Churchill’s rock in his darkest of hours
GREAT WARTIME LEADER
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. Normandy landings 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”.
antonia.paget@ trinitymirror.com First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill by Sonia Purnell, Aurum Press.