Sir Winston may have been gay, says the Fast Show’s Charlie Higson
BRITAIN’S lauded war leader Winston Churchill may have been gay, according to astonishing claims by author and TV comedy star Charlie Higson.
As a Sandhurst cavalry officer in his early 20s, Churchill was accused of ‘behaving like Oscar Wilde’ and cavorting with fellow officers.
But according to Higson, Churchill’s mother’s intervened and helped him avoid charges at a time when homosexuality was illegal.
‘He married Clemmie but there is a possibility that he might have been homosexual,’ Higson told an audience at the Chalke Valley History Festival.
‘In his early 20s he was accused of behaving like Oscar Wilde with some cavalry officers but his mother managed to help him get the case quelled.’
According to Higson – one of the main writers and stars of BBC sketch show The Fast Show – Churchill cut a glamorous and dashing figure as a young man and enjoyed musical hall entertainment and drinking cocktails. ‘He would get drunk and show off like young men do,’ he told the festival, which is sponsored by The Mail on Sunday’s sister paper the Daily Mail.
In 1893, Churchill was admitted to Sandhurst. Higson said: ‘He liked many of the aspects of Army life, he liked horse riding, he loved playing polo and worked very hard at Sandhurst and was one of the top ten graduates from there in his year.’
Churchill had hoped that his politician father Lord Randolph would be proud of his achievements at Sandhurst but his father died shortly after he left the military academy. ‘I think Winston spent the rest of his life trying to impress his dead father and prove that he could make something of himself and was someone worthy to carry the Churchill name,’ said Higson.
The star spoke of Lord Randolph’s rise as a British statesman – he held offices including Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons – before his career was cut tragically short when he died at the age of just 45.