Churchill family children. Churchill's last daughter dies

Winston Churchill and Clementine Hozier lived together for 57 years. They were perfect couple. The secret of their marital happiness is simple. "Never force your husband to do THIS!" - once opened family secret Clementine.

13:21 13.05.2015

He was not ideal husband. First, he constantly grumbled when he returned from work. Secondly, he smoked endlessly, not releasing a cigar from his fleshy lips. He smoked at the table, in the car, on the go and even in the bedroom. He was distracted and dropped ashes everywhere: on carpets, antique furniture, on his prominent belly - falling asleep with an outstanding cigar, he burned through shirts and trousers.

Too perfect for men

Clementine Ogilvie Hozier was born into an aristocratic London family on April 1, 1885.

She was distinguished by amazing restraint and not girlishly serious disposition, she was diligent, she never was impudent to teachers, she did not idle talk. Among her peers, she stood out for her courtesy, obeyed her parents and always kept her word. In addition, Clem had stunning beauty, which for some reason she never used.

Clementine was too perfect to be loved, and therefore she was lonely. However, the guardians of morality were able to find stains on her crystal clear reputation.

Classmates whispered behind her back that Sir Henry Hozier was not her father at all. Say, her mother, the frivolous Lady Henrietta, gave birth to a daughter from one of her lovers. Clementine pretended not to hear, but her treacherous blush betrayed her girlish secrets.

After the Sorbonne, while her prosperous peers fluttered from party to party, she plowed like hell, giving lessons.

The irrepressible appetites of Lady Henrietta had a disgusting effect on the budget of the Hozier family, and therefore their noble daughter was forced to earn French lessons. However, she did not grumble about her fate, she did not complain about her parents - perhaps that is why fortune had mercy on the girl, giving her a meeting with ... Mr. Churchill.

Strange cavalier

Surprisingly, it is a fact: the same Churchill, known as an unsurpassed orator and author of immortal aphorisms, a brilliant politician and statesman, in secular life was clumsy and stingy with words.

By the time he met Clementine Hozier, 29-year-old Winston had already been rejected by actress Mabel Love, with whom he was in love with no memory; proud beauty Pamela Plowden, with whom he even managed to witness the engagement; the heiress of the tanker empire, Muriel Wilson, who answered him with a decisive refusal; as well as the American Ethel Barrymore, known for her tough temper.

None of the secular beauties considered in this boring young politician no special prospects: he doesn’t know how to care, he doesn’t talk about love, he doesn’t show perseverance and always mumbles about some kind of party subventions. “No, this rokhla should not be a worthy husband or a promising politician!” the women sighed, not realizing how fatally wrong they were.

Everyone failed, except for one - the one who, behind her baggy appearance, managed to discern his passionate nature. Clementine met Winston at a social reception. She was introduced to Churchill as an aspiring politician, a man of extraordinary intelligence and heir to the noble family of the Dukes of Marlborough. She held out her hand - he kissed him, was silent for a while, and, embarrassedly pulling his head into his shoulders, stepped back deep into the hall. All evening he looked at her from his hiding place and finally dared to ask her to dance. Winston stood up abruptly, strode over to Clementine and, as soon as she smiled reassuringly, turned abruptly and hurriedly fled to his secluded corner.

“He acted so strangely,” Clementine later recalled. - He never asked me to dance, although the other gentlemen were much more agile. I have never met such shy young people before. Then I thought that it was simply indecent for a politician to be so constrained ... "

Four years passed before they met again. This happened in March 1908. At a gala dinner, where the most powerful people, Winston Churchill (already undersecretary for the colonies) did not want to go. But loyal secretary Eddie Marsh persuaded the chief to spend a couple of hours on small talk - solely for the purpose of getting to know the voters.

He reluctantly gave in. Came. He was formally led into the hall. Seated. He flopped down on a chair, turned the knife and fork in his hands, then lazily turned his head ... and met the eyes of Clementine - the very girl whom he once never dared to invite to the dance. Winston blushed. He muttered something unintelligible and fell silent. For a long time. When the silence became indecent, she had to speak for herself. About weather? - No, he is silent. About the latest fashion? - Sniffles and sluggishly assents. About politics? - Finally! He instantly changed: his haggard back straightened, his eyes shone feverishly, his speech became bright and contagious - at that moment he was beautiful.

