Winston and Clemmie Churchill have taken a small Norfolk cottage for the summer. Clemmie, the children and their nanny have been there for almost a month, while Winston comes up from London by train most weekends. On this occasion, he came ashore from HMS Enchantress on Friday, leaving the Admiralty yacht anchored at sea, much to the fascination of locals and holidaymakers alike.
Unlike many grander holiday retreats in the area, Pear Tree Cottage is a modest abode. It has three bedrooms and a bunk room and is hidden down a narrow lane a few yards from the small cliffs that fall down to the North Sea. Overstrand and nearby Cromer have become very fashionable holiday destinations since the old Prince of Wales stayed here in the 1890s. As a consequence, several of London’s well-to-do have built large seaside villas along the coastal road.
Winston’s younger brother, Jack, and his family have taken Beehive, a similar cottage nearby. The cottages bring back fond memories for the Churchill brothers as the area was a favourite resort of their mother’s when they were small. Despite the six years between them, Jack and Winston have been close since childhood. They served together in South Africa, where Jack was badly wounded and was mentioned in dispatches. They have also shared the many stigmas attached to their family, especially the rumours that their father, Lord Randolph, died of syphilis and that their mother, the New York-born beauty Jennie Jerome, later Lady Randolph Churchill, has had many lovers, including the old king, Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales.
Lady Randolph is only recently divorced from her second husband, George Cornwallis-West, an officer in the Scots Guards who is the same age as Winston and who is renowned for his charm and virility. She remains one of London’s most glamorous women and is still notorious, even at the age of sixty.
With both Winston and Jack at Overstrand for the weekend, sandcastles on the beach are the order of the day. Like Winston, Jack holds a commission in the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars as a reservist and has the same passion for all things military. As Winston did before him, Jack spent many happy hours playing with the family’s unique collection of tin soldiers at their ancestral home, Blenheim Palace. With the image of their ancestor the Duke of Marlborough at the moment of his great victory in the Battle of Blenheim in 1704 staring down at them from the huge tapestries above, the boys would dream of victories past and glories to come.
A wide stretch of Overstrand’s golden sands has taken on the appearance of a battlefield. As usual, Winston is playing the role of Marlborough, in command of the armies of Britain and the Holy Roman Empire, while Jack is Marshal Tallard, commander of the Franco-Bavarians.
‘Puppy, try to manoeuvre Chumbolly so that he refrains from sitting on our artillery!’
‘Puppy’ is the family name for Winston’s daughter, Diana, who will soon celebrate her fifth birthday. She has been told of the crucial importance of Marlborough’s artillery at the Battle of Blenheim by her father since before she could walk. So she tries earnestly to persuade ‘Chumbolly’ – her younger brother, Randolph – not to sit on the square of sand that represents Captain Blood’s artillery battery. Unfortunately, Chumbolly is only just three and not yet familiar with Churchill family lore, so is oblivious to all attempts to clear his rump from a crucial sector of the battlefield.
Jack, nobly playing the role of the soon-to-be-vanquished Tallard, only has his son, Peregrine, ‘Pebbin’, on his side. But Pebbin is only a year old, so Jack’s wife, Lady Gwendoline, ‘Goonie’, has been enlisted to carve out the lines of the French and Bavarian infantry. Winston, who has a pet name for everybody, calls Jack and Goonie’s family the ‘Jagoons’.
Clemmie smiles to herself as Winston barks out his orders.
‘Now, Puppy! Push on with the infantry!’
Winston has borrowed one of Chumbolly’s clockwork trains for a squadron of British infantry. But as Puppy pushes it through the sand towards the French line, the little Chumbolly bursts into tears and crawls after it, destroying the entire British left flank and bringing an entirely novel ending to the legendary Battle of Blenheim. Goonie summons the nannies to gather up the children, all of whom are now crying, while Jack goes off for a quick swim.
Winston and Clemmie are left sitting on the sand. Winston is suddenly quiet.
‘What’s the matter, Pug?’
‘Oh, nothing, darling.’
‘Come on, I know when something is troubling you.’
‘It’s just a shiver from the past. Watching dearest Jack in the sea; it reminds me of an unfortunate experience we had years ago.’
‘In South Africa?’
