Looming over any discussion of politics and drinking is the figure of Winston Spencer Churchill. Not only did he lead his nation to victory over the teetotal Adolf Hitler in the greatest war in history, but he did so while consuming magnificent amounts of whisky, champagne, and brandy. He is our standard-bearer and testament that, contrary to the credo of our present nanny state, a fondness for a strong drink or three is not a sign of moral turpitude.
Churchill bestrides Ben Wright’s Order, Order!: The Rise and Fall of Political Drinking like a colossus: carving up Europe at Yalta over martinis with fdr and vodka with Stalin, describing Prohibition as an “affront to the whole history of mankind,” and, quite unexpectedly, trying to ban barmaids from pubs—it was once thought a woman’s presence encouraged over-indulgence and under-productivity amongst the working classes. A whisky and soda was always close to hand while Churchill worked, but it was at mealtimes that the serious drinking took place. Churchill’s secretary Jock Colville recorded a typical wartime dinner in his diaries in September 1944: “oysters, consommé, turbot, roast Turkey, ice with cantaloupe melon, Stilton cheese and a great variety of fruit, petit fours etc, the whole washed down by champagne (Mumm 1929) and a very remarkable Liebfraumilch, followed by some 1870 brandy.”
Do not imagine it was the pressures of office that drove Churchill to dash for the drinks tray. Shipping out as a reporter to cover the Boer War
