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Averell Harriman

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1891-1986
US politician, diplomat

  1. Introduction
  2. Stories
  3. Biographical summary
  4. See also
  5. Further reading
  6. References

1. Introduction

Harriman, the son of an American railroad tycoon, was a businessman before becoming a politician and diplomat. He advised five Democrat presidents while in various positions of high office and was twice a candidate for the Democrat presidential nomination. He was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s special envoy to the UK during World War II, when he became a close friend of the Churchill family. He was ambassador to the Soviet Union and the UK, governor of New York and negotiated the 1963 US-Soviet nuclear test ban treaty. In later life, he married Pamela Hayward (née Digby), former wife of Churchill’s son Randolph.

2. Stories

  • Harriman was an adviser to five US presidents and was personally acquainted with more world leaders than probably any other American in the twentieth century.
  • Harriman switched political allegiance from Republican to Democrat; Churchill ‘crossed the floor’ twice, from Conservative to Liberal and back again.
  • On arrival in the UK as Roosevelt’s special envoy in 1941, Harriman quickly became a Churchill family friend.
  • Harriman had an affair in the 1940s with Churchill’s daughter-in-law, Pamela, and after going separate ways, they reunited and married in 1971.
  • Harriman was dining with Churchill when news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 was received.
  • Harriman and Churchill were both ‘short snorters’, members of a group of VIP transatlantic travellers.
  • Harriman and Churchill were both members of secret societies: Harriman belonged to the Order of Skull and Bones at Yale University and Churchill was a freemason.

Harriman was an adviser to five US presidents and was personally acquainted with more world leaders than probably any other American in the twentieth century.

Averell Harriman’s father ‘E.H.’ made a fortune as the head of Union Pacific, Southern Pacific and other railroads. In the fictional film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), he hires a posse to hunt down the title characters for robbing his trains. On his death in 1909 he left an estimated US$70 million to his widow (equivalent to nearly US$2 billion today, around £1.4 billion).

Averell was educated with other aristocrats at Groton School, Massachusetts, and Yale University. He founded a bank with some of his father’s money, played polo for the USA and owned thoroughbred horses. He started his political career in the mid-1930s, eventually making two (unsuccessful) bids to be the Democrat presidential nominee and serving as governor of New York from 1955 to 1959.

He was a key figure in USA-Soviet-UK relations, attending summits with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Churchill in Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam. During his time as US ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1943-46, his style was said to be blunt but fair. The experience provided the background for his negotiation of the 1963 US-Soviet nuclear test ban treaty. He was accused by Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn in 1961 of being a Soviet spy, which was rejected by the CIA.

He became known as ‘the Crocodile’, which he liked, for his habit of looking as though he was dozing before suddenly making a sharp intervention that would cause serious injury to the prey. He enjoyed others’ humour but made few jokes himself, and had the reputation of being tight-fisted, never carrying cash.

He advised presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, Truman, Johnson and Carter. In 1952, he struggled to think of a world leader he had not met, then mentioned Jawaharlal Nehru, prime minister of India. He subsequently met him several times.

Like Churchill, his work ethic would leave others struggling to keep up. On one occasion, he had breakfast in New Delhi (India), lunch in Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan), tea in Tehran (Iran) and dinner in Rome (Italy). He worked full-time into his late 70s and eventually passed away in 1986, aged 94.

Harriman switched political allegiance from Republican to Democrat; Churchill ‘crossed the floor’ twice, from Conservative to Liberal and back again.

Harriman was born into a Republican-voting family and continued the tradition as a young man. In the 1920s, he became disenchanted by what he saw as the Republicans’ isolationism in international affairs, failure to reduce tariffs, and lack of regulation of stock market speculation. In 1928, he voted Democrat for the first time. The Wall Street Crash in the following year strengthened his view that the Republicans were not running the economy well.

Harriman’s family relationships with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt also had an influence. Eleanor’s brother Hall Roosevelt was a schoolfriend of his and lived with the Roosevelts; Harriman often met them when visiting his friend. Harriman’s older sister Mary Harriman Rumsey was good friends with Eleanor, working with her in poverty alleviation and social integration programmes. After Franklin’s election as US president in 1933, Mary was appointed as chair of the Consumer Advisory Board, one of the institutions forming his ‘New Deal’, aimed at unemployment relief, economic recovery and financial reform. Mary persuaded her brother Averell to leave his business activities and join the Democrat administration, serving in the National Recovery Administration which established work codes and minimum product prices. He remained a Democrat for life.

Churchill ‘crossed the floor’ of the House of Commons in disaffection with the Conservatives’ declining support for free trade (and no doubt with an element of political opportunism). On 31 May 1904 he walked into the House of Commons chamber, paused, then turned right instead of left, towards opposition benches, and sat next to Liberal David Lloyd George, enraging his colleagues. The move was also prescient, with the Liberals gaining power from the Conservatives in 1906.

