An outstanding letter of Churchill written a few days after the outbreak of WWII – Autograph – Sir Winston Churchill outstanding typewritten letter signed dated September 16th 1939, headed ‘A personal letter from the First Lord of the Admiralty the Rt Hon Winston Churchill MP to the Employees of A Whyman Ltd. 1p 4to on plain paper with evidence of adhesion to another sheet to top and annotated to verso in pencil ‘Removed from France in Managers Office’ This was clearly written as a rallying call to the employees of a company, based in France and involved in some sort of activity useful to the allied effort (we have not been able to discover the nature of the exact activities of this company, but further research will doubtless discover this fact). In his letter, Churchill states: ‘At the beginning of the present struggle I wish to impress upon every man and woman in your employment the urgent importance of the Government work on which you are engaged. ‘The zeal and craftmanship [sic] of those who like them are equipping our fighting forces will be a decisive factor in the defeat of Hitler and all he stands for. I shall be glad if you will convey to them my conviction that in their present occupations they are serving their King and Country no less effectively than those who have joined His Majesty’s Forces for active service afloat and ashore.’ This letter is accompanied by a further letter from the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge dated March 13th 2007 stating that ‘Our Churchill Archivist Katharine Thomson has examined the letter and believes that, as far as it is possible to determine, the ‘Winston S Churchill’ signature is genuine. In cast a little background information would be useful ...Sir Winston was in Scapa Flow on September 16th 1939 and describes this journey in the first volume of his ‘The Second World War’.’