WIFE BEHIND
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 UK 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 Churchills 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