CHURCHILL FACTS

Here are some interesting facts about one of the most fascinating men of the 20th Century.

1. He had a speech impediment – a lisp.  He worked to improve it by reciting the phrase:  “The Spanish ships cannot see for they are not in sight.”
2. He struggled in school, mainly because he was bored. He was usually at the bottom of his class.  His favorite subjects were English and History.  He failed the entrance exam to the Royal Military College twice.
3. He loved painting and produced more than 500 paintings. Some of them have sold for a lot of money.
4. He was lucky to reach age 90. He suffered a concussion and ruptured kidney as a kid while playing on a bridge.  He almost drowned in a lake.  He fell off several horses.  He crashed a plane.  He was once hit by a car while crossing a street in New York City.  He didn’t look both ways.
5. In 1917, he received a letter from Lord Fisher. Fisher used the abbreviation “O.M.G. (Oh! My God!”).  This is the first recorded use of the abbreviation.
6. His mother was an American from Brooklyn, New York. Jennie was the daughter of a wealthy financier.  The marriage was not a happy one.  After Lord Randolph dies, Jennie remarried twice to men decades younger.  Winston was later made the first honorary citizen of the U.S.
7. He first became famous when, as a war correspondent/military officer, he was captured by the Boers in South Africa and managed to escape from a prison camp. He went 300 miles back to friendly forces.
8. He despised Gandhi and opposed independence for India. He suggested that Gandhi dying on one of his hunger strikes would be a good thing.
9. He lost his job as Prime Minister before WWII ended. His Conservative Party was trounced by the Labour Party, which convinced the voters that the conservatives were anti-labor and anti-welfare.  He returned in 1951 and served for a few years before ill-health forced his retirement.
10. He wrote numerous history books and biographies. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
11. He served in Parliament under six monarchs, starting with Queen Victoria and ending with Queen Elizabeth II.
12. He is the only British politician to appear on two different coins.
13. Winston married Clementine Hozier after having marriage proposals turned down by three other women. One of them was the famous American actress Ethel Barrymore.
14. He suffered from depression where he had trouble eating, doing his hobbies, or even getting out of bed. He called it his “black dog”.  He overcame the bouts by writing.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/facts-sir-winston_churchill.html?fbclid=IwAR2ULq1RDrjYaevIwWjgDSZ4zjZE0XoeMOUM6HXBUTXBFJk1xnMxjtAPB7s

https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-winston-churchill

https://www.ducksters.com/biography/winston_churchill.php

https://www.royalmint.com/stories/collect/10-facts-about-winston-churchill/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/635842/winston-churchill-facts