Churchill's last daughter died. Why Churchill's wife kept talking about the Soviet Red Cross The political career of Winston Churchill

There are couples, looking at which one wants to exclaim: here she is, real love! And just such a couple, who went through all the obstacles and difficulties that any marriage abounds with, were Winston and Clementine Churchill - the true English lord and lady. They carried mutual love, tenderness, affection and devotion to each other through their entire more than fifty years of living together.

Winston and Clementine Churchill

They met in the summer of 1904 at one of the aristocratic receptions. Clementine Hozier was nineteen and in the prime of her classic, majestic beauty. Winston, who was eleven years older, next to the lily-like girl looked like a trained bear that had escaped from the circus; but he, who never knew how to court women beautifully, had his trump cards in his pocket. However, at that memorable reception for both of them, they did not get to know each other properly - he was silent and just looked at her without looking up, driving the young girl into the blush with his intent and heavy gaze ...

The second time they met only four years later, and again Winston did not prove himself an efficient gentleman. However, this time they nevertheless began to meet, and five months later the future Prime Minister of Great Britain decided to introduce Clementine to his relatives. He invited the girl to the family estate of the Dukes of Marlborough, but even there, in the midst of beautiful nature, he could not overcome his constraint, and for all three days he and Clementine did not approach each other, as Winston expected, but only moved away.

Churchill was in such despair from the realization of the failure of his mission that on the third day of his stay at the estate he did not even want to get out of bed. He sat, sullenly frowning and wrapped in a blanket, and looked at one point. It was no easier for Clementine - this time next to her was the one she really liked to the point of madness. Before Winston, she had already broken off three engagements and was now waiting for an offer that should finally make her happy! But instead, she had to drink coffee alone in the cafeteria and think about what she did wrong ...

The Duke of Marlborough himself saved the situation: he literally pulled his cousin out of bed. Instructed by a formidable warning: “Winston, if you don’t confess your feelings to her now, then I’m afraid you will never have such an opportunity!” Churchill trudged downstairs, where Clementine was in thought: wouldn't it be better for her to return to London?

Winston invited the girl to see the rose garden, but here the confidence in his eloquence again left him. In addition, a thunderstorm began and they had to take refuge in the gazebo. The chilled lovers sat, waiting for the downpour, and ... were silent, although the time and place for the proposal were the most suitable. Clementine watched despondently as the beetle crawled across the floor for half an hour, inexorably approaching a crack in the stone floor. “If Winston doesn’t propose to me before that unfortunate beetle crawls to the crack,” thought the girl, “he will never do it!”

Churchill nevertheless got ahead of the slow insect, and after five days the radiant lovers announced to their relatives that they were engaged and that they did not intend to delay the wedding. However, everyone who knew Winston closely was sure that this marriage was destined for a short life: the groom, according to the world, was not created for family ties. Oh, how wrong were all those who predicted the imminent collapse of this union! Winston and Clementine lived in perfect harmony for fifty-seven years, and in his memoirs Churchill writes: "I got married in September 1908 and have lived happily ever since."

Clementine liked far from everything in her husband: Winston did not part with whiskey and cigars, he could disappear for days in a casino, and then just as enthusiastically engage in politics; her husband wrote books and traveled all over the country - but she did not try to criticize his character. Yes, it was not easy for her, but it was never boring either!

In addition, Clementine did not make a common mistake of many - she did not try to remake her husband in her own way, but simply accepted her beloved as he was, and this was the key to a long happy life the Churchills. different in nature and taste preferences However, they got along very well. Winston was a typical night owl, and Clementine got up early in the morning, so they never had breakfast together. Later, the prime minister, famous for his wit, would say: “Joint breakfasts are something that no one can stand family union!»

However, their family boat bore any storms. It is known that Winston Churchill did not accept a single important political decision without consulting his wife - is this not a sign of the highest trust between spouses? The wife's lively interest in her husband's worries was not just an empty phrase - Clementine really delved into all issues and was interested in every little thing.

It was Clementine who wrote the historic letter to Churchill in 1940, beginning with the words: “You are simply impossible!” In it, she warned her beloved, but stubborn and self-confident husband from the worst thing that can happen to a politician and what almost happened to the all-powerful prime minister: he began to slide into the abyss of authoritarianism, stopped listening to the opinions of others and was critical of himself .

Lady Churchill did not live in the shadow of her famous husband- No, this woman was quite self-sufficient! She personally led many initiatives. In particular, the “Red Cross Fund for Russian Aid” worked under her leadership, and it was largely thanks to Clementine’s talent that the fund raised a simply gigantic amount for those times - about eight million pounds sterling!

