E.G. Spencer Churchill, [album of newspaper clippings], 1906/7

172 x 120mm; pp. [8, index], [129 numbered leaves, filled] rear endpapers used

Good condition: binding a little shaken; cover with partially removed label

A revealing volume of newspaper cuttings, mainly from 1906–8, put together by Edward G. Spencer-Churchill, Winston’s cousin and an aspiring politician himself.

At this early point there are close parallels between the two men’s careers. Spencer-Churchill was studying all the major 1906 General Election issues, which were also Winston’s concerns at the time – Chinese labour in the colonies, and education reform at home. Some of the clippings are of Spencer-Churchill’s own published letters to newspapers, but he also records the activities of his more famous cousin, at one point noting in manuscript ‘Winston in H of C’ alongside a clipping.

There is some pencil highlighting to the clippings, and the volume ends with a series of typed and manuscript pages concerning tariffs and investments – including a signed letter from an employee of the Tariff Commission.

Tariff reform was the major issue within the Conservative Party in the period leading up to the 1906 General Election.