Randolph Churchill
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Major Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer Churchill, MBE (May 28, 1911 – June 6, 1968) was the son of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine.
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[edit] Early life and family
He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford and became a journalist. In 1931 he shared Edward James' house in London with John Betjeman.
He was married twice; his first marriage, to the well-known socialite The Honourable Pamela Digby, later and better known as Pamela Harriman, produced a son, Winston Churchill, who became a Member of Parliament, and by his second marriage - to June Osborne - he had a daughter, Arabella Churchill. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Preston from 1940 to 1945.
[edit] World War II
During World War II, Churchill served with his father's old regiment, the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, and was attached for a time to the newly formed Special Air Service (SAS), joining their CO, David Stirling, on a number of missions behind enemy lines in the Libyan Desert. He also went on a military/diplomatic mission to Yugoslavia in 1944, part of the British support for the Partisans during that civil war. He and Evelyn Waugh narrowly escaped capture/death when the Germans undertook Operation Rösselsprung, and had paratroops and glider-borne storm troops attack the Partisan headquarters where they were staying. An outcome was a formidable report detailing Tito's persecution of the clergy. It was "buried" by Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden (who also attempted to discredit Waugh) to save diplomatic embarrassment as Tito was then seen as a required ally of Britain and an official "friend".
[edit] Politics
Randolph Churchill's political career (and that of his son) was not as successful as Sir Winston's or his grandfather's (Lord Randolph Churchill). In the 1935 general election he stood as an Independent Conservative, marking a temporary breach with his father's politics. He also stood in a by-election at Ross and Cromarty opposed to the National Government candidacy of Malcolm MacDonald. He was elected unopposed as Member of Parliament for Preston during the war (1940-45) to fill a vacancy, but lost his seat in the 1945 general election. He stood for parliament on many other occasions, and was defeated at each – including losing to future Labour leader Michael Foot at Plymouth Devonport in the 1951 general election.[1]
Randolph was often portrayed as the black sheep of the Churchill family - irascible, bad-tempered, spoiled by his father, and with a serious drinking problem. But he inherited his father's literary flair, and carved out a career for himself as a successful writer. He started the official biography of his father in 1966, but had only finished the second volume by the time of his death in 1968. It was posthumously completed by Sir Martin Gilbert. He wrote an autobiography, Twenty-One Years.
His father declined a peerage, that of Duke of London, at the end of World War II, so as to not compromise his son's chances of a political career[citation needed], since by 1911 it had become traditional for British Prime Ministers to come from the lower house of Parliament (the House of Commons). If Sir Winston Churchill had accepted a peerage (even near death), his son would have automatically been forced to move to the House of Lords on his father's death: Randolph would then have been styled 2nd Duke of London. (In 1963, hereditary peers were allowed to disclaim their titles, although the only peer to do so and become Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home — previously the 14th Earl of Home — served very briefly in that office.)
[edit] Death
Randolph Churchill died of a heart attack in 1968, aged 57. He is buried with his parents and siblings at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
[edit] Works
- What I Said About the Press (1957)
- The Rise and Fall of Sir Anthony Eden (1959)
- Lord Derby: King of Lancashire (1960)
- The Fight for the Tory Leadership (1964)
- Youth, 1874–1900 (1966, Biography of his father)
- Young Statesman, 1901–1914 (1967, Biography of his father)
[edit] Notes
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by Edward Cobb and Adrian Moreing |
Member of Parliament for Preston 2-seat constituency (with Edward Cobb) 1940–1945 |
Succeeded by Samuel Segal and John Sunderland |
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