On August 15, 1908, the front page of British newspapers announced the upcoming marriage of the famous politician Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill and the girl Clementine Ogilvy Hozier. High society was skeptical about this news. Everyone predicted a speedy divorce, since, in the general opinion, the groom was clearly not suitable for family life. But the sky pleased otherwise. The young managed to build one of the most famous marriage unions in the world, having lived in love and fidelity for fifty-seven years.
Overshadowed childhood
The future Baroness Clementine Churchill was born on April 1, 1885 in a poor, but very noble family of a retired British Army officer G.M. Josier and his wife Lady Blanche Ogilvy. Her childhood was not joyful, the reason for this was the problems that interfered with the happiness of her parents.
The fact is that the rumor attributed to her mother many love affairs, and evil tongues even claimed that Colonel Khozier was not the real father of her children. So it was or not, it is unknown, but unable to bear the pangs of jealousy, he divorced his wife and officially abandoned the children, leaving the previous family without a livelihood.
Caring for a daily bread
Of course, his eldest daughter, the future wife of the English Prime Minister Clementine Churchill, received a serious moral trauma. The memory of this did not leave her all her subsequent life. Having received an excellent education in childhood and fluent in several foreign languages, she, the heiress of an ancient aristocratic family, was forced to give French lessons for a piece of bread.
Picky bride
The first meeting of Clementine with her future husband took place in 1908 at the aunt's party and, undoubtedly, was nothing more than God's providence, since he and she were among the guests quite by accident, having completely different plans for that evening. But everything turned out exactly as heaven pleases.
The wedding news surprised many. It should be noted that Clementine, in spite of poverty, was a very picky bride and at the age of twenty-three years managed to refuse three enviable seekers of her hand. As for the groom, it was said that in his life he was only interested in politics, well, perhaps, whiskey, Havana cigars, horses and tape measure. It is unlikely that with such inclinations one can expect anything worthwhile in future family life.
Marriage celebrations and subsequent weekdays
The wedding took place in September 1908 in London at St. Margaret's Church. It became a real event in social life and was widely covered in the press. In addition to the usual information in such cases, containing a list of dignitaries and the details of the ceremony, all the newspapers noted the unusual charm of the bride, dressed in a white satin dress with a flowing veil and decorated with jewelry (a gift from the groom). The bride and groom, dressed in the latest fashion of that time, did not ignore either.
It should be noted that the young husband at first did not deceive the universal bad predictions. It is known that spending his free time at politics in a casino, in a short time he managed to lose several times and again regain his own fortune. In addition, despite his addiction to alcohol, he learned to fly a plane and wrote several books. To top it all off, he turned out to be an incredible foodie, capable of gobbling up kilogram dishes and sitting for hours in shrouded cigar smoke. With all this, besides her will, the charming Clementine Churchill came across, a photo of which of those years was presented at the beginning of the article.
Saving worldly wisdom
But the marriage did not break up. The fact is that she was not only beautiful, but also a smart woman. Long before the wedding, there was rumor about her as an unusually strict and judicious girl, capable of soberly and carefully assessing problems. In marriage, these qualities are manifested in their entirety.
She did not try to remake her husband, much less put pressure on him, but unconditionally accepted what fate had sent her. She sought her only tenderness and affection (learn, young brides). It had an effect. Over time, Clementine became an indispensable friend and ally of Winston, who in her presence turned from a stubborn and uncompromising politician into a meek young man. At the same time, she was able to adapt herself in everything to him.
For example, one of its features was the inability and unwillingness to listen to the interlocutor. This flaw has developed so much that at times Winston physically ceased to hear the one with whom he was in contact. A wise woman found a wonderful way out of the situation: if you do not want to listen, read it, and she bombarded him with her messages.
Later, one thousand seven hundred of them were published by the daughter of Marie, the last of all the children that Clementine Churchill gave her husband. Biography - a book containing many interesting facts from the life of a mother, saw the light after her death.
Spiritual bond
From the memoirs of people close to them, it is known that Clementine Churchill, remaining in the shade, always knew how to be near when her husband needed it. Over the long years spent together, their spiritual union was invariably strengthened, despite all the hardships of life that had to endure, and there were many of them.
Even being as a result of certain crises on the verge of ruin, the couple did not question their marriage. Surprisingly, Winston, quite windy in previous years, becoming a husband, completely abandoned his former habits and never cheated on his wife, who paid him mutual loyalty. In his memoirs written at the end of his life, he frankly said that of all the luck that his fate so generously endowed with, undoubtedly, the main alliance with Clementine was.
They had five children: son Randolph and daughters Diana, Sarah, Mary, and Maryhold, who died at the age of three. By the way, it was she who was Winston's favorite child, and her death caused him deep moral trauma, which required great mental strength to overcome.
Ally in the fight against common evil
Since the beginning of the Second World War, Clementine Churchill led the “Red Cross Relief Fund for Russia” Foundation she created, which provided invaluable assistance to our country. Thanks to her, eight thousand pounds were collected, which were used to purchase and send food, medicine, clothing, and invalid prostheses to Moscow.
In the spring of 1945, Clementine visited the USSR, where she met Victory Day. Having visited a number of cities, among which were Leningrad, Odessa, Stalingrad, Rostov-on-Don and Yalta, while in Moscow, she read on the radio the appeal of her husband Winston Churchill to our people. For outstanding services to the Soviet Union, Stalin awarded her the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and handed a golden ring decorated with a large diamond.
Protracted visit
In the USSR, Clementine Churchill spent a month and a half that year. It is very likely that in addition to personal interest in the country to which she provided assistance, the reason for such a long journey was her husband's order to see as much as possible and, upon return, to tell him his impressions.
Speech, of course, was not about espionage - others were engaged in this, but the subjective opinion that Clementine could make was important to him. Winston Churchill subsequently wrote and published a six-volume work on the history of the war, and it is likely that, in order to avoid mistakes, he instructed his wife to personally see and describe to him the consequences of the world carnage where they were most tangible.
The last years of marriage
It is known that, being an unusually witty man, Churchill became the author of many expressions and witticisms that became winged in his homeland and did not sunk into oblivion due to the fact that Clementine Churchill kept them in her notes . The quotations collected by her, in our days, have gained an independent life and are often used by people who do not even suspect their authorship.
She willingly shared her art of creating long and lasting marital relations with young women who only had to build a family. For many of them, Clementine Churchill was an unquestioned authority on this issue. "How not to bother her husband for half a century" - this was the topic of her repeated appearances to various female audiences, in particular, to students of the famous Oxford University. In them, the idea of the harmfulness of attempts to impose one’s opinion on one’s husband was always a red thread, but at the same time recommendations were given on how to bring him to the realization of his own wrongness with patience and gentleness.
Clementine's dying will
After the death of her husband on January 24, 1965, Clementine Churchill, whose biography throughout her life is connected with the highest state policy, was honored to become a member of the House of Lords and the title of lifetime peer with the title of Baroness Spencer-Churchill-Chartwell. She completed her amazing life in 1977, at the age of ninety-two years.
Having survived her husband for twelve years, she devoted the last years of her life to the publication of memoirs, in which she described the long journey they traveled together. She often repeated that life had lost all meaning for her, and she wants to hurry to her Winston. After death, the last will that Clementine Churchill expressed was fulfilled - she was buried in the Woodstock cemetery in Oxfordshire next to her husband. There they found the last refuge and their children.