1882-1945
US politician

1. Introduction
2. Stories
3. Biographical summary
4. See also
5. Further reading
6. References

1. Introduction

‘FDR’ won an unprecedented four US presidential elections, leading his country from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is best known for his role as president during World War II and for his New Deal, a range of responses to the 1930s Great Depression. He was paralyzed from the waist down by polio in 1921 when nearly 40 years old. His wife Eleanor was highly influential in her own right. Churchill developed a close friendship with him, meeting on numerous occasions to discuss the war, but Roosevelt died a few months before the war’s end and was succeeded by Harry Truman.

2. Stories

• Roosevelt was a lawyer and governor of New York before winning four terms as president.
• During World War II, Roosevelt and Churchill exchanged almost 2000 written messages and spent a total of nearly four months together.
• Between them, Roosevelt and Churchill had 11 children, of whom the nine who survived to adulthood had a total of 27 marriages and 34 children.
• Churchill established a close friendship with FDR despite some differences of national interest.
• The Roosevelts struggled with Churchill’s daily routine but FDR was pleased that Churchill’s presence meant an improvement to Eleanor’s notoriously bland menus.
• During World War II, Roosevelt and Churchill went by various codenames, including ‘Admiral Q’ for Roosevelt and ‘Mr Bullfinch’ for Churchill.
• Eleanor and Winston had a shared interest in learning to fly, opposed by their spouses, but otherwise they had little in common.

Roosevelt was a lawyer and governor of New York before winning four terms as president.

FDR was a fifth cousin of Theodore Roosevelt (‘Teddy’), US president from 1901 to 1909. Theodore was a Republican and was disappointed with FDR’s decision to become a Democrat but supported his freedom of choice. FDR’s wife Eleanor (née Roosevelt) was Theodore’s niece, FDR’s fifth cousin, once removed.

The son of a wealthy businessman and politician, FDR was initially a private practice lawyer and a member of the New York State Senate, then assistant secretary of the navy under President Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, he ran as potential vice-president to James Cox, but they were defeated by Republicans, with Warren G. Harding becoming president.

He was diagnosed with polio the following year, although there has been some speculation that it could have been an auto-immune disease. He initially became almost completely paralysed from the waist down but learned to walk short distances with a cane and managed to stand upright with support for speeches. After some recuperation, he became chairman of Taconic State Park Commission for three years, developing a scenic road and visitor facilities for a park 110 miles (175 km) north of New York city.

He became governor of New York in January 1929, shortly before the Wall Street Crash in October 1929, the beginning of the ten-year Great Depression. Many blamed the Republicans for the state of the economy, and the well-known Roosevelt name helped FDR secure the presidency for the Democrats in 1932. He introduced his New Deal, a range of measures to try and stimulate the economy and to provide social protections, securing a second term in 1936.

Breaking with precedent, he ran for and gained a third term in 1940, although not without criticism for accumulating too many powers. This did not prevent him from winning a fourth term in 1944, but he died in April 1945 from a brain haemorrhage, aged 63, less than a month before the end of World War II in Europe and less than five months before its end in Asia. Vice president Harry Truman became president and won a second term from 1949 to 1953.

During World War II, Roosevelt and Churchill exchanged almost 2000 written messages and spent a total of nearly four months together.

The relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill did not start well. They first met when Roosevelt was assistant secretary of the navy and Churchill was minister of munitions. Roosevelt said in 1939 that ‘I have always disliked him since the time I went to England in 1918. He acted like a stinker at a dinner, lording it all over us.’¹

Their second meeting was in August 1941 on HMS Prince of Wales for a conference off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, during which Churchill added insult to injury by not even remembering their 1918 encounter. Despite this, they soon got on well, with Roosevelt commenting that Churchill ‘is a tremendously vital person […] I like him.’²

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, Churchill spent three weeks in the USA, including Christmas at the White House with the Roosevelts. Shortly afterwards he sent a sixtieth birthday message to FDR and received the reply, ‘It is fun to be in the same decade as you.’³

Churchill returned to Washington in June 1942 to persuade Roosevelt to attack North Africa first and mainland Europe later (the US military chiefs favoured an earlier Europe invasion). Further meetings took place over the period 1943 to 1945 in Washington, Quebec (twice), Cairo (twice), Tehran, Malta and Yalta. After the second Quebec meeting in September 1944, Churchill stayed at FDR’s Hyde Park home, where they initialled a short but critical aide-memoire anticipating the possible use of a nuclear bomb against Japan and agreeing to post-World War II nuclear cooperation. The former was implemented but the latter was essentially terminated from 1946 to 1958, partly because the agreement was not disclosed to Congress (see Soviet Spies).

