Churchill's Connections

Elizabeth II

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1926-2022
UK royalty

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

1. Introduction

Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning UK monarch in September 2015, surpassing Queen Victoria. Her father George VI became king, unexpectedly, upon the abdication of his brother Edward VIII and she became queen, unexpectedly soon, upon her father’s early death in 1952. Her first prime minister of 15 was Churchill; she was his sixth monarch since his birth. Churchill (full family surname ‘Spencer-Churchill’) was distantly related to the queen’s daughter-in-law, Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. The queen accorded Churchill the rare honour of a state funeral on his death in 1965.

2. Stories

  • Princess Elizabeth and Churchill both had emergency births, with the queen’s birthplace now being the site of a Chinese restaurant.
  • Churchill was impressed by young Princess Elizabeth when she was just two years old.
  • Churchill was the queen’s first prime minister; she was his last monarch.
  • The queen’s and Churchill’s signatures both took shortcuts with regards to their family names.
  • The queen and Churchill both owned a wide range of animals, including (between them) an elephant, a lion, eight kangaroos and two hippos.
  • The queen invited Churchill to become a Knight of the Garter in 1953, which he accepted, but he declined her offer of a dukedom in 1955, as required by protocol.
  • The queen granted Churchill a state funeral and made a significant exception to royal protocol by arriving at the service early and leaving late.

Princess Elizabeth and Churchill both had emergency births, with the queen’s birthplace now being the site of a Chinese restaurant.

Elizabeth was in a breech position when her mother went into labour. A caesarean operation was decided upon, a high-risk process at the time, particularly in a private home which was then the traditional location for royal births, rather than in a hospital. Her parents George and Elizabeth, the Duke and Duchess of York, were staying with the duchess’s parents, Claude and Cecilia Bowes-Lyon (Lord and Lady Strathmore), at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London. Their own property, 145 Piccadilly at Hyde Park Corner, was being renovated.

The operation was performed successfully and a small crowd in the lashing rain outside cheered the announcement shortly after the 2.40 a.m. delivery. The government’s home secretary was a witness to the birth, following an ancient custom, possibly to guarantee that a royal baby would not be replaced surreptitiously in the event of a stillbirth.

During World War II, the townhouse 17 Bruton Street and the mansion 145 Piccadilly were both damaged by bombs and had to be pulled down. The former site is now the location of an upmarket Chinese restaurant, with a City of Westminster green plaque outside explaining the site’s historic significance.* The latter site is now occupied by the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel.

The custom of home secretaries attending royal births was discontinued by George VI shortly before the delivery of his grandson Prince Charles in 1948 (also by caesarean). The custom of royals giving birth at home was superseded by that of births taking place in the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, London, begun by Elizabeth II’s daughter Anne in 1977.

Churchill’s birth was an emergency in the sense that it is said to have been premature at seven and a half months. His mother Jennie may have had a fall, a rough ride in a pony carriage and/or a vigorous dance at a party while staying at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, the residence of her father-in-law, John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough. She collapsed in a hallway there and was taken into a spare bedroom for the birth. Churchill would otherwise have been born at his parents’ home at 48 Charles Street, Mayfair, 250 metres (275 yards) from the birthplace of the future Queen Elizabeth II.

* ‘On this site at 17 Bruton Street stood the townhouse of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne where Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, later to become Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, was born on 21 April 1926.’ City of Westminster, ‘Green Plaques’, City of Westminster, 2017. There are two green plaques for Churchill: one at Caxton Hall (‘Sir Winston Churchill 1874-1965 spoke here at the former Caxton Hall 1937-1942’); the other is at 29 St. James’s Place (‘Sir Winston Churchill 1874-1965 lived here 1880-1883’).

Churchill was impressed by young Princess Elizabeth when she was just two years old.