All this money, down to the last penny, was invested in medicines, clothes, equipment for hospitals, and Clementine Churchill celebrated Victory Day 1945 in Moscow! The Soviet government appreciated the work of the wife of the Prime Minister of Great Britain and awarded her with the Badge of Honor and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.

In addition to the awards she received in Soviet Russia, Clementine Churchill was also awarded in her homeland. In 1965 she received the title of Baroness Spencer-Churchill. Moreover, the title was awarded to her herself, and not to her famous husband, and thereby recognized her outstanding services both to the UK and in numerous international charitable committees and foundations.

Per long years life together the love and amazing fidelity and devotion of these two not only did not fade away, but seemed to flare up more and more. Over the fifty-seven years of their life together, Winston and Clementine wrote each other about one thousand seven hundred letters, notes, telegrams, and in almost each of these memorable messages there are lines: “I love you!”, “I miss you”, “I am waiting for your letters, and those that I received, I reread again and again ... "

Winston Churchill, whose caustic and well-aimed remarks many were frankly afraid of, was so gentle and affectionate with his wife that he literally could not live a day without his Klemm ... No wonder Churchill's biographers are unanimous in their opinion: Churchill was always very lucky in politics, but most of all he was lucky with his wife. Winston himself once wrote to Clementine: “My greatest success in life was to find you and live with you!”

“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." So in the midst of the hot battles of World War II, Winston Churchill complained to the Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky.

In just a few years, the front of the Cold War will pass through the continents, countries and ... the family of the British Prime Minister.

An American, a Briton and a Russian met

At a time when the hot war was already ending, and the cold war had not yet begun, the fate of the world at the Yalta Conference flocked to decide the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The son of a Georgian shoemaker, the heir to a wealthy American and a hereditary English aristocrat. Absolutely different people, but each went through his natural selection on the way to power. In the memory of posterity, they will remain the "big three" of politicians.

In 1945, this triumvirate fought in a diplomatic war - for the division of the world into spheres of influence.

At the initiative of Prime Minister Churchill, the Yalta meeting was given the code name Argonaut. It was the Argonauts who sailed to the Black Sea for the Golden Fleece that they and Roosevelt saw in the members of the Anglo-American delegation.

However, Winston Churchill was not the only member of his family to visit the peninsula. His wife Clementine also visited here. In the Crimea - and also in Leningrad, Rostov-on-Don, Odessa, Kislovodsk and Pyatigorsk. The founder of the Soviet Russia Relief Fund, she even celebrated Victory Day on May 9 in Moscow.

Of course, there is a “conspiracy theory” that Clementine was in Russia not at the call of her soul, but with a secret assignment from Winston Churchill - to look closely, listen and distract the thoughts of Comrade Stalin from the preparation by the British of a future sharp change in course (after all, already in 1947, Churchill, in the tradition English decency, began to insist that the United States nuclear bombing USSR, and in that very May, it was hatching the insane Operation Unthinkable, which planned for July 1, 1945, the start of offensive hostilities by the Western Allies against the USSR with the participation of 10-12 German divisions).

However, their daughter Sarah later wrote in her memoirs: « Post-war father's course on cold war my mother did not support the Soviet Union and was glad of his resignation ... She treated Russia after her trips differently than her father. Mom did not believe that a country that had endured so much and lost so much could wish to continue. Mom kept saying that Russia wants peace, peace and only peace.

Women's history

Clementine Hozier from the noble Scottish family of Airlie, the future Mrs. Churchill, was 11 years younger than Winston. 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 private lessons.

By the age of 23 - the moment they met Churchill - the girl had already broken off three engagements.

With Winston, too, could not work out. At the first meeting at the ball, he was too shy to invite her to dance. Both of them didn’t want to go to the second one for “very good reasons”: he was too lazy to leave the hot bath, and Clementine didn’t know what to wear - she simply didn’t have fashionable dress.

Six months after they met, Winston Churchill decided to marry Miss Hozier, but ... he could not gather his strength. To explain, he invited her to Blenheim Palace, the family estate of the Dukes of Marlborough. Everyone, and even Clementine herself, understood that she should return from a walk in the garden in the status of a bride.

But they sat on the bench for more than half an hour, and there was no offer. Clementine later described how she watched the beetle move as slowly as Churchill himself: "I thought that if the beetle crawled to that junction and Winston did not make an offer, then he would never make it."