Their last meeting was in February 1945 on board USS Quincy in Alexandria, Egypt. Churchill joined FDR for an informal lunch in his cabin, together with his son Randolph, daughter Sarah and FDR’s daughter Anna. Churchill wrote that ‘The President seemed placid and frail. I felt that he had a slender contact with life. I was not to see him again. We bade affectionate farewells.’⁴

Between them, Roosevelt and Churchill had 11 children, of whom the nine who survived to adulthood had a total of 27 marriages and 34 children.

FDR met Eleanor Roosevelt by chance on a train in 1902 and they were engaged a little over a year later. Her uncle Theodore wrote to FDR, ‘I am as fond of Eleanor as if she were my daughter; and I like you, and trust you, and believe in you.’⁵

The Roosevelts had six children and the Churchills had five. FDR lost a son as an infant and Churchill lost a daughter when she was under three. The five adult Roosevelt offspring had 19 marriages between them and 24 children. Churchill’s four adult offspring had eight marriages and 10 children.

FDR and Churchill were both assisted during some of their wartime meetings by one or more of their children. Elliott Roosevelt accompanied FDR as a military attaché in Casablanca, Cairo and Tehran, and both Elliott and Franklin (junior) attended the first Washington conference. Elliott horrified Churchill in Tehran by supporting a comment by Stalin about shooting 50,000 German officers and technicians after the war to debilitate the country.

Mary Churchill (later Soames) was aide-de-camp to her father at the first Quebec meeting as well as the post-war Potsdam conference attended by Harry Truman. Sarah Churchill (later Audley) attended in Cairo, Tehran and Yalta. Prompted by Churchill’s example of inviting his daughters, Roosevelt asked his eldest child Anna to participate at Yalta.

A comment by Anna to a friend about her father reflects the difference between the two men: ‘He doesn’t know any man and no man knows him. Even his own family doesn’t know anything about him.’⁶ Churchill, despite often being an absent father and husband, wore his heart on his sleeve.

In 1918 Eleanor found some letters showing that FDR was having an affair with her former social secretary Lucy Mercer. She set up a separate home within FDR’s family estate at Hyde Park and their son James wrote that the rest of their lives was lived as an ‘armed truce’.⁷ Divorce was discussed but not pursued, to protect FDR’s career, and their marriage continued on the basis that Eleanor would remain FDR’s wife but would conduct her own independent political and charitable activities as she wished.

Churchill established a close friendship with FDR despite some differences of national interest.

The nature of the relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill has been the subject of much analysis. Despite some complications arising from the different interests of their countries, it is evident that a good friendship developed. Given that the political balance of power was firmly on the side of the USA, this spilled over into the friendship. Churchill’s daughter Mary referred to this using a French proverb: ‘In love, there is always one who kisses and one who offers the cheek.’⁸ Churchill tended to be the proactive enthusiast and Roosevelt the cordial but more distant friend.

Both men had large egos and determined characters. Mary said that ‘Being with them was like sitting between two lions roaring at the same time’.⁹ Churchill would sometimes keep quiet for the sake of the Anglo-American relationship. Roosevelt would occasionally needle him in public, particularly about British imperialism, or omit to consult him on major issues, and Churchill would refrain from making any comment.

After a conference in Casablanca, Morocco, in January 1943, Churchill insisted on driving 135 miles (220 km) with Roosevelt to Marrakesh to show him the sunset light on the Atlas Mountains, one of Churchill’s favourite sights. He arranged for Roosevelt to be carried up a tower in a chair for a better outlook. The next morning, Churchill, in his dressing gown and slippers, met him at the airport to say goodbye, but did not want to stay to watch the aircraft take off, saying, ‘If anything happened to that man, I couldn’t stand it. He is the truest friend; he has the farthest vision; he is the greatest man I have ever known.’*¹⁰

Churchill stayed on briefly in Marrakesh and did his only painting during World War II, The Tower of Katoubia Mosque (1943), which he gave to Roosevelt. In February 1945, Roosevelt gave Churchill one of only 10 gold medallions produced for his fourth inauguration. After FDR’s death, Churchill’s painting passed to his son Elliott, then via other owners to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in 2011. After their 2019 divorce, it was owned by Jolie and sold by her in March 2021 for £8,285,000 (US$11.2 million), a record for a Churchill painting.

* A later flight from Casablanca that day crashed on arrival in Wales, killing 11, including Brigadier Vivian Dykes.