Churchill lost his seat as a Liberal in the 1922 election. He objected to the Liberals’ support for Labour and stood successfully in 1924 as a Conservative, although he described himself temporarily as a ‘Constitutionalist’. He was invited unexpectedly by Conservative prime minister Stanley Baldwin to be his chancellor of the exchequer, which he accepted, remaining in the Conservative party for the next forty years. About his double desertion, he said, ‘Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.’1

On arrival in the UK as Roosevelt’s special envoy in 1941, Harriman quickly became a Churchill family friend.

The Churchills welcomed Harriman with open arms, as they had done with his predecessor Harry Hopkins, in the hope of supportive reports to President Roosevelt about the UK. He made a good first impression by giving Clementine a small bag of tangerines brought from Lisbon, not easy to obtain in wartime Britain. Despite his reputation for being a reluctant spender, he would regularly bring them gifts from the USA including hams, fresh fruit, stockings and cigars.

After a few weeks, Clementine asked him if he would speak with her daughter Mary, recently engaged to someone that Clementine did not think she loved. Clementine had asked Winston to do this, but he was too busy or unwilling. Harriman duly spoke with Mary, who was having doubts about her engagement and soon broke it off. She wrote to him a few days after their conversation, saying, ‘I want to thank you very sincerely for your sympathy and helpfulness […] I thought it was most sweet of you.’2 She was later married to Christopher Soames for forty years until his death, the only one of the Churchills’ offspring to marry only once.

Harriman played cards regularly with Winston, who would often call him late at night for a few hands of bezique before bedtime. Harriman’s interest in polo and horses gave them plenty to discuss and he entered croquet competitions with Clementine. He accumulated a significant art collection (mainly impressionists), now mostly in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Churchill gave him a painting entitled ‘Jug with Bottles’ which includes a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky, one of Churchill’s favourite tipples. He had become accustomed to adding whisky to tepid water to make it more palatable while in the army in India as a young man. The painting was sold by his widow’s estate at auction in 1997 to American businessman Ira Lipman and his wife Barbara, whose estates sold it via Sotheby’s in London in November 2020 for £983,000, the fourth highest amount in a public sale for a Churchill painting to date.*

* The highest is Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque, sold for £7.0 million in 1921 by Angelina Jolie. The second highest is nearly £1.8 million in 2014 for The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell; the third is ‘Tapestries at Blenheim’, sold in the same auction for almost £1.1 million.

Harriman had an affair in the 1940s with Churchill’s daughter-in-law, Pamela, and after going separate ways, they reunited and married in 1971.

Harriman’s relationship with the Churchill family could easily have gone sour when, less than three weeks after arriving in the UK, he began an affair with Randolph’s wife Pamela (née Digby), thirty years his junior. His handsome appearance, influence, charm and wealth were an attractive mix for Pamela, and he was taken by her looks, exuberance and attentiveness. The two had met over lunch at Chequers (the UK prime minister’s official country retreat) and at a party at the Dorchester Hotel. Randolph was away in Egypt and Harriman’s wife Marie was in the USA.

The affair became an open secret, with the two often spending weekends together at Cherkley, the country home of publisher Lord Beaverbrook, who thought that anything that might make Harriman more positive about the UK was a good thing. Pamela’s social circles were also a useful source of information for the newspaperman.

Pamela believed that Winston and Clementine were aware of the situation but chose to ignore it in the interest of the Anglo-American relationship and their personal friendship with her. They also knew that Randolph had proposed to her only two weeks before their wedding, after proposing hurriedly to many other women at the start of World War II.

Churchill commented to Pamela: ‘You know, they’re saying a lot of things about Averell in relation to you.’ Her reply was, ‘Well, a lot of people have nothing else to do in wartime but indulge in gossip.’ ‘I quite agree,’ said Churchill.3 Randolph had blazing rows with his father, accusing him of knowing about the affair and saying nothing. He and Pamela divorced in 1946 and he remarried in 1948.

Pamela went on to have relationships with various rich and powerful men, including a liaison with Prince Aly Khan (see Aga Khan III) and marriage to Broadway producer Leland Hayward (his fourth wife*), who died in March 1971. Marie, Harriman’s second wife, had died the year before. In September 1971, Pamela married Harriman, now aged 51 and 79 respectively, prompting Clementine to comment that it was ‘an old flame rekindled’.4 They remained married until his death in 1986, aged 94.

* Or fifth, if his two marriages to Lola Gibbs are counted separately.

Harriman was dining with Churchill when news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 was received.

Churchill and Harriman were at Chequers with Gil Winant, US ambassador to the UK, when they heard an announcement on the radio shortly after nine p.m. After some confusion as to whether the Japanese had attacked Pearl River in China or Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, Churchill’s valet Frank Sawyers said that he had heard on the radio that Japan had indeed attacked America.

