Its price reflects its rarity: the only other poem known to be penned by Churchill is the 12-verse The Influenza, which won a House Prize in a competition at Harrow school in 1890 when he was 15.Ĭhurchill was well-known for his love of poetry. Except for the lines 'The tables of the evening meal/Are spread amid the great machines', where the shadow of Auden passes over the page, and makes everything briefly more surprising.'ĭespite its lack of literary virtues, however, the poem – written in blue crayon on two sheets of 4th Hussars-headed notepaper – is expected to raise between £12,000 to £15,000 when it goes on sale on 10 April. 'This is pretty much what would expect: reliable, heavy-footed rhythm stirring, old-fashioned sentiments. 'I didn't know he wrote poems, though somehow I'm not surprised: oils, walls, why not poems as well?' said Motion.

Andrew Motion, the former Poet Laureate, goes further, calling it 'heavy-footed'. The paean to Britain's might, however, does not scale the heights of the literary efforts that marked Churchill's later life – including his Nobel Prize-winning History of the English Speaking Peoples.ĭavids, who says the poem 'is by far the most exciting Churchill discovery I have seen', admits it is merely 'passable'. The author peppers the poem with the names of remote outposts defending Britain's interests around the world, including Weihaiwei in China, Karochaw in Japan and Sokoto, in north-west Nigeria. Written in 1899 or 1900, when Churchill was a cornet – equivalent to today's second lieutenant – in the 4th Hussars, the 10-verse poem is a tribute to the Empire. She said: “The working class has a long memory.Our Modern Watchwords, which was apparently inspired by Tennyson and Kipling, will go on sale at Bonham's auction house in London in the spring. When I was watching Winston Churchill’s funeral as a child, I asked my mum why, if he was such a great man, people did not vote for him after the war.

His father’s reply was: “You should have pointed your rifle and shot the coffin.” While serving with the Royal Air Force Regiment in the 1960s I asked my driver, the son of a Durham miner, what his father’s response had been when he told him he had been a member of the squadron that lined Churchill’s funeral route. Priyamvada Gopal points out that many working-class communities felt a strong animosity towards Churchill. In fact his personal popularity was at 80%, something current leaders can only dream of much of the reason for the defeat was the general mistrust of the Conservative party and its prewar appeasement policy – in addition to the thought that Clement Attlee’s new deal would be much more beneficial to returning soldiers, factory workers and their families. Priyamvada Gopal suggests Churchill lost the 1945 election because “the uncritical Churchill-worship that is so dominant today was not shared by many British people”. They should also know that a brief Google search quickly reveals that Churchill’s responsibility for the 1943 Bengal famine and “his willingness to mobilise military force during industrial disputes” is not exactly uncontested territory.Īnd no – I wouldn’t have voted for Churchill’s party in 1945 either. There isn’t space on this page to elaborate how remarkable an outcome this was, but I suggest that people extend their reading beyond the opinion pages of the Guardian to include the third volume of William Manchester’s Churchill biography, The Last Lion.

However, Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square was not erected to celebrate the enlightened views of a social liberal but to recognise a war leader who achieved what few people believed was possible when he took office in 1940: the unconditional defeat of Nazi Germany. The reputation of any historical figure is not enhanced if his supporters simply go into denial over how he truly viewed the world.

Winston churchill dont quit poem