#14957, Clementine HOZIER

Clementine Churchill was the daughter of David Ogilvy, 10th Earl of Airlie.

Jack Fishman, a journalist recalls the Blitz days of 1940 when he first began to take notice of a hitherto unreported wife of an already famous Prime Minister who was always there but usually one pace behind him.  Through the years he collected notes, observations and anecdotes from people who met her and those who worked with her.  To persuade her to write her own story, or to write a book about her had been his anbition since those early days.  At first she was intrigued with the idea of writing her autobiography but in the end decided to leave writing in her family to her husband and to her son Randolph.  

Finally, he decided to write his tribute to her, 'My Darling Clementine, The Story of Lady Churchill' (1963) based on his now extensive file. He writes of a unique marriage of a woman married to the world's most unique man - a woman who could have basked in her own limelight, but chose to walk in his shadow.  Clementine Churchill has played a bigger part in history than most realize.  She has the right conception od woman's power.  She knows that companionship and understanding are the strength and foundation of true marriage.  She knows too, that a woman's real influence is behind the scenes, and that this is equally true in the world of diplomacy and politics.

The wife of any man eminent in public affairs, must, of necessity, be a somewhat shadowy figure, ever present, but never too much in the foreground.  That the ability to submerge her own vivid personality is one of Clementine Churchill's special talents is shown by the thousands of newsreels and press photographs taken of her husband throughout their married life.  Whatever her personal achievements - and they have been many - she has contrived to remain, first and foremost, Winston Churchill's wife.  She has never tried to be anything else.  To make her marriage a success she has had to ne armed with infinite patience, for she has had to live with a husband who at one moment can be a raging lion, at another a lively fox terrier, and again a brooding teddy-bear.