Churchill had given a speech the month before saying that if Japan attacked the USA, Britain would declare war within the hour. He strode from the table towards the phone in the hall, followed rapidly by Winant who feared that Churchill was about to go to war on an unconfirmed news report. They put in a call to Roosevelt, who confirmed the attack and said, ‘We are all in the same boat now.’5

Churchill now knew that the USA would join the war when Congress met the next day. Not yet aware of the extent of the losses at Pearl Harbor, he is said to have done a joyful jig. He went to bed and ‘slept the sleep of the saved and the thankful’.6

The next morning, before Congress met, he declared war on Japan via the British ambassador in Tokyo on the basis of Japan’s invasion of Malaya and bombing of Singapore and Hong Kong. He gave notice of this to the Japanese ambassador to the UK, signing off with: ‘I have the honour to be, with high consideration, Sir, Your obedient servant, Winston S. Churchill.’ He commented that ‘Some people did not like this ceremonial style. But after all when you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.’7

There has been longstanding speculation that Churchill (and perhaps Roosevelt) knew in advance about the Pearl Harbor attack from intercepted signals by Britain’s Signals Intelligence, keeping quiet to prompt the USA’s entry into the war. The UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (‘GCHQ’), the descendent of Signals Intelligence, denies this, saying that its Bletchley Park operation had only heard of a vague possibility of a Japanese attack on Thailand.

Harriman and Churchill were both ‘short snorters’, members of a group of VIP transatlantic travellers.

‘Short snorters’ were originally Alaskan pilots in the 1920s who would consume small mixed drinks (‘short snorts’) to keep their alcohol intake down. A tradition then began of groups of air travellers signing each other’s banknotes, known as ‘short snorters’. Various types developed: some were torn and the pieces were retained by different friends to recreate the banknote for a drink when they met again; others were taped together in a long line of local currency bills to show which countries the owner had visited. The VIP version involved banknotes signed by eminent people who had crossed the Atlantic by aircraft in the days when air travel was much rarer than today.

Churchill’s private secretary John Martin explained the VIP regime: ‘The rule is that you must always carry about with you a dollar bill signed by the short snorters who admitted you and any others who may be added. If you meet another short snorter and challenge him to produce his bill and he can’t, he has to pay a dollar to each short snorter present. The PM [Churchill] is a short snorter and has been caught in this way.’8 The rule was similar to that of the Golden Winkle Club, of which Churchill was also a member. Harriman’s short snorter is a British 10-shilling note which has 16 signatures, collected at the January 1943 Casablanca Conference, including those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Churchill, US general Patton and British admiral Mountbatten.

William S. Paley, founder of CBS television company, inducted Duff Cooper, who immediately challenged Churchill, as did Paley. Churchill did not have his note but insisted that challenges could only be made while airborne and refused to pay a fine. Two weeks later, Paley received a message from Harriman saying that Churchill had checked the rules and enclosed was a dollar bill from him as payment.

Other notable short snorters include those of Harriman’s predecessor Hopkins, Churchill’s valet Sawyers and actress Marlene Dietrich, the latter consisting of 83 banknotes with over 1000 signatures.

Harriman and Churchill were both members of secret societies: Harriman belonged to the Order of Skull and Bones at Yale University and Churchill was a freemason.

Fifteen new ‘Bonesmen’ (and women since 1992) are invited (‘tapped’) each year to become members of Skull and Bones for their final undergraduate year at Yale University, drawn from leading members of the campus. They then become part of an alumni organisation, the Russell Trust Association. They include three US presidents and numerous captains of industry, politicians, diplomats, military leaders and other dignitaries.

Founded in 1832, the society is the most prestigious of the ‘big three’ Yale secret societies, the other two being the Scroll and Key, and the Wolf’s Head. Its emblem includes the number 322, said to represent the year of the death of the Greek orator Demosthenes. It was supposedly the combination to Harriman’s briefcase lock during World War II.

A list of members was published until 1971, since when membership has been confidential. The influence of its alumni and its secrecy have led to various conspiracy theories, including a claim by well-known American author Alexandra Robbins that the organisation is a cabal controlling various aspects of life in America and beyond.

Members are given society names, some of which are prescribed, such as Long Devil and Short Devil for the tallest and shortest. Magog and Gog were the most and least sexually experienced: members used to have to declare their sexual histories, although this has probably been modified. Some inherit previous members’ chosen names; others can select their own. Harriman was Thor, Time-Life founder Henry Luce was Baal and George W. Bush was apparently called Temporary while he thought about a name, but never updated it. His father was allegedly a Magog.

