Kind Words for Leslie Howard

Sir Malcolm Robertson, M.P., Chairman of the British Council, said of Leslie Howard who had been lecturing for the British Council in Spain and Portugal at the time of his death June 1, 1943:

“Leslie Howard was one of the finest people who could have been chosen to help us in our work of making the British way of life more widely known abroad. He went on an arduous trip at considerable inconvenience to himself. He recognized that his visit would have an admirable effect on Anglo-Portuguese and Anglo-Spanish relations, and gladly undertook this tour as a contribution to the increasingly great part being played by actors, scientists, and men of letters in cementing international friendships.

“The reports we have had from both Spain and Portugal show that to his popularity as a lecturer he had added a host of personal friendships, won for him by the modesty and charm of his manner. His death leaves a gap in the world of the British film and theatre which can hardly be filled. The British Council is proud to feel that this great actor was associated with them in a venture which began so auspiciously and ended so tragically.”

[Leslie Howard in portrait by
Ernest Bachrach (backstamped), c. 1934]

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