“It seems that I fell in love,” Clementine will later say to her sister, and she will immediately believe her.
“Success is the ability to move from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm,” he will later declare to all of humanity, and for some reason it will not argue with him either.

Winston was more agile

Six months later, he invited her to Blenheim Palace, the family estate of the Dukes of Marlborough. Everyone knew for sure: Winston had called Clementine to propose. For two days he took the girl around the well-groomed estate, talking with inspiration about politics and admiring nature. He talked about anything but the most important things. In the end, the indecisive Winston was so exhausted that he hid in bed, as in a lair, and refused to come out even for tea. But the Duke of Marlborough still convinced his nephew to confess everything to Clementine. "I'm afraid you won't get that opportunity again," he reasoned.

Winston obeyed. He took Clementine by the hand and ... silently led her for a walk around the neighborhood of Blenheim Palace. Again - fine weather, crappy politics, ancient history... But then, like in a movie, the sky suddenly darkened, and a terrible thunderstorm broke out.

They took refuge in the temple of Diana - a small stone gazebo located on a hill near the lake. The storm has passed. Five minutes have passed. Winston was silent. Ten is silence. Half an hour later Clem got up, was about to leave - but suddenly she saw a huge beetle slowly dragging itself along the railing. If this beetle crawls to the crack and Winston never proposes to me, then he will never propose to me, she thought. Winston was quicker, ahead of the beetle by only a couple of minutes ...

“I got married in September 1908 and have lived happily ever since,” Winston Churchill would later write in his memoirs, and this would be the purest truth.

"Power is a drug"

They lived together for 57 years. Clementine turned out perfect wife. Winston made a career, wrote books, saved the country from war, made fiery speeches, spent nights in casinos, drank excessively, smoked (the whole world remembers his famous phrase: “Five or six cigars a day, three or four glasses of whiskey and no physical education!”), besides, he liked to eat well and never limited himself.

It was not easy with him. Another, perhaps, would have tried to tame such a savage: not to drink, not to smoke, to come back for dinner, to read a book under a night lampshade, and then peacefully fall asleep with his wife in a warm bed. But Clementine never tried to remake it. Didn't change his character. Didn't teach you how to live. On the contrary, she accepted Winston for who he was: her husband seemed perfect to her.

However, one day she pulled him back. In the early 1940s, when Churchill was dizzy from the omnipotence that came with the post of Prime Minister, Clem wrote her husband an extremely harsh letter. "You're just impossible!" she began without any preamble. Clementine wrote that it became difficult to communicate with him, that he did not pay attention to others, that he needed to be more attentive to people. This letter sobered him - intoxication with power did not happen.

In all other respects, Clementine always supported her husband. She was involved in charity work, spoke with appeals to English women, and indeed became for Winston best friend: many political decisions Churchill accepted only after consulting with his wife.

She bore him four children - three girls and a boy. He did not nurse them, did not educate them, but he was attached to the children by some kind of tight ringing thread. “It is easier to govern a nation than to raise four children,” he once said with a gentle smile. When Clem gave birth to her fifth child, a girl, he was beside himself with happiness - little Marigold turned out to be surprisingly similar to her mother. But in 1921, the family suffered a terrible blow: the girl fell ill and died a few days later. Churchill, this all-powerful politician, a prominent statesman and thinker on a planetary scale, suddenly broke down overnight. For days on end he sat in his office, smoking cigar after cigar, drinking whiskey and cognac, receiving no one, talking to no one. Except Clem.

She saved him. Grey, haggard, with sunken cheeks and dry, unseeing eyes, she walked around the house like a shadow. Her daughter's death bent her but did not break her. One day, she softly knocked on her husband's office, entered and calmly said: "We will have a baby!"

"Girl," Winston said confidently. “And she will look like our Marigold!” He guessed. In 1921, Clementine gave birth to a daughter, who was named Mary.

For 57 years of marriage, they wrote each other 1,700 letters, postcards, telegrams, notes: “I love you ...” - “My beloved pug ...” - “My tender kitty ...” - “I miss you. ..” - “I am waiting for your letters, I am rereading them again...”

“My dear, for all the years that we have been together, I have caught myself many times thinking that I love you too much, so much that it seems impossible to love more,” she received such a letter 40 years after the wedding. This was written by her husband - the same clumsy Winston, who once could not even connect two words about love. And now he was a brilliant speaker, a brilliant politician, a predictor of the main milestones in the development of history, Nobel Laureate in the field of literature, the most great person in the history of Britain, who led his country through the Second World War.

