The Churchills Read online

  THE CHURCHILLS

  Also by Mary S. Lovell

  Straight on Till Morning: The Biography of Beryl Markham

  The Splendid Outcast: The African Short Stories of Beryl Markham

  The Sound of Wings: The Biography of Amelia Earhart

  Cast No Shadow: Betty Pack, the Spy Who Changed the Course of World War II

  A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby

  A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton

  The Mitford Girls: The Biography of an Extraordinary Family

  Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth 1527–1608

  THE CHURCHILLS

  In Love and War

  MARY S. LOVELL

  W. W. Norton & Company

  NEW YORK • LONDON

  This book is dedicated to my friends

  Anne Biffin

  and

  Nell Whiting

  CONTENTS

  Preface

  Selective Family Tree

  1 1650–1750 ‘Thou art a rascal, John Churchill’

  2 1850–74 Randolph and Jennie

  3 1874–5 The Birth of Winston

  4 1875–80 A Dysfunctional Family

  5 1880–7 A Career Thrown Away

  6 1887–95 Lilian’s Millions

  7 1892–5 Consuelo, the Dollar Princess

  8 1895–9 The Unhappy Duchess

  9 1896–9 Looking for Trouble

  10 1899–1900 National Hero!

  11 1900–4 The Young Lion

  12 1904–7 My Darling Clementine

  13 1907–8 Couples

  14 1908–14 The Next Generation

  15 1914–16 A Fall from Power

  16 1917–21 The Armistice and After

  17 1921–4 Black Times

  18 1921–31 The Twenties

  19 1932–7 Changes at Blenheim

  20 1938–9 Towards Armageddon

  21 1939–40 ‘But You Don’t Know Me’

  22 1941–4 The Long Slog

  23 1943–5 Weathering the Storm

  24 1945–51 The Aftermath

  25 1952–5 A New Era

  26 1955–63 Safe Harbour

  27 1963–78 Crossing the Bar

  Appendix 1 Family and Friends

  Appendix 2 Lord Randolph Churchill and the Diagnosis of Syphilis

  Notes

  Bibliography

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright Credits

  Author’s Note

  Index

  John Churchill, the 1st Duke. Blenheim Palace was a gift from a grateful nation. (Painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Blenheim Palace)

  Sarah Churchill was imperious and arrogant, but her husband adored her. (Blenheim Palace)

  Duchess Fanny, Jennie’s mother-in-law: ‘at the rustle of her silken skirts the whole household trembled’. (Blenheim Palace)

  John, the 7th Duke of Marlborough, who reined in the family expenditure. (Blenheim Palace)

  ‘Blandford’, later the 8th Duke. (Blenheim Palace)

  Blandford’s first wife, Lady Albertha ‘Goosie’ (Hamilton), was renowned for her childish practical jokes. (Blenheim Palace)

  Lady Colin Campbell, Blandford’s mistress, for whom (despite his large debts) he bought a Venetian palazzo. (Giovanni Boldini, c. 1897, National Portrait Gallery)

  Duchess Lily (Hammersley), second wife of Blandford. She quickly installed central heating at Blenheim. (Blenheim Palace)

  Jennie Jerome – one admirer described her as ‘more panther than woman’. (Getty)

  Lord Randolph at the time he met Jennie. (Corbis)

  Jennie and Randolph: an engagement portrait. (Churchill Archives).

  Lady Randolph: Jennie at the height of her beauty. (Getty)

  Jennie with her two sons, Jack and Winston. (Getty)

  Jennie’s family: Jennie standing with Winston. From left to right: her sister Clarita, holding Oswald Frewen; her mother Mrs Leonard ‘Clara’ Jerome, holding Claire and Hugh Frewen; Jack Churchill (standing in front of Jenny); Norman Leslie (standing); Shane Leslie seated on Leonie Leslie’s lap. (Private collection)

  Nanny Everest – the most important woman in Winston’s young life. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston aged seven – ready to take on the world. (Corbis)

  Winston aged six with his Aunt Leonie. A little-known photograph. (Churchill Archives)

  Lord and Lady Randolph and Dr Keith in rickshaws on their world trip. Randolph is looking cadaverous and was the greatest worry to Jennie and his doctor; it was feared they would not get him home alive. (Churchill Archives)

  Lord Randolph in 1890, when his illness had taken its toll. (Corbis)

  Jennie aboard the hospital ship Maine at Durban with Jack, one of her first patients. (Private collection)

  Winston as a young subaltern in the 4th Hussars. (Getty)

