HMS Prince of Wales Archives - Richard M. Langworth

The Whole Welsh Works of Winston

14 March 2019 Comments 1 Comment

Mr. Emrys Hughes: “Owing to the popularity the Government has gained by the reduction of their salaries, is not the Prime Minister prepared to apply the principle to the big item of more than £500,000 spent on the Civil List?” Mr. Churchill replied “Dim o gwbl," meaning "At any time." Which was a nice Welsh way of saying "I'm really not going to tell you anything."

A Love of the (Hot-Water) Bottle: Wartime Anecdotes

26 July 2017 Comments 2 Comments

Living Hot-Water Bottle

Q. “Rab” Butler, Churchill’s Minister of Education (1941-45) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1951-55), recalled that Churchill once told him he was doing less for the war effort than Churchill’s grey cat Nelson, who saved fuel and power by acting as a Prime Ministerial hot-water bottle. True?

A. Yes. Butler said this in a speech to the Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Spencer Churchill Society of Edmonton, Alberta. (This was the original Churchill Society, the only one sanctioned by Churchill personally). Butler spoke at their annual dinner on 6 May 1968.…