Posted on 12/25/2016 11:49:14 AM PST by SamAdams76
I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home. Whether it be the ties of blood on my mother's side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals, I cannot feel myself a stranger here in the centre and at the summit of the United States. I feel a sense of unity and fraternal association which, added to the kindliness of your welcome, convinces me that I have a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys.
This is a strange Christmas Eve. Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other. Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the land or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field. Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart. Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace.
Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.
And so, in God's mercy, a happy Christmas to you all.
Greatest Man of the 20th Century.
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Such simple and inspiring eloquence is refreshing to the spirit.
Along with George Washington and my father - Churchill is my greatest hero and inspiration .
The greatest man of his age - an agent of God sent to save the world from nazism .
One of the greatest tragedies of world history is he was born British rather than American. As a president pf the Republic he would have been able to shape this world for peace and justice in a way he never couple as the Prime Minister of a declining nation
Sir Winston!
Not sure I agree with you, WashingtonFire, about wishing WSC had been here instead of the head of a declining nation. If he hadn’t been there to rally them, in 1939 and 1940, it would have been dramatically harder for the President of this country to get us into the fight.
But I can certainly agree with you about his greatness.
You make a good point - Britain certainly needed s leader of Churchill’s stature to survive 1940/41 and allow the USA a path into the war .
My thinking is that a man like Churchill was needed to shape the post war world . The men of influence were FDR and Truman who were blind to the threat of Bolshevik Stalin. There wasn’t much Churchill could do, as by 1945 it was clear the USA and USSR were going to be the post war leaders
One of the greatest mistakes for Britain was replacing Churchill with Atlee at the end of WWII. What were they thinking?
Thank you for posting this. He was a remarkable man.
Churchill attended one of the great English schools - Harrow, it was officially established in 1572, but has some claim to a history going back to 1243 and as you'd expect has a lot of traditions. One of its most famous traditions is its school song - it's called 'Forty Years On' and it tells the story of how men from the school may meet in their old age, and while their memories are failing because of that age, they will still remember the camaraderie of their school days, and the most important lessons they learned about life. The song has been 'borrowed' (often with permission) by many traditional schools around the English speaking world, especially in the Commonwealth, but it truly belongs to Harrow. And singing it at that school is taken very seriously - and emotionally.
I won't quote the whole song, but the first verse and the chorus give you the sense of it.
Forty years on, when afar and asunder
Parted are those who are singing today,
When you look back, and forgetfully wonder
What you were like in your work and your play,
Then, it may be, there will often come o’er you,
Glimpses of notes like the catch of a song –
Visions of boyhood shall float them before you,
Echoes of dreamland shall bear them along,
Follow up! Follow up! Follow up
Follow up! Follow up
Till the field ring again and again,
With the tramp of the twenty-two men.
Follow up! Follow up!
To the point - Churchill received many, many honours in his life - but among them was one that his school gave to him. When he was very old, he visited the school - and at the end of the school song which everbody had sung together, the school choir stood forth to sing him a new verse.
Blazoned in honour! For each generation
You kindled courage to stand and to stay;
You led our fathers to fight for the nation,
Called "Follow up" and yourself showed the way.
We who were born in the calm after thunder
Cherish our freedom to think and to do;
If in our turn we forgetfully wonder,
Yet we will remember we owe that to you.
It reportedly moved the old man to open tears.
Incredible. I’ve read several books on Churchill and even now I’m always finding new stories and anecdotes about the Great Man.
Thank you for sharing that my friend
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Thank you very much for posting that.
The English voters wanted a change but they didn’t think that Winston would be thrown out due to their votes. The public wanted what the Labor Party was promising for at the end of the war but wanted Winston to still be PM. Didn’t work out that way.
Here’s a story I heard long ago — don’t know if it’s true, but certainly sounds like Sir Winston.
He was seated next to some grand lady at some lavish banquet and proceeded to lean over and ask her: “Would you sleep with me for a million pounds?”
Whereupon she answered, “Well, I suppose so...”
Whereupon he then said, “How about for three shillings?”
Whereupon she said, “What do you take me for? A common lady of the night?”
Whereupon he said, “Madame, we’ve already established that; now we’re just haggling over price.”
Churchill’s party, the Conservatives, were held responsible for the appeasement policy. Also, after wartime rationing measures socialism didn’t sound too bad to people living in ruins. People don’t always give a rat’s a** about the deep tides of history either.
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