In 2004, BBC News reported that Winston Churchill’s parrot was still alive and squawking in Surrey. “Charlie” was believed to have been born in 1899 and if its age had been confirmed he would have been then (at the ripe age of 104) the oldest parrot on record. “Charlie” was bought by Churchill in 1937 and by that time he had already outlived two owners. Its Surrey owner had bought him in 1965. The British Prime Minister taught the macaw to swear obscenities against Hitler and the Nazis and if, the story is true, “Charlie” still did this in the Surrey Garden Centre in 2004.
Black Dog
A perhaps little known side of the politician who led Britain to victory was his fondness for animals. He has been mostly associated with bulldogs (as in “bulldog spirit”) and he used to call his bouts of depression his “Black Dog”. But Winston Churchill surrounded himself with pets, mostly cats and dogs, as well with some of the more exotic species of the animal kingdom.
An online perusal of the Churchill Papers stored in the Churchill Archive Centre in Cambridge reveals a young Winston who would write home sending his love to all family pets by name and who at age 17 would sell his bicycle to buy “Dodo”, the bulldog. The Churchill Papers are expected to go online in 2012 making one million items available to a global audience. These will include material on Churchill’s pet menagerie: the sheep and pigs he kept at Chartwell, his cat Nelson, his poodles Rufus I and Rufus II and his budgie Toby.
Domestic Animals, Exotic Pets
Various pets are referred to in the files descriptions, such as a dog named “Peas” and another named “Pink Poo”. There is also “Tango” the cat and a racing pony named “Lily”. The latter was bought for Winston despite his mother’s objections (Lady Randolph Churchill was against racing) by Duchess Lily (Lady William Beresford). In 1896 Churchill is reported to entering horses in races wearing chocolate and pink colours. During the same year his cherished butterfly collection was destroyed by a rat.
Correspondence in the Churchill Papers from 1958 to 1964 catalogues a series of “pets” that have been given to Churchill over the years: black swans, kangaroos, a platypus, tropical fish, a waterfowl and a lion, named “Rota”.
The Marmalade Cat
References to Churchill’s fondness of cats can be found in Churchill biographies, accounts of his life and in published collections of his personal correspondence. In his well-documented article “Churchill’s Feline Menagerie”, Fred Glueckstein relates Churchill’s fondness of cats: of Mickey and Tango that lived in Chartwell; of famous cat, Nelson, which would accompany Churchill at Chequers and of the Munich Mouser feline which lived in 10 Downing Street. For his 88th birthday, Sir John Colville gave Sir Winston a ginger cat, named Jock, of whom the ailing politician was very fond of. After the PM’s death, Churchill’s family asked that a marmalade cat will always be resident at Chartwell. And so it is.
Lito Apostolakou
See also Churchill’s Dream