Grace Hamblin (1 January 1908 – 15 October 2002) served as secretary to both

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

and Lady Clementine Churchill from the early 1930s, until their deaths. She subsequently served as the first curator at

Chartwell Chartwell is a country house near Westerham, Kent, in South East England. For over forty years it was the home of Winston Churchill. He bought the property in September 1922 and lived there until shortly before his death in January 1965. In th ...

, the Churchills' country home in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Life

Hamblin was born in Kent in 1908, the daughter of the head gardener at an estate adjacent to Chartwell. Joining Churchill's staff as a junior secretary in 1932, in 1940 she moved with the Churchills to Downing Street, becoming private secretary to Clementine Churchill. Hamblin received the

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in Churchill's resignation honours list in 1955. In 1965, she was one of the very few non-family members invited to attend Churchill's interment at St Martin's Church, Bladon. Hamblin became the first administrator when Chartwell was opened to the public by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

in 1966, and, in conjunction with Lady Churchill and her daughter

Mary Soames Mary Soames, Baroness Soames, (; 15 September 1922 31 May 2014) was an English author. The youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, she worked for public organisations including the Red Cross and the Women's ...

, was largely responsible for the organisation and arrangement of the house following Churchill's death.

Robin Fedden Henry Robin Romilly Fedden, CBE, (1908–1977) was an English writer, diplomat and mountaineer. He was the son of artist Romilly Fedden and novelist Katherine Waldo Douglas. Raised mostly in Chantemesle, France, Fedden went to Cambridge Universi ...

, Deputy Director-General of the Trust and author of the first guidebook to Chartwell, recorded her 33 years service to the Churchill family and to the house. Famously discreet throughout her life, Hamblin achieved some notoriety in 2015 when her leading role in the destruction of Graham Sutherland's portrait of Churchill was revealed. Presented to Churchill by the Houses of Lords and Commons as an 80th birthday present, the realistic portrait was detested by both Churchill and his wife and, acting on Lady Churchill's instructions, Hamblin and her brother removed the painting from Chartwell at some point in the mid-1950s and burnt it. Hamblin retired from the post of Administrator at Chartwell in 1973. Hamblin died in 2002 at her home at

Westerham Westerham is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 3.4 miles east of Oxted and 6 miles west of Sevenoaks, adjacent to the Kent border with both Greater London and Surrey. It is recorded as early as t ...

, Kent, which she had bought with funds from the sale of one of Churchill's own paintings. A collection of her papers, mainly consisting of notes for speeches she gave about her life with the Churchills, is held at the Churchill Archives Centre at

Churchill College Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establish ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

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Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamblin, Grace 1908 births 2002 deaths Winston Churchill Officers of the Order of the British Empire