January 1, 1970

She campaigned with Churchill, too – and sometimes on his behalf. In Dundee in 1922, when Churchill was out of action, having had his appendix removed,, Clementine, with baby Mary at her side, found herself fighting the election on his behalf – and being spat on for wearing pearls at one particular event. Churchill only appeared in the last few days of the campaign, carried around in a chair. Despite her best efforts, they lost – and he found himself ‘without an office, without a seat, without a party and without an appendix’.

Again, when Churchill was weak and elderly (he was eighty four), she toured Woodford, his Essex constituency, in the General Election of 1959 and Clementine did the larger share of the campaigning; Churchill retained his seat. It was the fifteenth campaign they fought together – and was to be their last.