“Never, never, never give up.” Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, soldier and prime minister of the United Kingdom who was born November 30,1874 to Lord Randolph and Lady Randolph Churchill of wealthy British aristocratic lineage.
He was not a handsome man, with a bulldog face, and stood at only five feet, seven inches. He wed Clementine Churchill in 1908. Together they had five children who adored their father and their mother. Father was such a bright, charismatic, star who became the children’s lodestar.
The Churchill girls would serve their country during World War II. Their exemplary war records were to win their father’s approval and respect and helped to change his attitude toward women serving. Churchill had thought women were destined to be wives and mothers, not war recruits.
Daughter Sarah got a wartime job in the WAAF in October 1941 as did Mary who became a “gunner girl “ in September 1941. It had been decided that women could be recruited to do the work of all the displaced men. Mary willingly scrubbed floors and did her share of the chores. She became well respected.
Sarah was involved in top-secret work of vital importance in winning the War. She monitored aerial photographs of targets for bombing raids. Daily survey pilots risked their lives flying over occupied Europe to photograph enemy sites. Their photographs were processed and plotted on a map and interpreted.
Daughter Mary was a tender 19 year old who had been protected all her life. She was put in charge of a barrack room of 32 girls and found herself with no time to do anything civilized such as reading or writing.
When her father visited, he was impressed and wrote to his son Randolph that “sometimes I go visit Mary’s battery and hear the child ordering the guns to fire.”
The Churchill girls set a fine example for their contemporaries. Winston wrote again to Randolph that his sisters had taken on the toughest challenges possible and he thought “they were very heroic.” Without her father knowing, Sarah was involved in the preparations for the landings in North Africa known as Operation Torch. Three months later, when she told her father of her involvement, he was very impressed.
During the war years daughter Diana was busy with her husband and growing family to take a high-profile role as her sisters. She was an air-raid warden, helped in a hospital, and assisted with Churchill’s travels which were an essential part of his diplomacy.
Beloved daughter Marigold was called “Duckadilly” and died an untimely death as a baby.
Churchill became the first civilian in the 20th Century to receive the honors reserved for kings and queens and only the second prime minister to be given a state funeral attended by Queen Elizabeth.
Great Britain said farewell to its indefectible leader who had defended the Country from the Nazis in World War II. Big Ben’s chimes were silenced in a sign of respect. The flag-draped coffin rested on a gun carriage as the biting wind carried the roars of cannons thundering 90 shots in nearby Hyde Park.
The date was January 24, 1965.