Original Autograph Letter Signed from Lord Randolph Churchill, father of Winston Churchill, 1890

An original Autograph Letter Signed (ALS) from Lord Randolph Churchill, dated 1890.

Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-1895) was a prominent British Conservative politician and the father of Sir Winston Churchill. The third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, he entered Parliament in 1874 and rapidly established a reputation as a brilliant, combative and sometimes controversial political figure. A leading exponent of what became known as "Tory Democracy", he rose with remarkable speed to become Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons in 1886. His ministerial career ended abruptly later that year when, in a political miscalculation, he resigned in an attempt to force acceptance of his proposed reductions in government expenditure. Although his own political career was comparatively brief, he remained one of the most colourful Conservative politicians of the late Victorian period, and his life and career were subsequently chronicled by his son Winston in the two-volume biography Lord Randolph Churchill (1906).

Written on headed notepaper from 2 Connaught Place, W., London, and dated in Churchill's hand May 12, 1890, the letter reads:

My dear Sir,
It would have given me great pleasure to have attended the dinner of the Kensington Parliament in accordance with your very kind invitation, but I regret that I have an unavoidable engagement on Wednesday evening next which prevents me having the honour of meeting your wishes.
I am
Very faithfully yours,
Randolph S. Churchill
(signed)

The "Kensington Parliament" mentioned in the letter was a contemporary London debating society organised on the model of the House of Commons, whose members debated current political questions according to parliamentary forms. Its activities occasionally attracted notice in Parliament itself: during a House of Commons debate in 1884, the Liberal MP Joseph Firth jokingly referred to the "august Assembly, known as the 'Kensington Parliament'", noting that it had turned out its own Ministry over the Egyptian question and had considered proposals for London government. Churchill's letter therefore records an invitation from a contemporary political debating organisation to one of the most prominent parliamentary personalities of the period, which he politely declines owing to a prior engagement.

One folded sheet of letter paper, forming four pages, with manuscript to two pages and signed by Churchill on the second page. In very good condition, with the original folds.

Dimensions: folded size approximately 203mm high x 127mm wide.