A brilliant orator and determined politician clumsily, but nevertheless, revealed his feelings to Clementine. It was perhaps his most unfortunate and most successful speech at the same time. As he would write in his memoirs decades later, "I married in September 1908 and have lived happily ever since."

Clementine bore him five children - four girls and a boy. One of the daughters died in childhood.

The Churchills lived together for 57 years. Of course they had disagreements. 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.

In the early 1940s, as Churchill began his "dizziness with success," Clementine wrote her husband a sobering letter that began, "You're simply impossible." In it, she pointed out how it became difficult to communicate with Winston, that he does not pay attention to others and urged to be more attentive to people.

Of course, Clementine Churchill supported her husband, but had personal opinion, character and tried to realize them for the good.

Clementine and the Russians

Russian Relief Fund of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem was created by Clementine Churchill in September 1941.

« I was terribly worried about the great drama that broke out in your country immediately after Hitler's attack, - Mrs. Churchill quotes Ivan Maisky, Soviet Ambassador to Great Britain, in her memoirs. I kept thinking how we could help you. At that time the question of a second front was being widely discussed in England. One day I received a letter from a group of women whose husbands and sons were serving in English army. They insisted on opening a second front. I then thought: “If these women demand a second front, that is, they are ready to risk the lives of their loved ones, then we must immediately help Russia.”

I showed the letter I received to my husband. He replied that the second front was still very far away. This alarmed me greatly, and I began to think that such a thing could be done now, immediately, to help your country? Then the idea of ​​the Red Cross fund came to my mind..

In September 1941, Clementine Churchill made the first installment, setting an example for members of her husband's government. And appealed to the nation to support Soviet Union: “There is not a single person in our country who would not be deeply moved by the terrible drama that is happening now in Russia. We are amazed at the strength of the Russian resistance.”

As she herself wrote later, the response to her call “was instantaneous and unprecedented in strength. At first, we set ourselves the goal of raising a million (with current money - close to a hundred million, - Red.) pounds, although at the time it seemed a bit unrealistic. In less than a few months, the original goal was achieved.

In total, over the years of its work, the Russian Relief Fund has delivered supplies to the USSR in the amount of approximately 8 million pounds sterling. He helped with medicines, hospital equipment, surgical instruments, x-ray machines, food, clothes, blankets, prostheses for the disabled, and more. No "illiquid assets", everything is only high-quality and the most necessary.

Toward the end of the war, Clementine Churchill conceived a project that symbolized the solidarity of the two countries during the Second World War. As a result, two military hospitals appeared in Rostov-on-Don, which were fully staffed by the fund headed by her. Reminds me of this today .

Before the victory itself, Clementine spent a month and a half, from April 2 to mid-May, in the Soviet Union, calling her visit to the country "one of the most inspiring and exciting moments in her life."

On Victory Day, she spoke on Moscow radio with an open message from her husband, Winston Churchill.

During her stay in the Soviet Union, the wife of the British Prime Minister met Joseph Stalin several times. During one of these meetings, he gave her a gold ring with a diamond. So part of the Soviet subsoil still went to British imperialism. However, not for long: information about it is lost, as, apparently, the gift itself.

How not to annoy your husband for half a century?

“My marriage was the happiest and most joyful event of my entire life”
W. Churchill

The love story of W. Churchill and Clementine Hozier is a confirmation of the old truth that
that opposites attract, and with such force that even death cannot separate them.
Their marriage lasted 57 years, lived in love, understanding and complete trust in each other.
There was, perhaps, in the foreign history of the twentieth century, politics more popular and more significant,
than Winston Spencer Churchill. From the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a member of the Anglo-Boer and World War II
wars, he did a lot and did a lot, and not only for Great Britain. Volumes have been written about him.
Yes, he told a lot about himself. But today it is not about him, or rather not only about him.
I wonder what kind of woman was next to him for fifty-seven years?
What kind of person is his wife Clementine Churchill, née Hoyzier, who
from a noble Scottish family of Airlie?

She was born on April 1, 1885 and was 11 years younger than Winston.
When they got married she was 23 and Churchill was 34.
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 was in no hurry to get married, ruining three engagements. Winston, on the other hand, 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 by a bear:
neither you beautiful courtship, nor you compliments. He was, above all, a warrior and
too straightforward to be considered a gentleman.
Besides, the young lord was accustomed to bachelor life and didn't want to leave her.
Therefore, having finally decided to marry, for two recent years he received three rejections to his proposals.
In addition, the brides understood that main woman for the applicant will be her majesty - Politics.
In general, they could not discern an excellent party in the wayward and conceited gentleman.
But the sky ordered - and they met: Winston and Clementine!
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, a nimble gentleman took the beauty away from him.

