The Churchill Series - Mar. 6, 2006

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

In the 1929 stock market crash, Churchill suffered financial losses so great he was dependent for a while on loans from friends. To repay them and support himself and his family, he undertook a series of financially lucrative, but physically arduous, lecture tours.

During the winter of 1932, Churchill lectured throughout the United States. Phyllis Moir, his secretary at the time, was one of those who accompanied him. She tells us something of what it was like:

"It means revising speeches in taxicabs and dressing out of suitcases. It means always being the social lion for the lion hunters, however tired and out-of-sorts one may feel. It means eating caterer’s meals. It means living by a train schedule. (And that could mean boarding an overnight sleeper shortly after midnight; and then at 6 AM having to get off at a cold, deserted station in the city where you were to deliver a noontime lecture. - JinC)
...
(All this) Mr. Churchill accepted almost cheerfully.
...
(H)e never made the same speech twice. After each engagement he would think of a number of improvements and would set to work the next morning on the text of his address. He polished and re-polished his speeches endlessly so that they seemed to grow considerably in scope and depth."

What Moir describes is remarkable under any circumstances, but especially so given that, shortly after the tour began Churchill, then 57, was hit and seriously injured by an auto in New York. He was hospitalized for 8 days and confined to bed for another 3 weeks.