COALITION

See the entries for Bevin and Ross in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘Sir David Ross, K.B.E., LL.D.’ and signed ‘Ernest Bevin’. Begins: ‘Dear Sir David, / In connection with my general plans I wish as soon as possible to make definite proposals concerning the Fair Wages Clause.’ He understands that ‘discussions between the T.U.C.

See the entries for Bevin and Ross in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage. Addressed to ‘The Vice Chancellor, / Oxford University’. The two lines of Bevin’s autograph valediction ascending and converging at the same time: ‘Yours sincerely / Ernest Bevin’. He was glad to receive Ross’s letter ‘about the visit of the Greek Regent to this country’. He feels sure that ‘the Regent will wish to accept an invitation to visit Oxford’. He gives tentative dates for his stay, undertaking to ‘have a day at least set aside for this purpose’.

An extraordinary letter, rubbing the nose of a pro-Asquith Liberal in the muck on the eve of his leader Lloyd George’s landslide Coalition victory in the 1918 ‘Coupon Election’. Guest, who was Winston Churchill’s cousin, is described in his entry in the Oxford DNB as a ‘highly controversial’ figure who ‘knew where all the bodies were buried’, a useful attribute for someone who served as the Coalition Chief Whip from 1917 to 1921. The recipient Willoughby Hyett Dickinson (1859-1943), later an influential proponent of the League of Nations, began his career a Liberal MP.

1p., folio. On aged and creased paper. With Coalition Liberal Organisation stamp at bottom right, and manuscript date 'Decr 1920' at head. The agenda is in four numbered parts, including an 'Address by the Right Honourable J. Austen Chamberlain, M.P. (Chancellor of the Exchequer)', and the proposing by T. W. H. Inskip, M.P., of F. A. Wilshire, 'Prospective Coalition Candidate Thornbury Division', with Sir George Davies in support.