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1 results

  • 17 - The Influence of Clementine Churchill

  • Edited by Allen Packwood, Churchill College, Cambridge
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to Winston Churchill
    Published online:
    19 January 2023
    Print publication:
    26 January 2023, pp 342-361

  • Summary

    The chapter looks at Clementine Churchill’s often neglected position as her husband’s closest advisor and greatest influence. It begins by recounting the attributes she brought to the role, including championing the role of women in wartime and offering personal ‘protection’ to Winston at times of great stress, such as the eve of the D-Day landings. Her role as a British ‘First Lady’ is explored; attending key wartime conferences, editing and rehearsing Churchill’s speeches, and managing high-level international diplomacy with de Gaulle, Roosevelt and Stalin. However, her most important role was in managing Winston, monitoring her husband’s behaviour and restraining him when the need arose. It was a role that absorbed almost all of her energy and time, leaving her little of either for herself or her family.