Churchill cigar to fetch £1,200

A HALF-SMOKED cigar Winston Churchill left in an ashtray is set to fetch £1,200.

He left the Cuban cigar, pictured, onboard the HMS Duke of York during a mission in the Second World War. It was picked up by the Reverend Robert Evans who served as chaplain on the ship.

Churchill and a host of dignitaries boarded the vessel for the US in December 1941. He was visiting President Roosevelt to discuss America entering the war in the wake of the Pearl Harbour attack. During the ten- day voyage, Churchill would have smoked dozens of cigars.

The 4in cigar, made by Partagas of Havana, has been perfectly preserved in a plastic tube for the last 70 years. After Rev Evans died in 1991 aged 91, the cigar was passed on to a family member who is now selling it through auctioneers Trevanion and Dean of Whitchurch, Shropshire,