchill found himself forced out of power with the Conservative defeat at the July polls. When his physician bemoaned the 'ingratitude' of the British public, Churchill countered, saying "I wouldn't call it that. They have had a very hard time." Indeed, many voters who voted against the Conservatives in the election still loved Churchill and hoped he would still remain Prime Minister-though this was constitutionally impossible (Martin. Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair: 1945-1965. 1988,pp. 57, 107-09). As a leader of the opposition in Parliament for the next six years, Churchill found time to author his epic six-volume history of the Second World War, which began appearing in print in 1948. Indeed for much of his political career, despite his patrician background, Churchill had supported his extravagant lifestyle by writing books and articles for magazines. (Until 1946, Ministers of Parliament received only a nominal salary, and prior to 1911, nothing at all). In 1953, his work earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Neddless to say, Churchill, like most of us, was no fan of taxes. in 1905 he commented that "We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." ("Why I am a Free Trader," W.T. Stead, ed., Coming Men on Coming Questions, 1905, p. 11).