  Lady Sarah Wilson: an acid-tongued aunt, loathed by Jennie and Consuelo. She acted with great bravery under fire at Mafeking and became the first woman war correspondent. (Getty)

  Major Jack Churchill during the Boer War – both he and Winston wore this dashing uniform of the Light Horse and both grew moustaches. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston as a belligerent prisoner-of-war. Captured on 15 November 1899, he soon escaped and went on the run, later writing, ‘I hated my captivity more than I have hated any other period in my life.’ (Churchill Archives)

  The instant hero: Winston addresses the cheering crowds at Durban following his escape. (Churchill Archives)

  An unusual photograph of Winston in front of his ‘rowtie’ tent during the Boer War. (Private collection)

  ‘Sunny’ Marlborough, the 9th Duke. (Getty)

  The family portrait Sunny ordered less than a year before he and Consuelo parted. (Blenheim Archives)

  Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough, forced by her mother into a marriage distasteful to her. She had an affair with the artist Paul Helleu, who painted this charming portrait. (Private collection)

  Consuelo and Sunny en route to the Delhi Durbar. (Getty)

  Consuelo and Winston. The two were always great friends. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston with the Kaiser during military manoeuvres in 1909. Few war leaders have been on first-name terms with the leader of the enemy as Winston was during the 1914 – 18 war. (Getty)

  Vanity Fair cartoon of Winston delivering a speech in the House. He deliberately adopted the confident ‘hands-on-hips’ stance of his father. (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  Sisters: Lady Clementine and Lady Blanche Ogilvy. Lady Clementine’s husband Lord Redesdale may have been the real father of Blanche’s daughter, Clementine Hozier. (Churchill Archives)

  An engagement picture of Winston and Clementine after he proposed to her in the Grecian temple at Blenheim. (Churchill Archives)

  A portrait of Clementine at the time of her marriage to Winston. (Getty)

  Winston shortly before his marriage. (Corbis)

  The bridesmaids await the bride. (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  Jennie, arriving at Winston and Clementine’s wedding. (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  Winston arriving at the church with his best man, Lord Hugh Cecil. (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  Clementine’s arrival: thousands waited to see the couple married. (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  Winston and Clementine leaving for their honeymoon. Nellie and Lady Blanche Hozier are on the right. (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  Sunny and Clementine dressed for foxhunting, on the steps of Blenheim. (Getty)

  Clementine with Winston on army manoeuvres. (Churchill Archives)

  An unusually informal photo of Winston and Clementine with their first child, Diana, born in 1909. (Private collection)

  Blenheim in
1911 when the Oxfordshire Hussars held a camp there. Sunny is on the left, Winston is standing and Jack is seated. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston and Clementine on holiday just before the outbreak of war in 1914. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston with Clementine in 1914 beside the Farman biplane in which he learned to fly. He enjoyed flying, but at Clementine’s entreaty he gave it up. (Getty)

  Jack in the Dardanelles campaign in 1915. (Imperial War Museum)

  Clementine with her mother-in-law Jennie, soon after the end of the First World War, at about the time of Jennie’s third marriage. (Getty)

  Jack’s wife ‘Goonie’, beautiful and much loved by all the family. Here with her daughter Clarissa. (Private collection)

  Winston fought in the trenches during the war on his resignation from the Cabinet after Gallipoli. This is his trench gear. The helmet was given to him by a Frenchman. (Churchill Archives)

  The 1921 Cairo Conference. Winston was Colonial Secretary and Clementine accompanied him to Egypt. She is wearing white and is on the first camel from the left. Next to her is Winston, then Gertrude Bell and T. E. Lawrence. (Churchill Archives)

  Jennie was sixty-three when she married her third husband, Montague Porch. He was forty (younger than Winston), although he looks older in this press photograph taken as they left the register office. (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  Consuelo and Jacques Balsan, the love of her life. (Getty)

  The head of one of the sphinxes at Blenheim – said to be a very lifelike portrait of Sunny’s mistress Gladys before her plastic surgery went awry (Author)

  Sunny in 1900. He loved Gladys passionately for years. (Getty)

  Duchess Gladys, soon after her marriage to Sunny in 1921. Even though they had been lovers for over a decade, their relationship began to fall apart shortly afterwards. (Getty)

  Randolph and Diana with their father at Chartwell. (Getty)

  The Churchill and the Mitford children often spent time at each other’s homes. Here at Swinbrook, left to right, Ralph (a family friend), Unity, Jessica and Diana Mitford, Diana Churchill, Tom Mitford, Randolph and the imperturbable Lady Redesdale. (Private collection)