In September 1928, aged 53, Churchill was chancellor of the exchequer and travelled to Balmoral Castle, Scotland, to visit King George V and his family, including the king’s son George and granddaughter Elizabeth. Churchill wrote to Clementine that the young Elizabeth was a character with ‘an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant’.1 He referred to her grandly as ‘Queen Elizabeth’, tongue-in-cheek, hinting at the era of Queen Elizabeth I. He had no idea that the then third-in-line to the throne would become a real queen and that he would be her first prime minister.

During the same visit, Churchill noted that the king was well but seemed older than his 63 years. Two months later George V was diagnosed with a septic abscess in his chest, which was removed, but he almost died. Recovering slowly and grumpily, he asked for his granddaughter ‘Lilibet’ to join him at a manor near Bognor, overlooking the English Channel, even though he was not known for his liking of children. For several months, Lilibet made him sand pies from the beach and walked next to him in his bathchair, cheering him up with her animal imitations. Soon afterwards, he bought her a Shetland pony, Peggy, for her fourth birthday, starting her lifelong interest in horses, which she would later share with Churchill.

The princess’s calm confidence was evident again in her first public speech in a live radio broadcast in October 1940 at age 14, a few months after some of Churchill’s best-known speeches. She addressed the children of the Commonwealth, particularly those who had been separated from their families during wartime.

Her radio transmission from South Africa on her twenty-first birthday in 1947, as the then next-in-line to the throne after the abdication of her uncle Edward VIII, had a lasting effect on the imperial establishment, including Churchill. ‘I can make my solemn act of dedication with a whole Empire listening,’ she said. ‘It is very simple. I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.’2

Churchill was the queen’s first prime minister; she was his last monarch.

The queen was very discreet in expressing any opinions, but when asked which prime ministers she most enjoyed audiences with, she is alleged to have said, ‘Winston, of course, because it was always such fun.’3 They both looked forward to their weekly meetings which lasted for an hour and a half. Tommy Lascelles, the queen’s private secretary in 1952-53, wrote, ‘I could not hear what they talked about, but it was, more often than not, punctuated with peals of laughter, and Winston generally came out wiping his eyes.’4

Initially it seemed like a mismatch, with the inexperienced, somewhat quiet queen being faced with the battle-hardened, bombastic prime minister. However, her confidence, dignity and sense of duty had already won her widespread respect, and Churchill’s high regard for the institution of the monarchy made him almost demure.

During her reign, the queen developed considerably more experience than her prime ministers. In 1997 she asked Tony Blair, her tenth prime minister, to form a government. ‘She very much put me at my ease,’ he said. ‘Though she did say that Winston Churchill was the first prime minister that she dealt with. That was before I was born, so I got a sense of my relative superiority, or lack of it, in the broad sweep of history.’5

Churchill lived under two queens and four kings: Victoria, Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II. After George VI’s death, Churchill was distraught, saying that he did not know Elizabeth (despite his earlier encounters with her) and that she was only a child (she was 25; Churchill was 77). However, he soon became enthused, telling the House of Commons: ‘Famous have been the reigns of our queens. Some of the greatest periods in our history have unfolded under their sceptre.’6 Having been brought up in the ‘august, unchallenged and tranquil glories of the Victorian era’, he again felt a thrill in invoking once more the prayer and anthem ‘God save the Queen!’7

The queen’s and Churchill’s signatures both took shortcuts with regards to their family names.

By tradition, the queen’s usual signature ‘Elizabeth R.’ omitted her family name (Windsor) and added the abbreviation ‘R.’ for Regina (Latin for ‘Queen’; also used for Rex (‘King’). The royal family did not have an official surname prior to 1917, when it became Windsor, taken from the royal residence of Windsor Castle.

The name of the royal household was ‘Saxe-Coburg and Gotha’ until 1917, when it was changed to Windsor, the same as the family name. Shortly after Elizabeth became queen, Lord Mountbatten of Burma announced to some guests at a party that since she had married Philip Mountbatten (his nephew), the House of Mountbatten now reigned.* News of this reached Queen Mary, George V’s widow, who was greatly troubled and consulted Churchill’s private secretary, John Colville. Churchill took the issue straight to his cabinet, which opposed a name change.

