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Clementine Ogilvy Hozier Baroness Spencer-Churchill CBE
Female
1 April 1885 – 12 December 1977
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Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire.
Last Changed: August 26, 2013
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Clementine Hozier was the wife of Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), Britain's Prime Minister during WW2. Following the death of her husband in 1965, she was created a life-peer as Baroness Spencer-Churchill of Chartwell.
An account of her life by Brian Harrison can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography at:
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30929
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Last Changed: August 26, 2013
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Chris Sexton
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Clementine Ogilvy Hozier
Bio
Clementine Ogilvy Hozier,
Born April 1, 1885, at London, England.
Died December 12, 1977, at London, England.
A wide selection of sources tells us:
Clementine was a British Noblewoman and the wife of Prime Minister Winston
Churchill. Clementine lived an active life, and she was honored in later life with
a Dame Grand Cross and a Life Peerage in her own right.
Officially, Clementine Hozier was the daughter of Sir Henry Hozier and his wife,
Lady Blanche Hozier, who was a daughter of David Ogilvy, 10th Earl of Airlie.
However, Lady Blanche was infamous for her many affairs. Blanche reportedly
claimed that Clementine’s real father was Capt. William George "Bay"
Middleton, a Horseman and Equerry to Earl Spencer, while others believe that
Sir Henry was totally infertile and that all of her children were actually fathered
by her brother-in-law Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Baron Redesdale.
Clementine’s parents divorced when she was six, in 1891, due in large part to
both of their ongoing and numerous affairs. When she was fourteen, her
mother moved the family to Dieppe, a town off the coast in Northern France.
Their idyllic time there was cut tragically short, though, within a year, when
the eldest daughter, Kitty, fell ill with Typhoid fever. Clementine and her sister
Nellie were sent away to Scotland for their safety, and Kitty died in 1900.
As a girl, Clementine began her education at home under the care of a
Governess, as many girls of her social class did. Afterwards, she attended the
Berkhamsted School for Girls in Hertfordshire, England.
Clementine became secretly engaged—two separate times—to Sir Sidney Peel, a
grandson of Queen Victoria’s famous Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel; Peel was
fifteen years her senior and the relationship never worked out.
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Clementine Ogilvy Hozier
Bio
In 1904, Clementine and Winston Churchill first met at a ball held by mutual
acquaintances, the Earl and Countess of Crewe. It would be another four years
before their paths crossed again, when they were seated next to each other at a
dinner party held by a distant cousin of Clementine’s. They developed a rapport
very quickly and continued seeing each other and corresponding over the next
several months, and by August 1908, they were engaged.
Only one month later, on September 12, 1908, the Churchills were married in
St. Margaret's, Westminster. They took their honeymoon in Baveno, Venice,
and Moravia, then returned home to settle down in London. Within a year, they
welcomed their first child, their daughter Diana. In total, the couple had five
children: Diana, Randolph, Sarah, Marigold, and Mary; all but Marigold
survived to adulthood.
During World War I, Clementine Churchill organized Canteens for Munitions
Workers, working with the Young Men's Christian Association of the North East
Metropolitan Area of London. This assistance to the war effort earned her an
appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in
1918.
In the 1930s, Churchill spent some time traveling without her husband. She
traveled on Baron Moyne’s yacht on an island cruise. Her trip with the Moynes
ended abruptly after an incident in which another guest insulted Winston and
the Moynes failed to smooth things over.
Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940, as World War II was
breaking out. During the war years, Clementine Churchill again took on roles
in Aid Societies, now with a much higher profile as the wife of the Prime
Minister. She was the Chairman of the Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund, the
President of the Young Women's Christian Association War Time Appeal, and
the Chairman of Maternity Hospital for the Wives of Officers.
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Clementine Ogilvy Hozier
Bio
She was honored again for her efforts, and this time, she was not only honored
in her own country. During a tour of Russia at the end of the war, she was
awarded a Soviet honor, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. Back home, in
1946, she was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British
Empire, and her formal Title became Dame Clementine Churchill GBE. Over
the years, she also received several Honorary Degrees from the University of
Glasgow, the University of Bristol, and Oxford.
In 1965, Winston Churchill died at the age of 90, leaving Clementine as a
widow after 56 years of marriage. That year, she was created a Life Peer, with
the Title Baroness Spencer-Churchill, of Chartwell in the County of Kent. She
remained independent from major party affiliations, but ultimately, her
declining health (particularly hearing loss) prevented her from having much of a
presence in Parliament. Her two oldest children both predeceased her: Diana in
1963, and Randolph in 1968.
