Colville, the former private secretary, recalled that "she sufferd acutely from (Churchill's) unpredictable habits, as when he would invite numbers of political friends to dine at a moment's notice, oblivious of the shortage of food, money and servants." Part of the price for Lady SPencer-Churchill was making do on limited means. In considering the grandeur of Churchill's career, it is easy to forget that money was frequently in short supply for him in relation to his tastes (a friend once remarked that the great man was "easily satisfied with the best"). "I sometimes wonder whether people realize the price the wife and family of a man in public life have to pay." But you could make it more difficult for him to do his work there is no question about that." "It would of course be very hard to ruin a man of the stature of Winston Churchill, very hard. In an introduction to "My Darling Clementine," a popular biography of Lady Spencer-Churchill published by Jack Fishman in 1963. Eleanor Roosevelt, who had special knowledge in such matters, would have agreed with this assessment. "It was a triumph to be constantly loving and admiring yet never to lose her own independence of judgement, even when it conflicted with his, or to be uncritical of his actions.Winston Churchill would certainly have left his mark whomever he had married, but it is questionable whether any other wife would have contributed quite so much to his success, his happiness and his popularity." "It was a challenge to be married to the greatest man of the century," Colville wrote a year after Churchill's death.
Most of all, he described her as woman of sympathy - sympathy not only for her husband's legendary folbles and eccentricities, for which she provided a background of calm and stability, but sympathy for all those in need, of whatever station in life.
John Colville, one of Churchill's private secretaries, described her as a woman of temperament and generosity, of strong character and common sense. So said Lady Clementine Ogilvy Hozier Spencer-Churchill, descendent of the Earls of Airlie in the Scottish peerage. "I greatly deplore any idea that* either special legislation or an appeal should be initiated," she said. The Queen sent private condolences to the family yesterday on Lady SPencer-Churchill's death.Įarlier this year, when it bacame known that Lady Spencer-Churchill was selling some of the pictures her husband had painted to help meet her expenses, a move was started to provide her with an allowance to cover her needs. In 1965, Queen Elizabeth II created her Baroness Spencer-Churchill-ill of Chartwell, Chartwell being the country home the Churchills occupied 20 miles south of London for many years. King George VI elevated her to the rank of Dame of that Order for her services in World War II, dame being the equivalent of a knight. King George V made her a commander of the Order of the British Empire for the contributions during World War I. Three British sovereigns honored her for her own work. She earned the esteem and affection of the British people. She flashed her wit: "I have made up my mind to ignore all this completely," she remarked to a friend.
She stayed in London during the "blitz" and visited neighborhoods where the German bombing had been worst.
She worked for the Red Cross and for Russian relief. It was not until her husband became Prime Minister in World War II and led his nationa through its "finest hour," that she became widely known in her own right. You will gain far more by quietly holding to your convictions, but even this must be done with art and above all, with humor."įor most of the 57 years they were together until Churchill's death in 1965, she practiced her "art" in the relative privacy of her family and a small circle of friends."It does not worry me to be in the background," she once said. Lady Spencer-Churchill once said: "If you find yourself in competition with men, never become aggressive in your rivalry. "For what can be more glorious than to be united in one's walk through life with a being incapable of an ignoble thought." "My marriage was much the most fortunate and joyous event which happened to me in the whole of my life," he wrote. He himself acknowledge his debt in a famous tribute. It gave her life its definition: she was the wife of Winston Churchill. She married a man who many came to regard as the greatest of his times, and theirs was a celebrated marriage. Lady Clementine Spencer-Churchill, the widow of former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, died yesterday after a heart attack at her apartment in London.
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