His wife was constantly pestered with one banal question: “What is the secret of your family happiness?” Clementine laughed it off, denied it - did everything to get away from the answer. But one day, when she was speaking to Oxford students, a young girl stood up and said: “I am not married yet. But I want to find that man with whom once - and for life ... - She stumbled, unable to cope with excitement. And after a couple of seconds she quietly added: - How to make me ... so that he ... so that we are happy? Clementine looked at her, smiled and replied: "It's simple: never force a husband ... to agree with you."

Afterword He was not a perfect husband. First, he constantly grumbled when he returned from work. Secondly, he smoked endlessly, not releasing a cigar from his fleshy lips. He smoked at the table, in the car, on the go and even in the bedroom. He was distracted and dropped ashes everywhere: on carpets, antique furniture, on his prominent belly - falling asleep with an outstanding cigar, he burned through shirts and trousers.

He was prone to gluttony, ate a lot, and drank even more. He started the day with the French “Napoleon”, skipped a couple of glasses of Scotch whiskey for lunch, and could end the evening with the Armenian “Dvin” skate. A couple of times the wife tried to instill secular manners in her husband and even sat him down for a common breakfast. Alas ... "My wife and I two or three times in 40 years life together we tried to have breakfast together, but it turned out to be so unpleasant that we had to stop,” he said simply and cynically.

Yes, he was a cynic, a prideful, epicurean, besides an avid gambler, who disappeared all night in the casino. Nobody could curb him. And only she, his wife, dear cat Clem, knew exactly how to turn this imposing bumpkin into a real genius - the one whom his compatriots would call the greatest Briton in history.

Alexander Genis: After triumphing in the Democratic primary in New York state, where Hillary Clinton beat rival Benny Sandres by almost 16 percent, her victory in the fight for the nomination became more than likely. And this is all the more interesting because among the candidates in the current election campaign she is a unique contender. Hillary Clinton fights to return to White House, where she already lived for eight years as First Lady. In today's issue of the Book Review, its presenter Marina Efimova will introduce the audience to the First Lady of another country and another era.

Marina Efimova: In many books written about Winston Churchill, historians and biographers usually ignored his wife. Clementine Hozier, with whom Churchill lived for 57 years, if she appeared in these books, then in passing - as a devoted life partner. The only biography Clementine was painted by her daughter Mary Soames, but who would believe a portrait created by her daughter? And finally, a complete, documented biography by noted political journalist Sonia Parnell. The book is called Clementine. The Life of Mrs Winston Churchill. Reviewer Miranda Simur writes in The Telegraph:

Speaker: “Prime Minister Asquith called the young Clementine Churchill “deafeningly dull.” His wife, known for her categoricalness, considered Clementine "a callous and impudent young lady with no sense of humor." To Admiral Beaty - Churchill's colleague in the Admiralty - Clementine, on the contrary, seemed "a kind and amiable fool." Inattentive historians represented her as "a quiet mouse, almost servilely devoted to her husband."

Marina Efimova: The new biography paints a portrait of a very different woman. Churchill devoted her to all matters, including the most secret ones; she was her husband's adviser in all decisions - even military ones, and she was one of the few people who knew how to resist Churchill.

The famous sister-in-law of the Churchills Pamela Harriman recalled: "Only Clementine could say no to Winston, and she said it often, often, often." This biography showed us a woman of rare charm, a diplomat who softened Churchill's relations with Stalin, with Roosevelt, with de Gaulle, with the royal house, and sometimes with her own people - in a word, a woman without whom Churchill's career could not have taken place. The book opened our eyes.

Tall, beautiful, regal, Clementine was not of impeccable birth enough to become the wife of the future Prime Minister, a descendant of the ancient aristocracy, the grandson of the Earl of Marlborough:

Speaker: “The titled father of Clementine was not very interested in procreation, and her future mother - sexy, bored and lonely Lady Blanche - was looking for solace on the side. At the wedding with Churchill, Clementine was not led to the crown by her father, but by Lord Redsdale - an uncle who cared for her not so much as a relative, but as a father.

Marina Efimova: This did not stop the young Churchill, shocked by the beauty and intelligence of Clementine. After the first meeting, he wrote to her: "What a pleasure it is to meet a girl of such intelligence and intelligence." And after 50 years (!) of marriage, he wrote:

Speaker: “Marrying a smart, strong, but also complex woman is my most brilliant achievement. What could be more magnificent than union with a being incapable of a vile thought?

