Blenheim Palace

Sir Winston Churchill

West of the Great Hall lies the suite of apartments once allotted to Marlborough's domestic chaplain, Dean Jones, whose caricature Laguerre painted in the Saloon. In one of these rooms, on 30th November 1874, Sir Winston Churchill was born. At Blenheim, he declared, I took two very important decisions: to be born and to marry [for he proposed in the Temple of Diana]. I am happily content with the decisions I took on b oth those occasions.

When Sir Winston was asked whether just before his birth, his mother, Lady Randolph, was attending a ball in the Long Library or was out with a shooting-party in the park, he replied, Although present on that occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up to it.

We can look back now on the pattern of Sir Winston's life, wrote the late Duke of Marlborough, and see or think we see a pleasing inevitability. His birth at Blenheim, his proposal of marriage here beside the lake, his burial at Bladon - these things form a mosaic which seems almost too neat to be true. Yet it was only by chance that he happened to be born in the house built for the man - John 1st Duke of Marlborough - whom he so much admired.

Sir Winston had a strong sense of family. If he did not worship his ancestors he came near it in his protagonism of Marlborough and of his own father, Lord Randolph Churchill. His affection was strong for his family and for his friends, of whom my fathe r was one. When I was a boy he visited us often at Blenheim. My father also invited Sir Winston's brother and Lord Birkenhead and they livened things up with wild games of "French and English" in the hall.

Beyond question Blenheim made for Sir Winst on the ideal background, and I don't mean only for his paintings. At times, for example when he was researching for his life of Marlborough, it must have given him Great inspiration. But although he was heir to the dukedom before I was born, I doubt if he hankered after the place much itself. Much as he cared for Blenheim, it would not have appeled to him to go down in history as its owner. He had other and better ideas. ( Weekend Telegraph, 9th September 1966)

Vanbrugh's north-south line of axis fo r Blenheim passes through the Column of Victory, the Great Hall, the Saloon and the tower of Bladon Church, which may be seen from the Saloon and beside which tower Sir Winston is buried. Thus physically and symbolically are linked the places of his birth and burial.

By choosing to be buried beside his parents in a village churchyard, Sir Winston made Bladon a place of pilgrimage for ever. The remains of his dearly loved wife, Clementine, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, DBE, who died on 12th December 19 77, now lie there peacefully beside him, as they would both have wished.

In the Churchill Exhibition, near the birth room, can be seen Oscar Nemon's bronze of Sir Winston and Lady Churchill, and Sir Winston's painting of the Great Hall at Blenheim. Before he had finished that painting, the 10th Duchess expressed her admiration. 'Do you like it, Mary?' he said, 'Then you shall have it for Blenheim.' The exhibits vary from Churchill's lively letters to a piece of shrapnel which, in the 1914-18 war, fe ll between himself and his cousin, the 9th Duke of Marlborough and, as the inscription testifies, might easily have ended their lifelong friendship.

On the right of the wide corridor as you leave Sir Winston's birth room hangs Closterman's large pai nting of the their four daughters (Henrietta, Anne, Elizabeth and Mary) and their son, the 1st Marquis of Blandford, who died of smallpox at the age of seventeen. After Marlborough's death in 1722, his eldest daughter, Henrietta, became Duchess in her own right; and when she died in 1733, the dukedom passed to Charles, son of Anne, Countess of Sunderland (wearing red in this picture); while his younger brother, John, was to be the ancestor of the Earls Spencer.

In the China Cabinet, outside the Green Drawing Room, are displays of Meissen (Dresden) and Sevres porcelain. The Meissen, with sliced-lemon handles to the tureens, was presented to the 3rd Duke by the King of Poland in exchange for a pack of staghounds.