The Roosevelts struggled with Churchill’s daily routine but FDR was pleased that Churchill’s presence meant an improvement to Eleanor’s notoriously bland menus.

Churchill did not usually adapt his routine when staying with others which included breakfast in bed, work in bed in the morning, a siesta after lunch and late-night work after dinner. FDR was not a late-night man but stayed up to talk with Churchill, often discussing their shared interests in history, naval topics and literature.

Their hobbies overlapped in part. Both liked fish, but FDR preferred catching them and Churchill would spend hours feeding and watching them. Both liked birds, with FDR sometimes getting up very early to go birdwatching, whereas Churchill preferred interacting with pets such as swans, ducks and hens. Both had large book collections and were ‘short-snorters’ (see Averell Harriman). FDR’s other main hobbies were collecting stamps and ship models, and sailing.

After an extended period with Churchill, FDR would be exhausted and it would take a number of days to recover. Some of the late-night burden in Washington would be carried by FDR’s close advisor and friend Harry Hopkins, who lived at the White House for three and a half years. Churchill had got to know Hopkins well when FDR sent him to the UK to coordinate the Lend-Lease programme in 1941.

Hopkins told the story of Roosevelt entering Churchill’s room one morning to find him ‘stark naked and gleaming pink from his bath’.¹¹ Churchill is alleged to have declared that ‘The Prime Minister of Great Britain has nothing to hide from the President of the United States’.¹² Churchill told King George VI about the experience, saying, ‘Sir, I believe I am the only man in the world to have received the head of a nation naked.’¹³ However, he also said later that he had never received the president without at least a bath towel on.

Despite the punishing late night routine, FDR was pleased that Churchill’s visit meant that the White House’s bland food would be made temporarily more interesting. Eleanor had decided that the White House’s plain menus should be an example to the rest of the country during the privations of the Depression and the stretched resources of World War II.

During World War II, Roosevelt and Churchill went by various codenames, including ‘Admiral Q’ for Roosevelt and ‘Mr Bullfinch’ for Churchill.

Wartime security required the use of codenames for Roosevelt and Churchill for their travels, playing into Churchill’s love of nicknames and delight in words.* Ahead of Casablanca, Churchill telexed Roosevelt saying that his alias would be ‘Air Commodore Frankland’. Roosevelt replied that he and Harry Hopkins would be ‘Don Quixote’ and ‘Sancho Panza’, the wandering knight and his armour-bearer from Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote (1605 and 1615). Churchill’s tongue-in-cheek response was, ‘However did you think of such an impenetrable disguise? In order to make it even harder for the enemy and to discourage irreverent guesswork propose Admiral Q. and Mr P. (N B) we must mind our P’s and Q’s.’¹⁴

‘Don Quixote’ and ‘Sancho Panza’ have been applied to various other senior-junior pairings over the years, including Churchill and Brendan Bracken, and indeed Roosevelt and Churchill. Sancho’s donkey may have been in Churchill’s mind when he was in Tehran, writing that he had the great Russian bear (Stalin) on one side and the great American buffalo (Roosevelt) on the other, and ‘between the two sat the poor little English donkey who was the only one […] who knew the right way home’.¹⁵

For the first Quebec conference, Roosevelt was ‘PQ’, as a follow-up to Churchill’s earlier communication. At a Washington conference he was ‘Alex’. Meanwhile, amongst the media he was known as ‘the Sphinx’ for his cryptic character and communications.

Roosevelt would often address Churchill as ‘Former Naval Person’, a codename which became a permanent nickname, referring to his earlier times as first lord of the Admiralty. Churchill’s other names included Mr Green, Mr Bullfinch, Colonel Kent and Colonel Warden.

There was no overall methodology for codenames during the war but Churchill provided some general principles, recommending names taken from heroes of antiquity, constellations, famous racehorses and non-living war heroes. They were not to sound triumphant, despondent or flippant: ‘Do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called “Bunnyhug” or “Ballyhoo”.’¹⁶ However, the names of many operations breached this guidance, such as Boozer, Toenails, Maggot and Loincloth.

Eleanor and Winston had a shared interest in learning to fly, opposed by their spouses, but otherwise they had little in common.

Aviator Amelia Earhart had dinner at the White House in 1933, the year after becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic non-stop. After the main course, she suggested to Eleanor that they go for a quick flight, so they headed out in their evening dresses to make a return trip to Baltimore, 35 miles (56 km away). Although the aircraft had a pilot, both Eleanor and Amelia had turns at the controls. They returned to the White House for dessert.

