(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)
Churchill’s principal bodyguard for many years, Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Walter Thompson, offers this revealing anecdote in Beside the Bulldog: The Intimate Memoirs of Churchill’s Bodyguard:
A housemaid once burnt out the element of an electric kettle, belonging to my wife, while we were at Chartwell.
Mrs. Hill, the principal private secretary, put in a claim against the insurance company for the damage. In due course a cheque arrived in settlement.
When my wife took the cheque to Mr. Churchill to be endorsed, he looked at it carefully and then said, “I don’t see that the insurance company is liable for this. Your kettle is not covered by my policy. That cheque must go back.”
He then drew an equivalent cheque on his own, personal account and handed it to her. He was quite prepared to ensure that she should not be the loser, but he was equally determined that nothing was to be obtained from the insurance company to which he was not legally and morally entitled.(pg. 124)
1 comments:
John,
A story I would like to see,but recall only hazily is WSC taking his nurse/nanny/babysitter? asm an honored guest to his swanky prep school .Can you expand on it? Best wishes,Corwin
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