Marina Efimova: Reviewer Emma Mason titled her History Extra article "Six Unexpected Qualities of Clementine Churchill." One of the first the author calls the absence of aristocratic arrogance. As a child, Clementine knew both grief of loss (her beloved sister died), and lack of care (her windy mother forgot to feed her children), and poverty. And during the Second World War, the royal Clementine led 9 workers' canteens, and during the days of the bombing, she volunteered to put out incendiary bombs on the roofs.

The second "unexpected" property of Clementine was spiritual courage and independence. She was a convinced liberal and angrily condemned the Conservative Party, the leader of which was her beloved husband. Mason writes:

Speaker: “Their quarrels were epic. In Downing Street, Clementine's fits of rage became legendary. Churchill said: "In moments of rage, she looks like a jaguar jumping at you from a tree." And it was he who often asked for peace. Churchill wanted to please his wife, especially when he felt she was right. He called her jokingly: “The one whose team is the law!”

Marina Efimova: In William Manchester's The Last Lion, the famous American historian describes the whirlwind of ideas that swirled in Churchill's head, often confusing his colleagues and subordinates. And, judging by Parnell's biography, only Clementine dared to resist his impossible demands. No wonder Churchill's chief of staff, General Ismay, wrote in his memoirs: "Without Clementine, the history of Winston Churchill - and the whole world - would have been different."

"Clementine was secret weapon Churchill,” writes reviewer Miranda Simur. And further:

Speaker: “A political career required patience and diplomacy, and Churchill was not strong in either. Fortunately, his wife turned out to be a genius of diplomacy: she clarified misunderstandings; corrected the situation after his erroneous decisions or secular “fo pa”. She gave him advice on how to behave in difficult political circumstances. After the disaster in the Dardanelles, in which Churchill was blamed as the initiator of the attack on Gallipoli, Clementine advised him to go to the front and thus force society to forgive his tragic mistake. This was a very risky move, but it saved Churchill's reputation.

Marina Efimova: Clementine put up with the difference between her and her husband's political views, but considered herself his political conscience. She urged him to social reforms when he was minister, and women's empowerment.

Biographer Parnell, describing Clementine with obvious sympathy, does not hide the shortcomings that are attributed to her. For example, many considered her a cold mother and this partly explained the fact that four of the five Churchill children had an unfortunate fate. Only youngest daughter Mary was lucky - it was she who wrote the biography of her mother. But even she admitted: “For the mother, the needs and interests of the father were always in the first place. And on the second. And on the third. Pamela's daughter-in-law, the wife of the Churchills' son Randolph, alluded to Clementine's questionable actions during the war. Reviewer Simur writes:

Speaker: “Clementine (together with Churchill) allegedly participated in the pimping of the seductive and cheerful Pamela with influential Americans in London: the journalist Morrow and the diplomat Harriman - in order to receive necessary information. True, Pamela herself was a skilled manipulator, and her apparently self-justifying memories are the least convincing source of information in Parnell's book.

Marina Efimova: The Churchills' marriage was stormy. The happiest for Clementine were early years when the young Churchill - then a liberal - often went against his class and even his family. Clementine of those years is remembered as athletic, cheerful and laughable. And her laugh was "ringing - in contrast to the quiet chuckles of Churchill."

Birth of five children; the death of a three-year-old daughter; the demanding selfishness of the ever-busy Churchill; his frequent absences and constant lack of money diminished the happiness in Clementine's life. (By the way, few people know that for years Churchill's main source of income was his literary earnings).

The period between the wars was emotionally the most difficult for Clementine. She was twice going to leave her husband and even started a short romance. Churchill, apparently, never cheated on his wife.

The second war brought them together again and united them unusually. Churchill once told Roosevelt that he never hides anything from his wife. Roosevelt was so impressed that he even wrote this confession in his diary.

Churchill died in 1965. At the funeral, Clementine placed flowers on the coffin and her granddaughter heard her say softly, "I'll be with you soon." But she lived another 13 years and during that time she buried three of her five children.

Volumes have been written about him, and he himself told a lot about himself. But today it is not about him, or rather not only about him. There was a woman in the world who had been by his side for fifty-seven years. This is his wife Clementine Churchill, née Heuser, from the noble Scottish family of Airlie.

