Category: Winston S. Churchill

women
A suffragette protestor alongside, Churchill rides through Dundee after winning his “seat for life,” 1909. (Illustrated London News)
Nashville (3). Churchill and Women’s Rights

Nashville (3). Churchill and Women’s Rights

Votes for Women, Yeas and Nays

Among the more per­ni­cious dis­tor­tions of Churchill’s record is that he was a life­time oppo­nent of rights for women, includ­ing their right to vote. Remarks to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee, Nashville, 14 Octo­ber 2017. Con­tin­ued from part 2….

In 1999 Time mag­a­zine explained that Churchill could not be “Per­son of the Cen­tu­ry” because he “bull­dogged­ly opposed women’s rights.” In 2012 London’s Dai­ly Tele­graph wrote: “Churchill believed that women shouldn’t vote, telling the House of Com­mons that they are ‘well rep­re­sent­ed by their fathers, broth­ers and husbands.’”

As I show in my book, Win­ston Churchill, Myth and Real­i­ty, Churchill nev­er said those words, in or out of Par­lia­ment.…

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Indian
Sioux headdress presented to Churchill by the Congress of American Indians, 1963. (Chartwell)
Nashville (2). Joyful Humbug: Churchill’s “Indian Forebears”

Nashville (2). Joyful Humbug: Churchill’s “Indian Forebears”

Many of the Churchill fam­i­ly down at least through Sir Winston’s grand­son believed that Amer­i­can Indi­an blood ran in their veins. Remarks to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee, Nashville, 14 Octo­ber 2017. Con­tin­ued from part 1….

“Mama is part red Indian…”

No excep­tion to the fam­i­ly belief (until she saw con­trary evi­dence) was Churchill’s daugh­ter Mary. “I remem­ber my daugh­ter Emma, play­ing with her friends,” Lady Soames recalled. “Sud­den­ly she warned them not to mis­be­have. ‘Mama, you know, is part red Indi­an, and if we are naughty she will go on the warpath.’”…

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lecture
What an honor: Nashville portraitist Shane Neal set to work. Thanks, Shane!
Nashville (1). Winston Churchill: Current Contentions and Things That Go Bump in the Night

Nashville (1). Winston Churchill: Current Contentions and Things That Go Bump in the Night

NASHVILLE, OCTOBER 14TH— The Churchill Soci­ety of Ten­nessee kind­ly invit­ed me to talk about Win­ston Churchill: Myth and Real­i­ty and the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. Our hosts, John and Karen Math­er and Dick and Lin­da Knight, could not have been more thought­ful, kinder and more gen­er­ous to Bar­bara and me. If I per­formed any­thing for them or Mr. Churchill,  that’s only a poor con­tri­bu­tion in an attempt at requital. *** As a bonus, I was hon­ored by a por­trait by Shane Neal​, a bril­liant Nashville artist and a gent​, as their way of say­ing thanks. In dis­cussing Churchill’s art, Shane was joined by fel­low artist Joseph Dai­ly, ​who paint­ed some forty por­traits of the Churchill fam­i­ly and their friends in Eng­land. …

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Belloc
“This trench is wrong. It doesn’t agree with my map.” Belloc at the Front, WW1. (Cartoon by Leonard Ravenhill in Punch, 27 June 1917.)
“Incandescent Brilliance:” Churchill and Hilaire Belloc

“Incandescent Brilliance:” Churchill and Hilaire Belloc

“To Bel­loc this gen­er­a­tion owes big glimpses of the Home­r­ic spir­it. His mis­sion was to flay alive the hum­bugs and hyp­ocrites and the pedants and to chant robust folk-songs to a rous­ing oblig­a­to of clink­ing flagons….” He lat­er con­clud­ed that Lib­er­al reforms mere­ly offered the “prop­erty­less work­er per­pet­u­al security…in exchange for the sur­ren­der of polit­i­cal freedom.” 

Excerpt­ed and con­densed from “Great Con­tem­po­raries: Hilaire Bel­loc,” for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the full arti­cle click here.

_______________

Joseph Hilaire Pierre Belloc

(1870-1953)—writer, sailor, poet, friend of Churchill—helped fuel Churchill’s pas­sion for the sur­vival of free gov­ern­ment.…

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Peck
“This is your Victory!” Churchill waves to the crowds on VE Day, 8 May 1945. On his left is Chancellor John Anderson; on his right is Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin. (Wikimedia Commons)
John Peck, 1945: General Eisenhower asks if the war is over….

John Peck, 1945: General Eisenhower asks if the war is over….

Col. Gault (Mil­i­tary Assis­tant to Gen­er­al Eisen­how­er, 29 April 1945): “John Peck, is that you? The Gen­er­al told me to ask you if the war is over.”

Peck: “I beg your pardon?”

Gault: “Seri­ous­ly, we’ve got a press mes­sage here which says quite clear­ly that it’s all over. If so, nobody has told the Gen­er­al and he thought you would be the most like­ly to know at your end.”

Peck: “Well, if it has end­ed, nobody has told the Prime Min­is­ter either.”

Gault: “Do you think we had bet­ter car­ry on?”

