January 1, 1970

Churchill was not a religious man. While a young man in India, he had read Darwin’s Origins of Species, that challenge to orthodox religion, and William Winwood Reade’s Martyrdom of Man, a classic of Victorian atheism, reinforced his lack of faith in orthodox Christianity. He was inclined to dismiss religion as a form of superstition. But he retained quasi-religious faith in the workings of Providence – and the fulfilment of his personal destiny.

Quote: ‘I [do] not believe in another world; only in black velvet – eternal sleep.’ (Churchill, 2 July 1953, as cited in Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran)