Trivia question. For whom was Winston Churchill named? If I ever knew, I no longer do. Are you you able to help? —S. F-L, Chicago

A: Not for the first Sir Winston…

The conventional answer seems first to have been offered by a biographer who said he was named for the first Sir Winston (1620-1688). That was Hugh Martin, in Battle: The Life Story of the Rt. Hon. Winston S. Churchill (London: Sampson, Low, 1932)….

On his father’s side Winston Churchill is descended from, and named after, the Sir Winston Churchill who was father of John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, possibly the greatest of English soldiers. Sir Winston was a cavalier of Charles II‘s reign, “brilliant but erratic,” according to Gardiner; “making himself ridiculous by publishing a dull and affected folio,” according to Macaulay. (6)

A little consideration would suggest that was unlikely. Why would Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill name their son for an obscure 17th century ancestor, and a fairly dubious one at that? No, it was someone more recent….

….but for his grandfather John Winston

Celia Lee, author of the excellent Winston & Jack: The Churchill Brothers (2007), is far more authoritative, and closer to family archives:

Winston was baptised on 27th December by the Duke’s Chaplain in the private chapel at Blenheim Palace, and was named after Randolph’ s father, whose middle name was Winston. (14)

John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough (1822-1883) was a Conservative Member of Parliament and betimes a Cabinet minister. His middle name Winston, not borne by any previous Duke of Marlborough, undoubtedly stemmed from the first Sir Winston.  So in a way, Hugh Martin was half-right, though undoubtedly Lord Randolph was thinking of his father when he chose “Winston.”

His other grandfather

Anticipating another question, Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill also carried the name of his American grandfather, Leonard Jerome (1817-1891).

I have two questions. When Lord Randolph Churchill was banished to Ireland in 1876, after the Aylesford incident, did he remain a Member of the House of Commons?  And what were the rules in regard to a Peer of the Realm being a Member of the Commons? Since Randolph was elected to the House in 1874 I assume he could serve. On the other hand, when in May 1940 the question was whether Lord Halifax or Winston Churchill would become Prime Minister, Halifax demurred on the grounds that as a Lord he couldn’t be a member of Commons and that  would would hamper him as Prime Minister.  —S.N.

Protocol and Practice

Exile in Ireland

 

The uproar was over Randolph’s brother the Marquess of Blandford‘s affair with Edith, Countess of Aylesford, wife of the 7th Earl of Ayelsford, aka “Sporting Joe.” It would appear Lady Edith was equally sporting. She wished to divorce the Earl and elope with Blandford, with whom she had conducted a torrid love affair. Hearing of this, HRH the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) condemned Blandford as “the greatest blackguard alive.” Springing to his brother’s defense, Randolph threatened to reveal HRH’s own indiscretions with Lady Edith, whereupon HRH said he would appear in no place where Lord Randolph was present–effectively ostracizing Winston Churchill’s parents from London Society.

Aylesford Redux

By 1880 the waters had calmed and Lord Randolph and his father returned to England, patching things up with HRH. (Young Winston’s first memories were of Ireland.)

“Sporting Joe” emigrated to Texas where he bought a cattle ranch and died of drink and dropsy aged only 36.  Lady Edith went on to further sport, but not with Blandford. A movie could be made. Ah, the Victorians.