Eleanor was delighted with the experience. She signed up as a student pilot, asking Amelia if she would give her lessons, to which she agreed. FDR, who had been away the night of the dinner, opposed the idea. Similarly, Clementine had objected to Winston’s flying lessons many years earlier, although Winston persisted until having a serious crash.

Eleanor had not managed to overcome or ignore FDR’s resistance by the time Amelia and her navigator disappeared on their 1937 round-the-world attempt, during the home leg over the Pacific. FDR arranged a huge search, but no trace was found, and Eleanor never proceeded with flying lessons.

Churchill’s relationship with Eleanor was polite but uneasy. Eleanor wrote after his death that ‘I have to confess that I was frightened of Mr. Churchill. So often I was his hostess or he was my host and we sat next to each other, but each time I felt inadequate to interest him.’¹⁷

After FDR’s death, Churchill said to her, ‘You never have really approved of me, have you?’ Eleanor was taken aback and said, ‘I don’t think I ever disapproved, sir.’ However, she wrote tellingly that ‘I think he remained convinced that there were things he and I did not agree upon, and perhaps there were a number!’¹⁸ Nevertheless, they had the FDR connection in common. Churchill wrote, ‘I have lost a dear and cherished friendship which was forged in the fire of war. I trust you may find consolation in the magnitude of his work and the glory of his name.’¹⁹

3. Biographical summary

Occupation	Lawyer, politician, governor of New York, US President
Country	USA
Career	Private practice lawyer (1908-10). State Senator, New York (1910-13). Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913-20). Chairman, Taconic State Park Commission (1925-28).  Governor of New York (1929-32). President (1933-45 in four terms).
Born	1882 at Springwood Estate, Hyde Park, New York, U.S. (eight years younger than Churchill)
Father	James Roosevelt (1828-1900), businessman, politician, horse breeder
Mother	Sara Ann Delano (1854-1941), James’s second wife (m. 1880), 25 years younger; his first wife Rebecca Howland (1831-76) (m. 1853, d.1976) died of a heart attack aged 45
Siblings	Only child of James and Sara Roosevelt: 1. Franklin Delano (1882-1945) Half-brother James ‘Rosy’ (1854-1927) by father’s first wife was 28 years older than Franklin; diplomat in Vienna and London; married twice
Education	Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts (same as Averell Harriman who was 9 years younger); Harvard (history); Columbia Law School (law), incomplete
Spouse	Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), political activist, diplomat; niece of Theodore Roosevelt (US President 1901-09) who was Franklin’s 5th cousin (Eleanor was Franklin’s 5th cousin, once removed); orphaned at age 10
Relationships	Lucy Mercer, Eleanor’s social secretary; possibly Marguerite LeHand (‘Missy’), FDR’s secretary; possibly Crown Princess Märtha of Norway during World War II
Children	1. Anna (1906–75), writer and editor; 3 marriages, 3 children 2. James (1907–91), businessman, US Marine and politician; 4 marriages, 7 children 3. Franklin (1909–09) 4. Elliott (1910–90), army officer, author, mayor of Florida; 5 marriages, 5 children 5. Franklin D. Jr (1914–88), lawyer, politician and businessman; 5 marriages, 5 children 6. John (1916–1981), businessman; 2 marriages, 4 children
Died	1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia, U.S., aged 63 (20 years before Churchill); died in April, shortly before the end of World War II (May 1945 in Europe and August/September 1945 in Asia); brain haemorrhage
Buried	Springwood Estate, Hyde Park, New York, U.S. (birthplace and residence)
Chartwell
Other Club	–
Nicknames	FDR (generic); Don Quixote, The Don, Admiral Q (wartime codenames); ‘That Man in the White House’ (detractors); The Sphinx (press)
Height	6’2” (1.88m) (equal 5th tallest US president out of 45 individuals; tallest was Abraham Lincoln at 6’4”/1.93m; shortest was James Madison at 5’4”/1.63m; Donald Trump is 3rd tallest at 6’3”/1.91m)

4. See also

US leaders

• Baruch, Bernard
• Harriman, Averell
• Truman, Harry

Other leaders

• Stalin, Joseph

Roosevelt family

• Mossadegh, Mohammad (Kermit Roosevelt, CIA)
• Nasser, Gamal Abdel (Kermit Roosevelt, CIA)

Nuclear weapons

• Soviet spies (Klaus Fuchs)
• Tojo, Hideki
• Truman, Harry

Churchill and the USA

• Chaplin, Charlie (Hollywood visit)
• Korda, Alexander (UK propaganda)
• Murrow, Ed (broadcasts from London)

