Winston Churchill war letter to be sold

The letter urges farmers to do all they can in "this hour of supreme crisis"

A letter signed by the British wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill is to be sold at an auction in Shropshire.

The three-paged, typed correspondence - dated 14 October 1940 - is addressed to the president of the National Farmer's Union.

In it, Churchill states the vital role of food production in the war effort.

The letter is expected to fetch £600 and is offered as part of a lot of famous signatures, which includes the children's author Lewis Carroll.

Churchill's letter refers to agricultural prices, food production and the impact of the World War II.

Franking error

It states: "I need not tell you that the food production of our country is, at this hour of supreme crisis, one of the vital factors in our ability to resist and overcome a formidable enemy..."

Each page bears the prime minister's crest and address.

The envelope is dated 17 September, which was a month prior to the date at the head of the letter.

Experts said the discrepancy in dates was probably a mistake made in the franking office.

The letter is due to be auctioned on 7 December by Halls auctioneers, at the Welsh Bridge saleroom in Shrewsbury, in a lot that includes an album of signatures, which themselves are valued at about £500.

The album includes a personal letter from Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote children's books under the pen name of Lewis Carroll, as well as the signatures of the Duke of Wellington, the English poet and playwright Robert Browning and the former Conservative prime minister Robert Peel.