Sir Edward Howard Marsh (1872-1953)
Category
Photographs
Date
Unknown
Materials
Photographic paper
Order this imageCollection
Chartwell, Kent
NT 1102625.3
Summary
Facsimile of a photograph of Edward Marsh, in a black frame
Provenance
Edward Marsh, often referred to as “Eddie”, was born on 18th November 1872. He began working at the colonial office in 1892 after graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge. He first met Winston Churchill when he was a Colonial Office Clerk, and shortly afterwards Churchill invited him to become his private secretary, which he did in 1905, and remained so for each of Churchill’s Ministerial Offices. Churchill, however, was not the first member of parliament who Marsh had assisted in fact he had worked as assistant private secretary to Joseph Chamberlain in 1900, Alfred Lyttelton in 1903, as well as private secretary to Herbert Asquith in 1915 and 1916. He finished working in the civil service in 1937, and went on to pursue several senior roles in the arts. Apart from being Churchill’s private secretary Marsh was also one of his earliest literary mentors, where his tasks ranged from proof-reading, giving feedback and drafting newspaper articles and he even assisted with “The History of the English Speaking Peoples”. Marsh had also been present during the early days of Churchill’s painting, commenting that, “The ‘new enthusiasm’… was a distraction and a sedative that brought a measure of ease to his frustrated spirit.” Marsh also commented about Churchill that, “Few people have been so lucky as me … as to find in the dull and grimy recesses of the Colonial Office a friend whom I shall cherish and hold on to all my life.”