Complete the Online Entry Form below, upload your essay, and press the Submit button. You will receive an email confirmation upon successful submission.

OR

Mail or hand-deliver your essay and entry form (download the entry form Word or PDF)  by April 30th 2021 to the following address:

Churchill Society of New Orleans
5801 St. Charles Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70115

First prize is $1500; Second prize is $500; Third prize is $250. If at least 5 students at a school submit essays and none of them wins the first, second or third prize, the best of those essays will receive a prize of $100. The teacher named by the student who wins the first prize of $1500 will also receive a prize of $500. 

In a speech made on June 4, 1940, Winston Churchill included the following memorable words:

…we shall not flag or fail.  We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the new world, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the old.

Discuss these words in the speech.  Your discussion might include answers to the following:

1. What was the situation of Britain, and of Churchill, when he made the speech?
2. What is the message of the speech?
3. Is the message effectively conveyed?  Focus on his use of words.
4. What does the speech imply about “the new world”?
5. What effect did the speech have on the morale of the British people?

1. All students at any high-school level are eligible to participate.

2. The essay should address the Topic given above.

3. Essay should be between 500 and 1000 words, typed double spaced.

4. Essays will be judged on knowledge of Churchill, relevance to the Topic, and good use of the English language.

5. A student’s teacher and parents are encouraged to help with the research and to comment on essay drafts, but the student must produce the paper. We ask that the name of the teacher responsible for the student’s participation be provided on the Entry Form.

6. The deadline for submission of this year’s essay is April 30th 2021.

If a teacher would like a member of the Board of the Churchill Society to speak to students about Churchill, please call Ted Martin at (504) 284-8578.

The Society will be happy to provide books on Churchill to a participating school, if requested.

BACKGROUND MATERIAL:

Besides information bearing on the Topic that might be found elsewhere, study the material under “about Churchill” on the website. In addition, the following may be helpful:
From “Churchill & Orwell: The Fight for Freedom”, by Thomas E. Ricks.

On the face of it, this was an odd way to steady a frightened public…the phrases about the locations of fighting followed the likely pattern of a tenacious combat retreat, withdrawing from the coast and airstrips to the cities and fields, and then up into the remoter hills.  He also ventured into the previously unspeakable prospects of a German victory and of British starvation.  He was talking about the unthinkable, and he was doing it on a national stage.

Yet this grim talk did not dismay the British people.  Instead, it braced them.  In wartime, people will believe the worst if they are not told the truth, or something close to it, perhaps mixed with a vision of the way forward.  Having been given that, they were somewhat reassured.  A civilian in London recalled, “I remember being frightened indeed when France collapsed because I thought it was going to be us next.  Really frightened.  Until I heard the speech Churchill made on the radio about fighting on the beaches.  I suddenly wasn’t frightened anymore.  It was quite amazing.”

During that summer of 1940, Churchill’s voice became “our hope,” recalled C. P. Snow.  “It was the voice of will and strength incarnate.  It was saying what we wanted to hear said (‘we shall never surrender’), and what we tried to believe, sometimes against the protests of realism and common sense, would come true.”

Compare the strength of Churchill’s words of June 4 with those issued about the same time by a lesser man, Duff Cooper, then serving as Churchill’s minister of information.  “It will be necessary to withdraw our army from the positions they now occupy, but it will not be a defeated army,” Cooper said, managing to be both trite and misleading.  “It will be an army whose courage is still high and whose confidence is unshaken, and every officer and man burning with desire to meet the enemy in combat….As the danger increases so does our courage to meet it.”  There is nothing inspiring in these words.  If anything, there is, underneath the clichés of men who cannot wait to get back into the fight an air of quiet panic.

From” Churchill:  Walking with Destiny,” by Andrew Roberts.  Regarding the speech of June 4, 1940:

Harold Nicholson wrote to his wife, “This Afternoon Winston made the finest speech that I have ever heard.  The House was deeply moved.”  She replied, “It sent shivers (not of fear) down my spine.  I think that one of the reasons why one is stirred by his Elizabethan phrases is that one feels the whole massive backing of power and resolve behind them, like a great fortress:  they are never words for words’ sake.” [Roberts notes that almost all of the 141-word peroration was made up of monosyllable or short words, almost all derived from Old English.]

TIPS FOR A WINNING ESSAY:

1. Be sure of your facts before you write something that is wrong – like the country in which something took place, or the role that Churchill played.

2. Proofread your essay. Reading it out loud will help you to find mistakes – words left out or misused.

3. Attaching a bibliography to your essay will help the judges understand how you obtained the ideas and information in your essay.

4. Churchill supported himself and his family by writing books, which sold well. He used short words and short phrases to get his points across effectively. Here is an example from one of his speeches:

“Come then, let us to the task, to the battle, to the toil – each to our part, each to our station. Fill the armies, rule the air, pour out the munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plough the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succor the wounded, uplift the downcast and honor the brave.”

5. In your writing, aim for clarity and brevity. Your essay will be short, but it can say a lot if you write carefully and thoughtfully.

6. Try to put forth several points rather than repeating the same one in different ways.