Earlier this year Winston Churchill II died. The magazine of the Churchill Society – a wonderful magazine I must say – paid tribute to the late long time MP, and grandson of Sir Winston Churchill.
I felt the need to write the editor Richard Langworth and I thought you might be interested in the letter.
August 12, 2010
Dear Richard,
The wonderful coverage of the untimely death of Winston Churchill Junior in Finest Hour brought back my memories of meeting him twice, once as a journalist in 1990 in the House of Commons where I interviewed him on his recent book Memories and Adventures, and the other in an extraordinary way on the 50th anniversary of VE Day in 1995 in London. In fact those several days in May Wendy and I were in the UK were extraordinary and, as you will see, the lachrymose glands had quite a workout!
It started May 8th when Wendy and I, accompanied by an old friend and former law partner, Stan Winfield, went down to Buckingham Palace to see the re-creation of the balcony scene of May 8, 1945. Stan had been in London on May 8, 1945 and was bedecked in his many medals.
After the ceremony where the Queen, her sister Margaret and the Queen Mother re-enacted that glorious day 50 years before, I remarked “wouldn’t it have been wonderful if God could have placed Churchill on that balcony – as he had been 50 yers earlier – just for a few seconds?”
After the ceremony complete with a flyover of Hurricanes and Spitfire – and some tears – we walked down Buckingham Palace Road in search of a pub when a man came out of the crowd and said to Stan “I see from your medals that you’re Canadian – my name is Winston Churchill and these are my sons Randolph and Jack”. After my earlier remark we all had an eerie feeling to say the least.
We chatted for a moment and he said that he indeed remembered me because I had asked him about the “Faithful but Unfortunate” motto of the Churchill family.
The Churchill’s were far from done with us.
That night in Hyde Park at Speaker’s Corner there was a wonderful happening. The underlying theme was London Musicals of the 20th Century but the Queen came and lit a torch, Dame Vera Lynn sang three times (at the end, her “We’ll Meet Again” brought tears to every eye of the 200,000 people watching and singing along) and it was a good time for all.
We were in some stands, erected for the occasion, and they held, perhaps, 2,000 people but it was estimated that more than 200,000 were in Hyde Park near Speaker’s Corner watching on close circuit monitors.
We were sitting beside some East Londoners who were having the time of their lives, singing the old music hall favourites at the top of their lungs. They had taken the brunt of the Blitz. Hardly people who would have voted Tory but to them, Churchill was different – he not only made speeches but after a bad raid, visited the people bombed out of their homes and stores with tears streaming down his face.
A hush settled over the crowd when Robert Hardy (of All Creatures Great and Small fame) gave us Churchill’s speech on May 8th and when he said “In all our long history we have never seen a greater day than this” … he paused you could have heard a pin drop . .. then one of the East London ladies beside me stood up, clenched her fist and shouted “And we stood alone!”
It was electrifying. More tears.
But the Churchills weren’t done yet
A day or so later I took Wendy to Blenheim Palace to see where the great man was born, then to the nearby Saint Martin’s Church, Bladon, to visit his grave. On his grave were a bouquet and a note from a Dutch couple simply saying “thank you Mr. Churchill for saving our country”.
More tears, I’m afraid.
On the way out of the churchyard we met a lady with an old fashioned pram. I looked at the baby and said “it’s true that all babies look like Winston Churchill”.
“Well,” the lady replied, “so he should for his name is Winston Churchill!” No relation.
God’s truth! Wendy and I could not believe our ears!
Ask us about the VE Day celebrations in May,1995 and we can tell you with authority that Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was everywhere!
Sincerely,
Rafe
