CHURCHILL IN SEPTEMBER

The response to our Churchill in August post was so… responsive, that we now bring you, by acclamation, Churchill in September, a look at what Winston Churchill accomplished in the month of September over the long course of his career (a good deal of it involving Chartwell, as it happens).

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MARRIAGE

On September 12, 1908, Winston Churchill married Clementine Hozier at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey — the parish church of the House of Commons. Their union would last fifty-seven years, to the end of Churchill’s life, enduring as the foundation of his existence through all the political storms to come.

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CHARTWELL

On September 20, 1922, five days after the birth of his daughter, Mary, Winston Churchill formally made an offer on Chartwell — the property in Kent he had been fancying — without informing Clementine. On September 24, 1922, the offer was accepted. Chartwell would become Churchill’s refuge, his beloved sanctuary, but Clementine never quite forgave him for it.

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BRICKLAYING

At Chartwell, Winston Churchill discovered bricklaying, a diversion he found almost as nurturing as painting. He became so good at it that, in September 1928, he was invited to join the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers. And did.

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CHARLIE CHAPLIN

In September 1931, Charlie Chaplin spent a weekend at Chartwell as Winston Churchill’s houseguest, entertaining the family with spot-on impressions of film stars, arguing politics with Churchill (who had always found Chaplin “a little Bolshie”), and even taking a bricklaying lesson from the resident master.

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FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY

On September 3, 1939, two days after Germany invaded Poland, Neville Chamberlain announced to the nation that Britain and Germany were at war. Within hours, Chamberlain grudgingly invited Winston Churchill to be a part of his administration, offering him his old job as First Lord of the Admiralty. By early afternoon a message had been signaled from the Admiralty to the Fleet: “Winston is Back.”