Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Churchill’s rock in his darkest of hours
WIFE BEHIND GREAT WARTIME LEADER
PERCHED on a London rooftop during the air raids of the Second World War, binoculars in hand, Clementine Churchill scanned the city skyline for fires caused by German bombs.
Surrounded by the deafening clatter of gunfire and choking on the stench of sulphur, she braved becoming yet another war casualty.
As the wife of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, she took great pains in setting an example to encourage women to join the war effort.
So while her husband fevered over strategy in Whitehall, Clementine became a fire watcher during the Blitz.
It was decisions like this that helped her become the human face of his wartime government.
She was the great woman behind the greatest of wartime leaders.
Now as a new film celebrates Churchill, it is Clementine’s influence that also goes down in history.
While he was the one in power, she was looked to as someone who could get things done.
INVASION
Her postbox overflowed, and through correspondence from the public she developed a keen feel for popular opinion – information that fed directly into Churchill’s speeches, public persona and government policy.
Clemmie was the Prime Minister’s emotional rock and most trusted confidante, aiding and guiding him in his decision making.
While she avoided contradicting him in public, she was one of the few people who was never afraid of him and could argue with him privately when she thought he was wrong.
Her deep understanding of his character allowed her to approach him in his darkest hours when many difficult decisions were made.
The night before the D-Day landings – when Britain, US and Allied troops launched the largest seaborne invasion in history against German-occupied France – Clementine was called to comfort Churchill.
She found him brooding in the corner of the Downing Street operations room, the heart of British wartime military command, shoulders hunched and unable to confide in anyone else.
Prone to depression, or “the black dog” as he famously called it, Churchill was haunted by his failures during the First World War when he was the politician in charge of the Royal Navy.
Clementine knew he was plagued by thoughts of the tens of thousands of soldiers he had sent to their deaths in the disastrous Gallipoli landings of 1915.
She alone had sustained him through those difficult times.
The eve of the 1944 Normandy invasion is captured in the Jonathan Teplitzky biopic, Churchill - released this weekend.
The film plays out over the 96 hours before D-Day while a jowl-quivering Churchill, played by Brian Cox, is comforted by Clemmie, portrayed by Miranda Richardson.
This is one of the first times her role has been given its due in the story of Churchill’s life, as his success was partly down to his wife.
Born Clementine Hozier to parents Colonel Henry Hozier and Lady Blanche Hozier in 1885, she was a shy girl from a racy background.
Questions still remain over her paternity, as her mother – descended from Scottish aristocracy – is reputed to have juggled up to 10 lovers at once.
Clementine’s parents separated when she was young and her childhood was split between London, France and Scotland.
She could speak six languages, had a keen interest in politics and earned her living as a French teacher – a rare choice for a Victorian woman in society circles.
Clementine first met Churchill, an ambitious, rising young politician at the time, during a ball in 1904.
Already a celebrity, the soldier, author and parliamentarian was stopped
dead in his tracks at the sight of Clementine across the room.
But it was only four years after this brief encounter that smitten Churchill was able to properly meet his future wife.
RESIGNED
The pair sat next to one another at a dinner party after Clementine was asked by the hostess to make up the numbers at the last minute.
Their courtship was short and Churchill proposed a month into their relationship. Clementine told people that she was under no illusions that being married to him would be easy but admitted it “would be tremendously stimulating”.
The pair were married at St Margaret’s church in Westminster in September 1908 and Clementine stuck with him through the ups and downs of his incredible life.
In the First World War, she persuaded him to fight with British soldiers on the Western Front to
Without her the history of the world would have been very different CHURCHILL’S CHIEF OF STAFF GENERAL ISMAY
help restore his reputation after he resigned over the Gallipoli disaster.
He later became Conservative Chancellor in 1924 before losing his seat and enduring 11 years out of office.
During these so-called “wilderness years” he wrote speeches, books and essays to sustain his wife and five children.
At the same time, he ran up huge debts and nearly went bankrupt because of his extravagant spending.
His warnings against the appeasement of Nazi Germany were proved correct when the Second World War broke out in 1939 and, following Neville Chamberlain’s resignation as PM a year later, Churchill was chosen to succeed him.
As leader of an all-party coalition, Churchill led Britain to victory against Nazi Germany. Afterwards he conceded that Clementine had made “my life and any work I have done possible”.
One of the greatest political careers in history came to an end when he finally retired as PM in 1955 following a stroke.
But Clemmie was the mainstay of the man once described by 1940s Labour leader Clement Attlee as “50 per cent genius, 50 per cent bloody fool”.
Churchill’s chief of staff General Ismay concluded that, without her the “history of Winston Churchill and of the world would have been a very different story”.