Prince Philip wrote a strong letter to Churchill, arguing for his children to take his own surname. He proposed ‘Edinburgh’ as the new name of the royal household, after his title the Duke of Edinburgh. He received a firm rebuttal, supported by parliament, and the queen confirmed that the name of both the royal household and family remained Windsor. However, the issue lingered, and in 1960 the queen declared that the family name of her descendants is Mountbatten-Windsor.** The name of the royal household remains Windsor.

Churchill usually signed as ‘Winston S. Churchill’, which he abbreviated to ‘W.S.C.’, with the implication that ‘S.’ is a middle name. His full name, however, was Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, so his initials were in fact ‘W.L.S-C.’ His distant ancestor John Churchill (1650-1722), 1st Duke of Marlborough, had no male children and his title passed by marriage to the Spencer family. George Spencer, 5th Duke of Marlborough, re-introduced the Churchill name in 1817 by royal licence, resulting in the double-barrelled ‘Spencer-Churchill’. Over time, the Spencer barrel became less used, notably by Sir Winston.

The queen’s daughter-in-law (from 1981 to 1996), Diana, Princess of Wales, previously Lady Diana Spencer, had an ancestor in common with Sir Winston: Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland. Winston was his seventh-generation descendant, and Diana his eighth, making them fifth cousins, once removed.***

* The ‘Mountbatten’ German family name ‘Battenberg’ had been anglicised in 1917 due to anti-German sentiment during the Great War, the German ‘Berg’ meaning ‘mountain’ or ‘mount’.

** Strictly speaking, the Mountbatten-Windsor name does not apply to those with the style of Royal Highness or the title of Prince or Princess, but in practice they also use it if a surname is needed. It was first used officially in 1973 in the marriage register when Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips.

*** See [Reference].

The queen and Churchill both owned a wide range of animals, including (between them) an elephant, a lion, eight kangaroos and two hippos.

The queen was well known for her love of dogs and horses and had around 30 corgis in her lifetime. She stopped breeding them in later years to avoid tripping over them and so that none were left when she passed away. The last two died in 2018: Willow, the fourteenth-generation descendant of her first dog Susan, and Whisper, adopted after the death of his owner, a gamekeeper on her Sandringham estate. She also owned labradors, cocker spaniels and ‘dorgis’ (dachshund-corgis). She had many horses for racing, shows, polo, eventing, carriage driving and personal riding.

She was given many animals as gifts from around the world, mainly horses and cows. She also received an elephant, two beavers, two pygmy hippos, a crocodile, six kangaroos, two black jaguars, two sloths and an armadillo. The exotic animals were delivered to London Zoo.

As monarch and Seigneur of the Swans, the queen had the right to claim ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open waters, although in practice this only involves an annual swan count (‘swan upping’) on sections of the River Thames, performed by the royal Swan Marker. The monarch can also claim whales, sturgeons, dolphins and porpoises that are caught near shore or landed.

Churchill also owned a wide range of animals, including dogs, cats and horses. He was given various exotic animals, including a lion, leopard, two kangaroos and some black swans. See Piers Brendon’s Churchill’s Bestiary (2018) for a detailed account.

As racehorse owners, Churchill and royalty were sometimes competitors. In May 1951, Princess Elizabeth invited Churchill to lunch at Hurst Park racecourse in Surrey where his horse Colonist II beat King George VI’s Above Board. The King sent a congratulatory telegram to Churchill, to which Churchill replied with deference. He then wrote to the princess to thank her for lunch, adding, ‘I wish indeed that we could both have been victorious – but that would be no foundation for the excitement and liveliness of the Turf.’8

The queen invited Churchill to become a Knight of the Garter in 1953, which he accepted, but he declined her offer of a dukedom in 1955, as required by protocol.

The Order of the Garter was established prior to 1350 by King Edward III, inspired by tales of King Arthur and his chivalrous knights. Membership is limited to the sovereign, a few other members of the UK royal family, 24 living Knight and Lady Companions, and selected foreign royalty. It is one of the highest honours available to the sovereign to bestow on others, granted for public service and conferring the title ‘Sir’ or ‘Lady’ (hence ‘Sir Winston’). The term ‘garter’ in this context is lost in history and may have little connection with its current meaning. The garter that surrounds knights’ and ladies’ heraldic arms is a buckled leather strap.

