Edmund Murray Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Lectures at Sea (2): Churchill and the Myths of Ireland

14 July 2019 Comments 0 Comments

Myths Amid the Mists of Ireland

This is the Ireland portion of my lecture on the 2019 Hillsdale College Round-Britain cruise. Hillsdale cruises with “lectures at sea” are an annual event. They usually occur in the spring. For information on the 2020 cruise to Jerusalem and Athens, click here.

My book considers the tall tales, exaggerations, lies, myths, rumors and distortions about Churchill over the years. Nowadays, the old adage that you don’t speak ill of the dead is obsolete. It seems more important now to deconstruct history and puncture heroes.

The tool is the Internet.…

On Time: Winston Churchill’s Pocket Watch and Wristwatch

24 May 2018 Comments 0 Comments

A wristwatch that the Commune de Vaud gave Churchill on 11 September 1946 was sold recently by Sotheby’s. Did he wear wristwatches? One almost always sees him with a pocket watch. —S.R., New Hampshire

From the 1890s until the end of his life Churchill carried his father’s pocket watch, nicknamed “The Turnip.” He did however sometimes wear a wristwatch, as the above photo shows. N.B.: This is a revised, extended version of a 2009 post, which I have left up for the comments by readers: click here.

Wristwatches

William Manchester wrote that the wristwatch was a ”product of trench warfare.”…