They met at a London ball at Crewe House. Churchill behaved extremely constrainedly -
barely looked at 19-year-old Clementine and didn't say a word. He didn't even invite her to dance.
Then she accepted an invitation to dance another gentleman.
This ended the first meeting between Winston and Clemmie.
Their paths parted to meet again - four years later.
Needless to say, even now he did not burn with the desire to go to the ball
(after all, among other things, there will also be dances, which he could not stand).
The second meeting took place at a dinner party at Aunt Clementine's. It should be noted that this time
neither Clemmy nor Winston were going to appear on it. But Fate is a stubborn thing:
despite the fact that Miss Hozier did not have a single decent dress, and besides, for a long time she could not find
his ball gloves, and the young lord would never have come to this dinner if not for his secretary
Eddie Marsh, but in the end everything turned out well ...

Already in August of the same year, he proposed to Clementine. The groom for that time was very
extravagant and peculiar, and therefore Clementine almost refused again!
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
that Churchill was not made 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 are the offspring of windy ladies -
created one of the most famous marriages in world history, known as their happiness,
as well as his loyalty.

Churchill's biographers write that he was often lucky, but most of all he was lucky with his wife!
And began family life. They were complete opposites each other, and that is precisely what they
tied up. She became the only person who was able to cope with a quick-tempered
Churchill's character. In her presence, he was transformed.
What he just did not get up: wrote books, learned to fly a plane, spent the night away
in the casino, losing and winning back fortunes, led political life countries, 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
his colleague, 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
communication with him. The wife wrote letters to her husband. A total of 1,700 letters and postcards were written. And their youngest
daughter Marie then 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 get together.
didn't have breakfast. Churchill once said that having breakfast together is a test that cannot be
withstand any family union. They rested most often apart: she loved the tropics, and he
preferred extreme. 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.

Despite his inherent frivolity, he never cheated on his wife. And she was completely absorbed by him.
Clementine was with him before last day- all 57 years. And in sorrow and in joy. She always showed alive
interest in what her husband was doing. Clemmy even participated in the creation of Churchill's memoirs,
but not as a writer, but as a critic. They came up with touching nicknames for each other: she called him
Mr Pug is a pug and he is her cat. They had five children: son Randolph and
daughters Diana, Sarah, Marigold and Mary.

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.
One day, speaking to Oxford students, Clementine said:
“Never force a husband to agree with you. You will achieve more by continuing calmly
stick to your beliefs, and after a while you will see how your spouse will quietly come to the conclusion that
that you are right."
They plunged into crises, became poor and became rich again, but their union was never subjected to
doubt, 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 of Aid to Russia "made the first installment, and then members of her husband's government did it.

At first, the Russian Relief Fund planned to raise 1 million, but managed to raise many times
more: approximately £8 million. No "non-liquid" or second-hand, everything is just
high-quality and the most necessary: ​​equipment for hospitals, food, clothing,
prostheses for the disabled. Before the very victory of Clementine, for a whole month and a half, from April 2 to
mid-May, 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
Winston Churchill. For her work in helping our country, Clementine was awarded
Order of the Red Banner of Labor. She also met with Stalin, who gave her a golden
a 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 the Nobel Prize.
It is likely that Churchill, in order not to sin against the truth, instructed his wife to look at the consequences
war with his own eyes, for Winston never trusted anyone 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 a baroness.
Spencer-Churchill-Chartwell. This amazing woman died on December 12, 1977,
lived 92 years.

newspax.ru Women in history

More about Churchill.

After five months of courtship, in early August 1908, Churchill invited his beloved Clementine to the family estate of the Dukes of Marlborough at Blenheim Palace. Oddly enough, Clemmie did not share the Cavalier's enthusiasm. She assumed that there would be many guests in the castle, besides, as always, she had nothing to wear. Trying to convince Clementine, Churchill will write to her: “If you only knew how much I want to see you this Monday. I really want to show you this amazing place. In its beautiful gardens we will find many places where we can retire and discuss everything in the world. The first letter will immediately be followed by a second, in which Winston will tell his beloved about her "strange and mysterious look", the secret of which he "cannot figure out."