She was born on April 01, 1885 and was 11 years younger than Winston. Clementine was fluent in German and French, had a sharp mind and a subtle sense of humor, was interested in politics. The family was not rich, and Clementine gave French lessons. But at 23, the girl was also picky, she ruined as many as three engagements.

And Churchill at this time, already a little settled down, apparently decided that it was time to get married. But Winston was one of those people whose shortcomings were immediately visible, and whose virtues were discovered a little later. And although life experience he was already rich, with women Winston was a bear a bear: no beautiful courtship for you, no compliments for you.

He was above all a warrior, and too straightforward to be considered a gentleman. And for two recent years he has already received three rejections. In addition, the brides understood that main woman for this applicant there will always be Her Majesty Politics.

Let's not stir up the past of those unfortunates who could not discern such a wonderful party in this wayward and conceited gentleman.

And once again, Churchill almost blundered. The fact is that he was invited to an appointment with a lady who ten years ago helped the young lieutenant join the Sudanese expedition. Winston did not want to go, but thanks to the fact that the secretary shamed his boss, he still got an appointment with Lady St. Helier, who turned out to be Clementine's aunt.

The niece, they write, also did not want to attend the reception, since she did not have fashionable dress. But the sky ordered - and they met! This happened in March 1908. It turns out that fate had already brought them together four years ago at the same ball, but since Churchill still did not know how to dance, then a certain nimble gentleman took the beauty away from him.

Already in August of the same year, he proposed to Clementine. The groom for that time was very extravagant and peculiar, and therefore Clementine again almost refused! But it did happen: on August 15, 1908, then Deputy Minister Churchill announced his wedding.

The high society issued a summary: this marriage will last six months, no more, and the marriage will fall apart simply because Churchill was completely uncreated for family life.

But it turned out differently: they lived 57 years in love and fidelity!

Roy Jenkins wrote: "It is simply phenomenal that Winston and Clementine - these offspring of windy ladies - created one of the most famous marriage unions in world history, known both for their happiness and their fidelity."

Churchill's biographers write that he was often lucky, but most of all he was lucky with his wife!

And began family life. What he just didn’t get up to: wrote books, learned to fly a plane, spent nights away in a casino, losing and winning back fortunes, led political life country, drank an exorbitant amount of whiskey, smoked Havana cigars endlessly, devoured kilogram dishes!

But Clementine did not try to curb her husband, correct his shortcomings and remake his character, as a less intelligent woman would try to do. She accepted him for who he was.

An uncompromising and stubborn politician near his wife became a meek youth. And she became for him an ally, the first adviser and true friend. Yes, she was not easy with him, but she was never bored with him.

Churchill talked a lot, never listening to anyone and sometimes not even hearing. So she found a wonderful way to communicate with him. The wife wrote letters to her husband. In total, about 1700 letters and postcards were written. And then their youngest daughter Marie published these lines of love.

I must also say that the wife was a lark, and her husband was an owl. This is partly why they never had breakfast together. Churchill once said that having breakfast together is a test that no one can withstand. family union. They rested most often apart: she loved the tropics, and he preferred extreme sports.

One gets the impression that a wise wife did not flicker before her husband's eyes, did not reshape him in her own way, but was always there when he wanted it.

And in the house, for the sake of justice, it must be said, his calling was very often heard: “Clemmy!”. By the way, they also slept in different bedrooms.

Once, speaking to Oxford students, Clementine said: “Never force your husbands to agree with you. You will achieve much more by continuing to calmly adhere to your beliefs, and after a while you will see how your spouse will quietly come to the conclusion that you are right.

They plunged into crises, became poor and became rich again, but their union was never questioned, and their spiritual closeness only grew stronger over the years.

In September 1941, Clementine appealed to the British to support the USSR: "We are amazed at the power of Russian resistance!" From 1941 to 1946, she, as president of the Red Cross Fund for Aid to Russia, made the first contribution, and then members of her husband's government did so.

At first, the Russian Relief Fund planned to raise 1 million, but managed to raise many times more: about 8 million pounds. No “non-liquid” or second-hand, everything is only of high quality and the most necessary: equipment for hospitals, food, clothes, prostheses for the disabled.

Before the very victory, Clementine spent a whole month and a half, from April 2 to mid-May, in the Soviet Union. She visited many cities - in particular, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Odessa, Rostov-on-Don. She was also in the house-museum of A.P. Chekhov in Yalta.

