FAQs Archives - Page 14 of 15 - Richard M. Langworth

Churchill & the Bombing of Coventry

27 September 2012 Comments 2 Comments

The Weider History Group replied to a query. “Did Churchill allow Coventry to be burned to protect his secret intelligence?” Their answer was somewhat equivocal:

There certainly have been a variety of different accounts, even supposedly by eyewitnesses, that contradict each other as to how much Winston Churchill had learned from the Boniface (later Ultra) decoders as to the main target for the German “Moonlight Sonata” air raid on the Midlands in November 1940, and when did he ascertain it. Whether he mistook it for a feint, with London the actual target, of whether he knew of Coventry and left it to its fate rather than compromise Britain’s ability to crack the German Enigma codes seems to depend on one’s feelings toward Churchill.……

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Churchill on Taxes

29 May 2012 Comments 0 Comments

Especially nowadays, politicians frequently quote Churchill as saying, “There is no such thing as a good tax.” Fastidioius searches of his published words reveal no such statement; and here at least is proof that he considered at least one tax a good one.

Perhaps the House may remember that only seven or eight years ago I got into some trouble myself about the Kerosene Tax. It was a very good tax. I was quite right about it. My Rt. Hon. Friend [Neville Chamberlain] slipped it through a year or two later without the slightest trouble and it never ruined the homes of the people at all.…

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Churchill’s Religion: “Optimistic Agnostic”

28 May 2012 Comments 1 Comment

Although he had some very religious friends, like Lord Hugh Cecil, Winston Churchill was not a religious man. Introduced to religious diversity early, he was brought up “High Church,” but had a nanny “who enjoyed a very Low Church form of piety.” When in rebellious mood he would tell Nanny Everest “the worst thing that he could think of…that he would go out and ‘worship idols.’”

After his self-education as a young officer in India, when he read all the popular challenges to orthodox religion, like Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species and William Winwood Reade’s The Martyrdom of Man, Churchill evolved into what we might term an “optimistic agnostic.” He…

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Why Churchill Shunned Pipes and Cigarettes

10 April 2012 Comments 0 Comments

A friend sent me a Dunhill feature from the Daily Telegraph, stating that Churchill occasionally smoked a pipe as a holiday from cigars: “I can find no reference to him having ever smoked a pipe, can you?”

I think Dunhills are stretching. I can find no testimony to Churchill ever smoking a pipe. There are indications that he deplored pipe smoking (though he tolerated it from Sir Arthur Tedder). Perhaps this arose through his antipathy (which grew in the early 1930s) to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.

By looking for Baldwin references, I found a key cigar-and-pipe standoff between Churchill and “SB” in 1924, when they were on better terms, in Martin Gilbert’s Winston S.…

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How much did Churchill drink?

31 March 2012 Comments 5 Comments

Andy Klein asks whether William Manchester was being factual or just cute when he wrote that Churchill was not a heavy drinker, despite the quantities Manchester enumerated:

…the legend that he is a heavy drinker is quite untrue. Churchill is a sensible if unorthodox drinker. There is always some alcohol in his bloodstream and it reaches its peak in the evening after he has had two or three scotches, several glasses of champagne, at least two brandies, and a highball.

Manchester was right in the sense but wrong in the details. Churchill had an impressive capacity for alcohol, but nobody saw him put that much away of an evening.…

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Gilbert and Manchester: Complementary Biographers

2 March 2012 Comments 4 Comments

There are big differences between them, but both should be read for a full appreciation of Churchill. In 1986, as Manchester was completing Volume II of The Last Lion, he received an encouraging note from Gilbert: "Our work proceeds on parallel tracks."

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The Alcohol Question (Again)

2 March 2011 Comments 1 Comment

Reference to Churchill and abuse of alcohol. When my father and I had lunch with Churchill at the House of Commons in 1952, I certainly did not see Churchill drink any more than the usual lunch time glass of wine. My father never mentioned his excessive use of alcohol in any form.—R.W.

He had an impressive capacity but you’re right. Except for a bodyguard who helped him and Eden totter home after a night of toasts with the Russians at Teheran, no one close ever saw him the worse for drink. (Well, Alanbrooke sometimes wrote in his diary that the boss was inebriated.…

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Was Churchill an Alcoholic?

30 August 2009 Comments 2 Comments

The question frequently arises, was Churchill an alcoholic? Certainly his own accounts of his prowess (“I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me”), and his frequent depiction as a red-nosed drunk by enemies from Goebbels to modernday scoffers, lends one to believe that he drank heavily.

The truth, as Richard Geshke puts it in a communication on ChurchillChat, is that he was “a constant sipper: “I never heard any stories of a drunk Churchill.”

There is just one validated story: Danny Mander, one of WSC’s bodyguards at Teheran, recalls escorting a well-lubricated Churchill and Anthony Eden home after a lengthy series of toasts with the Russians.…

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Churchill Artist Richard Deane Taylor

24 June 2009 Comments 0 Comments

The publishers did make good efforts to lighten WSC's eyes (which in life were very light blue). Unfortunately, they cropped the top of WSC’s head, incurring the ire of Lady Soames and this writer, and somewhat spoiling the effect. They promised to fix this in the second edition, and they did so, happily for all, not the least Richard Deane Taylor himself.

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words — A collection of Churchill’s books in various editions easily fills a wall. (Author photo)

The Churchill Copyright

6 March 2009 Comments 0 Comments

The copyright in Churchill's papers, literary works and papers of which he was the author, did not form part of the 1995 purchase by the British Government, but remains (under the terms of Sir Winston's will) the property of his family, except where it has been separately assigned. No charge is made in the case of reproduction for academic research.

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