5 things about Winston Churchill - by Gavin Ferguson

Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War.

Our national story, the one that I had drilled into me every history lesson, is that through his inspirational speeches and leadership, he led Britain to victory in the Second World War. Here are some interesting things about him.

1. His parents were posh twats

*Blenheim Palace, Churchill’s birthplace*

I apologise, especially to my younger students, for the use of this very rude word ‘twat’ – but there is no better word to describe his parents. Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace into a very rich aristocratic family. Typically, for such a family, his parents sent him off to boarding school at a very early age. Naturally, young Winston missed his mother and sent her loving letters begging to be able to spend more time with her.

For example, he wrote to her ‘I do wish you could come and see me. I get so lonely sometimes’… then later ‘I have written to you so often and have received no reply’. But she was too busy absorbed in her social life and replied ‘you must not make such a fuss about seeing me’.

Later he said of his mother ‘I loved her dearly – but at a distance.’

Going to Harrow boarding school may have been painful for Churchill – but they certainly taught him to believe that he was special. He said ‘we are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow-worm’.

2. Before becoming Prime Minister, he made some catastrophic mistakes

In 1915, during the First World War, Churchill was the First Lord of the Admiralty (the head of the navy), and he came up with a plan to attack Turkey from the sea. The plan, which was completely Churchill’s, ended it catastrophe and led to the deaths of 58,000 allied troops.

In 1925, Churchill was the Chancellor of the Exchequer (like the finance minister of the UK), and from this position he made a catastrophic decision that ruined the British economy – he ‘returned Britain to the gold standard’. The truth is I don’t actually have a clue what ‘returning Britain to the gold standard’ actually means, but I do know that it crashed the economy and it was his fault.

With these two calamitous mistakes, Churchill had disgraced himself. The political establishment wouldn’t touch him with a bargepole. This led to his ‘wilderness years’ from 1929-1939.

3. Churchill had a wonderful way with words

Churchill was great at delivering speeches and was an excellent writer. I just finished reading his biography, and I was blown away by the sheer brilliance of many of his quotes.

As someone who was raised in the British school system, I’ve heard Churchill’s most famous speeches so many times that they’ve almost ceased to have an impact on me – a bit like how I feel when I listen to Oasis’ greatest hits. However, I recently discovered a slightly lesser known speech that Churchill made during the Second World War to the Canadian Parliament, in which he said…

‘[the pessimistic French] generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, “In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken.” Some chicken; some neck.’

This is now my favourite Churchill speech.

4. Not everyone in Britain likes Winston Churchill

*Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square was vandalised*

Many British people worship Winston Churchill, but for some people on the political left in the UK, he wasn’t such a great man. In fact, when the Black Lives Matter movement spread from the USA to the UK, Winston Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square was vandalised. Somebody spray painted ‘was a racist’ under his name. One of the main reasons some people claim Churchill was a racist is because he was an imperialist – he believed in maintaining the British Empire, because the British were a superior people who ought to govern over others. Below is a quote from Churchill that demonstrates this attitude.

‘I do not admit ... for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.’

Nevertheless, after his statue was vandalised, many conservative people in Britain were outraged, and a group of British nationalists came from all over Britain to Parliament Square to ‘protect’ Churchill’s statue. For many of these nationalists, ‘protecting’ the statue also involved consuming lots of beer. One of the nationalist protestors, a 28 year-old man called Andrew Banks, had actually consumed 16 pints of beer before reaching the statue, and understandably was pretty desperate to relieve himself by the time he arrived. Andrew Banks stumbled over to the side of Parliament Square, where he started to take a piss, little did he know that he was actually pissing on the monument to PC Palmer, a policeman who had been killed by Islamic terrorists a couple of years before. Therefore, Andrew Banks, who had come to ‘protect’ his nation’s monuments, ended up pissing on one, and for this he received 2 weeks in prison.

*Andrew Banks bravely defending his nation’s monuments*

6. Churchill was a big drinker

‘In victory I deserve it; in defeat I need it’ – that is what Winston Churchill said about alcohol. Churchill consumed a colossal amount of alcohol, often starting to drink early in the morning. However, Churchill thought it was all under control, he famously said ‘I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.’

This is a list of key vocabulary and expressions from the article in order of how useful they are. The student must choose 6 items from the list to study in the lesson.

I wish you could come

To ruin (something/ someone)

To deserve (something)

Ought to

To come up (with something)

To be desperate (to do something/ for something)

To make a fuss (about something)

Boarding school