The current discussion of Winston Churchill sits uncomfortably with me.
As a very young child I was in no doubt that he was a baddy.
My grandparents, both sets of them absolutely hated him.
When I got old enough to query this I was given a lot of facts to support their hatred, not least the time when he sent a troop of young men to their certain deaths during the war...not the current war of 1945 but the previous one where by all accounts he had not done well.
The fact that he was a Tory certainly didn’t help but it was his time in the services that had dammed him.
This emotional reaction to the man who was in danger of becoming our Prime Minister coloured all the political discussions in our house.
As a very small girl I listened with an uncritical ear. If all these grown up said he was a bad man then it must be true...obviously.
Once my father had been demobbed and I was sent home to live with my parents again I listened to very many political discussions in my house.
Every weekend my father and grandfathers discussed the political situation week by week but one detail brought total harmony....
Winston Churchill was a baddy and when he lost the election and a new Prime minister in the shape of Clement Attlee became the saviour of the day cheers could be heard reverberating around all the back streets of Rochdale.
I now know that nothing is black and white and I hear how much Churchill was loved by most people...
But somewhere at the back of my mind a small voice whispers dissent...
It is clearly up for discussion but for all those Lancastrians in the aftermath of the war there is no doubt in my mind. They hated Churchill with all their hearts...
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3 comments:
And so did most of the population of South Wales. My family is Welsh and my politics far left so there was never any doubt in my mind as to the true nature of this so-called patriot.
Historic figures owe almost everything known about them to the prejudices of the journalists and historians of the day, so there can never really be an unbiased view.
I'm with Mr McDonald.
I suspect that many so called great leaders had aof clay.
Despite what did or did not happen in Churchill's Military career, even the disaster of Gallipoli in WW1 purely it seems down to him, he was the man of the hour in 1939 when the country was in grave danger.
He is remembered as a great war time leader, who had to take hard decisions, to cope with almost disaster at Dunkirk, in North Africa, in the Far East. He might not have been the nicest of men, but his ability with words, his personal rhetoric, his personal presence made him the best leader we've had in war time, placing him head and shoulders above any others we could name. His determination and fortitude in the face of what the country and world was facing, was something that sustained many, who might have given up.
My father, who fought in North Africa and Italy respected his leadership, as did my Uncle who fought and spent 3 years as a POW also respected him. Talking of his experiences before his death in 2008, he spoke about how, despite the battles lost, Churchill's charisma was something that sustained many people facing trauma.
I wasn't alive wasn't alive when all of this happened, but I feel that criticism of his previous life, needs to be held in tension with his war time service. Celebrate the Good he did, while not condoning the mistakes he made.
Agree - like most leaders, he did some good things and some bad. His gift was to do both on a heroic scale - and be eloquent enough to make people feel part of a legend, win or lose.
I think it's that last bit those who yearn for him nowadays truly miss.
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