I have unsuccesfully searched the web for a speech Winston Churchill gave to Parliament referring to the Welsh as “the undefeatable race.” Do you know the speech? I believe it was in Churchill’s address following the death of Lloyd George in March 1945. —S.D.
Right: in his Lloyd George tribute, Churchill spoke of the Welsh as “that unconquerable race.” I have emailed you the full text of “The Death of Earl Lloyd George,” House of Commons, 28 March 1945. It is in Winston S. Churchill, Victory. London: Cassell, 1946, and in Robert Rhodes James, editor, Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches 1897-1963 (New York: Bowker, 1974, 8 vols.)
Churchill’s last paragraph is worth considering as an example of his skill with an obituary, and to refute the notion, which we hear occasionally, that he cared for no one but himself:
Thus the statesman and guide whose gentle passing in the fullness of his years we mourn to-day served our country, our Island and our age, both faithfully and well in peace and in war. His long life was, from almost the beginning to almost the end, spent in political strife and controversy. He aroused intense and sometimes needless antagonisms. He had fierce and bitter quarrels at various times with all the parties. He faced undismayed the storms of criticism and hostility. In spite of all obstacles, including those he raised himself, he achieved his main purposes. As a man of action, resource and creative energy he stood, when at his zenith, without a rival. His name is a household word throughout our Commonwealth of Nations. He was the greatest Welshman which that unconquerable race has produced since the age of the Tudors. Much of his work abides, some of it will grow greatly in the future, and those who come after us will find the pillars of his life’s toil upstanding, massive and indestructible; and we ourselves, gathered here to-day, may indeed be thankful that he voyaged with us through storm and tumult with so much help and guidance to bestow.
