SPRING 2006 • NUMBER 130 - Winston Churchill

G R E AT C O N T E M P O R A R I E SWinston Churchill andMackenzie KingBY TERRY REARDON1948: “He said, ‘You have built a bridge between theU.S. and the U.K.’ I said, ‘God bless you.’ He cameto my bedside and his eyes filled with tears. Heshook my hands very warmly and affectionately.”NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADAWinston Leonard Spencer Churchill.William Lyon Mackenzie King. While thetwo were certainly very different, therewere many similarities.Both were Sagittarians. Churchill was born on 30November 1874 at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. Kingwas born just seventeen days later in Berlin, Ontario,which was renamed “Kitchener” in 1914.Both had famous ancestors, Winston’s father,Lord Randolph Churchill, became Leader of the House ofCommons and Chancellor of the Exchequer; his 18thcentury forebear was John Churchill, First Duke ofMarlborough. King’s Grandfather, William LyonMackenzie, was the first mayor of Toronto in 1834; he ledthe 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada and went into exilein the United States until amnesty was granted him in1849; in the 18th century two of William LyonMackenzie’s great grandfathers fought with Bonnie PrinceCharlie at the Battle of Culloden.In politics, Churchill strove to follow his father’sfootsteps into Parliament. King first became interested inpolitics at the age of seven, when he heard Canada’s FirstPrime Minister, John A. Macdonald, speak during the1882 election campaign: “Sir John A. was presented withsome flowers by a pretty young lady whom he thankedwith an embrace. I could do nothing but envy him anddecided then that politics had its rewards.”While Churchill’s academic achievements weremodest, King’s were impressive. He entered the Universityof Toronto in 1891 at the age of sixteen and graduatedfour years later with first class honours. He then attendedthe University of Chicago and Harvard on fellowships. In1899 Harvard offered him a year of study abroad and heleft for the London School of Economics and PoliticalScience.In 1900 while still in Europe, King accepted aposition in Ottawa as editor of the Government LabourGazette in Canada’s new Department of Labour and withina few months had advanced to the rank of DeputyMinister of Labour. The job had come about from King’searlier activities against sweated workshops and childlabour. Churchill, as President of the Board of Trade andHome Secretary in 1908-11, brought in many parallelreforms, including a maximum work day for miners, freemedical care for children, and unemployment insurance.King’s conciliatory talents were soon employedand in the next eighteen months he brought to peacefulsettlements eleven out of the fifteen strikes in which hewas asked to intervene. Congruently, Churchill as HomeSecretary worked to resolve strike actions, though he wasmisrepresented for certain of his efforts (see “LeadingChurchill Myths,” FH 128).The first meeting between King and Churchilloccurred in 1900 in Ottawa, during Churchill’s lecturetour of North America. King was less than impressed withChurchill’s drinking champagne in mid-morning. Later,when they met in London in 1908, Churchill said “Ithink I did make a frightful ass of myself on that trip, didn’tI?” King gave him a hard look and said, “Well Mr.Churchill, there were many Canadians who thought so. Iwas one of them.”King’s opinion of Churchill certainly improvedover the eight year period, as shown in an extract from hisdiary:One cannot talk with him without being impressedat the nimbleness of his mind, his quickness of perceptionand his undoubted ability. He seems to havelost a good deal of the egotism, at least as far as hismanner is concerned, though one feels that even yetit is Churchill rather than the movement with >>FINEST HOUR 130 / 24