'Darling Clemmie' dead

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 8

'Darling Clemmie' dead

NZPA-Reuter London | Baroness Spencer-Church-1 ill, the unwavering wife of Sir Winston Churchill; through their 56-year marriage. has died after a heart! attack. She was 92, and she had lived quietly in an apartment in Prince’s Gate, off; Hyde Park, since the State funeral of Britain’s wartime Prime Minister in 1965. Lady Spencer-Churchill: had to sell heirlooms to boost a dwindling investment income, and this year her financial plight caused public demands that she be given a State pension when she sent six paintings for sale, including two by Sir Winston. They fetched $NZ155,000. In a rare statement praised for its dignity, Lady Spencer-Churchill said she would deplore the idea of a State pension. Her grandson, Mr Winston Churchill, said a private

funeral would be held this week and a memorial service early next year. “Today she had been look-; ing forward to a drive >n Hyde Park with her secretary after lunch,” he said. Baroness Spencer-Church- ! ill was a tall, ash-blond, 23- ! vear-old socialite when she ! married the young membei of Parliament, Winston Churchill in 1908. During his turbulent career of more than half a century “darling Clemmie,” I as he called her, was never far from his side. She knew how to calm his stormy temper and comfort him in his frequent periods of depression. She would sit critically while Churchill rehearsed the great orations for which he was so admired. Churchill’s own tribute was written in his autobiography: “I married and lived happily ever afterwards ... my marriage

was the most fortunate and joyous event which hap-; ipened to me in the whole of; I my life.” Clementine’s presence was! most valuable to Churchill; during his years in the political wilderness and in the i World War Two years of ! leadership, when he rallied I Britain in its fight for survival. When bombs began to fall i on London, Lady Spencer- | Churchill told a friend: “I i have made up my mind to ignore this completely.” In World War Two she raised £BM for her Red Cross aid-to-Russia fund. She went to Moscow in 1945. She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, and Stalin gave her a gold-and-diamond ring, later stolen in a burglary at her grandson’s home. Lady Spencer-Churchill came to be seen as the perfect consort of a great man — inconspicuous yet a

dependable support and an accomplished hostess. Asked once how she looked after Churchill, she said: “First and foremost you must feed him well.”