"I have always earned my living by my pen" ~ Sir Winston Churchill

This elegant desk caddy with ink pots was kept by a man (whom I knew as Grandad) all of his life after his own father gave it to him not long before he left this mortal coil and he also gave him a little story with it which has been a talking point in my family for three generations.

The story goes like this.... my Great Grandfather was a shoe repairer before the war and he lived in the East part of London (not exactly sure where) and he had a little 'stand' on the corner of Oxford Street near Marble Arch around the year 1900-1902 which he braved all weathers to ensure that gentlemens shoes were shiny as well as repaired when needed. He had an old 'toolbox' type thing with a chair attached to it which he asked his 'clients' to sit in whilst he shined (or sometimes repaired) their shoes. Apparantly he was walking home one evening through Mayfair minding his own business when he heard someone shout 'Hey you' he turned to see a rather elegently dressed gentleman who appeared to be clutching a small bag which he was rattling and seemingly offering to my Great Grandfather. Long story short , he asked him if he would help to move some furniture as his 'labourer' had turned sick and so he needed another pair of strong hands. My Great Grandfather was apparantly a very large gentleman who looked like he would have no problem lifting heavy objects and so perhaps this is the reason the gentleman called upon him. He spent the next few hours moving furniture from a very luxurious looking London Mayfair flat into the back of a series of 'carts' that were taking it somewhere else. The story goes that at the end of the day when everything had been moved and the carts had gone and the gentleman had paid my Great Grandfather his dues he sat on the steps to the flat and noticed that there was something left behind on the(or near the) doorstep so he went to look and it turned out to be a little wooden desk caddy with two inkpots on it. There was noone about at this point and so he thought well i don't even know where the gentleman is and so he scooped it up and put it in his toolbox and the rest is history.

There is one other minute detail to this tale, he went back the following day  on his way to work with the desk caddy as he was an honest man and so he thought it best to return it if possible. When he got there the place was empty and so he didn't know what to do. He was about to walk toward Marble Arch when he spotted a cleaning lady coming out towards the steps on the house next door and so he spoke to her and explained and she said she had no idea where 'Mr Churchill' was moving to so she was unable to help but as a last resort my Great Grandfather said to her do you know Mr Churchills Christian name? She said yes it's Winston as she had done some cleaning for him too. My Great Grandfather left for work and thought nothing about this until some years later when as you've probably guessed already we had a change of Prime Minister and his name was Winston Churchill. It's not factual for sure and we are only going by a story that has been passed along but perhaps that was a young Sir Winston Churchill that was moving out of a flat and into somewhere possibly more grand? Maybe he had to invest in some new ink pots after this as his were going to be passed through generations of my family who to this day live in Yorkshire.

Maybe it's not true and just coincidental or even (I don't like to say) fabricated to amuse. Either way, the desk caddy is really something. It's a beautiful looking piece that would gracefully adorn any desk particularly a would be politicians!

We hope that you liked the story whether true or not and perhaps might like to own something that may or may not have helped to write things that have changed the course of history for Great Britain!