In the end, realizing that Winston was more interested in talking in private than in a lavish ball at Blenheim Palace, Clementine agreed. Even as the train pulled out of Paddington Station and, picking up speed, rushed under full steam towards Oxford, she took out a sheet of paper, a pen and an inkwell to write a couple of lines to her mother: "I feel terribly timid and very tired." In fact, she had nothing to be ashamed of. Churchill, who was waiting for his beloved near the railway station in Oxford, driving his new car with driver's glasses on his forehead, was even more nervous.

(Winston Churchill in 1908)

For two days he would drive Clementine through the beautiful countryside of Oxfordshire, without daring to tell her the main thing. On the third day, Winston is so desperate in himself that he does not even want to get out of bed. Clementine, on the other hand, will patiently wait for him downstairs at the table, drink tea and seriously consider whether she should return to London. Noticing the slightly distant look of his guest, the Duke of Marlborough immediately went up to his cousin's bedroom. "Winston! he said sternly. - Get up immediately and confess your feelings to Clementine today. I'm afraid you won't get that chance again." Yielding to his arguments, Churchill made one last attempt, leading his beloved to the rose garden.

(Rose garden)

As they wandered at a slow pace through the alleys of the rose garden, a thunderstorm broke out in the sky, and a heavy downpour began, forcing them to take refuge in the temple of Diana - a small stone gazebo located on a hill near the lake. They sat in silence for half an hour. The atmosphere heated up. Clementine glanced down and saw a slowly crawling beetle. It flashed through her head: “If this beetle crawls to the crack, and Winston never proposes to me, then he will never do it.” Judging by the further development of events, Churchill turned out to be more agile. In token of upcoming wedding, Winston presented his future bride"the most wonderful ring" with a huge red ruby ​​and two diamonds.

(Temple of Diana, where Winston proposed to Clementine)

The upcoming wedding was scheduled for mid-September. While the solemn event was decided to be kept a secret, however, upon returning to the palace, Winston could not restrain himself and told about everything close friend F.E. Smith. So soon the whole of Blenheim knew about the upcoming engagement. In the evening, before going to bed, Clemmy wrote a love letter to the groom - a big heart with the inscription "Winston" inside. For several days, while the future newlyweds were visiting the Duke of Marlborough, all the servants were only engaged in carrying countless letters along the long corridors of Blenheim Palace, which the lovers exchanged with each other:

My dear, how are you? I send you mine best love. I just got up, would you like to take a walk with me after breakfast in the rose garden. Always yours, W.

My dear, I am in perfect order and with great pleasure I will walk with you in the rose garden. Always yours, Clementine.

Due to the fact that Clementine's father, Sir Henry Hosier, died a year before the events, the daughter had to ask for her daughter's hand from Clementine's mother, Lady Blanch. Addressing his future mother-in-law, Churchill said: “I am not rich, and not very influential, but I love your daughter and consider this feeling strong enough to take on the great and sacred responsibility of caring for her. I believe that I can make her happy by giving her the necessary status and position worthy of her beauty and virtues.

(Winston and Clementine on vacation)

Mrs. Hozier will approve of Clementine's choice. Sharing the news with her sister-in-law Mabel Airlie, Lady Blanch told her: “Clementine is engaged to Winston Churchill, they are going to be married. It's hard to say which one is more in love. Knowing the character of Winston, I think that he is. The whole world has heard about his magnificent mental abilities, but how charming and loving he is in privacy". “Winston is so much like his father,” she tells the poet Wilfrid Blunt. - He inherited some of his vices and all the virtues. He is gentle, kind, and very gentle with those he loves.” Lady Blanch will agree with her mother. Upon learning of her granddaughter's engagement, she exclaims: "Winston loves his mother so much, it seems to me that good sons always become good husbands. Clementine was wise. Let her follow him, I won't mind."

(U .Churchill and Violet Asquith. The latter did not believe in the success of the upcoming marriage)

The upper world was much less sure of the cloudless happiness of the upcoming marriage. "This union will last six months, no more," the former Prime Minister Earl Rosebery predicted, "the marriage will fall apart, because Churchill is completely not created for family life." Winston's girlfriend Violet Asquith will be even more outspoken. Referring to Clementine's first cousin Veneta Stanley, she admits: “For Winston, a wife is nothing more than an ornament. I fully agree with my father (Prime Minister G. Asquith) that this is a disaster for both of them. Winston does not particularly want - although he needs - a critical wife who can restrain his escapades and stop him from another miss in time. As will show further development event, the negative predictions turned out to be wrong.

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.

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 their youngest daughter Marie then 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.

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.