Churchill controversies

• Bombing (nuclear)

5. Further reading

Franklin D. Roosevelt

• Brinkley, Alan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Oxford University Press, 2009)
• Coker, Jeffrey W., Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Biography, Greenwood Biographies (Greenwood Press, 2005)
• Dallek, Robert, Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life (Penguin Books Limited, 2017)
• Smith, Jean Edward, FDR (Random House, 2008)
• Wapshott, Nicholas, The Sphinx: Franklin Roosevelt, the Isolationists, and the Road to World War II (W. W. Norton, 2014)

FDR and women

• Lash, Joseph P., Eleanor and Franklin (W. W. Norton, 2014)
• Rowley, Hazel, Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage (Melbourne University Press, 2011)
• Ward, Geoffrey C., Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship Between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley (Simon & Schuster, 2012)
• Willis, Resa, FDR and Lucy: Lovers and Friends (Taylor & Francis, 2012)

FDR and Churchill

• Alldritt, Keith, The Greatest of Friends: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, 1941-1945 (Robert Hale Limited, 1995)
• Churchill, Winston S., ‘Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque’ (Christie’s, 2021)
• Kimball, Warren F., ‘Churchill and the Presidents: Franklin Roosevelt’ (The Churchill Project – Hillsdale College, 2016)
• Lehrman, Lewis E., Churchill, Roosevelt & Company: Studies in Character and Statecraft (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017)
• Meacham, Jon, Franklin and Winston: A Portrait of a Friendship (Granta Publications, 2016)

Nicknames and codenames

• Churchill, Winston S. and Clementine Churchill, Speaking for Themselves: The Personal Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill, ed. by Mary Soames (Black Swan, 1999) (Partial list of nicknames used by Winston and Clementine for various people.)
• Langworth, Richard M., ‘Roosevelt and Churchill: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza?’, (Richard M. Langworth, 2018)
• Roberts, Andrew, Masters and Commanders: The Military Geniuses Who Led The West To Victory In World War II (Penguin, 2009) (Operation codenames in Appendix C.)

Miscellaneous

• Katz, Catherine Grace, The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Family, Love, and War (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2020)
• Langworth, Richard M., ‘“Nothing to Hide”: The Truth about Churchill’s Naked Encounter’ (Richard M. Langworth, 2011)
• Michaelis, David, Eleanor (Simon & Schuster, 2020)
• POTUS, ‘Presidential Heights’ (POTUS: Presidents of the United States)
• Preston, Diana, Eight Days at Yalta: How Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin Shaped the Post-War World (Pan Macmillan, 2019)

6. References

1. Joseph P. Kennedy, Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy, ed. by Amanda Smith (Viking, 2001), p. 411.

2. Geoffrey C. Ward, Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship Between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley (Simon & Schuster, 2012), p. 141.

3. Winston S. Churchill, The Churchill War Papers: Volume 3: The Ever-Widening War 1941, ed. by Martin Gilbert (Heinemann, 1993), p. 841.

4. Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War: Volume 6: Triumph and Tragedy (Cassell, 1953), p. 397.

5. Hazel Rowley, Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage (Melbourne University Press, 2011), p. 37.

6. Robert H. Ferrell, The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944-1945 (University of Missouri Press, 1998), p. 143.

7. Resa Willis, FDR and Lucy: Lovers and Friends (Taylor & Francis, 2012), p. 42.

8. Jon Meacham, Franklin and Winston: A Portrait of a Friendship (Granta Publications, 2016), p. [000].

9. Meacham, p. 5.

10. Kenneth Pendar, Adventure in Diplomacy: The Emergence of General de Gaulle in North Africa (Cassell, 1966), p. 151.

11. Richard M. Langworth, ‘“Nothing to Hide”: The Truth about Churchill’s Naked Encounter’, Richard M. Langworth, 2011.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. FDR Presidential Library & Museum, ‘FDR, Churchill and Their Secret Code Names for Casablanca – Forward with Roosevelt’, FDR Presidential Library & Museum, 1943.

15. Winston S. Churchill, Churchill’s Wit, ed. by Richard M. Langworth (Random House, 2009), p. 158.

16. Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Volume 7: Road to Victory, 1941-1945 (Houghton Mifflin, 1986), p. 466.

17. Eleanor Roosevelt, ‘Churchill at the White House’, The Atlantic, 1965.

18. Ibid.

19. FDR Presidential Library & Museum, ‘The “Special Relationship”’, FDR Presidential Library & Museum.