Incredible pictures of Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin Roosevelt during World War 2 unearthed in photo album compiled by secretary

Brenda Hart enjoyed incredible access to world leaders in her role working for Churchill's Chief Of Staff

    

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Churchill goes for a drive with the Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King at the Quebec Conference in September 1944

A REMARKABLE photo album compiled by a secretary who witnessed some of the most historic events of the Second World War has been unearthed 72 years later.

Brenda Hart enjoyed incredible access to world leaders of the day and was able to take intimate snaps of Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and President Franklin Roosevelt.

 

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(l to r) Franklin Roosevelt, Mackenzie King and Churchill at Quebec Conference

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Remarkable photo album was compiled by secretary Brenda Hart

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Stalin seeing Churchill off from Moscow in October 1944

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The Earl of Athlone joined Roosevelt, Churchill and Mackenzie King at Quebec conference

 

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Churchill toots on one of his trademark cigars as he is joined by wife Clemmie at Quebec conference

Her role as secretary of Churchill’s chief of staff General Hastings Ismay granted her a jet-setting lifestyle seeing her attend momentous wartime conferences in Morocco, Canada, Russia and Germany.
She also wrote captivating accounts of watching Churchill shake hands with Stalin at the ballet and his historic VE Salute from a Whitehall balcony.
These encounters and moments are captured in a collection of photos, passes, documents and letters which have emerged for auction and are tipped to sell for £1,200.
Brenda’s snaps include one of Churchill sat with US president Roosevelt at the Montreal Conference in September 1944 as well as one of Churchill smoking a large cigar in the back of an open top car in Quebec.
She captured a triumphant Churchill with his generals in the garden of Downing Street on VE Day and one of the Prime Minister and King George VI marking the same occasion at Buckingham Palace.

  

 

Brenda was present at the famous Berlin Conference of the three Allied powers in July 1945 and the album includes a photo of her outside Hitler’s fallen Reich Chancellery.
There is also a fascinating photo of General Ismay consulting with military high command in the war rooms where the brains behind Britain’s war effort plotted their next move.
Lord Louis Mountbatten is photographed at an airfield in Marrakech, while another image taken from a plane window at an airfield in Moscow shows a swarm of people circling Churchill and Stalin on the runway following the Moscow conference of October 1944.

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Lord Mountbatten and General Brooke in Marrakesh in January 1943 after Churchill had taken Roosevelt to the desert city after the famous conference in Casablanca

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Churchill behind the wheel of a ship in January 1944

 

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President Roosevelt’s wife Eleanor and Churchill’s wife Clemmie in behind-the-scenes moment from Quebec conference

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Stalin and Molotov see Churchill off from Moscow airfield in October 1944

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Brenda with a unknown colleague at the airfield in Moscow in October 1944

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Brenda’s travels took her to Marrakesh, Morocco following Casablanca conference

Brenda describes witnessing the historic events in a series of letters to her aunt Kitty.
Brenda’s fascinating items have belonged to a collector for some time who now wishes for someone else to enjoy them.
Brenda was secretary to Ismay who was Churchill’s chief of staff from mid-1944 until the end of 1945.
In a message to Ismay dated May 5 1945, which features in the collection, Churchill writes: “I am deeply grateful to you for your unfailing help through these long years. Please convey my cordial thanks to all your staff.”

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Churchill and his generals celebrate VE day in the Downing Street back garden in May 1945

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Churchill at a Buckingham Palace reception with George VI on VE Day

 

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Secretary Brenda was employed as a secretary during the war by General Ismay

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Brenda visited Hitler’s Reich Chancellery in July 1945 after the Nazis had been defeated

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Brenda at the villa in Potsdam that became her ‘Cabinet Office’

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Crowds of officials were present as Churchill left Moscow in October 1944

Brenda also worked for Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Hollis and was secretary to the Chiefs of Staff Committee. Following the war, she was secretary for a civil servant at the Treasury.
The auction takes place tomorrow at C&T Auctioneers, in Ashford, Kent.
(The Sun, UK)

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