(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)
While some few of Churchill’s many biographers describe him as rude, even nasty, that’s not how he struck almost everyone who served under him. Political colleagues, members of his private office and others overwhelmingly describe him as a man who could certainly be abrupt and sarcastic, and was prone to temper outbursts.
But he was quick to recover and almost always apologized fully. If you’d done your best but made a mistake, he was very forgiving. And so much of what he said and did was leavened with his puckish sense of humor and quick wit that people who worked with him invariably found it fun as well as demanding.
Let's use the mention of fun to agree: “Enough of this serious stuff; its time we had a little fun.”
In his diary Lord Charles Moran, Churchill’s personal physician, recorded many amusing incidents involving Churchill and his valet, Sawyers.
Do you recall Jeeves, the supremely competent and candid valet to P.G. Woodhouse’s well-intentioned, fun-seeking, and bumbling Bertie Wooster?
Sawyers wasn’t by any stretch as competent as Jeeves, but he was candid as you’re about to see. You’ll also see Churchill’s humor and wit come to the fore.
The following entry from Moran's diary is dated 3 Feb. 1945, and appeared previously in a Nov. 2005 series post.
All morning the P.M. has been losing things.__________________________________________________
"Sawyers, Sawyers, where are my glasses?"
"There, sir," said Sawyers, leaning over his shoulder as he sat, and tapping the P. M.'s pocket.
At last, when the P. M. was getting ready for his afternoon sleep, he cried out irritably: “Sawyers, where is my hot-water bottle?"
"You are sitting on it, sir," replied the faithful Sawyers. "Not a very good idea.”
"It's not an idea, it's a coincidence," said the P. M., enjoying his own choice of words, and without a trace of resentment.
Lord Moran,Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940-1965. (pg. 240)
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