A Newly Discovered Memento, Emblematic of the Transatlantic Cooperation That Won World War II, Signed by Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the 8 Men Participating in a Mission of Solidarity

This great event, sponsored by the British and American governments, was the subject of media reports in both countries and a US government war-time documentary to support the mission, that spans nearly 30 minutes and can be watched below

 

Unique, and also signed by Gen. Bernard Montgomery, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, newsmen covering the event, and dozens of others

 

Compiled by John H. Jones, a British member of the mission, union leader, and future Member of Parliament, and retained by his heirs until its acquisition this year by Raab

 

We are not aware of any other item ever offered for sale carrying signatures of FDR, Eleanor, and Churchill together, let alone this varied and consequential collection of autographs

 

In 1943, the US government sent 4 American workers over to the UK as part of a worker exchange. The purpose was to cement desperately needed cooperation between the two war-time industries. This was as an inaugural exchange, the first of its type we are aware of. Those workers were escorted around England to view the state of British industry and war-time production by 4 Englishmen. At the end of that visit, the 8 men, 4 Americans and 4 Englishman boarded a boat and came to the US to do the same in the states. This visit, the first of its kind in the US, was covered by US and UK papers. The US War Information Office commissioned a (for then) long documentary on the subject.

A contemporary newspaper account describes the work of the men now in the US, and how they met with dignitaries and split up their tour geographically. “American workers who toured English war plants, four British labor unionists were welcomed by Mayor F. H. La Guardia on their arrival in New York….

“Pat J. Carey, of Handley Page Aircraft, London, will accompany Joseph Smith, of Chrysler Corp., to Detroit… James Henry Ward, aircraft fitter from the Armstrong Whitworth factory in blitzed Coventry, will go to Burbank, Calif., with Stanley Ceizyk, of Lockheed Aircraft… John Henry Jones, who worked in the Lancashire Steel Corp. near Manchester for more than 30 years, will be taken to the Bethlehem Steel Corp. plant at Bethlehem, Pa., by Hugh Mahoney, Bethlehem worker and member of United Steelworkers of America, CIO…. John G. Clark, of Imperial Chemical Industries, Billingham, will go to East St. Louis, 111., with Otto O. Butler, of the AFL Chemical Work ers to visit Butler’s home plant, Monsanto Chemical Co….

“The international exchange of visits is sponsored jointly by the Office of War Information and the British Information Service, with the cooperation of other agencies of both Governments and the labor movements of both countries. Regional labor representatives of the War Production Board, working with British consulates and other war agencies, will schedule the visits of the British workers. During their stay in Washington the eight workers will visit Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, high Army and Navy officials, the War Labor Board, the War Production Board, the War Manpower Commission, and other agencies concerned with labor and war production. They will be entertained by Ambassador Halifax at a tea at the British Embassy.”

These visits did occur, and this US-UK war-time industries inaugural exchange traveled the country, meeting with the President, First Lady, and other government officials. They also visited the front lines of production and met with hundreds of US workers. The film actually shows Eleanor Roosevelt striding out the White House door to greet the men, and also shows LaGuardia shaking hands with them in his office.

John Henry Jones was a steel worker who rose to represent the steel industry, and a protege of Labour Party leader Ernest Bevin, who is considered the father of the welfare state in Great Britain. Jones would go on to earn election to Parliament in July 1945 and served a number of terms there until his death in 1962.

Jones had a keen sense of taking part in history, and he prepared for his trip by putting together a presentation piece to be signed by those he met in the U.S. as well as those he would meet and work with in Britain. He had a photograph taken of family members in his garden. Top row left to right are Jones himself, son Peter, and Jones’ wife. Middle row left to right his son Arnold, daughter Florence, son Eric, and son Jack. Bottom center are daughter Margaret and Smut the cat. He would get signatures of notables in the margins, and thus would he establish a link between world leaders and his own family. This project turned out to be more sterling than he could have initially imagined, as he was able to surround his family with a unique presentation of the great war leaders – President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill – and numerous other figures important in the wall, all on one piece. Thus a unique piece that symbolizes the wartime cooperation between the nations, while combining a spectacular combination of signatures.

The piece is headed “American Delegation” and “British War Workers” and dated December 1943, on the arrival of the UK delegation, prepared by Jones for the visit itself.

All 8 members of the mission have signed:

Stanley Ceizyk, US delegation
JH Ward – UK delegation
Pat Carey – UK delegation
John G. Clark – UK delegation
Otto Butler – US delegation
Joseph Smith – US delegation
Hugh Mahoney – US delegation
Jack Jones – UK delegation

American notables include:

Franklin Roosevelt – President of the United States from 1933-1945
Eleanor Roosevelt – First Lady
Anna Roosevelt Boettiger – Daughter of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
Fiorello La Guardia – Popular Mayor of New York, director of the Office of Civilian Defense during the war

British notables include:
Winston Churchill – Prime Minister from 1940-1945
Clement Attlee – Prime Minister from 1945-1951
Montgomery of Alamein – Field Marshal, Britain’s foremost military leader of the war
Ernest Bevin – British Statesman, General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, Minister of Labour and National Service in the wartime coalition government
Hugh Dalton – Labour Party economist and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947
Quentin Hogg – Conservative politician and Lord Chancellor

Journalists include:

Edith Evans of the Associated Press
Edwin Lahey, Chicago News
Elizabeth Crockett of Life Magazine
Morton Gudebrod of the Associated Press
Herbert Kubly, of the New York Herald Tribune
R.J. Maher of the Associated Press
Felix Greene. British journalist
Virgil Pinkley American journalist

Other signatures include:

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Actor.
Max A.C. Warren – General Secretary of Church Missionary Society
Harry J. Carlin, author
Arthur Pugh. Trade unionist. Formed Iron and Steel Confederation, served on the Central Appeal Tribunal under the Military Service Acts.

Boxer Jimmy Wilde
Hugh Little – Office War information
Marshall J. dodge
Dubois Morris – missionary and peace activist

This remarkable piece of history, showing the cooperation that won the war, was not known to exist outside the family of Jones and has never been offered for sale. Items signed by both Roosevelt and Churchill are very uncommon – we’ve had only one other – and the addition of such people as Montgomery, Attlee and Eleanor Roosevelt make this an absolutely unique memento of World War II and the Allied leaders in it.