Q: Where did Churchill get his V-sign?

I was want­i­ng to find out about the two-fin­ger V-sign in the pic­ture. It appears to be either the ear­li­est peace sym­bol. Did he flash it both ways? —R.L. Sono­ma, Calif.

A: Unknown, but it was a great prop

The “crow foot” peace sym­bol pre­dates Churchill’s V-sign by four or five cen­turies. Its 20th Cen­tu­ry form was pop­u­lar­ized by Picas­so in the World Peace Con­fer­ences of the 1950s. There it was alleged to rep­re­sent the Chris­t­ian cross upside down and bro­ken, the sym­bol of a Com­mu­nist peace.

Whether this is true or has any rela­tion to Churchill’s “salute” the read­er will have to judge. Wikipedia has an inter­est­ing dis­cus­sion. The “crow foot” was lat­er adopt­ed in Britain by the Com­mit­tee for Nuclear Dis­ar­ma­ment.

I’m not sure where Churchill picked up his V-sign, but he cer­tain­ly pop­u­lar­ized it dur­ing the Sec­ond World War. And most often, he got it right—flashing the V-sign palm-out.

Accord­ing to mem­bers of his fam­i­ly and col­leagues, he was com­plete­ly obliv­i­ous to the alter­nate mean­ing. That occurs when you flash the V-sign palm-in. (See pho­to at top!)

The derisive alternative

The V-sign when made palm fac­ing in is equiv­a­lent in Britain to the “one-fin­ger salute” in America.

The late actor Robert Hardy was an expert on the his­to­ry of archery and was sure of the V-sign’s ori­gins. Before the Bat­tle of Agin­court in 1415, the French promised to cut off the index and mid­dle fin­ger of Hen­ry V’s Eng­lish archers. They lost, and the cap­tured French pris­on­ers were parad­ed before King Harry’s bow­men. The lat­ter flashed their intact mid­dle fin­gers at the van­quished French as a ges­ture of dis­dain. That insult has per­sist­ed in Eng­land and oth­er places ever since.

It is vir­tu­al­ly cer­tain that Churchill was uncon­scious of the mean­ing of the palm-in V-sign, when on occa­sion he used it. For­mer sec­re­tary Eliz­a­beth Lay­ton Nel told me he was “aston­ished” when (with some embar­rass­ment) she told him what it meant. This moment is humor­ous­ly reen­act­ed in the great film Dark­est Hour, with Gary Old­man as WSC and Lily James as Elizabeth.

Related reading

“The Pool of Eng­land: How Hen­ry V Inspired Churchill’s Words,” 2019.

“‘Tim’—In Mem­o­ry of Tim­o­thy Robert Hardy,” 2017.

“Down­ing Street Annexe and Sec­re­tary Eliz­a­beth Nel,” 2020.

“‘Then Out Spake Brave Hor­atius’: A Review of Dark­est Hour,” 2018.