Peck: “Yes, I think so.”…

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advice
Tipped-on illustration from the cover of “Real Soldiers of Fortune,” first edition, 1906.
Lt. Churchill: “A Subaltern’s Advice to Generals”

Lt. Churchill: “A Subaltern’s Advice to Generals”

With col­leagues I dis­cussed which of young Winston’s ear­ly war books was deri­sive­ly called, “A Subaltern’s Advice to Gen­er­als.” This was a pop­u­lar wise­crack after his ear­ly works had the temer­i­ty to pro­pose British mil­i­tary strat­e­gy in India, Sudan and South Africa. Churchill was in his mid-twen­ties at the time—but not ret­i­cent to speak his mind. Noth­ing we didn’t know here….

Malakand Field Force?

With­out con­sult­ing ref­er­ences, I thought the “advice” line involved The Sto­ry of the Malakand Field Force (Churchill’s first book, 1898). I was influ­enced by its last chap­ter, “The Rid­dle of the Fron­tier.” Plen­ty of advice there, though it is as much polit­i­cal as it is military.…

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Bullock
Neville Bullock, Churchill Bodyguard, R.I.P.

Neville Bullock, Churchill Bodyguard, R.I.P.

Neville Bullock…

…a kind and decent man, died aged 92 on August 29th, sur­round­ed by his fam­i­ly. Neville had served most recent­ly as a parish and dis­trict coun­cil­lor for Billinge and Sene­ley Green. Described as a “great bloke” by his friends, he will be deeply missed by all who knew him. Among these are Churchill his­to­ri­ans, who had the ben­e­fit of his remem­brances. Bul­lock was prob­a­bly the only man alive whose encoun­ters with the great bridged Churchill in 1945 with Rudy Giu­liani in 1996.

Trained as a Roy­al Marine, aged only 19, Neville Bul­lock sud­den­ly found him­self a body­guard to the Prime Min­is­ter.…

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Civil
Robert E. Lee on Traveller, by Frederick William Sievers, Gettysburg National Battlefield.
Civil War Memorials: What We Need to Remember

Civil War Memorials: What We Need to Remember

Of Civil War…

“We think we are whol­ly supe­ri­or peo­ple,” said the Civ­il War his­to­ri­an Shel­by Foote. The 50th and 75th Anniver­saries of the Civ­il War Bat­tle of Get­tys­burg were poignant, inspir­ing moments. The words spo­ken of those occa­sions give cause to won­der. In the wel­ter of emo­tions, have we for­got­ten what we need to remember?

 

Footage of Civ­il War Vet­er­ans at 50yr Anniver­sary in 1913 & 75yr Anniver­sary in 1938
Watch this video on YouTube “We may be given to meet again…”

Shel­by Foote:

We think we are whol­ly supe­ri­or peo­ple. If we’d been any­thing like as supe­ri­or as we think we are, we’d nev­er have fought that Civ­il War.…

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Lindemann
Frederick Lindemann Viscount Cherwell (1886-1957), arriving for a Cabinet meeting, 1951. (Fred Ramage, history.net)
Frederick Lindemann: Churchill’s Eminence Grise?

Frederick Lindemann: Churchill’s Eminence Grise?

Revi­sion­ist His­to­ry, Sea­son 2, Episode 5, “The Prime Min­is­ter and the Prof [ Fred­er­ick Lin­de­mann ],” pod­cast by Mal­colm Gladwell.

A pop­u­lar week­ly half hour pod­cast, Revi­sion­ist His­to­ry takes aim at shib­bo­leths, real and imag­ined. This episode is Churchill’s turn in the barrel.

Scientific Nemesis

The vil­lain, aside from Sir Win­ston, is his sci­en­tif­ic advis­er, Fred­er­ick Lin­de­mann,  lat­er Lord Cher­well, aka “The Prof.” You’ve prob­a­bly nev­er heard of him, says nar­ra­tor Mal­colm Glad­well. You should have. It was Lin­de­mann who made Churchill bomb inno­cent Ger­man civil­ians and starve the Bengalis.

Iron­i­cal­ly, the pro­gram begins with an ad for its spon­sor, Chanel Per­fume.…

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rhinoceros
Cover of the first edition MAJ, 1908.
Rhinoceros Table, Mr. Churchill? Thanks but No.

Rhinoceros Table, Mr. Churchill? Thanks but No.

The Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project received a nov­el ques­tion: “After his 1908 African safari, Churchill’s  taxi­der­mists ask if he wants a ‘Rhi­noc­er­os Table.’ What in the world is a Rhi­noc­er­os Table?”

Rhinoceros Table, anyone? The ref­er­ence is in The Churchill Doc­u­ments, vol. 4, Min­is­ter of the Crown, 1907-1911 (2007), page 753:

Row­land Ward Ltd., 167 Pic­cadil­ly, to WSC, 4 March 1908

Sir, In accor­dance with instruc­tions giv­en on your behalf by Lieu­tenant Colonel Gor­don Wil­son, we have in hand the fol­low­ing: MODELLED HEADS 1 Rhi­noc­er­os, 1 Zebra, 1 Warthog, 1 Wilde­beest, 1 Coke’s Har­te­beest, 1 Grant’s Gazelle, 1 Thomson’s Gazelle and the dress­ing of three Zebra skins, at a total cost of £​32.…

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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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