Clementine Churchill

Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill (née Hozier), was born on April 1, 1885, and died on December 12, 1977. She was the wife of Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and held a life peerage in her own right.

Her parentage is a subject of historical uncertainty. Although legally recorded as the daughter of Sir Henry Hozier and Lady Blanche Ogilvy, her mother’s known infidelity and possible heritable infertility cast doubt on her paternity. Lady Blanche was known for extramarital affairs, and after Sir Henry Hozier discovered his wife with a lover in 1891, the couple separated. Biographer Joan Hardwick suggested that the children attributed to Sir Henry and Lady Blanche might have been fathered by Lady Blanche’s sister’s husband, Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale, although other theories include Bay Middleton as a possible father. Despite the ambiguity, official records list Sir Henry Hozier and Lady Blanche as her parents.

In 1899, at age 14, Clementine’s family moved to Dieppe, France, where they engaged with the expatriate community, including military personnel, writers, and artists such as Aubrey Beardsley and Walter Sickert. During this period, her elder sister Kitty contracted typhoid fever and later died in March 1900.

Clementine was educated at home, briefly at the Karl Fröbel-run school in Edinburgh, and later at Berkhamsted School for Girls in Hertfordshire. She also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. During her adolescence, she was secretly engaged twice to Sir Sidney Peel, who was enamored of her when she was 18.

She first met Winston Churchill in 1904 at Crewe Hall. The couple became reacquainted in March 1908 at a dinner party hosted by Lady St Helier. After several months of social interaction and correspondence, Winston Churchill proposed to her on August 11, 1908, at Blenheim Palace. The marriage took place on September 12, 1908, at St Margaret's, Westminster. Their honeymoon included visits to Baveno, Venice, and Veveří Castle in Moravia. They established their residence at 33 Eccleston Square in London.

Clementine and Winston Churchill had five children: Diana (born 1909), Randolph (1911), Sarah (1914), Marigold (1918), and Mary (1922). Marigold died at age two from sepsis, and Diana, Sarah, and Randolph died in their 50s or 60s, with only Mary living beyond her parents’ lifespan.

During the First World War, Clementine contributed by organizing canteens for munitions workers through the YMCA in London’s North East Metropolitan Area, for which she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1918. She also traveled in 1922 to campaign for her husband's political career during his incapacitation. In the 1930s, she undertook travels aboard Lord Moyne's yacht, the Rosaura, to various islands in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Some sources suggest she may have had an affair with art dealer Terence Philip during this period, though no conclusive evidence supports this claim.

Throughout her husband's political career, Clementine served as a confidante and editor of Winston Churchill's speeches, as well as managing diplomatic arrangements. She was involved in social interactions with other political spouses, and once withdrew from a social event after being insulted amid a pro-appeasement broadcast critique of Winston Churchill.

In the Second World War, Clementine served as Chairman of the Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund, President of the Young Women's Christian Association War Time Appeal, and Chairman of the Maternity Hospital for the Wives of Officers at Fulmer Chase. During a visit to Russia near the war’s end, she received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. She was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1946 and received honorary degrees from the University of Glasgow, Oxford, and Bristol.

Winston Churchill died on January 24, 1965, at age 90. Subsequently, Clementine was created a life peer as Baroness Spencer-Churchill, of Chartwell, in May 1965, and sat as a cross-bencher in the House of Lords. Due to increasing deafness, she limited her parliamentary participation in her later years. Financial difficulties arose later in her life, prompting the sale of several of her late husband's portraits in 1977. She died at her London residence, 7 Princes Gate, of a heart attack, at age 92.

She was interred with her husband and children at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Her legacy includes the Clementine Churchill Hospital in Harrow, Middlesex, and memorial plaques at her former residences. Her life has been portrayed in various adaptations, including television, film, and stage productions.