Twentieth century world history is set to come alive for Bermudian school students in November when the youngest daughter of Britain's war-time Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill comes into their classrooms for a series of talks.

Lady Mary Soames will be in Bermuda with leading international scholars and politicians to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic summit held here between Sir Winston, US president Dwight D.Eisenhower, and French Premier Joseph Laniel.

And the winner of a school essay competition will be given a scholarship to attend a programme in London and Oxford next year.

As well as speaking to school students, Lady Soames will donate books on her father's life to schools.

The four day conference held in Bermuda in December 1953 set a trend for international summits to address international crises.

This year's conference at the Fairmont Hamilton Hotel will focus on previous summits at Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam and Bermuda which have helped shape world history and the theme will be "Summitry and the Special Relationship".

It is being organised by the International Churchill Society and guests will include Sir Michael Heseltine, the former British Defence Secretary in Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government of the 1980's.

The 1953 conference was the first post-war summit held by Churchill and it came against a backdrop of the early days of the Cold War, the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin just as the Communist regime had successfully tested an atomic bomb, and an uneasy truce in Korea.

Churchill, who arrived with Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden on December 1, spent four days at the conference in the Mid-Ocean Club, and a further six days on the Island.

The threat of nuclear war - and Eisenhower's suggestion that atomic weapons be used if Communist China broke the Korean ceasefire - dominated the talks as grave uncertainty hung over the planet.

The other main point was to persuade the French to allow the German military to play a role to defend western Europe against the threat of Russian satellite states to east.

And Churchill tried unsuccessfully to persuade Eisenhower to join Britain in defence of the Suez Canal in Egypt.

The keynote address at November's conference will be given by Churchill's official biographer Sir Martin Gilbert.

Sir Martin wrote: "At Bermuda, Churchill tried to build a path to the summit which, as he had envisaged it, would also have been a path to world peace."

Bermuda Post Office will be producing special commemorative stamps to mark the conference.

And organisers are planning to allow Island residents special admissions to some events or sessions if they do not want to sign up for the whole conference.

The International Churchill Society was established in 1968 to inspire leadership and statesmanship among democratic and freedom-loving people based on the thoughts, words and deeds of Sir Winston.