Henry Channon
Sir Henry Channon | |
---|---|
Southend West Southend (1935–1950) | |
In office 14 November 1935 – 7 October 1958 | |
Preceded by | The Countess of Iveagh |
Succeeded by | Paul Channon |
Personal details | |
Born | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | 7 March 1897
Died | 7 October 1958 London, England | (aged 61)
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse |
Lady Honor Guinness
(m. 1933; div. 1945) |
Children | Paul Channon |
Alma mater | University of Chicago Christ Church, Oxford |
Sir Henry Channon (7 March 1897 – 7 October 1958), often known as Chips Channon, was an American-born
Channon was first elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1935. In his political career he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to
Biography
Early years
Channon was born in Chicago to an
Channon's parents were Henry Channon II and his wife Vesta (née Westover),[3] known as Harry.[4] After graduating from Francis W. Parker School and taking classes at the University of Chicago,[5] Channon travelled to France with the American Red Cross in October 1917 and became an honorary attaché at the American embassy in Paris the next year.[3] Channon associated with the artistic elite of Paris, having dinners with the writer Marcel Proust and poet Jean Cocteau.[6]
In 1920 and 1921, Channon was at
Author
Channon rejected his American background and was passionate about Europe in general and England in particular. The United States, he said, was "a menace to the peace and future of the world. If it triumphs, the old civilisations, which love beauty and peace and the arts and rank and privilege, will pass from the picture."[9]
His anti-Americanism was reflected in his novel, Joan Kennedy (1929), described by the publishers as "the story of an English girl's marriage to a wealthy American and of her attempts to bridge the gulf created by differences of race and education."[10] Channon's anti-Americanism did not prevent his living off his family's money, which had been made in America. A grant of $90,000 from his father, and an $85,000 inheritance from his grandfather made him financially comfortable with no need to work.[9]
He wrote two more books: a second novel, Paradise City (1931) about the disastrous effects of American capitalism,
Relationships
In 1933, Channon married the brewing heiress Lady Honor Guinness (1909–1976), eldest daughter of
In July 1939, Channon met the landscape designer Peter Daniel Coats (1910–1990), with whom he began an affair that may have contributed to Channon's separation from his wife the following year. His wife, who had conducted extra-marital affairs from at least 1937, asked Channon for a divorce in 1941 as a result of her affair with Frank Woodsman, a farmer and horse dealer who was based close to their Kelvedon Hall estate. Their marriage was finally dissolved in 1945.[3] Channon formally sued for divorce and his wife did not contest the suit.[16] Among others with whom Channon had a relationship was the playwright Terence Rattigan. Channon was on close terms with Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and the Duke of Kent, although whether those relationships extended beyond the platonic is not known.[3]
Politics
Channon, who was a
In March 1938, the rising Conservative minister
Channon visited a concentration camp, which he praised in his diary as "tidy, even gay", being described in a 2021 article as "impressed" by what he saw. Normally a snob, Channon wrote that the purpose of these camps was to "wipe out class feeling".[18] Speaking of the Nazi concept of the Volksgemeinschaft (people's community), Channon noted that "class feeling has become practically non-existent in Germany".[18]
In September 1938 during the Sudetenland crisis, Butler was in Geneva heading the British delegation to the League of Nations. As the parliamentary private secretary to Butler, Channon was also in Geneva, where he expressed much loathing for the League in his diary, calling it "that absurd little Assembly" whose meetings were "unsitthroughable".[19] Channon wrote in his diary: "The League is now really only an anti-dictator club. The bar and lobbies of the League's building are full of Russians and Jews who intrigue with and dominate the press, and spend their time spreading rumors of approaching war, but I don't believe them, not with Neville at the helm. He will wriggle out somehow".[20] However, despite his dislike of the League, Channon enjoyed the grand parties in Geneva.[20] Channon wrote in his diary that the League of Nations was a "racket" and called the Soviet foreign commissar Maxim Litvinov "the dread intriguer" through "not so evil as Maisky".[20] Channon was much enraged when he overheard Litvinov telling the chief of the Spanish delegation "better hope for a world war because otherwise you're fucked!"[20] Channon took Litvinov's remark as evidence that the Soviet Union wanted to push the world into another world war.
President Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia was known to be a supporter of the "new diplomacy" associated with the League of Nations, and a major fear of the British government was that if Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, Beneš would try to activate the collective security provisions of the League, which in theory would commit all of the League member states to come to the aid of Czechoslovakia. Britain as a permanent member of the League Council had the power of the veto, so in practice, there was no chance of the League ordering Britain to go to war, but the Chamberlain government felt it would be embarrassing to veto a Czechoslovak request for help from the League. As a consequence, Butler and Channon fought hard to prevent the League from discussing the Sudetenland crisis at all in September 1938.[19]
After
Once it became clear that he would not achieve ministerial office, Channon focused on his other goal of elevation to the peerage, but in this, too, he was unsuccessful. The highest honour he achieved was a knighthood in 1957.[3] His friend Princess Marthe Bibesco sent him a telegram, "Goodbye Mr. Chips" (referencing the 1934 novella of that name by James Hilton).[22] Channon, who smoked and drank heavily, died from a stroke at a hospital in London on 7 October 1958, at the age of 61.[23][24]
Legacy
Diaries
At various points in his life Channon kept a series of diaries. Under his will, he left his diaries and other material to the British Museum "on condition that the said diaries shall not be read ... until 60 years from my death."[25] An expurgated selection from the diaries was published in 1967.[26] The necessity for expurgation is illustrated by the reaction of an Oxford contemporary who, when told that no diaries from that period existed, said, "Thank God!"[27] The editor of the original edition, Robert Rhodes James, said he saw well-connected people go white when they heard that Channon had kept a journal.[9]
An entry in Channon's diary for 1941, describing his introduction to a young member of the
In his comments accompanying the published selection, Rhodes James stated that "Peter Coats edited the original MS of the Diaries."[30] He also stated that Coats arranged the preparation of a complete typescript of the Diaries as Channon's handwriting was often difficult to read.[31] Coats also carried out an initial expurgation before the editorial discretion exercised by Rhodes James.[32]
Robert Rhodes James quotes in his introduction to the diaries a self-portrait written by Channon on 19 July 1935:
- Sometimes I think I have an unusual character – able but trivial; I have flair, intuition, great good taste but only second rate ambition: I am far too susceptible to flattery; I hate and am uninterested in all the things most men like such as sports, business, statistics, debates, speeches, war, and the weather; but I am riveted by lust, furniture, glamour and society and jewels. I am an excellent organiser and have a will of iron; I can only be appealed to through my vanity. Occasionally I must have solitude: my soul craves for it. All thought is done in solitude; only then am I partly happy.[33]
Reviewing the published diaries in
The diaries, even in their bowdlerised form, provoked a writ for libel from one of Channon's fellow MPs, though the case did not come to court, being settled privately in the decade after Channon's death.
Four previously unknown volumes turned up at a car boot sale in 1991.[37] It was reported after Paul Channon's death that his heir, the diarist's grandson, was considering authorising the publication of the uncensored texts.[9] An unexpurgated three-volume edition, edited by journalist and historian Simon Heffer has now been published; the first volume was published in March 2021.[38] While the 1967 edition began in 1934, the first volume of the complete version begins in 1918, and runs to 1938.[39] However, diaries Channon wrote between 1929 and 1933 remain missing. The second volume, running from 1938 to 1943, was published on 9 September 2021;[40] the third volume, covering years from 1943 to 1957, was published on 8 September 2022.[6][41]
Reviewing the first volume,
Reputation
Among his contemporaries his reputation ranged from high to low. Nancy Mitford said of the diary, "you can't think how vile & spiteful & silly it is. One always thought Chips was rather a dear, but he was black inside how sinister!"[citation needed] Duff Cooper thought Channon a "toady"[3] but Cooper's widow, Lady Diana Cooper, wrote immediately after Channon's death, "never was there a surer or more enlivening friend ... . He installed the mighty in his gilded chairs and exalted the humble ... without stint he gave of his riches and his compassion."[45]
Max Hastings referred to Channon as a "consummate ass".[46]
Notes
- ^ The Diaries of Chips Channon Vol 1. Penguin UK. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
- ^ The Diaries of Chips Channon Vol 3. Penguin UK. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Davenport-Hines, Richard, "Channon, Sir Henry (1897–1958)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, accessed 29 August 2009
- ^ a b c d e f g The Times obituary, 9 October 1958, p. 16
- ISBN 978-1-257-02549-7.
