Churchill Unexpected Hero by Paul Addison

Churchill Unexpected Hero by Paul Addison

Author:Paul Addison
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Europe, Autobiography, Memoirs, Non-Fiction, Great Britain, Biography, History
ISBN: 9780191608575
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2005-01-13T00:00:00+00:00


So long frustrated, the two great ambitions of Churchill’s youth–to be a military hero and a hero of democracy––had come together in a blaze of glory in his sixty–sixth year.

Baldwin and Chamberlain had been public figures of Victorian gravitas, always on their dignity in public. Bursting with animal spirits, and always on the move, Churchill acted with a showmanship that upstaged the shy and stammering King George VI. His most famous theatrical prop was a large Havana cigar, which he would light and flourish with much ceremony, but seldom smoke. His most famous gesture, the V–sign with the palm of the hand turned outwards, was an adaptation of a notoriously rude gesture. Churchill also paid great attention to his wardrobe. He had always been a bit of a dandy, his collection of hats in a variety of styles a gift to the cartoonists of the inter–war years. Now he excelled himself. In addition to his normal Westminster attire of bow tie and striped suit, he appeared at various times in the uniforms of Air Commodore, Elder Brother of Trinity House, and Colonel of Hussars. Early on in the war he gave up wearing a dinner jacket in favour of a zip–up ‘siren’ suit which he sometimes wore in public, an eccentricity for which he was criticized by Aneurin Bevan. Not the least of his public relations assets were his wife and daughters. He was often accompanied on his travels by Clementine, whose Aid to Russia Fund also made her prominent in her own right, and occasionally by Sarah, who was serving in the WAAF, or Mary, who was in the ATS. Randolph, who became a staff officer in the Middle East, and later parachuted into Yugoslavia with Evelyn Waugh on a special mission to Tito, was a mixed blessing. Though he was courageous, and passionate in his father’s defence, his arrogant and outrageous behaviour made many enemies. In October 1939 he married Pamela Digby. In symbolic defiance of Hitler their son, Winston Spencer Churchill, was born at the height of the London blitz (10 October 1940). The marriage, however, was short–lived, and the relationship between Randolph and his father continued to be fraught. ‘We have a deep animal love for one another’, Churchill reflected, ‘but every time we meet we have a bloody row.’34

Churchill’s popularity was the sheet anchor of his authority as Prime Minister. In Whitehall he was a driving force the like of which had never been seen before, and the response to him was mixed. He imposed on others the restless demands, the workaholic discipline, and the frantic tempo which for decades he had imposed on himself. Within a few days, John Colville recalled, respectable civil servants were to be seen running along the corridors.35 Churchill was also, at times, a hard taskmaster and a bully. On 27 June Clementine plucked up the courage to warn him, in writing, of the danger that his ‘rough sarcastic and overbearing manner’ would make him generally disliked by colleagues and subordinates.



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