Mary Soames Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Richard M. Langworth

Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 2)

6 December 2018 Comments 2 Comments

History and memory: Address to the Churchill Society of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Sir Winston’s 144th birthday, 30 November 2018 (Part 2). We were kindly hosted at Earnscliffe by the British High Commissioner, Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque.

Churchill and the Perspective of History 144 Years On

Continued from Part 1…. Do you want the good news or the bad news on Churchill today? The bad news is the high level of ignorance, as measured by that electronic Hyde Park Speaker’s Corner, the Internet.

Churchill’s name elicits 100 million Google hits, a colleague says, “Some are questions, many of which simply require the answer ‘No’—such as: ‘Was Churchill anti-Semitic?…

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Churchill, Women’s Suffrage and “Black Friday,” November 1910

13 August 2018 Comments 0 Comments

“Churchill, Suffrage and Black Friday”: excerpted from my article for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. For the full text, including Churchill’s letters to the head of the Metropolitan Police (22 November 1910) and to Prime Minister Asquith (21 December 1911), click here.

A London University student writes for help with his dissertation. Its topic is the relationship between Home Secretary Winston Churchill, the Metropolitan Police, and their handling of women’s suffrage demonstrators in November 1910. His questions illustrate Churchill’s domestic statesmanship. Our answers refute the belief that Churchill stridently opposed women’s suffrage except on isolated occasions in political tactics.…

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Darkest Hour: Queries and Comments with “Total Film” Magazine

6 January 2018 Comments 0 Comments

Jane Crowther, editor-in-chief of Britain’s Total Film magazine, had pertinent questions about the new film Darkest Hour. They were forwarded by Lady Gilbert from the website of official biographer Sir Martin Gilbert. Alas he is gone, but Sir Martin’s inspiration continues to guide everyone, as he said, “who labours in the Churchill vineyard.”

Q: Did Winston Churchill ever use public transport while PM, particularly the tube?

Not to my knowledge. His daughter Lady Soames told me he only used the Underground once, and became so lost that he had to be rescued.…

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Nashville (3). Churchill and Women’s Rights

23 October 2017 Comments 1 Comment

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

20 October 2017 Comments 0 Comments

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

6 September 2017 Comments 1 Comment

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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Would Winston Churchill Legalize Smoking Pot?

28 May 2017 Comments 0 Comments

The first commandment of Lady Soames, Winston Churchill’s renowned daughter (1922-2014), was: “Thou shalt not proclaim what my father would do in modern situations.” However, since she enjoyed smoking a good cigar on occasion, she might excuse the suggestion that if he were around, he would probably not object to legalizing marijuana.

Churchill on Smoking

The journalist and broadcaster Collin Brooks wrote a sprightly essay, “Churchill the Conversationalist,” in Charles Eade‘s collection of articles, Churchill by His Contemporaries. (This 1953 book is inexpensive and well worth owning. It’s an evergreen collection of perceptive pieces on aspects of Churchill’s life and character.)…

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Fateful Questions: World War II Microcosm (2)

30 April 2017 Comments 0 Comments

Fateful Questions

Fateful Questions, September 1943-April 1944, nineteenth of a projected twenty-three document volumes in the official biography, Winston S. Churchill, is reviewed by historian Andrew Roberts in Commentary.

These volumes comprise “every important document of any kind that concerns Churchill.” The present volume sets the size record. Fateful Questions is 2,752 pages long, representing an average of more than eleven pages per day. Yet at $60, it is a tremendous bargain. Order your copy from the Hillsdale College Bookstore.

Here is an excerpt from my account, “Fresh History,” which can be read in its entirety at the Hillsdale College Churchill Project.…

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Thoughts on National Churchill Day 2017: TheQuestion.com

8 April 2017 Comments 0 Comments

Q: TheQuestion tries to provide our readers with the most reliable knowledge from experts in various fields. As we celebrate National Churchill Day, April 9th, we would appreciate your thoughts on three questions. These are currently posted without responses on our website: Was Winston Churchill really that good an artist? What made him a great leader? What was his greatest achievement?

TheQuestion: Churchill as Artist

Please take a virtual tour of Hillsdale College’s recent exhibition of Churchill paintings and artifacts. Here your readers can decide for themselves. The consensus among experts, however, is that Churchill was a gifted amateur.…

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“Churchill’s Secret”: Worth a Look

22 September 2016 Comments 1 Comment

Churchill’s Secret, co-produced by PBS Masterpiece and ITV (UK). Directed by Charles Sturridge, starring Michael Gambon as Sir Winston and Lindsay Duncan as Lady Churchill. To watch, click here.

Excerpted from a review for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project.

PBS and ITV have succeeded where many failed. They offer a Churchill documentary with a minimum of dramatic license, reasonably faithful to history (as much as we know of it). Churchill’s Secret limns the pathos, humor, hope and trauma of a little-known episode: Churchill’s stroke on 23 June 1953, and his miraculous recovery. For weeks afterward, his faithful lieutenants in secret ran the government.…

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