Churchill’s Bodyguard
Author: Tom Hickman
Publisher: Headline Book Publishing , UK
Pages: 304
Dedication: Nil
Rating:
Presentation: 2, Language: 4, Relevance: 2, Depth: 1, Reputation: 2
The book is a biography of Walter Henry Thompson, the personal bodyguard of Winston Churchill from 1921 to 1945. Hickman refers liberally to Thompson’s memoirs and historical events. Right from an MP in 1921 to Prime Minister in 1945, he was the shadow of Churchill and records many events with first hand experience.
The book lacks life of its own. The narratives are most often drab, and lacks conviction in many instances. The narratives might as well have been quoted from news papers with the same effect. Too much importance is given to Thompson’s life story which does not seem to have any significance to the average user. His scramble for publishing his memoirs after he quit service does not paint him in good light. In fact, his relationship with virtually breaks down on this point.
However, there are some quotes in this book which is noteworthy in the historical context.
Fast unto death by prisoners in jail was common practice in England
Suffragettes deliberately got themselves arrested to cause embarrassment to the government. When they began to go on hunger strike in prison, they were force-fed. This caused public outrage – the practice had previously been used only with lunatics. In 1913, the Prisoner’s Temporary Discharge for Ill-health Act was passed, its purpose being to allow very weak hunger strikers to be released but then re-arrested on the most trivial of pretexts (often for not registering the address where they recuperated) days later when they were stronger. The measure was dubbed the Cat and Mouse Act.
George Bernard Shaw was a Churchill critic. In a letter, he invited Winston to attend the first night of his play. “I am enclosing two tickets,” Shaw wrote, “one for you and one for a friend, if you have one”. Winston replied, regretting that he would be unable to go on the first night – “But I shall certainly attend on the second night, if you have one”. (p 48)
The strike by coal workers in 1925 was defeated by Churchill. He took control of a news paper, “British Gazette”. When criticized by the opposition for being propagandist and inflammatory, Churchill said, “I decline utterly to be impartial as between the fire brigade and the fire!” (p 51)
‘It appeared’, Walter wrote, ‘so an English speaking Italian told me during our visit to Rome, that the King of Italy dropped his handkerchief as he was strolling through the grounds of the palace one day. Signor Mussolini, with whom he was walking, gallantly stooped to retrieve it, but King Victor waved him aside and picked it up himself. “Majesty”, expostulated the Duce, “am I not always at your service? Could you not have let me do it for you?” A trifle grimly, Italy
On Gandhiji going for tea with the King,
Churchill described him ‘as a seditious lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half naked up the steps of the vice-regal palace… to parley on equal terms with the representatives of the King-Emperor. (p 64)
Churchill’s first broadcast as Prime Minister in 1940,
We have differed and quarreled in the past, but now one bond unites us all: to wage war until victory is won and never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame, whatever the cost and the agony may be … the long night of barbarism will descend… unless we conquer, as conquer we must, as conquer we shall… (p 91)
Tribute to the RAF after they have won the Battle Britain
Never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed by so many to so few. (p 92)
The ‘finest hour’ speech
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British empire and its commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say: ‘this was their finest hour’ (p 99)
Churchill loathed whistling and he prohibited his staff from whistling in his presence.
One day he was walking slightly ahead of me along King Charles Street , Westminster Downing Street . Approaching him from the other direction was a boy of about 13 years of age, hands in pocket, newspapers under his arms, whistling loudly and cheerfully. When the boy drew near, Winston hunched his shoulder, walked towards the boy and said in a stern voice: “Stop that whistling”. The boy looked at the Prime Minister with complete unconcern and answered: “why should I?”. “Because I don’t like it and it is a horrible noise”, growled Winston. The boy moved onwards a few steps, then turned round and called out: “Well, you can shut your ears, can’t you?”, with that he walked on. Winston was completely taken aback and for a moment he looked furious. Then, as he crossed the road, he began to smile and quietly repeated to himself the words, “you can shut your ears, can’t you?” and followed it up with a hearty chuckle. (p 116)
Overall rating: 2/5
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