The Churchill Series – Feb. 8, 2007

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

The post below first appeared on Feb. 20, 2006. I republishing it today because it’s a series favorite; and I have some interesting information regarding it that I’ll add here following the post.

Did you know Churchill disliked whistling? His aides did and made sure not to whistle when he was around.But there was a London newsboy who didn’t know about Churchill’s dislike. What’s more, when he learned of it from Churchill himself, the boy didn’t care.

The incident happened one day as Churchill and his bodyguard, Detective Inspector Walter Thompson, were making the short walk from Parliament to 10 Downing Street. As Thompson tells it:

Approaching …(us) was a boy of about thirteen years of age, hands in pockets, newspapers under his arms, whistling loudly and cheerfully.

When the boy drew near, Winston hunched his shoulders, walked towards the boy and said in a stern voice: “Stop that whistling.”

The boy looked up at the Prime Minister with complete unconcern and answered: “Why should I?”

“Because I don’t like it and it’s a horrible noise,” growled Winston.The boy moved onwards a few steps, then turned round and called out: “Well, you can shut your ears, can’t you?”With that he walked on.

Winston was completely taken aback , and for a moment he looked furious. Then, as he crossed the road, he began to smile and quietly repeated to himself the words “You can shut your ears, can’t you?” and followed it up with a hearty chuckle.

I wonder whether Churchill chuckled because in his mind’s eye he saw something of himself in the boy.
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Tom Hickman, Churchill's Bodyguard. (pgs, 116-117)

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Peter Ackroyd in London: The Biography says that in times past “London’s small children, so that they might learn how to survive in a difficult environment, [were brought up] in a tradition of sharpness and impertinence. When Winston Churchill met a boy outside Downing in Street and asked him to stop whistling, the child replied: “Why should I? You can shut your ears, can’t you? …

The “artful dodger’ is perhaps only a slightly dramatized version of any “street-wise” London child , that imp of the perverse who seems somehow to have inherited all the leveling and egalitarian spirit of the city in his or her own small person." (p. 633)