- ^ a b c Cooke, Rachel (28 February 2021). "Gossip, sex and social climbing: the uncensored Chips Channon diaries". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
- The Manchester Guardian, 5 July 1921, p. 12
- ^ Channon, p. 20, quoted by Davenport-Hines
- ^ a b c d McSmith, A, "Original Westminster hellraiser: The secret world of Chips Channon", The Independent, 13 April 2007
- ^ Advertisement, The Times, 22 March 1929, p. 10
- ^ The Manchester Guardian, 29 June 1933, p. 5
- ^ The Observer, 21 December 1952, p. 7
- ^ The Times, 2 July 1933, p. 9
- ^ Carreño, p. 83
- ISBN 978-0-926494-33-6.
- ^ The Times, 21 February 1945, p. 2
- ^ Carreño, p. 69
- ^ a b c "A Chronicle of the British Establishment's Flirtation with Hitler". The Economist. 4 March 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
- ^ a b Beck 1999, p. 252.
- ^ a b c d Carley 1999, p. 60.
- ^ Colville, pp 141–141
- ^ Ted Morgan, Maugham: A Biography, 1980, p. 481
- ^ Heffer, Simon (4 September 2022). "Secretive sex, political spats and the end of WW2: Chips Channon's final scandalous diary". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
- ^ "Sir Henry Channon". The Times. 9 October 1958. p. 16.
- ^ The Manchester Guardian, 11 December 1958, p. 8
- ^ Docherty, Katie (1 November 2019). "Hutchinson to publish 'extraordinary' diaries of politician Chips Channon". The Bookseller. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^ Diaries p. 6.
- ISBN 0-312-28886-7.
- ^ Heffer, Simon (5 September 2021). "Will I marry again? Or shall I live with Peter?". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
- ^ Diaries p. 253n.
- ^ Diaries p. 22.
- ^ Davenport-Hines, Richard (5 March 2021). "Living, loving, partygoing". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
- ^ Diaries p. 11.
- ^ "Diary of a super-snob", The Observer, 19 November 1967, p. 27
- ^ The Guardian, 1 March 1969, p. 3
- ^ Harris, Robert (6 June 1993). "A party animal". The Independent on Sunday. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^ The Daily Telegraph obituary of Paul Channon, 30 January 2007
- ^ Heffer, Simon (20 February 2021). "Exclusive: Inside the uncensored diaries of Britain's most scandalous MP". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
- ^ Ferguson, Donna (3 November 2019). "Revealed: uncensored diaries of the Tory MP who partied with Nazis and the idle rich". The Observer. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^ "Hutchinson Heinemann to release second volume of Channon's diaries". .thebookseller.com. Retrieved 12 December 2021..
- ^ The Diaries of Chips Channon Vol 3. Penguin UK. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ Lexden, Lord (23 March 2021). "Sex and politics in inter-war Britain" (PDF). The House. Retrieved 24 March 2021 – via Lord Lexden.
- ^ "The Diaries of Henry 'Chips' Channon: Snob’s Progress"
- ^ The ODNB entry prints the name of the Rattigan character as "Croker-Harris"
- ^ The Times, 23 October 1958, p. 17.
- ^ Hastings, Max., Winston's War, Churchill 1940–1945. 2010, Knopf, New York, p. 14
References
- Beck, Peter (1999). "Searching for Peace in Munich, not Geneva: The British Government, the League of Nations and the Sudetenland Question". In Igor Lukes; Erik Goldstein (eds.). The Munich Crisis, 1938 Prelude to World War II. London: Frank Cass. pp. 236–256.
- Carley, Michael Jabara (1999). 1939 The Alliance That Never Was and the Coming of World War II. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. ISBN 9781461699385.
- Carreño, Richard (2011). Lord of Hosts: The Life of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon. Philadelphia, PA: WritersClearinghousPress. ISBN 978-1-257-02549-7.
- Channon, Henry (1967). ISBN 978-1-85799-493-3.
- Colville, John. The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries, Volume 1. London, Sceptre, 1986, ISBN 0-340-40269-5
Further reading
- Cooke, Rachel (28 February 2021). "Gossip, sex and social climbing: the uncensored Chips Channon diaries". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 July 2021.