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Post by Admin on Nov 12, 2015 11:23:56 GMT
“One of the most amazing things about Winston Churchill was his ability to drink – I mean to drink enough alcohol to fell an ox and to continue to function,” – so began visiting London Mayor Boris Johnson's talk Tuesday evening, speaking on the occasion of the inaugural Winston Churchill lecture in Jerusalem.
Johnson, author of The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History, went on to tell the packed audience at Mishkenot Shaananim that while Britain’s greatest wartime leader “started the day with a weak whisky and water – which he used as a kind of mouthwash,” the suggestion that the “famous triangular kink in the border between Jordan and Saudi Arabia –known as Winston’s hiccup,” was the result of a “post-prandial slip of the ruler,” when he was Colonial Secretary - was, promised Johnson to much laughter, nothing but myth.
“What is certainly not a myth is that Churchill drew that map…and that he was one of the fathers of the modern Middle East,” said Johnson. “He even coined the term Middle East, or helped to popularize it.” “He drew the boundaries of Syria, he put the three vilayets of Baghdad and Mosul and Basra together to create modern Iraq…He put the Hashemites on the throne of Jordan, where they still are, and he was absolutely indispensable to the foundation of modern Israel.” Johnson talked of how Churchill came to Israel in 1922 as Colonial Secretary, and spent time listening to the case of both the Jewish community and the Palestinian Arabs. This, quipped Johnson, “….because it was his job to give effect to that masterpiece of Foreign Office Janus facing doublespeak and equivocation, the Balfour Declaration.
“If Balfour had been responsible for His Majesty’s government’s policy on cake, he would have been pro-having it and pro-eating it,” added the mayor, with a cheeky smile, to great applause. Churchill’s belief that the area to the west of the Jordan was the place where a homeland could be created for the Jewish people was a reflection, stressed Johnson, of Churchill’s “deepest personal sympathies.” All his life, said Johnson, Churchill “followed his father in being pro-Jewish and if he was not Zionist….he was ‘wedded to Zionism,’’
Moreover, continued Johnson, Churchill attested on many occasions that admired the Jewish people – probably, noted Johnson, “for qualities that he evidently shared himself: energy, self-reliance, hard work, family life.” "If we look at the history of modern Israel there is no doubt that the comparison can be extended – and that there is something Churchillian about the country he helped to create. There is the audacity, the bravery, the willingness to take risks with feats of outrageous derring-do."
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Post by Admin on Dec 5, 2015 7:53:22 GMT
He may have been one of the greatest statesman Britain has ever known, navigating the country through the Second World War and making the most memorable speeches of our time. Sir Winston Churchill was not so adept, it appears, at paying his bills. The archives of Henry Poole & Co, the Savile Row tailors who dressed the young Sir Winston, have revealed how the politician repeatedly refused to pay for his suits, leaving a £197 bill outstanding. He became so infuriated by requests for payment, it discloses, that he “took umbrage and quit” their patronage, claiming it was good for “morale” and the tailor’s business for him to be dressed well. His last order was placed in 1937, for minor repairs to a yachting cap, according to the Henry Poole & Co archives, which stretch back to 1865 and are to be made public today. Among the records are details of Sir Winston’s wardrobe, after Henry Poole began making his clothes as a child at Blenheim Palace. He went on to order formal apparel as the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, a Privy Councillor, President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, First Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State for War, Chancellor of the Exchequer and an Elder Brother of Trinity House.
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Post by Admin on Dec 15, 2015 7:44:31 GMT
To Winston Churchill the Japanese attack on United States naval forces at Pearl Harbor was one of the greatest days of the most terrible war in Great Britain’s history. He was appalled, calculating, and exhilarated – perhaps in equal measures. He was dining at Chequers, the country retreat of prime ministers, when he heard the news. His guests were US Ambassador Gil Winant and Averell Harriman, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s special envoy to Europe. A butler brought in a portable radio for the party to listen to the BBC Home Service. When the attack was confirmed Churchill leapt to his feet and said he must declare war on Japan at once. His guests dissuaded him from this impetuous act, historian Walter Reid recounts in “Churchill 1940-1945,” his book about wartime relations among the Allied leaders. The prime minister phoned Roosevelt, and asked “Mr. President, what’s this about Japan?” FDR responded that it was true, and they were all in the same boat now. To Churchill, this meant one thing above all: victory. Britain was no longer alone. Finally, the US would enter the war. “Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful,” he wrote in his own history of World War II.
