Prime Minister Winston Churchill on Orde Wingate: A Man of Genius Who Might Have Become a Man of Destiny

Aboard the Queen Mary on his way to meet Roosevelt at the second Quebec Conference, Churchill is so moved by the memory of having traveled to the first Conference with the since killed Orde Wingate, that he takes pen in hand to write to his widow. Wingate, who had risen to prominence in Palestine during the Palestine Arab Revolt by recruiting Jewish volunteers from the Haganah to defend against Arab saboteurs, had become one of the outstanding soldiers of the Second World War and here the winner of the DSO and two Bars is described by Churchill as a man of genius who might have become a man of destiny:

I have already in public expressed my sense of the grievous loss which our country suffered in your husband's sudden and untimely death.  I had recognized him as a man of genius, and I hoped he might become a man of destiny.  All that is ended now, and I can only offer you my most profound sympathy in your grief.  It was a comfort to Orde's friends that he should have left a son behind him, and I pray that this may be a lasting consolation to you.

 Both Churchill and Wingate were, in marked contrast to the British ruling class, staunch Zionists. When posted to the British Mandate of Palestine, Wingate became so deeply involved in the Zionist cause that by 1939 he was shipped home, his passport stamped, "NOT ALLOWED TO ENTER PALESTINE."
Wingate was killed in an air crash in the Burmese Theater in March, 1944; his son was born six weeks later. The boy, as Churchill hoped, grew to be a “lasting consolation” to his mother – a military man, like his father, and a friend to Israel. Mrs. Wingate, as a way of preserving her husband's memory, traveled the world advocating the Zionist cause. Neither she nor her husband was Jewish.

Autograph Letter Signed, as Prime Minister, 2 pages, recto and verso, on the letterhead of the Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, but datelined by Churchill “At Sea,” September 10, 1944. To Mrs. Orde Wingate.