King George VI offered Churchill the honour in 1945 when he resigned as prime minister after electoral defeat. Churchill declined, reportedly saying, ‘What would I want with the Garter when I’ve just got the boot?’15 However, his outlook changed during his second premiership, inspired by a new queen, and he gladly accepted her offer in 1953.

He promptly commissioned a flag for his seat in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, incorporating Spencer-Churchill heraldry. However, he was informed that the flag had to be made in accordance with established protocol, and an identical one was produced accordingly. The non-protocol flag now hangs in Churchill’s study in Chartwell. The original was presented to his family on his death in 1965.

Churchill’s daughter Mary Soames was made a Lady Companion in 2005 and was given her father’s Garter collar. They are the only non-royal father-daughter members in the history of the order.

On Churchill’s resignation as prime minister in 1955, the queen offered him a dukedom, on the indirect assurance that Churchill would turn it down (dukedoms were by then only for members of the royal family).* There was some nervousness that he might accept at the last minute, taking the title of the Duke of London. However, this would have required a move to the House of Lords, whereas he wanted to remain in the House of Commons. He declined the dukedom, to much relief.

* See The UK honours system.

The Queen granted Churchill a state funeral and made a significant exception to royal protocol by arriving at the service early and leaving late.

After Churchill’s major stroke in 1953, the queen indicated that he should be given a state funeral on his death. State funerals are normally reserved for royalty, with only four others for non-royalty since 1800.* A major plan was instigated called Operation Hope Not, detailing instructions for every aspect of the funeral. Similarly, Operation London Bridge was drawn up for the Queen, Forth Bridge for the Duke of Edinburgh, and Menai Bridge for Charles, Prince of Wales.

Churchill originally wanted to be buried under the croquet lawn at Chartwell but changed this to his family plot at St Martin’s church in Bladon, Oxfordshire. He was fully involved in the funeral planning, including trying to veto General de Gaulle’s attendance at the service. He was persuaded otherwise but stipulated that his coffin should be transported to Bladon via Waterloo, not Paddington (as originally planned), as a reminder to de Gaulle of Napoleon’s defeat in battle.

His coffin lay in state in Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament for four days, viewed by over 320,000 people, with the queue reaching three miles long. His coffin was taken on a naval gun carriage to a service at St Paul’s cathedral, after which it was transported up the River Thames to Waterloo, past cranes dipped in salute. A train with the engine Winston Churchill travelled at 35 miles per hour past thousands of well-wishers to Long Hanborough, from where the coffin was taken two miles by car to the graveside in Bladon.

Despite all the planning, the grave was found to be too narrow for the coffin to face east, a customary direction, but it fitted the other way, so Churchill was buried with head westwards, towards the birthplace of his mother (from New York) and the land of his greatest ally, the USA, of which he had recently been made an honorary citizen (see Kay Halle).

Rigorous royal protocol is that the queen is the last person to arrive at an event and the first to leave. However, at the St Paul’s funeral, she entered before Churchill’s family and left after them, giving them precedence, a rare gesture and one much appreciated by the family.

* Lord Nelson (1806), the Duke of Wellington (1852), William Gladstone (1898) and Lord Roberts (1914).

