Dear Antoine, There is no Tom or Thomas Leonard in our digital scans of the Churchill canon and papers. The figure escorting Miss Layton around the War Rooms is most likely a generic character, used to convey her duties.
Interestingly, Elizabeth Layton Nel does not mention the War Rooms once in her excellent 1958 book, *Mr Churchill's Secretary *(since reprinted), although she frequently mentions the Downing Street Annexe. It's quite likely that when she wrote, the existence of the War Rooms was still an official secret. Downing Street Annexe was housed in the ground floor rooms facing St. James's Park to the right of the War Rooms public entrance today. It was considered much safer in an air raid than 10 Downing Street. Martin Gilbert always emphasized that it was the Annexe, not the "hole in the ground," where Churchill actually directed the war. He would always draw attention to the small filled-in square holes on each side of all the windows, where brackets for steel air raid shutters were once affixed. The War Rooms get all the attention today for their hubris; those ground floor offices are today very expensive real estate. RL Hillsdale College Churchill Project winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu On Monday, December 23, 2019 at 2:59:26 AM UTC-8, antcapet wrote: > > Dear All, > > I am preparing an article on _Darkest Hour_ for a French publication and I > am puzzled by a character in the film. > > There is a young man who is often seen near Churchill, and he initially > shows Miss Layton round the 'War Rooms', but he is not named – I thought > he > was Jock Colville. But then, there is no ‘Jock Colville’ in the cast. > > On the other hand, there is a ‘Tom Leonard’ in the cast whose name does > not > suggest anything to me. ‘Tom Leonard’ is played by Eric MacLennan – but > his > photographs on Google do not look like the young man I mistook for Jock > Colville. > > https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4555426/fullcredits > > All very puzzling! I wonder who that young man is supposed to be! > > Enlightenment most welcome. > > With best wishes to all, > > Antoine CAPET, FRHistS > Professor emeritus of British Studies > University of Rouen > 76821 Mont-Saint-Aignan > France > [email protected] <javascript:> > > 'Britain since 1914' Section Editor > Royal Historical Society Bibliography > > Reviews Editor of CERCLES > http://www.cercles.com/review/reviews.html > ========================================== > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/churchillchat/d7d6ba19-fb0a-48ee-8e15-8ccc6f7957b5%40googlegroups.com.
