MR CHURCHILL’S HATS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26350, 3 January 1947, Page 3

MR CHURCHILL’S HATS

When Mr Churchill celebrated his seventy-second birthday at a party in London miniature replicas of 32 of his former hats were attached to the birthday cake instead of the traditional candles. Each ol the hats represented an outstanding phase of his adventurous life. The cake, which weighed 601 b, was 25in in diameter. Only the Churchill family and a few of their friends attended the party. The hats, which spiralled above the cake, started with the bowler which Mr Churchill wore at school at Brighton. Next was his Harrow straw hat, and beside it rested his Sandhurst cadet cap. Then came his Hussar cap. This was followed by his Boer War ‘‘co-kyolly Bird’s” hat and an oldfashioned top hat bearing the words “With the Liberals.” Among the other hats were his Royal Flying Corps airman’s helmet, the brimless fur cap he wore at Yalta, the large-brimmed one he used at Cairo, and the tin hat of the Battle of Britain period. Mr Churchill's Victory hat dangled above them all at the end of a stick