Winston Churchill

The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, FRS PC (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. At various times a soldier, journalist, author and politician, Churchill is generally regarded as one of the most important leaders in British and world history. He won the 1953 Nobel Prize in literature.

Miscellany and trivia

• Because of the existence of another Winston Churchill, who was an American, the British Winston's books were published under the name "Winston Spencer Churchill" or "Winston S. Churchill" to distinguish them, though some later printings ignore this.
• Various secondary/high schools in Canada and the United States are named after Churchill, such as Sir Winston Churchill High School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
• Churchill was an ardent supporter of Zionism, following his meetings with Chaim Weizmann and the visits in Eretz Israel - Palestina. He kept supporting it (and later, Israel) even after WWII. http://www.jewishpost.com/jewishpost/jpn201b.html
• Churchill College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, was founded in 1960 as the national and commonwealth memorial to Winston Churchill.
• The Churchill tank, a heavy infantry tank of World War II, was named in his honour.
• A few people have attributed Churchill's extraordinary abilities to his being affected by bipolar disorder. This is not widely accepted, however, and no major biographer of Churchill has made that claim. In his last years, Churchill is believed by several writers to have suffered from Alzheimer's disease, though the Churchill Centre disputes this. Certainly he suffered from fits of depression that he called his "black dog." Some researchers also believe that Churchill was dyslexic, based on the difficulties he described himself having at school. However, the Churchill Centre and other experts strongly refute this (Source: http://www.winstonchurchill.org ).
• Churchill also overcame a severe stammer and lisp, but some of his speeches were still marred with traces of them. Churchill even thought that these added an interesting element to a speaker's voice: "Sometimes a slight and not unpleasing stammer or impediment has been of some assistance in securing the attention of the audience. . ." ^{http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=814http://www.stuttersfa.org/pressrm/chrchill.htm}
• The United States Navy destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81) is named in his honour. In 1963, Churchill was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
• Churchill's mother was American and some, including Churchill himself, have said that his maternal grandmother was an Iroquois, which would make Churchill the only British prime minister of Native American descent. Research has failed to validate this contention, and some doubt its accuracy.
• In 1995, a row erupted after the National Lottery spent 12 million pounds of its 'good causes' budget on Churchill's personal papers after his descendants said they were tempted to sell them to American academics. Churchill's family were heavily criticised for not offering the papers to the nation for free.
• Churchill was voted as "The Greatest Briton" in 2002 "100 Greatest Britons" poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public. He was also named TIME magazine "Man of the Half-Century" in the early 1950s.
• John Lennon's middle name was Winston. His mother named him after the prime minister. This is also true of the Australian Prime Minister John Howard
• The Churchill cigar size actually was named after him, his favorite brand being Romeo y Julieta. Further Pol Roger's Grande Cuvee champage is named for Churchill. Carlsberg's Special Brew was also specially formulated for one of Churchill's visit to their brewery.
• Churchill was a Freemason between 1901 and 1912. There is some evidence he had involvement subsequently. http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=547.
• In 1943 Churchill was played by Dudley Field Malone, one of the attorneys in the Scopes Trial in the propaganda film Mission to Moscow.
• In July 1944 Churchill requested from the Chief of Staff General Ismay a study on the potential use of poison gas as a means of shortening the war or retaliating against the V-1 and V-2 rockets then falling on London:

:I want you to think very seriously over this question of poison gas. I would not use it unless it could be shown either that (a) it was life or death for us, or (b) that it would shorten the war by a year... If the bombardment of London became a serious nuisance and great rockets with far-reaching and devastating effect fell on many centres of Government and labour, I should be prepared to do anything that would hit the enemy in a murderous place. I may certainly have to ask you to support me in using poison gas. We could drench the cities of the Ruhr and many other cities in Germany in such a way that most of the population would be requiring constant medical attention. We could stop all work at the flying bomb starting points. I do not see why we should have the disadvantages of being the gentleman while they have all the advantages of being the cad. There are times when this may be so but not now... (source: Prime Minister's Personal Minute, D.217/4, 6 July 1944)

Related Topics:
6 July - 1944

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:The study concluded and advised Churchill that the use of such weapons would not benefit the war effort.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~