Churchill's personal life. Clementine Churchill - wife of the British Prime Minister

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 a sense of social duty from her father, 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 diplomas 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 Soams 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.

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, 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 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 over the past two years, he has already received three rejections. In addition, the brides understood that main woman for the applicant will 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 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.
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.

The 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 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. 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 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, 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.
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 of Clementine, for a whole month and a half, from April 2 to mid-May, she was 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 World War II, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1953.
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.

@Svetlana Smirnova

History, coupled with personal experiences, is much more interesting than dry figures and facts. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who could hardly be called a pleasant person to talk to because of his cynicism and, at some point, even intoxication with power, doted on his wife, Clementine Hozier, with whom they lived together for 57 years, survived the second world war, and his obnoxious manners, and obnoxious nature.

An ideal couple, for which only his wife should be thanked, who is not trying to remake Winston Churchill. The secret of family happiness, revealed by Clementine Hozier, turned out to be incredibly simple: "Never force your husband to do THIS!" . Don't try to change them...

Churchill turned out to be a grump and the owner of bad habits. He smoked endlessly: in the car, at the table, on the go, and even in the bedroom, falling asleep with an outstanding cigar and burning shirts and trousers. He ate a lot and drank even more. Throughout their lives, the couple had breakfast together only three times, because they simply could not stand it anymore: Churchill later said: “My wife and I have tried breakfast together two or three times in our 40 years of marriage, but it turned out to be so unpleasant that we had to stop.”

Add here gambling and excessive pride against the backdrop of cynicism. Hell of a mix. Whose merit is it that he became the "pride of the nation" and was called by his compatriots "the greatest Briton in history"?

His wife, Clementine Ogilvy Hozier, is to be commended for this. She was born into an aristocratic London family and from her youth was distinguished by seriousness, restraint, dislike for idle talk and courtesy. She always kept her word, which not all men could boast of, and even more so the ladies. And she was stunningly beautiful, but she never flirted.

The perfect girl, the perfect future wife with a crystal clear reputation. Winston Churchill met Clementine at a social reception, but could not dare to invite her to a dance. The London "lionesses" called him a rokhle, believing that he would not be a worthy husband or a promising politician. They were wrong...

Winston and Clementine met again at a social reception four years later. This meeting turned out to be more successful, and six months later, in Blenheim Palace, the family estate of the Dukes of Marlborough, Churchill proposed to her. We have to admit that as a boyfriend, Churchill was not particularly impressive, but Clementine managed to see something in him in order to give him her heart.

In 1908 they got married. As Winston Churchill wrote in his memoirs : "I married in September 1908 and have lived happily ever since."

A more detailed biography can be found by reading his memoirs. Here I also wanted to talk about how Clementine Hozier influenced the life of her husband. In the early 40s. In the 20th century, Churchill imagined himself omnipotent: he was appointed prime minister. He stopped paying attention to those around him, became unbearable, but he was sobered by the letter of his wife, who lowered him from heaven to earth.

"You're just impossible!"… That's how it started. Clementine Hozier pointed out all his shortcomings and disregard for people, forcing him to look at his behavior from the outside and be ashamed. Perhaps only the fact that Churchill received many political decisions only after consulting with his wife, he speaks of how much he valued her opinion. There was no intoxication with power. Churchill was sober.

Saved him by Clementine and after death youngest daughter in 1921. Churchill, who did not have enough time to educate and communicate with his children, loved them madly and cherished them. From the abyss of longing and worries after the death of his daughter, his wife pulled him out. Suffering herself, she told him that she was expecting a child. Together they have been through a lot...

After the death of Winston Churchill, Clementine did not want to live ... She did not see the point in this. But rereading his letters and unfinished books, I came across one of his phrases, said at a time when Britain was bombed by fascist aircraft : "Never give up - never, never, never, never, neither in big, nor in small, nor in large, nor in small, never give in ... Never give in to force, never give in to the obviously superior power of your opponent."

Clementine lived another 12 years doing social activities and the publication of the unfinished memoirs of his famous husband. But we still remember her good heart, participation in people, non-indifference.

During the Second World War, in the midst of fierce fighting, Churchill complained to the Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky: “My own wife was completely Sovietised. He only talks about the Soviet Red Cross, about the Red Army, about the wife of the Soviet ambassador ... Can you choose her in any of your councils? Really, she deserves it."

After the war, Clementine Hozier visited Soviet Union. She visited Leningrad, Crimea, Odessa, Rostov-on-Don, Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk. It was she who founded the Soviet Russia Relief Fund and celebrated Victory Day on May 9 in Moscow. An outstanding woman, a worthy couple for such a politician as Winston Churchill, no matter how we treat this British "bulldog", but he was outstanding person of his time.

Clementine and Winston loved each other, his wife supported him, but not to everyone. As their daughter Sarah later wrote in her memoirs, her father's post-war course on cold war she did not support the USSR and was glad of his resignation. She did not believe that a country that had suffered so many losses could wish to continue the war ...

A worthy woman, whose name is not forgotten in Russia. In Rostov-on-Don, a memorial plaque was erected to Clementine Hozber:

This marriage was predicted no more than a year - they said that Churchill was not created for family life. But Union of Winston Churchill and Clementine Hozier lasted 57 years! One of the most prominent politicians of the 20th century, Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill was often lost in the presence of ladies, did not know how to look after him beautifully, was clumsy and timid. Three times he received refusals in response to a marriage proposal, and only Clementine finally agreed and never regretted it later.

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 indefatigable 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 being so constrained for politician just indecent…”

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 occur.

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: Churchill made many political decisions 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 - baby 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'm 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 tried to have breakfast together two or three times in 40 years of marriage, 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.