Allen Packwood
Director, Churchill Archives Centre at The University of Cambridge; Author of Churchill and the Great Republic

 

No one knows the story of Winston Churchill better than Allen Packwood. As the first full-time Director of the Churchill Archives Center at Churchill College in Cambridge, he is an expert on one of the most important leaders in world history, and holds responsibility for the documents of the greatest figures and significant events of contemporary British history.

 

The Archives Center is the British equivalent of the great American presidential libraries, and listening to Allen Packwood allows one to travel through the Center with a personal tour guide.  Allen brings to life the myriad boxes of letters and documents that elaborately record the momentous incidents in political, military, scientific, social, and diplomatic history of the 20th century. As Director, Packwood represents the Center when communicating with the media, interested groups and prominent visitors to the College. He also manages and oversees the arrival of high profile and large accessions of recent years.  The papers of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, Neil Kinnock and Sir Frank Whittle have quickly filled the existing rooms.

 

As a Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge, as well as the National and Commonwealth Memorial to Sir Winston, there is no better source than Allen Packwood to illustrate the impact of Churchill on the world. Adding to his qualification, Packwood’s access to  the estimated one million documents of the Archives, ranging from his first childhood letters to his great war-time speeches to the writings that earned him his Nobel Prize for Literature, allows him to disect and study the great leader on an intimate level. The Center houses some of the most memorable phrases of the twentieth century, all preserved in Churchill’s own drafts and speaking notes for the wartime speeches, including the famous “Iron Curtain” speech.

 

Packwood’s book Churchill and the Great Reupublic, was published in tandem with a 2004 Library of Congress exhibition which was seen by over 105,000 people during its five months on display. He has dedicated the last 12 years of his life to researching arguably the most important leader of the 20th century, and his lively speaking style is buttressed by his well researched use of primary Churchill material.

 

Packwood frequently tours the United States speaking to Churchill afficionados on many different Churchill topics including his childhood, professional life, his private life, and his life as prime minister during WWII.  With his unique personal relationship with Churchill’s family, Packwood offers rare insight into the man that is still glorified by the world arena today.  Conducting symposiums on this amazing man has been one of the most pleasurable experiences of Packwood’s career.

 

Speaking Topics:

 

  • Sir Winston Churchill through his Papers

  • Churchill and the Great Republic: Sir Winston and His Lifelong Relationship with the United States

  • Churchill and America

  • Sir Winston Churchill as a War Leader: The Man and the Myth

  • Mr. Packwood can also offer more pointed examinations of Churchill, for example, Churchill and Virginia

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