May 9, 2013

WIT AND WISDOM: FINEST HOUR 144, AUTUMN 2009

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Sir Winston’s Breguet pocketwatch, still in perfect working order, will be on display at The Churchill Centre’s dinner honoring David Cameron MP in London on October 20th. Owned by his grandson Winston, it is attached to a heavy gold waistcoat-chain which, at the end, has a small round gold case for holding gold Sovereigns, a “V for Victory” emblem (similar, we believe, to ones he gave members of his wartime cabinet in 1945), a silver head of Napoleon (of whom he was a lifelong admirer), a keepsake medallion of the (Westminster) Abbey Division By-Election of 1924 (which WSC lost by just forty-three votes), a garnet stone set in a gold heart (the gift of Clementine on their wedding day in September 1908) and another golden heart, which Clementine gave Winston on his 90th birthday (after fifty-six years of marriage and seven weeks before his death).

There is no mention of Breguet in the Churchill canon, but several references to “pocket watch” and to “The Turnip,” which was his and the family’s nickname for the timepiece:

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Sarah Churchill, A Thread in the Tapestry, 38:

One day at lunch when coffee and brandy were being served my father decided to have a slight “go” at Prof[essor Lindemann, his scientific adviser], who had just completed a treatise on the Quantum Theory. “Prof,” he said, “tell us in words of one syllable and in no longer than five minutes what is the Quantum Theory.” My father then placed his large gold watch, known as “The Turnip,” on the table. When you consider that Prof must have spent many years working on this subject, it was quite a tall order, however without any hesitation, like quicksilver, he explained the principle and held us all spell-bound. When he had finished we all burst into applause. Over the years I made a special effort to ask those who had known my father well to tell me about Lindemann. They all told the same story of closest friendship. WSC’s nephew Johnny told me when we talked in London: “He swore by Lindemann.”

Christopher Long, “Chartwell Memories,” Finest Hour 126, 33:

I spent the entire afternoon in the drawing room, clambering all over an accommodating old man in an armchair who seemed designed for the purpose. Though very ancient, he had several unusual attractions to recommend him, which included an interesting gold watch on a chain strung across his stomach and a cigar which needed to be cut with a cigar-cutter. Indeed, at my insistence, it needed to be re-cut quite frequently. [This watch was known to the family as “The Turnip.” —Mary Soames.]

William Manchester, The Last Lion, vol. 2, Alone 1932-1940, 12:

Even at Chartwell his dilatoriness is a source of distress for both his family and the manor’s staff. Once a manservant conspired against him by setting his bedroom clock ahead. It worked for a while, because he scorned that offspring of trench warfare the wristwatch, remaining loyal to his large gold pocket watch, known to the family as “The Turnip,” which lay beyond his grasp. After his suspicions had been aroused, however, the game was up; he exposed it by simply asking morning visitors the time of day.

Roy Howells, Simply Churchill (Churchill’s Last Years), 20-21:

We tried all kinds of ruses to get him out of bed in time and one of them was putting forward every clock in his bedroom. We tried this too often however and eventually he became wise to it. I spotted him one day checking the bedroom clocks against his pocketwatch. In an attempt to beat this manoeuvre I countered by putting his pocket-watch on [ahead] ten minutes when he was not looking. Still he was suspicious. He used to win in the end by asking someone entering the room, no matter how many clocks he had around him, “Uh-huh, what time is it?” The person naturally told the truth and we were back where we started.

Edmund Murray, Churchill’s Bodyguard, 85

…I looked at my watch. “It’s one o’clock, sir,” I said, “time for lunch.” With great deliberation he pulled out his pocket watch and consulted it. “No,” he said at last. “It’s only five to one. Why do you wish to rob me of five minutes of my life?” “Sorry sir. My watch must be fast…but lunch is at one.”