The Churchills by Celia and John Lee

Winston Churchill is arguably the greatest Briton who ever lived, yet there are many myths and mysteries surrounding his early years and family. It’s been claimed that he was illegitimate, that his behaviour was typical of an only child, that his father died of syphilis, and that his father’s will left his mother virtually penniless.

In The Churchills, Celia Lee and John Lee look into the reality behind the myths to produce a fascinating insight into Winston’s background and upbringing.

The most immediate revelation is that Winston had a younger brother, John (known as Jack), who has been largely written out of history, despite having been a constant positive presence in Winston’s life and helping him significantly by assembling the papers for his writings.

The Lees have had access to family letters between all four members of the Churchill family: Lord Randolph and his wife Jennie, and their two sons Winston and Jack. These enabled the Lees to paint an accurate picture of Winston’s early years.

The usual image of Lord Randolph as a busy father who did not like children, and of Jennie as a feckless mother who ignored her sons, is not upheld by these letters, which give the impression of a close and loving family.

The rumours of Winston’s illegitimacy arise from the fact that he was born seven- and-a-half months after his parents’ marriage. Yet we learn from Jack’s son Peregrine that Jennie had a medical problem that prevented her from carrying babies to full term; Jack was born equally prematurely.

And the Lees put paid to the suggestion that Lord Randolph died of syphilis, stating that this is based on scurrilous smears put about by Jennie’s jealous sister Leonie. Lord Randolph’s death certificate states that he died of pneumonia, while current medical opinion is that he most probably died of an undiagnosed and inoperable brain tumour.

Some rumours associated with the Churchills are true, however. Winston’s mother Jennie was indeed the mistress of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and of many other high society men of the time; she clocked up three husbands but not the 200 lovers of whom she has been accused.

She was a spendthrift whose extravagant ways habitually threatened the family’s livelihood; she and Randolph were frequently asking his parents for more money. Yet at heart she was a loving mother, a constant correspondent, who wished the best for her sons.

Some of the less attractive stories from Winston’s early life are also true. He was an abominable schoolboy, and quite a handful at home. There’s a phrase in one of Jennie’s letters to her husband, who was then away on a trip to South Africa to look for gold, which may touch a chord with other parents of teenage boys: “Winston will be 17 in two months and he really requires to be with a man. He is just at the ‘ugly’ stage — slouchy and tiresome.”

This is an enthralling book, which looks at Churchill in a new familial light, enabling the reader to do likewise. Short introductions to each chapter set the political scene at the time; the chapters themselves put the record straight on many ‘well-known facts’ about one of Britain’s greatest characters.