SPRING 2006 • NUMBER 130 - Winston Churchill

R I D D L E S , M Y S T E R I E S , E N I G M A SWe published “Churchill andA: Music,” by Jill Kendall in FinestHour 96, Autumn 1997; unfortunatelythis is not posted on our website. TheChurchill Centre office in DC wouldbe glad to provide a copy.Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony isconnected to Churchill by the openingbars, the Morse letter “V,” which wereoften whistled or hummed by Resistancefighters in occupied Europe; butclassic music was probably not his topchoice. He preferred the music hallsongs of his Victorian youth; virtuallyall of Gilbert & Sullivan; and in laterlife the songs of Harrow, his old school.He also liked martial music and historicalballads. “John Brown’s Body” was afavorite, and he loved “The BattleHymn of the Republic,” which wasplayed at his funeral. Miss Kendallwrote that WSC was “no musician andnearly tone-deaf,” but believed (toparaphrase one of his remarks) that“the simple songs were best, and theold songs were best of all.”Q:Musical NotesQ: I am interested in locating Churchill’s favourite music. I wasnot able successfully to obtain it from The Churchill Centrewebsite. Was it the classics, such as Beethoven (the Napoleonconnection) or Mozart? These would seem to be quite significant.—Andrew MorrisbyMy father remembers that atChurchill’s funeral (which he followedon Italian TV) there was a marvellousbagpipe funeral march. May youtell us the name of this march and thename of the piper who played it?After the Cathedral service, theA: gun carriage went in processionto the Tower of London, from wherethe coffin was transported by river. Asthe transfer to the boat was made,sixty pipers of the Scots Guards, IrishGuards, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers,Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) andKing’s Own Scottish Borderers playedslow marches and laments. These were“My Home,” “The Mist-CoveredMountains,” “The Flowers of theForest,” and “Lochaber No More.”—PHCChurchill is misquoted as saying,Q: with reference to the Nazis vs. theSoviets. “We slaughtered the wrong pig.”That’s revisionist wishful thinking. Hecould never have said that since there isno such idiom in English. He wouldhave had to say, “We fought the wrongenemy.” See Herbert Kuhner, A Revivalof Revisionism In Austria, websitehttp://xrl.us/ihyg. Can you reveal someauthentic information as to the origin ofthis misquotation?—Dr. Wolfgang M. Schleidt,Wolfgang.Schleidt@univie.ac.atWe searched our research databasebut have not found eitherA:“we slaughtered the wrong pig” or “wefought the wrong enemy.” However,“slaughtered the wrong pig” is a possibleChurchill expression, since heoften used animal analogies. Yet, sincehe was very favorably disposed to pigs,he might not have compared his enemiesto them. (He said, “Dogs look upto you, cats look down on you; giveme a pig! He looks you in the eye andtreats you as an equal.”)Churchill never had any doubt,from the rise of Hitler to 1945, thatthe Nazis not the Bolsheviks were themain enemy. He did begin to think,once the war seemed won, that theyhad conquered one mortal foe, only tobe faced by another.In a famous private remarkrecorded by his private secretary, JohnColville, on 23 February 1945 in hismemoirs, Fringes of Power (New York:Norton, 1986, pp. 203-04). Colvillewrote as follows:FINEST HOUR 130 / 12Send your questionsto the editor“...we sat in theGreat Hall and listenedto The Mikadoplayed,much too slowly, onthe gramophone. The P.M. said itbrought back ‘the Victorian era, eightyyears which will rank in our island historywith the Antonine age.’ Now,however, ‘the shadows of victory’ wereupon us.In 1940 the issue was clear and hecould see distinctly what was to bedone. But when [Air Marshal] Harrishad finished his destruction ofGermany, ‘What will lie between thewhite snows of Russia and the whitecliffs of Dover?’ Perhaps, however, theRussians would not want to sweep onto the Atlantic, or something mightstop them, as the accident of GhenghisKhan’s death had stopped the horsedarchers of the Mongols, who retiredand never came back.“Bert Harris: ‘You mean now theywill come back?’“W.S.C.: ‘Who can say? They maynot want to. But there is an unspokenfear in many people’s hearts.’” ,CONFERENCECALENDARContact the Centre on all events:(888) WSC-1874, info@winstonchurchill.org2006Chicago, 27 September-1 October:23rd Intl. Churchill Conference2007Vancouver, B.C., September 12-15th:24th Intl. Churchill ConferenceFuture Conferences2008: New England2009: Great Britain2010: San Francisco2011: Ottawa2012: Europe