Having met Victory Day in Moscow, Clementine spoke on Moscow radio with an open message from Winston Churchill. For her work in helping our country, Clementine was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. She also met with Stalin, who gave her a gold ring with a diamond.

Until now, historians are perplexed why Clementine was in the Soviet Union for so long. After the war, Winston Churchill published a six-volume work on the Second World War, for which in 1953 he was awarded Nobel Prize.

I admit that Churchill, in order not to sin against the truth, instructed his wife to look at the consequences of the war with her own eyes, for Winston trusted no one in his life more than her. She, of course, did not collect facts: others did, but her opinion for the prime minister was always decisive.

After her husband's death, Clementine became a member of the House of Lords and a life peer as Baroness Spencer-Churchill-Chartwell. This amazing woman died on December 12, 1977, having lived for 92 years.

Clementine Churchill.

Clementine Ogilvy Spencer Churchill, Baroness Spencer Churchill . Dame Grand Cross of the Order british empire.

She was born April 1, 1885. Officially the daughter of retired Colonel Henry Montagu Hozier and Lady Blanche Henrietta Ogilvie, however, there are options regarding paternity. Clementine met Winston Churchill in 1904.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill political figure, Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1940-1945 and 1951-1955; military (colonel), journalist, writer, honorary member of the British Academy (1952), Nobel Prize in Literature (1953).

Winston Churchill was born on November 30, 1874 at Blenheim Palace, the family estate of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the Spencer family.

Churchill's father, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, was a well-known politician, member of the House of Commons from the Conservative Party, served as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Mother - Lady Randolph Churchill, nee Jennie Jerome (Eng. Jennie Jerome), was the daughter of a wealthy American businessman.

There was, perhaps, no politician in the foreign history of the twentieth century more popular and more weighty than Winston Spencer Churchill. From the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a participant in the Anglo-Boer and World War II, he did a lot and did a lot, and not only for Great Britain. Volumes have been written about him, and he himself told a lot about himself.

But today it is not about him, or rather not only about him. I was interested in the woman who had been with him for fifty-seven years. This is his wife Clementine Churchill, née Heuser, from the noble Scottish family of Airlie.

She was born on April 1, 1885 and was 11 years younger than Winston. Clementine was fluent in German and French, had a sharp mind and a subtle sense of humor, and was interested in politics. The family was not rich, and Clementine gave French lessons. But at 23, the girl was also picky, she ruined three engagements.

And Churchill at this time, already a little settled down, apparently decided that it was time to get married. But Winston was one of those people whose shortcomings were immediately visible, and whose virtues were discovered a little later. And although he already had rich life experience, Winston was a bear with women: neither you beautiful courtship, nor you compliments.

He was above all a warrior, and too straightforward to be considered a gentleman. And over the past two years, he has already received three rejections. In addition, the brides understood that the main woman for the applicant would be Her Majesty Politics.

Let's not stir up the past of those unfortunates who could not discern such a wonderful party in the wayward and conceited gentleman.

Yes, and once again Churchill almost blundered, almost replaced Clementine for a bath. The fact is that he was invited to an appointment with a lady who ten years ago helped the young lieutenant join the Sudanese expedition. Thanks to the fact that the secretary shamed his boss, Winston got an appointment with Lady St. Helier, who turned out to be Clementine's aunt.

The niece, they write, also did not want to attend the reception, since she did not have a fashionable dress. But the sky ordered - and they met! This happened in March 1908. It turns out that fate had already brought them together four years ago at the same ball, but since Churchill did not yet know how to dance, the agile gentleman took the beauty away from him.

Clementine and Winston shortly before their wedding in 1908

Already in August of the same year, he proposed to Clementine. The groom for that time was very extravagant and peculiar, and therefore Clementine again almost refused! But still, on August 15, 1908, Deputy Minister Churchill announced his wedding.

High society issued a summary: this marriage will last six months, no more, and the marriage will fall apart because Churchill was not created for family life.

But it turned out differently: they lived 57 years in love and fidelity!

Roy Jenkins wrote: "It is simply phenomenal that Winston and Clementine - these offspring of windy ladies - created one of the most famous marriage unions in world history, known both for their happiness and their fidelity."

Churchill's biographers write that he was often lucky, but most of all he was lucky with his wife!

And family life began. What he just didn’t get up to: wrote books, learned to fly an airplane, spent nights in a casino, losing and winning back fortunes, led the political life of the country, drank an exorbitant amount of whiskey, smoked Havana cigars endlessly, ate kilogram dishes!

