Winston Churchill, War Lord and... Tree-Hugger?

A document unearthed today as part of Archive Awareness Campaign, and as part of National Tree Week, reveals that Winston Churchill was not only a fearsome wartime leader but also a keen environmentalist.

A concerned member of the public wrote to Churchill in 1954 to warn him of the decimation of forests throughout Surrey as well as the lopping of trees in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Churchill was sufficiently concerned to request a "special note" on this subject.

He wrote to the Minister of Works:

"What is this you have been doing in the parks? Let me have a special note. It is a dreadful thing to cut down a tree which has life in it."

The Minister of Works replied straight away, defending the lopping and chopping as necessary. When trees were in old age, diseased or were dangerous they would be destroyed but replanting was going on at the same time. The document, held at The National Archives in Kew, West London, records the whole correspondence and shows that Churchill was satisfied that responsible tree-felling was taking place.

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