Grace Hamblin

Hamblin was born in Kent in 1908, the daughter of the head gardener at an estate adjacent to Chartwell.[1] Joining Churchill's staff as a junior secretary in 1932, in 1940 she moved with the Churchills to Downing Street, becoming private secretary to Clementine Churchill.[1] Appointed OBE in Churchill's resignation honours list in 1955, she became the first administrator when Chartwell was opened to the public by the National Trust in 1966.[2] Hamblin, together with Lady Churchill and her daughter Mary Soames, were largely responsible for the organisation and arrangement of the house following Churchill's death.[3] Robin Fedden, Deputy Director-General of the Trust and author of the first guidebook to Chartwell, recorded Hamblin's 33 years service to the Churchill family and to the house.[4] Hamblin, famously discreet throughout her life,[5] achieved some notoriety in 2015 when her leading role in the destruction of Graham Sutherland's portrait of Churchill was revealed.[6] Presented to Churchill by the Houses of Lords and Commons as an 80th birthday present, the realistic portrait was detested by both Churchill and his wife and, acting on Lady Churchill's instructions, Hamblin and her brother removed the painting from Chartwell at some point in the mid-1950s and burnt it.[7] Hamblin retired from the post of Administrator at Chartwell in 1973.[5]

Hamblin died in her home at Westerham, Kent, which she had bought with funds from the sale of one of Churchill's own paintings, in 2002.[1] A collection of her papers, mainly consisting of notes for speeches she gave about her life with the Churchills, is held at the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge.[8]

• Fedden, Robin (1974). Churchill And Chartwell. Oxford: Pergamon Press. OCLC 228659396.
• Garnett, Oliver (2008). Chartwell. Swindon: National Trust Enterprises. OCLC 828689009.