 Wheeler had also become President of the Museums Association , and in a presidential address given in Belfast talked on the topic of preserving museum collections in war time , believing that Britain 's involvement in a second European conflict was imminent . In anticipation of this event , in August 1939 he arranged for the London Museum to place many of its most important collections into safe keeping . He was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Bristol University , and at the award ceremony met the Conservative Party politician Winston Churchill , who was then engaged in writing his multi @-@ volume A History of the English @-@ Speaking Peoples ; Churchill asked Wheeler to aid him in writing about late prehistoric and early medieval Britain , to which the latter agreed . 