  Winston playing at a polo match in 1923. He was a fine rider and played frequently. A dislocated shoulder sustained years earlier in India meant he always played with his right arm secured by a strap. (Corbis)

  Clementine and Marigold, the Churchill daughter who died tragically as an infant. (Churchill Archives)

  A family group on Budget Day: Winston as Chancellor, carrying the famous red dispatch case, with Clementine, Sarah and Randolph. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston specialised in landscapes, but he painted a few portraits, and this group painting demonstrates his ability to capture likenesses. From left to right: Winston (foreground), Thérèse Sickert, Diana Mitford, Edward Marsh, Professor Lindemann, Randolph, Diana Churchill, Clementine Churchill and Walter Sickert. Based on a photograph taken by Donald Ferguson, 29 August 1927. (Curtis Brown © The Churchill Heritage/The National Heritage)

  Mary skating in Switzerland in the winter of 1937–8. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston and his best friend, the utterly brilliant F. E. Smith. After F.E.’s death Winston was inconsolable. (Churchill Archives)

  A rare photo of Clementine with Terence Philip, her only extra-marital romance. She was his companion on a cruise (pictured here in Madras in January 1935) and later confided in her daughter that ‘he made me like him’. (Churchill Archives)

  At Chartwell. Left to right: Tom Mitford, Winston (unidentified), Clementine, Diana, Randolph and Charlie Chaplin. (Getty)

  Diana’s second marriage, to Duncan Sandys, lasted for many years until his womanising drove her to depression, with fatal results. (Getty)

  Sarah meets Randolph as he disembarks from the Queen Mary, Sept 1936. (Getty)

  Randolph’s intervention failed and Sarah married Vic Oliver in December 1936, after which they sailed aboard the Aquitania for England. (Getty)

  Winston and Jack with their sons John (at the back) and Randolph (foreground). (Getty)

  Pamela Digby attracted men like a magnet. (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  Randolph and Pamela had only known each other for a few days when he proposed. This was taken shortly after their marriage in 1939. (Corbis)

  Pamela and ‘young Winston’. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston during what he called ‘the wilderness years’ of the 1930s. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston and President Roosevelt – the beginning of ‘the special relationship’ between the two nations. (Churchill Archives)

  When people could not get home to listen to one of Winston’s broadcasts, they would go to a pub or stand outside a radio shop. Here is one such group in Islington. (Churchill Archives)

  Clementine and Eleanor Roosevelt. Both played important roles during the war. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston and Brendan Bracken leave No. 10. Initially, Clementine disliked Brendan when he failed to deny rumours that he was Winston’s illegitimate son, but later he proved his loyalty and she came to trust him as a Churchill insider. (Churchill Archives)

  All the Churchill children were involved in the war effort. Mary ran a gun emplacement in Hyde Park for most of the war. (Churchill Archives)

  Mary accompanied her father to Canada as an ADC during the first Quebec Conference in 1943. Here they are pictured at Niagara Falls. (Getty)

  Hundreds of thousands gathered on VE Day, all wanting to touch and cheer Winston. Within weeks he was voted out of power. (Getty)

  Sarah with her husband Antony Beauchamp in 1949. Her parents disliked him intensely. (Churchill Archives)

  Randolph and Diana walking in Fleet Street, London. (Corbis)

  Randolph and Young Winston represented Sir Winston when he was made an honorary citizen of the United States by President Kennedy. Winston was only the second person in history to be so honoured; the first was Lafayette. (Getty)

  Clementine, Anthony Eden, Clarissa and Winston on Clarissa’s wedding day in the garden at Number 10. (Getty)

  Sarah found real happiness with husband number four, Henry, 23rd Baron Audley, but their marriage was destined to be tragically short. (Getty)

  Churchill returns from Moscow in August 1942 to be warmly greeted by Clementine. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston and Clementine in the garden at Chartwell with their grandchildren. (Getty)

  Winston and Clementine, travelling to the East End by launch during the Battle of Britain when the city streets were impassable. Their body language tells us all there is to know about what they meant to each other. (Churchill Archives)

  Winston seems helpless with laughter in this informal shot taken at a meeting of the Woodford Conservative fête in 1956. (Churchill Archives)

  The Churchills take the sun at La Pausa. (Getty)

  Emery and Wendy Reves. A rare photo of the couple who ran La Pausa, their luxurious Mediterranean villa, around Winston’s whims. (© University of Texas Press)