In 2009, Skull and Bones was sued by the great-great-grandson of the Apache warrior Geronimo, who claimed that the organisation is in possession of Geronimo’s skull and other remains, but the lawsuit was unsuccessful.

Like his father Lord Randolph Churchill, Winston was a member of the freemasons. He was initiated in 1901 and his masonic apron is on display at Freemasons’ Hall museum in London.

3. Biographical overview

OccupationBusinessman, politician and diplomat
CountryUSA
CareerFounded Harriman Brothers (1922), known as Brown Brothers Harriman after a merger (1931). Thoroughbred horse breeding and racing (from 1924). National Recovery Administration executive (1934-35). Chairman, Business Advisory Council for Department of Commerce (1937-39). Coordinator of Lend Lease programme to the UK and Russia (1941-43). Ambassador to Soviet Union (1943-46). Ambassador to UK (1946). Secretary of Commerce (1946-48). Marshall Plan US representative in Europe (1948-51). Director of the Mutual Security Agency (1951-53). Candidate for Democratic presidential nomination (1952, 1956). Governor of New York (1955-58). Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (1961-63). Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (1963-65). Negotiated Test Ban Treaty (1963).
Born1891 in New York, New York (17 years younger than Churchill)
FatherEdward ‘E.H.’ Harriman (1848-1909), railroad baron
MotherMary Averell (1851-1932), daughter of New York banker and railroad company president
SiblingsFifth of six children:
1. Mary Rumsey (1881-1934), New Deal administrator; died aged 53 in a horse-riding accident
2. Henry (1883-88)
3. Cornelia (1884-1966)
4. Carol (1889-1948)
5. William Averell (1891-1986)
6. Roland ‘Bunny’ (1895-1978), financier and philanthropist
EducationGroton School, Massachusetts; Yale University
Spouses1. Kathleen ‘Kitty’ Lawrance, m. 1915, div. 1929; daughter of New York banker
2. Marie Norton, m. 1930-70 (her death); her second marriage; art gallery owner and interior designer
3. Pamela Hayward, née Digby, m. 1971-86 (Harriman’s death); previously married to Randolph Churchill (son of Sir Winston) and Broadway producer Leland Hayward
RelationshipsTeddy Gerard, actress (during his first marriage); Marie Norton (during her first marriage); Pamela Churchill (early 1940s)
ChildrenBy Kitty Lawrance:
1. Mary (1917-96); married Dr. Shirley Fisk
2. Kathleen (1917–2011); married Stanley Mortimer Junior
Died1986 at home in Yorktown Heights, New York, aged 94 (21 years after Churchill); renal failure and pneumonia
BuriedArden Farm graveyard, Arden, New York (Harriman estate)
Chartwell 
Other Club 
NicknameThe Crocodile; Ave; Honest Ave (as governor of New York)

4. See also

US leaders and influencers

5. Further reading

Averell Harriman

  • Abramson, Rudy, Spanning the Century: The Life of W. Averell Harriman, 1891-1986 (William Morrow, 1992)
  • Harriman, W. Averell and Eli Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941-1946 (Random House, 1975)
  • Oser, lan S., ‘Ex-Gov. Averell Harriman, Adviser to 4 Presidents, Dies’, The New York Times, 1986

Harriman family

  • Klein, Maury, The Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman (University of North Carolina Press, 2003)
  • Mercer, Lloyd J., E.H. Harriman: Master Railroader (Beard Books, 2003)
  • Ogden, Christopher, Life of the Party: The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman (Little, Brown, 1994)

Churchill paintings

Pearl Harbor

Short Snorters

Skull and Bones

  • Robbins, Alexandra, ‘George W., Knight of Eulogia’, The Atlantic, 2000
  • Robbins, Alexandra, Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power (Little, Brown, 2002)

Churchill and freemasonry

6. References

1. Winston S. Churchill, Irrepressible Churchill: A Treasury of Winston Churchill’s Wit, ed. by Kay Halle (World Publishing Company, 1966), p. 53.

2. Mary Soames, A Daughter’s Tale: The Memoir of Winston and Clementine Churchill’s Youngest Child (Random House, 2011), p. 260.

3. Lynne Olson, Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour (Random House, 2010), p. [000].

4. Rudy Abramson, Spanning the Century: The Life of W. Averell Harriman 1891-1986 (William Morrow, 1992), p. 685.

5. Kenneth Weisbrode, Churchill and the King: The Wartime Alliance of Winston Churchill and George VI (Penguin, 2013), p. 140.

6. Martin Gilbert, A History of the 20th Century: Volume Three: 1952-1999 (HarperCollins, 2000), p. 301.

7. Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: Volume 3: The Grand Alliance (Houghton Mifflin, 1950), p. 611.

8. Michael Richards, ‘Historic Souvenir of “Torch”: Harry Hopkins’ “Short Snorter”’, The International Churchill Society, 2006