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

Churchill Funeral vs March in Paris?

14 January 2015 Comments 1 Comment

An article in the Christian Post equates President Obama’s absence from the March in Paris with President Johnson skipping the 1965 Churchill Funeral. The Johnson story has gone around a lot lately, but it is neither accurate nor a fair comparison.

President Johnson, suffering from a bad case of flu, sent Chief Justice Earl Warren and Secretary of State Dean Rusk to the Churchill Funeral. In his official statement Johnson said: “When there was darkness in the world…a generous Providence gave us Winston Churchill….He is history’s child, and what he said and what he did will never die.”…

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Lord Randolph and the Aylesford Sports

7 March 2014 Comments 1 Comment

Was Winston Churchill's father a Lord? If so, how did he serve in the House of Commons? And did this continue even after he found he had to get out of town, so to speak, when he "incurred the displeasure of a great personage" A movie could be made. Ah, the Victorians.

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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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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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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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More Obama and the Churchill Bust

6 March 2009 Comments 2 Comments

First and foremost, the Daily Telegraph did not connect Obama's grandfather's jailing with the Mau Mau rebellion. The Telegraph report is very careful on this point: "It was during Churchill's second premiership that Britain suppressed Kenya's Mau Mau rebellion. Among Kenyans allegedly tortured by the colonial regime included one Hussein Onyango Obama, the President's grandfather."

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