LONDON.- An unpublished speech by Sir Winston Churchill is coming up for sale as part of the Roy Davids Collection of Papers and Portraits at Bonhams in London on 29 March. It is estimated at between £5,000-6,000.

The typed, six-page, speech printed on embossed Chartwell headed notepaper is dated September 1959 and is signed by Sir Winston. It was clearly intended to be used at his Adoption Meeting as parliamentary candidate for the Woodford constituency (in Essex) on 29 November. In the event he delivered another, almost entirely different, speech which was more overtly anti-socialist in tone.

The undelivered speech contains some typical ringing Churchillian phrases, “Our crowded ... millions must earn their living the hard way by ingenuity, contrivance, enterprise and thrift... We have high opportunities to seize, and solemn duties to discharge...Peace can never be secured by sacrificing vital principles or interests...We can catch at any rate promising glimpses of that better world of which mankind has long dreamed and for which it has long toiled when science can unlock for all the people a vast storehouse of richer living. That is the vision which must inspire us with hope and stimulate us to new endeavours.'

Although the speech was sent for printing – the printer’s instruction appear on the first page in pencil - no printed copies exist so it is likely to have been either pulled beforehand or pulped afterwards. The typescript was in the papers of Colonel William Barlow-Wheeler, Churchill’s agent in Woodford. Although Sir Winston tended to keep the manuscripts and typescripts of his speeches – one reason why so few of them appear at auction – it is likely that Barlow-Wheeler felt it legitimate to retain this one since it was never going to be delivered.

Churchill was the only person ever to be MP for Woodford. He represented the constituency uninterruptedly from 1945 when it was created until its abolition in 1964. He fought his last election in 1959.