Andrew Liddle asks us to look anew at Winston Churchill’s relationship with Scotland.

One hundred and ten years after Lieutenant Colonel Winston Churchill MP commanded a Scottish infantry battalion near Ypres in 1916, writer and political consultant Andrew Liddle travelled from London back to his old ‘stomping ground’ in Edinburgh to highlight Churchill’s relationship with Scotland during the era of the Great War. Some Branch members found to their surprise that his Scottish connections were much more extensive than first thought. 

Andrew reminded us that Churchill served as a Member of Parliament for Dundee from 1908 – 1922. The city elected him to Westminster on five occasions, often with thumping majorities. Indeed, in a Scotland then dominated by the Liberal party, Churchill regarded his Dundee constituency as almost a ‘seat for life’. Electoral support in the city was the foundation on which his ambitions for high political office where built. When his career faltered after the Dardanelles, he sought redemption serving on the Western Front with the 6^th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers. Scotland also gave Churchill the personal stability that he sought through his marriage in 1908 to Clementine Hozier. Clemmie proved to be not only a loving partner, but an astute political spouse with family connections around Tayside through the Earl of Airlie at Kirriemuir.

During the 1922 General Election, however, disaster suddenly struck. The unexpected confluence of temporary poor health, a damaging split in the Liberal party, civil war in Ireland, and a new appetite for radical politics in Dundee, would see Churchill unexpectedly dumped out of office. It proved to be a deep personal blow. This setback, though, and Churchill's time in Scotland, was soon consigned to a mere footnote in history. It would take Andrew’s book Cheers, Mr Churchill! Winston in Scotland, republished in 2024 as Churchill – The Scottish Years, before the gap in the historical record could begin to be filled.

Andrew proved to be a very popular speaker with Branch members, as evidenced by the large number of book sales after his talk (!) - and he got our Autumn season off to a splendid start. We sincerely thank him for his investment of time in our Branch and wish him continued success.   

(Images: Rosie Steed).