Category: Winston S. Churchill

drunk
Where’s your glass, Prime Minister? Stalin toasts Churchill’s 69th birthday, Teheran, 30 November 1943. (Faces to camera: Air Marshal Portal, Anthony Eden, unknown, WSC, Marshal Voroshilov, Marshal Stalin, Averell Harriman, interpreter Pavlov.) WSC wrote: “The Marshal and his colleagues invariably drank their toasts from tiny glasses, taking only a sip on each occasion. I had been well brought up.” (Photo by Lt. D.C. Oulds RN, Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Churchill the Drunk. Or: Fasten Seatbelts on Bar Stools

Churchill the Drunk. Or: Fasten Seatbelts on Bar Stools

Churchill did have an astonishing capacity, and most historians grant him a decided preference for lubrication. But Lockhart is no more reliable than others. from Alan Brooke to Bessie Braddock, who attributed to alcohol a Churchill who worked and harangued 18 hours a day and was often exhausted…. Yet apparently not drunk enough to debate Empire Free Trade—or to spark Lockhart’s imagination.

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Sybarite
Churchill’s Laurania: “It was the first rain after the summer heats, and it marked the beginning of that delightful autumn climate which has made the Lauranian capital the home of the artist, the invalid, and the sybarite.” (Woodcut by André Collot from the 1950 Monaco edition)
Churchill Quotations: “The Artist, the Invalid, and the Sybarite”

Churchill Quotations: “The Artist, the Invalid, and the Sybarite”

Churchill only used "artist - invalid - sybarite" twice, and very early on. Evidently it didn't "stick" as well as others he repeated decades apart. If it had, he might have applied it to Morocco or the South of France, where he was all three of those things from time to time. He found both to be perfect for convalescing, painting, or enjoying the luxuries of life. (Of course, he knew where to stay!)

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West
Fourth Hussars Regimental Polo Team, India 1898-99. WSC is third from left. (Hillsdale College Press)
Algernon West and Churchill’s Disdain for “Superfluous Millions”

Algernon West and Churchill’s Disdain for “Superfluous Millions”

The reader now has the context, and may decide whether Churchill's remark was an expression of imperialist racism, or the fashionable Darwin-Reade philosophy prevalent at that time. In the words of Mark Twain and several showmen before him: "You pays your money and you takes your choice."

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Soames
“Mr. Winston Churchill presents his compliments to Mr. Winston Churchill, and begs to draw his attention to a matter which concerns them both.” Reading the correspondence between the two Winstons, Baker Library, Dartmouth, with Barbara Langworth and librarian Philip Cronenwett. (Photo by the author)
Mary Soames Centenary 1922-2022: A Remembrance by a Friend

Mary Soames Centenary 1922-2022: A Remembrance by a Friend

Mary Soames taught us all the most important rules any Churchill scholar must follow: never to proclaim what her father would do today; and strive to “keep the memory green and the record accurate.” She also taught us magnanimity—that what really matters is friendship, and trust. She was our guiding light—the person we sought to please with word committed to print on behalf of her great father.

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Queen
Churchill bids good-night to The Queen after a final dinner at Downing Street, 4 April 1955, before retiring as Prime Minister. In the doorway are Lady Churchill and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. (Hillsdale College Press)
Valedictory: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Valedictory: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

It fell to Winston Churchill to define “this fair and youthful figure…heir to all our traditions and glories... Gazing at her photo “in a white dress and with long white gloves, displaying that enchanting smile which lights up her face as if a blind had suddenly been raised,” he mused: “Lovely, inspiring. All the film people in the world, if they had scoured the globe, could not have found anyone so suited to the part.” Admiration grew to attachment, attachment to adoration. Every week during their meetings her private secretary reported “gales of laughter” coming from the audience room: “Winston generally came out wiping his eyes.”

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Command the Moment
“Ah Clemmie, don’t go. It is so nice. Let us command the moment to remain.” Statue by Oscar Nemon at Chartwell. (Gaius Cornelius, Creative Commons)
Churchill Quoting Others: “Command the Moment to Remain”

Churchill Quoting Others: “Command the Moment to Remain”

"Mealtimes sometimes prolonged themselves into three-hour sessions, often to my mother's despair. And so eventually she would make to move. And I so well remember my father looking at her down the table, lovingly and ruefully, and saying, 'Oh, Clemmie, don't go. It is so nice. Let us command the moment to remain.' Of course, one never can. But today I've tried to command some precious moments that I remember to remain." —Mary Soames

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smog
London is still renowned for fogs. This photo of Tower Bridge in a pea-souper was taken in November 2011. (Photo by Modris Putns, Creative Commons)
Churchill and the Great London Smog, 1952

Churchill and the Great London Smog, 1952

Churchill took no part in subsequent debates over air pollution. Remarkably, the subject didn’t even come up during the December smog. Not until 12 February 1953 did Marcus Lipton MP raise the issue. The Churchill government assured him that “intensive inquiry” would occur. The Clean Air Act of 1956 eventually followed.

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Orwell
Publicity photo for the CBS Studio One production of “1984,” 1953: L-R: scenic designer Kim Swados, Norma Crane, Eddie Albert, director Paul Nickell. (CBS, public domain)
Churchill, Orwell and “1984”

Churchill, Orwell and “1984”

Orwell on Churchill: "It is rumoured that after promising to fight in the streets he turned from the microphone and said: 'We'll throw bottles at the bastards; it's about all we've got left!' One may assume that this story is untrue, but at the time it was felt that it ought to be true. It was a fitting tribute from ordinary people to the tough and humorous old man whom they would not accept as a peacetime leader [in 1945] but whom in the moment of disaster they felt to be representative of themselves."

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Mincemeat
Operation Husky, The Sicily Landings 9-10 July 1943: signalling waiting landing craft by semaphore at dawn of the opening day. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Netflix on Operation Mincemeat: Did They Get It Right?

Netflix on Operation Mincemeat: Did They Get It Right?

Churchill believed Mincemeat had deceived Hitler, but he was always a fan of intelligence operations. Gilbert, Macintyre and Netflix say it did, and some German troops were sent to Greece. But German minefields and port defenses in Greece did not need resources from Sicily. Some motor torpedo boats were transferred, but they did not significantly weaken Sicily’s defenses.

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Susskind
Robert Hardy in Susskind’s “Churchill.” (PBS).
“Leaders: Churchill,” with Robert Hardy (1986)

“Leaders: Churchill,” with Robert Hardy (1986)

With all its flaws and inaccuracies, the performance brings out Churchill's greatest characteristic. That was his essential humanity, which made him so different from other leaders past and present. James Humes noted another quality. "Churchill told his audiences what he wanted them to hear." And Sir John Gielgud closes with words to remember. "Churchill was as ordinary as any of us—and as extraordinary as any of us can hope to be."

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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