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The Truth

Sir Winston never 'owned' a macaw or a cockatoo but according to his daughter The Lady Soames, he did 'own' an African Grey Parrot during the mid to late 1930's. It is also stated that he kept a green budgie in his later life.

The sulphur crested cockatoo with Sir Winston on the cover of this book 'Chasing Churchill' - The Travels of Winston Churchill, was in fact a resident at 'Parrot Jungle', Miami, Florida, USA.

Picture left: cover of 'Chasing Churchill'

From the letters column of 'Finest Hour' #117, Winter 2002-03, courtesy of:The Churchill Centre (www.winstonchurchill.org)

'Untrue'

Some weeks ago several of our glorious tabloids carried the story of the Macaw parrot (FH 116:6).

I exploded and did nothing! However, now that this mendacious paragraph appears in a respectable publication I would really like to put the record straight. My father never owned a Macaw in the 1930s or at any other time as far as I am aware.

He did own an African Grey Parrot in the mid to late Thirties. I do not know how he acquired it‹it may well be as stated in the offending piece. I cannot remember the parrot's name; it was quite disagreeable and frequently bit those who tried to curry favour with it (including WSC).

The parrot lived in a large cage in the dining room at Chartwell. The bird did not spend the war at my father's side; when the family removed from Chartwell to London in September/October 1939 I have the impression the parrot had a good home found for it. I would be glad if Finest Hour would correct this tiresome though trivial inaccuracy.

THE LADY SOAMES, DBE, LONDON

With thanks to The Churchill Centre.

So now you know the truth as written by Sir WInston Churchill's daughter.

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Read about Sir Winston Churchill:

Chasing Chuchill is an an anecdotal history of Winston Churchill's foreign journeys for journalistic, political or holiday purposes, both in war and peace (as told by his granddaughter Celia Sandys).

With all his other remarkable achievements, it is easy to overlook the fact that throughout his long life Winston Churchill was an indefatigable foreign traveller. As a young man, his thirst for fame and adventure took him to Cuba, the North-West Frontier, the Sudan and South Africa. He experienced battle at close quarters, was taken prisoner, and made a daring escape which brought him worldwide fame at the age of twenty-five. As Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and then as First Lord of the Admiralty he became perhaps the best-travelled British politician of his time, his unquenchable energy exhausting a succession of aides.

Even during the Second World War, when he held his nation's destiny in his hands, there was little diminution in Churchill's foreign travel, as he made uncomfortable and hazardous journeys for face to face meetings with allies such as Roosevelt and Stalin, or to witness at first hand the progress of the conflict.

An unmissable read.