Churchill Eighth Foreign Leader To Be Awarded Doctor of Laws

Living up with a distinguished roster of Kings, Princes, and Prime Ministers, Wins on S. Churchill becomes the eighth leader of a foreign nation to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Harvard University.

First foreign prince to receive the degree was Prince Henry of Prussia, who was welcomed by President Eliot in a special meeting at Sanders Theatre on March 7, 1902. Stressing the "Puritan origin of the University," Eliot declared that although previously two Presidents of the United States had received the coveted LL.D., Prince Henry was the first foreigner to have this honor awarded him.

Close on the train of Prince Henry, Luigi Amedo, Duke of the Abruzzi and Prince of Savoy, was granted the Doctor of Laws in 1907. His award was given in the same year that such American notables as James Bryee, Elihu Root, Harvard's George Lyman Kittredge, and Woodrow Wilson were similarly honored by the University.

With the coming of the War Years, all hopes of keeping the Honorary degrees a rictly within the States rapidly faded. 1917 and 1919 brought three distinguished leaders across the seas to receive. Harvard's necolade.

France's great Marshal and hero of the Battle of the Marne, Joseph Jacques Cesaire Jeffre, welcomed a tumultuous crowd that had assembled on May 13, 1917 to greet him. After having received the Doctor of Laws in Sanders Theatre Jeffre went to the Stadium where an hysterical crowd of 30,000 people had gathered to see the famous general. Following a brilliant review of the Harvard ROTC, the Marshal was heard to whisper a brief but sincere enlogy, "C'est magnifique!"

Belgian King Honored

Albert-Leonold Clement Marie, King of Belgium, was the guest of the University on October 5, 1919 when President Lowell, in behalf of the University conferred the LL.D. on King Albert in the Faculty Room of University Hall. In addition to the usual Latin inscription, the parchment bore the quotation from Shakespeare, "Aye, every inch a king."

The King was greatly impressed after the ceremony when he was taken around the College. The Stadium struck his attention, but it was the Freshman dormitories that particularly amazed King Albert. He was also quite surprised at the number of men in the Freshman class.

One Day Later

In the space of 24 hours, on October 6, another honorary degree was granted, this time to Cardinal Desire Felicien Francolise Joseph Mercier, Belgium's hero primate. Describing Cardinal Mercier, as "a great rock in the wilderness," Lowell conferred the honor before an assembly of dignitaries at Sanders Theatre.

The next honorary degree was given in Harvard's more traditional manner, when Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King of Canada was awarded the Doctor of Laws amid the pomp and ceremony of the 1923 Commencement.

Five years ago, in 1938, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Swedon, on a visit to the United States received the LL.D. in the briefest and least publicized ceremony on record. The brevity and sudden action of this award presaged the "flying" degree presented today to Winston S. Churchill, Prime Minister of England.