But Clementine did not try to curb her husband, correct his shortcomings and remake his character, as a less intelligent woman would try to do. She accepted him for who he was.

An uncompromising and stubborn politician near his wife became a meek youth. And she became his colleague, the first adviser and true friend. She was not easy with him, but she was never bored.

Churchill talked a lot, never listening or even hearing anyone. She found a wonderful way to communicate with him. The wife wrote letters to her husband. A total of 1,700 letters and postcards were written. And then their youngest daughter Marie published these lines of love.

I must also say that the wife was a lark, and her husband was an owl. This is partly why they never had breakfast together. Churchill once said that joint breakfasts are a test that no family union can withstand. They rested most often apart: she loved the tropics, and he preferred extreme sports.

One gets the impression that a wise wife did not flicker before her husband's eyes, did not reshape him in her own way, but was always there when he wanted it.

And in the house, in fairness, it must be said, very often his call was heard: “Clemmy!” By the way, they also slept in different bedrooms.

Once, speaking to Oxford students, Clementine said: “Never force husbands to agree with you. You will achieve more by continuing to calmly adhere to your beliefs, and after a while you will see how your spouse will quietly come to the conclusion that you are right.

They plunged into crises, became poor and became rich again, but their union was never questioned, and their spiritual closeness only grew stronger over the years.

In September 1941, Clementine appealed to the British to support the USSR:

“We are amazed at the power of Russian resistance!” From 1941 to 1946, she, as president of the Red Cross Fund for Aid to Russia, made the first contribution, and then members of her husband's government did so.

Eleanor Roosevelt and Mrs. Clementine Churchill in Quebec, Canada 1944

In March 1945, at the invitation of the Soviet Red Cross, Clementine Churchill came to the USSR and visited Leningrad, Stalingrad, Rostov-on-Don, Kislovodsk, Pyatigorsk, Odessa, Yalta and other cities. Victory was approaching, and in the last days of the war, Mrs. Churchill left the Crimea via Odessa for Moscow.

Memorial plaque in Rostov-on-Don

On April 6, Stalin received her in the Kremlin, presenting her with a gold ring with a diamond as a token of gratitude on behalf of the leadership of the USSR. On May 7, Churchill was solemnly awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor - for "outstanding services in carrying out social events to raise funds in England to help the Red Army.

It was in Moscow that Mrs. Churchill celebrated Victory Day. They write that Clementine Churchill spoke on the Moscow radio on May 9 with an open message from Winston Churchill to Stalin.

Having met Victory Day in Moscow, Clementine spoke on Moscow radio with an open message from Winston Churchill.

Of course, for such an active woman, our order was not the only award. She was a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire, and of the British Royal Order of Saint John.

Clementine Churchill (left) with all orders, next to her daughter Mary

Until now, historians are perplexed why Clementine was in the Soviet Union for so long. After the war, Winston Churchill published a six-volume work on World War II, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1953.

The Churchills had five children - one son and four daughters. And it is difficult to say what more they brought to parents - joy or grief.

Baby Marigold died at the age of three from meningitis.

The eldest daughter Diana did not get along with her mother. She was fond of art, but did not achieve success in this field. When she got married, she gave birth to three children. But her marriage fell apart. And then depression, psychiatric hospitals and suicide followed.

Wayward Sarah - real beauty- dreamed about theater career, but her "star" plans were not destined to come true. Three marriages also did not live up to bright hopes. The woman was looking for consolation in alcohol. And although she outlived her parents and went into another world at the age of 68, she lived out her days in complete solitude.

Son Randolph also did not become the pride of the family. And, according to historians, from childhood he had a bad temper, was spoiled, arrogant, uncontrollable and did not really try to make an effort to achieve something. He served in the army, was engaged in diplomacy, politics, journalism. But not only to surpass, even to equal his father was beyond his power. It is said that, in the end, the father even broke off relations with him. What Clementine thought about this is hard to say. In a decent society, it was not customary to "wash dirty linen in public" and publicly complain about family troubles. And even after the death of her son, the mother continued to remain silent.

The most fortunate and womanly happy was Mary, Clementine's favorite. She gave her parents five grandchildren, and her life turned out to be eventful and prosperous.

After her mother left, she wrote a biographical book about her and published touching correspondence from her parents.

At the Yalta Conference, along with Roosevelt and Stalin.

After the end of World War II, Clementine advised her husband to retire and thus remain on top of fame.

