July 7, 2010
"I decline utterly to be impartial as between the fire brigade and the fire."
Churchill and the British Gazette
On this day (July 7) in 1926 Churchill uttered the above line most memorably in a speech to the House of Commons delivered as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's government, responding to criticism that his editing of the BRITISH GAZETTE during the recent General Strike had been biased in favor of the government. THE BRITISH GAZETTE was published for a total of eight issues, from 5 May-13 May 1926, created by the government to replace the striking daily newspapers. Beside editing the broadsheet, Churchill also contributed original, unsigned articles to issues No. 1, 2 & 3 (May 5-7) and the final issue No. 8 (May 13), in which he charted: "The Birth and Life of The British Gazette." We have a very rare complete set of THE BRITISH GAZETTE, together with an extraordinarily rare copy of THE SUNDAY GAZETTE, as noted and described by bibliographer Frederick Woods: “The Chartwell Trust archives also contains a proof of The Sunday Gazette dated 9 May 1926," wrote Woods. "...Typographically similar to the British Gazette, it is separately numbered (No.1) and is printed on one side of the sheet. The proof contains no identifiable Churchill material, and there is no indication that it was ever issued." Nevertheless, we have one.