Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Miss E. M. Watson, C.V.O., C.B.E., Private Secretary to five Prime Ministers including Winston Churchill.

ROYAL VICTORIAN ORDER, C.V.O. (Ladies), reverse officially numbered C4L, in numbered Collingwood case of issue; ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, C.B.E. (Ladies), reverse named and dated, in Garrard case of issue; JUBILEE 1935, in box of issue, extremely fine (3)

Edith Margaret Watson was Private Secretary to five Prime Ministers: Mr. Bonar Law, Mr. Baldwin (twice), Mr. J. Ramsay Macdonald, Mr. Neville Chamberlain and Mr. Winston Churchill. As Private Secretary to Churchill she will have shared with him some of the darkest hours of the Second World War. She had previously been Private Secretary to Mr. Bonar Law when he held positions as Secretary of State for Colonies, Chancellor of Exchequer and Leader of House of Commons, and Lord Privy Seal. Miss Watson was awarded the C.B.E. in 1919 and the C.V.O. in 1937.