But he continued political activity and gave rise to cold war", delivering the so-called Fulton speech on March 5, 1946. However, health increasingly failed the stubborn W. Churchill.

And finally, in April 1955, he left the post of Prime Minister of Great Britain, and in July 1964, in last time attended a meeting of the House of Commons.

The plan for his burial, code-named "Hope not", was developed over many years. Queen Elizabeth II and Buckingham Palace officials took over the organization of the funeral and gave orders, coordinating their actions with Downing Street and consulting with Winston Churchill's family. It was decided to organize a state funeral. This honor in the history of Great Britain before Churchill was awarded only ten prominent people, who were not members of the royal family, among whom were the physicist Isaac Newton, Admiral Nelson, Duke of Wellington, politician Gladstone.

Churchill's funeral was the largest state funeral in British history.

In 1965, a monument to Churchill by Reynolds Stone was erected in Westminster Abbey.

After her husband's death, Clementine became a member of the House of Lords and a life peer as Baroness Spencer-Churchill-Chartwell.

Clementine in every possible way cherished the memory of her husband and unusually missed him.

Mrs Churchill survived her husband by 12 years.

This amazing woman died on December 12, 1977, having lived for 92 years.

women in the war 1939-1945

Auxiliary Territorial Service: The wife of the Prime Minister, Mrs Clementine Churchill, inspects members of the ATS at the Royal Ordnance Experimental Unit, Shoburyness, Essex.

According to Mary Soames herself, from her father she inherited a deep sense of social duty and love for cigars. Lady Soams became a kind of "last of the Magicans" who had to answer questions about her father until her death.

According to her, a typical example of such questions was "Did Winston Churchill like spinach?". To him, Mary always answered the same way: "Well, once my father threw a bowl of spinach at my mother."

Although Lady Soames claimed to have inherited her father's sense of social duty, she received the greatest public appreciation for writing a biography of her mother, Clementine Churchill, with whom she had a less than simple relationship as a child.

Churchill's children were expected to have a "noble, valiant outlook on life", and they, in turn, never expected any of their parents to come to school for prizes and certificates or sports competitions. As Mary Soames said, "history constantly interferes with our family life."

Mary Soames always spoke of her childhood as exceptionally happy. Most of a positive atmosphere was created in Chartwell, bought in the year of her birth.

Together with numerous politicians and statesmen such special characters as Charlie Chaplin were invited to the table in the Churchill house, for the sake of whose arrival the then 9-year-old Mary was allowed to stay up late.

Dinner parties and dinners were fondly remembered by Lady Soames, in particular because of the conversations at the table and the monologues of her father. Lunch or dinner often turned into a three-hour discussion with Shakespeare's poetry, songs and language.

“Being his child was an enrichment for me beyond compare,” said Lady Soames.

As for Clementine's mother, Mary spoke of her as "wife first, mother second." However, in her children, Clementine always evoked a feeling of admiration and respect. Churchill's wife treated children with a mixture of tenderness and severity.

Lady Soames wrote a biography of her mother over a long period. Started in the mid-1960s, it was not published until 1979, two years after Clementine's death. The work of Mary Soams was appreciated. The author was awarded two literary prizes, and the book itself became a bestseller.

This success was followed by a series of memoirs: The Churchill Family Album (1982), a biography of the 5th Duke of Marlborough, The Dissolute Duke (1987), Winston Churchill, His Life as an Artist (1990), and a self-explanatory personal correspondence Winston with Clementine Churchill (1998).

Mary Soames was born in London. She attended Limpsfield School near Chartwell. She left school at 17 and worked for the Red Cross during the first two years of the war. In 1941, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women's branch of the British Army, and rose to the rank of junior commander (similar to the rank of captain).

As an adjutant, Mary accompanied her father on many foreign trips, including to Potsdam for a conference of the heads of the three great powers.

She met her future husband, Christopher Soames, while staying at the British Embassy in Paris. "I think he fell in love with me right away and I quickly did the same," Mary recalled. During next month the couple got engaged.

When asked by the press whether she would pursue a career or take care of her family, Mary replied "Family, of course", adding that this work requires full dedication.

Mary's husband later became British Ambassador and British President of the European Community in Brussels. Lady Soames herself visited schools, hospitals, boarding schools and refugee camps. She has received great recognition around the world.

She was made a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter in 2005.

Lord and Lady Soams have three sons and two daughters.