I came across an alleged saying by Churchill along the lines of: “There are 13 million feathers on a dragonfly’s wing yet it is but a mouthful for a bird.” I can’t find it. Could he have meant ‘butterfly’? He was saying that only in humans does one find sentimentality, sadness or compassion for dreadful things that happen to nature’s creatures. —R.H.

I searched our Hillsdale College digital archive of Churchill’s 20 million published words. Nothing came up for “dragonfly’s wing.” Your guess that he meant “butterfly” was a good one. I searched for “million feathers” and sure enough. Thoughtful quotation. Sorry I missed it in Churchill by Himself, but it appeared in the sequel, The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill. Here is the reference:

India, 1898

On 10 January young Winston wrote to his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, from Bangalore, where was stationed. He was imploring her to help him join the Sudan Campaign as a war correspondent. He had been hoping to do likewise with the Tirah Expedition on the Indian frontier, but that war fizzled to a rapid end. Lady Randolph did help him get to Sudan later the same year.

His remarks about the butterfly are in Randolph Churchill, ed., The Churchill Documents, vol. 2, Young Soldier 1896-1901 (Hillsdale College Press, 2006), 856. Churchill wrote:

Oh how I wish I could work you up over Egypt! I know you could do it with all your influence and all the people you know. It is a pushing age and we must shove with the best. After Tirah and Egypt then I think I shall turn from war to peace and politics. If that is I get through all right. I think myself I shall, but of course one only has to look at Nature and see how very little store she sets by life. Its sanctity is entirely a human idea. You may think of a beautiful butterfly 12 million feathers on his wings, 16,000 lenses in his eye, a mouthful for a bird. Let us laugh at Fate. It might please her.

“A pushing age…shove with the best…sanctity of life…let us laugh at Fate.” This is indeed a cornucopia of Churchillian thought. WSC was a keen collector of butterflies in India, but in later life he couldn’t bear to kill them or even keep them captive. One day after visiting his chrysalis house at Chartwell, he left the screen door open. Secretary Grace Hamblin asked, “Did you mean to do that?” Yes, he replied, “I can’t bear this captivity any longer.”

Butterflies at Chartwell

For a photo of Churchill’s butterfly house and their proliferation at Chartwell, click here.

David Riddle, a National Trust volunteer at Chartwell, gave me the background of the “Butterfly House” Churchill established to propagate the insects on the grounds of his home:

The Butterfly House was first used as a game larder between 1869 and 1889 by the Colquhoun family, who owned Chartwell between 1830 and 1922, when Churchill bought the estate. Two years later Philip Tilden, his architect, converted the larder to a summer house by removing the east wall. In 1946 it was converted to a Butterfly House. Churchill used it for raising caterpillars and chrysalises. He received advice from butterflies expert L. Hugh Newman, who owned a “butterfly farm” in nearby Sidcup. Lady Churchill planted buddleia, lavender and other nectar-rich flowers in order to encourage the butterflies. Sir Winston changed the walk from gravel to turf and stepping stones in 1950.

Butterflies: A Lifetime Interest

Churchill became fascinated with butterflies as a young officer stationed in India, where they were colorful and prolific. Years later, in 1939, and again after the war, he determined to propagate them at Chartwell. L. Hugh Newman, as David Riddle states, was his chief supplier.

Ronald Golding, Churchill’s Scotland Yard detective during 1946-47, told me an amusing episode involving Newman’s first visit to Churchill:

He took the breeder for a walk round the grounds and gave a general idea of his plans. The expert then gave advice and went into technical details. Mr. Churchill said very little. Rather like a penny dropping in the butterfly man’s mind, you could almost hear him thinking: “Ah, I’ve got the old boy. He’s not nearly as clever as I thought. This is one sphere in which I know a lot more than he does.”

Mr. Newman became just the slightest bit patronizing and boomf! Mr. Churchill came back at him with very lucid comments showing that he was fully acquainted with everything being said. Visibly shaken, the expert never tried to “talk down” again. It was a pattern of conversation I’d noticed with other experts. I can’t help feeling that Mr. Churchill pretended ignorance to a certain extent, then came down like a ton of bricks if there was any attempt to patronize him.

A very successful scheme was put in hand and some of the rarest butterflies and moths of the greatest beauty were hatched out. By careful provision of the right flowers and bushes, the butterflies were kept well fed.

“In Durance Vile”

Churchill’s daughter Lady Soames was not sure when he stopped raising butterflies, but it might have been after an event described by longtime Chartwell secretary and administrator Grace Hamblin, at a 1987 Churchill Conference:

He had a little hut in the garden, which is still there. In those days he had the front covered with gauze, with a gauze door opening into it. A nearby butterfly farm sent him chrysalises. which he liked to see develop. One morning, I was with him spreading out the chrysalises. Upon leaving the little hut, he left the door open. I said, “Did you want to leave the door open, or should I close it?” He said, “I can’t bear this captivity any longer!” Thus we no longer kept butterflies, but they are supposed to remain in the garden once you start. It’s a lovely occupation. When he knew that Chartwell would eventually go to the National Trust and be open to the public he said, “I hope the National Trust will grow plenty of buddleia for my butterflies.”

This charming story reminds us of Churchill’s hatred of imprisonment. In his autobiography, he writes of being jailed by the Boers in the Anglo-Boer War, in a chapter entitled, “In Durance Vile.” Ten years later as Home Secretary, he strove to avoid imprisoning people for trivial offenses and was ahead of his time in his ideas about rehabilitating inmates.