I met Churchill, a man of courage

HARRY Parfitt, as is his right and wont, chose to “put a different perspective on Winston Churchill” in which he highlighted instances from Churchill’s military and political careers that (I think) are meant to paint our wartime leader in a less favourable light than is usual.

Firstly, I think it is worth noting the fact that no other man or woman has had so much researched and written about their actions, behaviour, errors and faults than him.

From early days at school,to his death in the ‘60s and well beyond, “Winnie”had a massive influence on all he touched, and despite many setbacks, embarrassments, character assassinations and much political poison, he stuck to his guns, defended his sometimes unpopular decisions and did so with eloquence, straight-talking and unflinching doggedness.

If anyone who automatically dislikes him for his family background and politics reads from writers of repute, they cannot help but be aware of his being a very special person who did what no-one else could have done, whose leadership saved Britain and the Western world from Nazi tyranny.

Harry chose to offer a different perspective, so here’s mine – starting with an 11-year-old schoolboy standing alone an a street corner in Manchester with buildings burning around him after an overnight blitz.

Out of a stately black open-top limo stepped a man in a long black coat,wearing a black hat and smoking a cigar as he handed me a cup of tea and a corned beef sandwich and sat down on the pavement beside me. He observed I was wearing my school uniform, ruffled my hair and said: “Get home safely, son, and don’t worry your mother, eh?”

Twenty years later I sat in an auditorium in Alabama as he received a five-minute standing ovation from a mainly military audience of 2,000.

A few years later in Westminster, I stood in full military mourning posture as countless thousands of grieving people in a never-ending line filed past his coffin to pay their respects to a man who, faults and all, made English, Scots, Welsh and Irish proud to be British.

Thanks for yours, Harry, I’ll stick with my perspective.