How well do you Winston Churchill?

The anniversary of Winston Churchill’s death is marked this month, so here are some little known facts about the man voted to Best Briton in the world.

How many did you know?

Despite being the Best Briton he’s actually half American!
His father was Lord Randolph Churchill and his mother was an American heiress, Jennie Jerome. He and his brother were born at Blenheim Palace.

He is known for being a great orator, but did you know that Churchill had a speech impediment? He had a lisp but met with a speech expert who helped him get over it.

He also nearly flunked out of school…. As a student, it is said that he performed poorly in everything but history and English, which meant he struggled to get into the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He eventually qualified but only for the cavalry.

Did you know that Churchill was obsessed the platypus? So much so that the Australian government sent him one. Apparently, he had a long term ambition to see one in the flesh and owned quite the menagerie which included black swans, a lion and some kangaroos – he did ask for 6 platypus, but the Australians only granted him the one. It was named Winston and had his own keeper appointed to him to keep him safe on the long boat ride from Australia to Liverpool during the treacherous war years, landing in 1943. Sadly, their ship was attacked by submarines and Winston the Platypus didn’t make it.

He might not have been the best military student but that didn’t stop him from escape from a Prisoner of War Camp during the Boer War. He escaped by scaling a wall at night and then ended up hiding in a mineshaft before making his escape on a rail truck.

Perhaps his daring escape was thanks to all the alcohol he took with him when he set out for the Boer War. He departed with 60 bottles of alcohol with him. Similarly when he was in America during prohibition, he got a doctors’ note which stated he could drink an indefinite amount of alcohol.

Churchill is famous for his role in WWII, but initially his foray into politics wasn’t that successful. He started out as a Liberal before defecting to the Conservatives. During WWI, he was made first Lord of the Admiralty, but lost the role after 4 years following a naval disaster.

As leader during WWII he was incredibly popular and willing to do whatever it took to keep Britain safe. Visitors to the Imperial War Rooms will know of some of the measures put in place for him but did you know that he had a life pod to fly in. The pod included a phone, an ashtray and an air circulation system so he could continue to smoke. He also had his own life boat whenever he travelled by ship during the war, which had a machine gun mounted on it, apparently, it was so he could resist capture at all costs.

His political career was one of ups and downs, he served as prime minister twice and served in the British parliament under 6 monarchs. His career was pretty much over after 1955 when he was in poor health.

Churchill is credited with popularising the term “Iron Curtain” to describe communism in eastern Europe. It’s something that continued to be used when talking about the Soviet Union. He was also involved in the first known use of OMG – Lord Fisher sent Churchill a letter in 1917 that featured OMG as an abbreviated form of Oh My God.

Churchill was an accomplished artist but didn’t begin painting until he was well into his 40s. Some of his work is now on display. He is also an award winning author and even won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He also entered the music charts, after a collection of his most famous speeches were released.

So far, Churchill is the only statesman to have received a State Funeral and was the first statesman to be honoured on two occasions on British coins.

Churchill was prone to low moods and towards the end of his life, erratic behaviour. He was said to have experienced bouts of depression, something he referred to as his Black Dog. He was known as being quite emotional, regularly being moved to tears in parliament.