[CHURCHILL, Lady Gwendoline 'Goonie' (1885-1941)]. The Seventh of July 1941, [No place, 1941], 4to, original black morocco gilt. With a one-page autograph letter from John Churchill loosely-inserted.

[CHURCHILL, Lady Gwendoline [sometimes Gwendelen] 'Goonie' (1885-1941)].  The Seventh of July 1941. [No place: no publisher, 1941]. 4to (260 x 195mm). Woodcut initials. Contemporary black polished morocco, the upper cover with the initials "G. S. C." [i.e. Gwendolen Spencer-Churchill] stamped in gilt and with a gilt-ruled border on each cover, unopened and uncut (some light scuffing). The title of this somber but emotional memorial publication refers to the date of the death of Lady Gwendoline Churchill. It contains a collection of printed tributes in prose or poetry, each contributor only identified by their printed initials ("R.R.", "D.C.", M.O.", "C.A.", "P.L." and "N.R.") and was presumably printed in limited numbers for close friends and relatives of Lady Gwendoline Churchill, although there is no record of how many copies were printed within. Lady Gwendoline (known affectionately as 'Goonie') was the wife of Major John Strange 'Jack' Spencer-Churchill (1880-1947), the brother of Winston Churchill. Provenance: Loosely-inserted is a one-page autograph letter, signed, on paper headed "10, Downing Street, Whitehall,", dated 4 September '41, stating, "Dear Bluey, Put this [i.e. the book] somewhere at [?]Crabwood, where she [i.e. Lady Gwendoline] was happy and contented during the last year, and where your kindness helped her so much. [?]Ever yours, John Churchill." The letter is written on Downing Street paper since John Churchill lodged there after his own house had been destroyed in the Blitz. "Bluey" was the sobriquet of Harold Trevor Baker (1877-1960), a British liberal politician. He never married, but, through his putative affair with Lady Gwendoline, was rumoured to be the biological father of Clarissa Spencer-Churchill, who married Anthony Eden in 1952, although he is absent from Clarissa's memoir "Clarissa Eden. A Memoir. From Churchill to Eden" which was published in 2007. RARE.