Mary Soames - Clementine Churchill

Mary Soames (19222014) was the youngest child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. She was brought up at Chartwell in Kent and, aged eighteen, joined the ATS and served in mixed anti-aircraft batteries in England and Europe. She accompanied her father as his ADC on several of his wartime overseas journeys. In 1945 she was awarded the MBE (military). In 1947, she married Captain Christopher Soames, Coldstream Guards, later Lord Soames, PC, GCMG, CH. In 1998 she edited the private correspondence between her parents, Speaking for Themselves, completely revised and updated the celebrated biography of her mother, Clementine Churchill, in 2002 and completed her own autobiography, A Daughters Tale, in 2011.

This book is dedicated to my children

NICHOLAS EMMA JEREMY

CHARLOTTE RUPERT

1979

and to my grandchildren,

who at the latest count are

HARRY ISABELLA CHRISTOPHER

EMILY

GEMMA FLORA ARCHIE

CLEMENTINE ANTONIA

ARTHUR DAISY JACK

2002

Blanche, Countess of Airlie, Clementines grandmother

Lady Blanche Hozier, Clementines mother, 1884

Sir Henry Hozier, Lady Blanches husband

1st Baron Redesdale (Bertie Mitford) (Hulton Archive)

Bay Middleton (Vanity Fair, 1883, by permission of the British Library)

Clementine with Mlle Elise, c. 188890

Clementine and Kitty with Sir Henry, 1888

Kitty and Clementine

Lady Blanche Hozier, 1893

Kitty on her deathbed, March 1900

Clementine in 1901

Clementine in 1905

51 Abingdon Villas (Hulton Archive/Keystone Press)

Crewe House, London, in the early 1900s (reproduced by courtesy of Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe)

Horatia Seymour

Clementine as bridesmaid to Sylvia Henley, April 1906

Winston and Clementine at time of engagement (taken by Mrs F. E. Smith, August 1908)

The bridegroom arriving at St Margarets, Westminster

The bride arriving at St Margarets, Westminster

The wedding gown (drawn for the Daily Graphic, 1908)

Clementine leaving her wedding reception (Barratts Photo Press Ltd)

Goonie and Jack Churchill, 1908 (reproduced by kind permission of the late Peregrine Spencer-Churchill)

Nellie Hozier in 1914

Lady Randolph Churchill, c. 1915

9th Duke of Marlborough (Sunny)

Clementine with Diana, 1909 (reproduced by permission of the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge)

Clementine with Diana at Seaford, 1911 (Broadwater Collection, Churchill College, Cambridge)

Nanny Higgs wheeling Randolph, 1913/14 (Press Association)

Sarah

Winston and Clementine, 1913

The Prime Minister, Winston and Clementine at a labour exchange, 1910

Margot Asquith, 1911 (Hulton Archive)

H. H. Asquith and David Lloyd George, 1916 (Bonham Carter Family Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford/The Hon. Virginia Brand)

Violet Bonham Carter, 1915 (Bonham Carter Family Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford/The Hon. Virginia Brand)

Clementine playing golf, 1913 (Hulton Archive)

Venetia Stanley, Clementines cousin, c. 1914 (courtesy of Mrs Anna Mathias on behalf of Milton Gendel)

Clementine playing tennis, 1918 (Hulton Archive)

Bill Hozier, Lieutenant R.N., 1914 (Romilly Papers, Hereford Record Office)

Nellie Hozier in nurses uniform, 1914 (Baroness Spencer-Churchill Papers, Churchill College, CambridgeChurchill College)

Clementine opening a canteen, August 1915 (Daily Mail)

Hoe Farm, near Godalming

Nellies wedding to Bertram Romilly, 4 December 1915 (Daily Graphic)

Winston and Sir Archibald Sinclair, Bt., at the Front, 1916 (Hulton Archive/Keystone)

Lloyd George with Clementine at the opening of a canteen, Ponders End, February 1916

Lullenden in the early 1920s (The Country Life Picture Library)

Marigold, summer 1921

Clementine with Mary, 1922

Sarah, Randolph and the Romilly boys, c. 1923

Chartwell manor, 1922

Chartwell in the late 1920s (National Trust)

The dining room at Chartwell (National Trust)

Bricklaying at Chartwell, late 1920s

Lady Blanche, 1922 (Romilly Papers, Hereford Record Office)

2nd Duke of Westminster (Bendor) (Broadwater Collection)

Clementine with the Duke of Marlborough, 1930 (reproduced by courtesy of Hugo Vickers)

Winston with Mrs F. E. Smith at Blenheim Palace, 1923 (reproduced by courtesy of Hugo Vickers)

Winston and 1st Earl of Birkenhead (F. E. Smith), 1929 (Daily Herald)

Churchill family tour of Canada and the United States, 1929 (Broadwater Collection)

Epping, General Election 1924

Budget Day, April 1925 (Daily Mirror)

Winston and Clementine campaigning in Epping in the 1930s (Baroness Spencer-Churchill Papers, Churchill College, CambridgeChurchill College)

Charlie Chaplin visits Chartwell, 1931 (Hulton Archive)

Sarah in the 1930s

Duncan Sandys and Diana on their wedding day, 16 September 1935

Vic Oliver, c. 1936

Clementine and Diana at Follow the Sun, February 1936 (Hulton Archive/Keystone)

Desmond Morton (reproduced by courtesy of Mrs G. W. Parker)

The Prof, later 1st Viscount Cherwell (Hulton Archive)

M. Lon Blum with Winston and Clementine at Chartwell, May 1939

Brendan Bracken (Popperfoto)

M.Y. Rosaura (Churchill Archives Centre, Spencer-Churchill Papers, ref. CSCT 05/10/A. Churchill College, CambridgeChurchill College)

Lady Broughton and Lord Moyne (Churchill Archives Centre, Spencer-Churchill Papers, ref. CSCT 05/10/A. Churchill College, CambridgeChurchill College)

Swimming pool on M.Y. Rosaura (Churchill Archives Centre, Spencer-Churchill Papers, ref. CSCT 05/10/A. Churchill College, CambridgeChurchill College)

Komodo dragon at London Zoo, c. 1935 (reproduced by courtesy of Peregrine Spencer-ChurchillChurchill College, Cambridge)

Terence Philip with Clementine, Madras, 1935 (Baroness Spencer-Churchill Papers, Churchill College, CambridgeChurchill College)

Clementine bowling for the Lyons Girls, September 1936 (The Illustrated London News)

Clementine at St Moritz, 1937

Clementine out hunting, spring 1939

Clementine at No. 10 Downing Street, 1940 (Cecil Beaton/Camera Press)

Clementine launching HMS Indomitable, painted by Winston c. 1954 (reproduced by kind permission of Mrs Minnie Churchill and Churchill Heritage Ltd: photo George Rainbird Ltd)

The drawing room at No. 10 Annexe, 194045 (Baroness Spencer-Churchill Papers, Churchill College, CambridgeChurchill College)

Clementines bedroom in the No. 10 Annexe (Baroness Spencer-Churchill Papers, Churchill College, CambridgeChurchill College)

Randolph with his parents, Downing Street, October 1940 (United Press International