On August 12 through August 14, 1943, Winston S. Churchill, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, visited President Roosevelt in Hyde Park. The President's country home served as a quiet retreat for theses statesman to have a personal discussion of war plans and strategies, before heading north to Canada for the Quebec Conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King. The meeting also provided them an opportunity to celebrate the second anniversary of the Atlantic Charter.

In her syndicated column, My Day, which appeared almost daily in newspapers across the country, Mrs. Roosevelt often presented a journal of her travels, along with the other important events in which she took part. In the column that appeared on August 17, 1943, she described Prime Minister Churchill's visit to Hyde Park.


My Day
By Eleanor Roosevelt

Hyde Park, NY, August 17 - The Secret is out and I can now say that the Prime Minister and his daughter, with the other members of his party, were at Hyde Park.

We had picnic lunches both days and tried to give them as many American things to eat as we could think of. I found that even the Prime Minister learned to eat corn on the cob quite proficiently before he left.

Miss Mary Churchill us young and lovely looking and full of life. It was a joy to see how much she enjoyed doing the things that are a part of our country life here and would normally be part of her country life at home. Instead, for two years she was first a private and is now an officer in the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

She serves in an anti-aircraft battery. While she comes home now and then for dinner and the night, this was the first opportunity she had had in two years to swim or ride a horse.

…The Prime Minister seemed to enjoy leisurely talking at meals and sitting out under the trees. There were hours, of course, of serious work for both the President and the Prime Minister. The latter said to me: "You know one works better when one has a chance to enjoy a little leisure now and then."

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