‘No, in the lake at Ouchy, in Lausanne, when we were boys. I nearly killed us both, and it was my own stupid fault.’
Clemmie recognizes the sudden change of mood she has seen many times before. Winston looks at her like a little boy lost.
‘We were sailing on the lake. It was a beautiful day, not a breath of wind. We decided to go for a swim, so I lowered the sail and in we went. We’d been in the water for about ten minutes, diving down to see how far we could go, when the wind suddenly got up and opened enough of the sail to get the little boat moving. I told Jack to stay where he was and started to swim towards to it, but every time I got close, the wind pushed the confounded thing away. I don’t think Jack knows to this day how perilous our position was; we were a long way from the shore and I was getting very tired. Suddenly, I saw Death as near as I think I have ever seen him.’
‘Oh, Pig, how terrible! Why did you never tell me?’
‘I’ve never told anyone. I made one last attempt and just managed to grab the side. It was my last ounce of strength; after that “Two Little English Boys Drowned in Lac Léman” would have been the next day’s headlines in the Swiss newspapers.’
‘Darling, don’t get yourself upset. It was a long time ago.’
‘I know, and we’ve both cheated Death several times before and since. But I fear for Jack if this thing in the Balkans flares up.’
Clemmie knows that the political situation in Europe has been worrying her husband for days and causing his increasingly sombre mood. She knows enough of the background through listening to Winston and is aware that the murder in the Balkans of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, has created a dangerous crisis.
‘The assassination?’
‘Yes, there have already been riots in Vienna. It seems that the royal carriage had almost no protection and that the Serbian military was behind the plot. I fear this is only the beginning. Like the high tide, which will come later today, forces are in play that we may not be able to stop.’
‘Come on, Pig, enough of depressing subjects! Goonie and the nannies are doing all the work with the kittens; we must help with tea.’
‘Puss, do you mind if I go for a stroll along the beach? I need some air. Jack will help with tea.’
‘I think so, darling; he’s been sniffing around lately. The Unionists are getting me down, and now those lunatics have murdered the Archduke. I need to clear my head.’
‘Don’t let Mr Black Dog come too close; fight him off, be a brave soldier.’
‘I will, Puss, I always do. But be patient with me.’
Winston’s bouts of depression are often intense and can be prolonged. Clemmie has suggested all kinds of remedies – from pills and potions to German psychiatrists – but her husband is proud and stubborn. He bumbles along in his own way until he eventually shakes off his dark moods.
That night, the two Churchill families leave the children in the care of a local nanny and are guests of Sir Edgar and Lady Leonora Speyer at their nearby home, Sea Marge. Speyer is a wealthy Jewish banker and a very good host. He normally enjoys Winston’s wit and stories, but on this occasion very little of either is forthcoming.
The evening drags until, unwittingly, Speyer hits a raw nerve by asking Winston’s brother, Jack, a simple question.
‘So will you go back to the Hussars if the balloon goes up?’
Winston’s face reddens.
‘No, Jack bloody won’t! I want him behind a desk if, as you put it, the “balloon goes up”. There will be carnage on an unimaginable scale. It won’t be cavalry and sabres; it will be machine guns and six-inch howitzers!’
Clemmie manages to change the subject and, thoughtfully, Speyer pours Winston another drink.
‘I’m sorry, Winston, you’re down here for a weekend’s rest, not to talk about war.’
Winston smiles thinly at his host, but says very little throughout the rest of the dinner.
Nor does he say much at breakfast the next morning or, indeed, for the rest of the weekend before he is rowed out to Enchantress to resume his duties on Monday morning.
A few days later, Clemmie receives a letter from her huband.
Darling Cat,
I felt so forlorn as you and the kittens slowly faded from view when I left on Monday. I know I behaved atrociously at dinner on Saturday, please convey to the Speyers my heartfelt apologies – good people, they don’t deserve an ogre like me at their dinner table. Hope the Jagoons didn’t take anything to heart, I was only thinking of Jack.
I’m feeling much better – now immersed in all the shenanigans before the Ireland Conference, which begins next week. It will be a brawl, but at least it’s made Mr Black Dog slink back into his corner.
Missing you, darling one; kisses for the kittens. Hope to get to Pear Tree on the 24th or 25th.
Your ever loving,
Pug