Churchill and the comforts of war

The 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s death has, predictably, generated many articles including one by a journalist who tried to equal Churchill’s daily intake of booze, cigars, etc only to stagger to unsteady defeat.

On that subject your readers might like to know that, according to Mary S Lovell, author of The Churchills, the young cavalry officer, not yet 25, on his way to the Boer War brought with him “his valet and a huge quantity of luggage including seventy-two cases containing fine French wines, vintage port, vermouth, ten year old Scotch whisky, eau de vie, fruit brandy and Rose’s lime juice”.

As his son Randolph later wrote: “He never believed that war should be needlessly uncomfortable.”