Winston Churchill: Politicians Who Claim His Mantle Embody His Worst Traits (original) (raw)

One of Mary Soames’s favorite stories about her father, Winston Churchill, dated from his extreme old age. She asked whether he nursed any regrets about his extraordinary life — for instance, that he had not won a Victoria Cross for courage on the battlefield. After a pause, he responded slowly and with deep feeling: “I … should have liked my father … to have lived long enough … to see that I made something of my life.”

By contrast, Mary Soames’s friends, among whom my wife and I were proud to be numbered, are today thankful that this enchanting woman, who died in 2014, did not live long enough to see her father become the focus of a new and bitter controversy in his native land.