3. Biographical overview

OccupationRoyalty
CountryUK
CareerPrincess of York (1926-36). The Princess Elizabeth (1936-47). The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh (1947-52). Accession as Queen (6 Feb 1952). Coronation (2 June 1953). Silver Jubilee (25 years, 1977). Golden Jubilee (50 years, 2002). Diamond Jubilee (60 years, 2012).
Born1926, at 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair, London, her maternal grandparents’ house (52 years after Churchill)
FatherAlbert Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1895-1952); son of King George V and Queen Mary, formerly Mary Prinzessin von Teck; name changed to Albert Windsor in 1917; became Duke of York in 1920; King George VI 1937-52
MotherElizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002), Queen Elizabeth; earlier Duchess of York; later Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mother; daughter of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and Nina Cavendish-Bentinck
SiblingsElder of 2 daughters: Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (1926-)Margaret (1930-2002), princess; m. 1960 to Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, photographer, becoming Countess of Snowdon; div. 1978
EducationHome schooling
SpousePhilip (1921-), m. 1947; born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark; 1st Duke of Edinburgh (1947); naval officer; son of Andrew zu Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (name changed to Andrew Mountbatten in 1917) and Alice von Battenberg (name changed to Alice Mountbatten in 1917)
ChildrenCharles (1948-), Prince of Wales, first heir to the throne; first marriage to Lady Diana Spencer, m. 1981, div. 1996; children Prince William, 1st Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, 1st Duke of Sussex; second marriage to Camilla Parker-Bowles née Shand, m. 2005Anne (1950-), Princess Royal; equestrian, charity patron; married Captain Mark Phillips, m. 1973, div. 1992, then Sir Timothy Laurence, m. 1992Andrew (1960-), Prince, 1st Duke of York; businessman; married Sarah Ferguson, m. 1986, div. 1996Edward (1964-), Prince, 1st Earl of Wessex, businessman; married Sophie Rhys-Jones, m. 1999
Died–
Buried–
ChartwellDid not visit, but her mother the Queen Mother did so
Other Club–
NicknameLilibet (family)
Height5’4” (1.63 m)

4. See also

Churchill and UK royalty

Wartime broadcasts

  • Murrow, Ed

5. Further reading

Queen Elizabeth II

  • Bradford, Sarah, Elizabeth: A Biography of Her Majesty the Queen (Penguin, 2002)
  • Dennison, Matthew, The Queen (Head of Zeus, 2021)
  • Erickson, Carolly, Lilibet: An Intimate Portrait of Elizabeth II (St Martin’s, 2007)
  • Paterson, Michael, A Brief History of the Private Life of Elizabeth II (Little, Brown, 2019)
  • Royal Collection Trust, ‘Animals Presented to The Queen’, Royal Collection Trust, 2017.

Queen Elizabeth II and Churchill

Churchill’s funeral

Queen Elizabeth II’s and Churchill’s animals

  • Brendon, Piers, Churchill’s Bestiary: His Life Through Animals (Michael O’Mara, 2018)[9]
  • Royal Collection Trust, ‘Animals Presented to The Queen’, Royal Collection Trust website, 2017

Miscellaneous

  • Dolby, Karen, The Wicked Wit of Queen Elizabeth II (Michael O’Mara, 2015)

6. References

1. Winston S. Churchill and Clementine Churchill, Speaking for Themselves: The Personal Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill, ed. by Mary Soames (Black Swan, 1999), p. 328.

2. Princess Elizabeth, ‘A Speech by the Queen on Her 21st Birthday, 1947’, The Royal Family, 1947.

3. Elizabeth Longford, The Queen: The Life of Elizabeth II (Ballantine Books, 1984), p. 190.

4. Alan Lascelles, King’s Counsellor: Abdication and War: The Diaries of Sir Alan Lascelles, ed. by Duff Hart-Davis (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006), p. 430.

5. Andrew Roberts, ‘The Queen’, The International Churchill Society, 2017.

6. Winston S. Churchill, ‘“For Valour:” King George VI’, The International Churchill Society, 1952.

7. Churchill.

8. Royal Household, ‘The Royal Family Name’, The Royal Household, 2016.

[11]

[12] John Colville, The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries: Volume Two: 1941-April 1955 (Sceptre, 1987), pp. 295–96.

[13] Royal Household.

8. Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Volume 8: Never Despair, 1945–1965 (Random House, 1988), p. 613.

[17] Emma Soames, ‘Emma Soames in The Telegraph: As Churchills We’re Proud to Do Our Duty’, The International Churchill Society, 2012.

[18]

[19]