The Churchill Series – Apr. 24, 2007

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

Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Walter Thompson, Churchill’s principal bodyguard during WW II, gives us this account of Churchill’s immediate reactions to news of the deaths of Mussolini and Hitler

Winston had just arrived at Chequers for the weekend, and as he entered the Great Hall he was informed of Mussolini’s death.

He was elated and with much emphasis he said: “Ah, the bloody beast is dead.”

Three days later he received the mews of Hitler’s death, but on this occasion he went to a window and looked out, remaining there for some time without any remark. …

In view of some doubt existing in people’s minds as to whether or not Hitler was dead, I asked him if he thought Hitler had committed suicide. Quietly he replied:

”That is the way I should have expected him to have died. That is what I should have done under the same circumstances.”

Mussolini was executed by Italian Communist partisans on April 28, 1945. Most historians agree Hitler took his own life on April 30, 1945.

It should always be said: they were two evil men.
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Tom Hickman, Churchill’s Bodyguard: The Authorised Biography of Walter H. Thompson Based on His Complete Memoirs. (Headline Book Publishing) (pg. 232)

My fellow Americans, That “Authorised” above is the British spelling of our “authorized.”

John