Lot 435
  • 435

Churchill, Sir Winston

Estimate
1,500 - 2,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Churchill, Sir Winston
  • Photographic portrait of Pilot Officer Peter Carter signed on the image by Churchill ("Winston S. Churchill In Gratitude 1946")
  • photographic paper, ink
the image showing Carter quarter-length in RAF uniform, framed, and glazed, and mounted on a plinth, with an inscription on the mount ("Peter, who gave his life for his country October 18th 1940") and a label on the reverse, signature slightly faded, not examined out of frame

A family memento of one of "the few". Pilot Officer P.E.G. Carter, who was attached to 302 (Polish) Squadron, was killed when his Hurricane crash-landed in fog in the Surrey countryside on 18 October 1940. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger gave the same name, Peter Carter, to the central character played by David Niven in A Matter of Life and Death. Their fictional pilot also crash-lands in thick fog, but it is not certain whether the film-makers drew inspiration from their hero's real-life counterpart