I’m reading a fascinating biography of Winston Churchill’s bodyguard, here’s an excerpt I found particularly amazing!
Churchill’s bad mood changed when he saw a German bomber brought down and became affable; and he did something curious as they were about to return to London. ‘During my years with him, (bodyguard Walter speaking), Winston had always travelled on the nearside of the car, sitting behind me, and he never opened or shut a car door. On this occasion I went ahead of him as he left the guns and opened the nearside door for him. To my surprise, when he reached the offside, he stopped, looked at me, then opened that door, got in and shut it.’ They’d gone only a short distance, ‘as usual driving pretty fast’, when a bomb exploded close by. ‘It lifted all four wheels from the road surface and we ran on two wheels for many yards before rocking back. Our speed probably prevented the car from turning over on its nearside. Winston was not disturbed in the slightest. “It must have been my beef that pulled the car down.”’
Talking to Churchill about the incident back at the Annexe, Walter asked him why he’d got into the car on the side he never did. Churchill told him: ‘I saw you with the door open, but when I reached the other side something seemed to say “stop”, and it appeared to me that I was to get in the other side, which I did.’ Again Churchill’s finger went heavenwards. ‘That mission has to be carried out, Thompson.’
One of the things that keeps coming up in the book is that Winston had a conviction that he’d been chosen by God to lead Britain to victory, and this gave him incredible confidence in leading.
