Churchill Letters Fetch $420,000 At London Auction

Seventeen letters written by Winston Churchill to his brother Jack during World War I sold for $420,000 at auction Thursday, with American millionaire Steve Forbes purchasing most of the keepsakes.

The correspondence gives insight into Churchill’s thoughts about the war and his own involvement in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign in Turkey, in which 28,200 British and Commonwealth soldiers died.

Forbes, a former U.S. presidential candidate and owner of Forbes magazine, paid $271,000 for 12 of the letters.

The Turkish Armed Forces spent $143,000 to purchase three letters that will be placed in the Gallipoli Museum in the Dardanelles.

Sotheby’s, the auctioneer, had estimated the letters would fetch a total of $168,000. The name of the seller was not disclosed.

The letters illuminate why Churchill decided to rejoin the Army and serve on the Western Front after he was dismissed as Lord of the Admiralty in May 1915.