Posted on 06/01/2014 3:24:33 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
A truly remarkable woman: SIR Winston Churchill's last surviving child, Lady Soames, has died.
Mary Soames, who was 91, died peacefully at home yesterday evening surrounded by her family, after a short illness.
She was the youngest of the five children of the wartime prime minister and his wife Clementine.
One of her sons, Nicholas Soames, who is also Tory MP for Mid Sussex, said: "She was a truly remarkable and extraordinary woman, who led a very distinguished life."
Her death has been described as having "extraordinary timing", as Britain prepares to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the Normandy landings on Friday.
Mary Churchill accompanied her father as aide-de-camp on several of his overseas journeys, including his post-VE trip to Potsdam, where he met with US president Harry S Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
She worked for the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service which she served in London, Belgium and Germany in mixed anti-aircraft batteries, rising to the rank of Junior Commander - the equivalent to captain.
She married the Conservative politician Christopher Soames, who became Baron Soames, in 1947 and they had five children - Nicholas, Emma, Jeremy, Charlotte and Rupert.
Lady Soames served many public organisations, including the International Churchill Society, Church Army, Churchill Houses, the Royal National Theatre and the National Benevolent Fund for the Aged.
She was made a dame commander of the Order of the British Empire for her public service, particularly in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and was appointed a lady companion of the Order of the Garter in 2005.
(Excerpt) Read more at express.co.uk ...
...and, of course, England sent him packing immediately after the war. That’s gratitude for ya.
Never forget, WSC was 50% American by birth.
libertarian, my eye, if he was still around you wouldn’t find him coming down on the side of the atheists, queers, hippies, and every other ungodly abomination, like our modern libertarians are so prone to do.
Mary Soames looks like a chip off the old block. She’s got a real bulldog look about her. A great conservative lady, God bless her.
As First Lord of the Admiralty in WWI he was a driving force in the development of the “tank” (so named as a subterfuge to conceal its true purpose) He was let go by the PM as Lloyd George took over from Asquith. Churchill then enlisted and went to the continent and fought in the trenches.
Rest in peace.
Churchill was a driving force in both world wars, a patriot he was, but no libertarian.
He was elected again as PM in the 50s;
I think she looks like Barbara Bush.
Wasn’t he born in the powder room at a ball, or reception, at Marlborough?
Truly a lady. Rest in peace.
I believe that’s a legend. He was born in a bedroom at Blenheim Palace, the seat of his relatives the Dukes of Marlborough, two months early.
Though since this was 7 months after the wedding, it is reasonable to assume a lot of people were counting on their fingers and giggling.
>>I was the youngest of 5 and everyone always called me. “the baby”. When I was young it used to irritate me.<<
I was on the phone with my baby brother.
He turns 50 next year.
I wasn’t old until he pointed that out.
But he is still my baby brother...
Mary was a 9th cousin twice removed.
If you have Philbrook of Philbrick ancestry (among many others, you are probably related to Winston and his descendants as well.
I’d forgotten the name of the Palace, even though I have visited there. I was told the story of the untimely birth by our guide while standing in the (legendary?) room.
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