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Post by Admin on Jan 1, 2016 7:06:17 GMT
On how Clementine "threw herself into" being Churchill's wife I think she realized she couldn't be the ordinary wife. She would lose Winston. She would never see him. So really from very, very early on, she threw herself into making herself the right sort of woman for him. She wanted to prove that she was up to it. A lot of people thought she wasn't when she first married him. She'd come from this rackety background. She was quite shy. And so she pushed herself to become this incredibly wise, measured, knowledgeable, well-read person. On her background She was the granddaughter of a Scottish earl. But her mother was something of a Victorian wild child: Lady Blanche. She was married off, and it was a pretty loveless match. He didn't want children. She did. She went about this with some enthusiasm, shall we say ... without him! ... She had up to 10 lovers on the go at once. As a result of this, her mother was shunned by polite society, had very little money. They kept having to move house. Her putative father, [Sir Henry] Hozier, tried to kidnap her. She managed to escape. But none of this was the sort of life you would normally expect of the granddaughter of a Scottish earl. On what attracted Winston to her I think because of her rackety background — she had no money, she was making her own living — she wasn't like the normal society women that he'd met, who were interested in frocks and balls and not much else. So, suddenly here was a woman who was interested in what he had to say about all sorts of things, and he found that thrilling. She found it rapturous that here was someone prepared to talk about great and exciting world events — events which she wished she could be a part of. On how Clementine helped her husband rebuild his career after some disastrous mistakes I think he always wanted to be prime minister. She always wanted him to be prime minister, too. I think the difference she made was that earlier in his career, he made countless mistakes. Take the Dardanelles [and the Gallipoli Campaign], for instance, in the first world war — disastrous military campaign. ... And for many Empire troops, this was something that has, you know, stayed in history as a military disaster. You might argue it wasn't really Churchill's fault ... you might argue it was. In any case, he got the blame. ... His career was completely shot. And she saw that the way back — he had to redeem himself. And if by volunteering to fight in the trenches at the Western Front, he could show people that he wasn't this hothead. He wasn't just all about him. On how, when he went to fight with the British army on the Western Front, Clementine warned him not to come back too soon Yes, can you imagine? ... A wicked bullet could find him at any moment. But she wanted people to want him to come back. She knew that if he just came back, people would say, "Oh, it's the same old Winston. He's not learned." If he stayed out there long enough that people realize that he was needed, then that would be different. On how Clementine took action on her own She saw that all Britain had in 1940-1941 was a collective spirit, and that had to be fostered and nurtured and protected. And yet, people were discontented. The air raid shortages and the Blitz — they were pretty horrible. They were cold; they were dark; they were scary. And so she went about ordering all the government ministers around: Please put heating in there. Please make sure there's a fire exit there. Please manufacture 2 million new beds so people can sleep alongside their children during the raids to stop them from becoming too frightened. She saw that by dealing with these problems, you would foster that incredible Blitz spirit that people still talk about now.
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Post by Admin on Aug 21, 2016 21:28:14 GMT
Rare pictures of Winston Churchill during World War One are to be published for the first time. The black and white images include shots of the Prime Minister in uniform at the front near Ypres in northern France. He can be seen posing with fellow officers in the heart of the Western Front where he was so nearly killed by the shrapnel of an artillery shell - a fatal blow that would have prevented the then young Churchill from going on to become Britain's greatest ever wartime leader. 'My father and Churchill were certainly involved in the full horror of the frontline trench warfare, which affected my father very badly. Serving in Western Front certainly developed Churchill's relationship with men at all levels, developed his personal character and rhetoric. Other photos show my father as a relaxed professional man, which is how I remember him.'
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