November 29, 2017

In June 1962, Churchill broke his hip during a fall in his bedroom at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo and was transferred to the Middlesex Hospital (he told Montague Browne ‘I want to die in England’ and was flown back in a scrambled RAF jet). He stayed in hospital for two months.

He returned, not to Chartwell, but to 28 Hyde Park Gate where changes had been made to accommodate his diminished mobility. Although he still enjoyed his wine and food, trips out to dine with The Other Club members (the dining club he had founded with Lloyd George and others) at the Savoy were becoming rarer. The ‘old warrior’ was no longer able to battle the onset of old age. His letters to Clementine during their periods apart became fewer and less confident, showing his slow decline. Reluctantly, Churchill finally announced his retirement from politics in 1963. This took effect at the general election the following year.