Clementine’s final years were marred by financial difficulties, and she had to
sell some of her husband’s paintings. On December 12, 1977, Clementine
Churchill died at age 92 after suffering a heart attack. She was buried
alongside her husband and children at St. Martin's Church, Bladon in
Oxfordshire.
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Clementine Ogilvy Hozier
Bio
At British Heritage Deanna O’Conor tells us:
“Behind every great man is a great woman,” or so the saying goes. Former
English Prime Minister Winston Churchill is indisputably one of history’s
greats. But what of the woman behind him? Churchill’s wife, Clementine, or
Clementine Ogilvy Spencer Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, GBE, to
give her full title, is a fascinating character in British history.
Clementine was Churchill’s trusted confidante and his rock during the storm of
World War II. By his own admission, getting through the war years would have
been “impossible without her” and not only for her efforts to preserve his
health. While many historians have glossed over her contribution to history,
Churchill’s own Chief of Staff, General "Pug" Ismay, concluded that without
Clementine the “history of Winston Churchill and of the world would have been
a very different story”.
Her influence over her husband, and by extension the Government, meant she
was involved in some of the most crucial decisions of War. While she would
never contradict her powerful husband in public and on occasion was incensed
by others’ criticism of him in front of her, she was not afraid to take him on
behind closed doors. He affectionately referred to her as “She-whose
commands-must-be-obeyed”. Beyond her own home, she was well-respected for
both her personal charm and her humanitarian work.
Clementine’s background is fascinating. Born to an Aristocratic background,
her father Henry Montague Hozier came from the Landed Gentry and her
mother, Lady Blanche Ogilvy, who became Henry’s second wife, was the eldest
daughter of the 10th Earl of Airlie.
It wasn’t considered to be a great match by Blanche’s family - but as she was
wayward, and at the ripe old age of 26 considered to be getting on a bit, they
consented. It wasn’t long before cracks started to show in the marriage and in
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Clementine Ogilvy Hozier
Bio
particular, Henry was averse to the idea of having children. After five years of
marriage, a child finally arrived, although it is highly unlikely that Henry was
the father of any of Blanche’s children. Contemporary accounts from the time
note of scandals concerning Blanche’s infidelities and rumours about multiple
lovers, including her own brother-in-law, Bertie Mitford, the First Lord
Redesdale, who was married to her younger sister. Eventually, after Hozier
found her with a lover in her bedroom, he turned Blanche out on the street and
sued for divorce in the autumn of 1891.
In her biography of her mother, one of Clementine’s children Mary Soames
writes that, “Many social gossipers at the time, and a body of latter-day opinion,
believe Lord Redesdale to have been Clementine’s father”; indeed, Blanche
herself is said to have told Lady Londonderry just before Clementine’s birth in
1885 that the child she was expecting was "Lord Redesdale’s’.”
If it were true, it would place her among a family of fascinating women -
Bertie’s granddaughters were the famed, glamorous Mitford sisters. However,
Blanche also told Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (author of a book called "Secret
Memoirs") that Bay Middleton (later Earl Spencer) was the father of her two
elder children, born in 1883 and 1885 - and it is thought perhaps Bertie was
only the father of twins Bill and Nellie, born in 1888.
The early years of Clemmie’s life were spent mostly in the family’s home in
Grosvenor Street in London, along with The Netherton, a small house in
Scotland, near Cortachy. After the upheaval of her parents’ separation, Blanche
was left financially badly off, largely dependent on her family for support, and
there were bitter disputes over the arrangements for the children.
At first, the two eldest, Clemmie and Kitty, aged eight and six, were brought to
live with their father, then deposited at the home of a Nanny, and finally sent to
school in Edinburgh, where they were desperately unhappy. It seems this had
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Clementine Ogilvy Hozier
Bio
come to pass without their mother’s knowledge and once she found their
whereabouts went to retrieve them and take them back to live with her between
London and Seaford, a south coast resort.
By 1899, Blanche was struggling financially and afraid that her husband was
about to try and regain custody of the two elder girls. On the spur of the
moment, she moved her brood across the English Channel to the Normandy
Fishing Port of Dieppe. They led a pleasant life there, until it was marred by
tragedy, when Kitty fell ill with typhoid. Clemmie and Nellie were sent to stay
with their aunt in St Andrew’s in Scotland (the other twin, Bill, was already in
boarding school). Kitty died just a month before her 17th birthday, after which
the family returned to England, settling in Hertfordshire.
Attending a local school, Clemmie shone academically, receiving a special
Medal from the French Ambassador for her mastery of the language; she later
attended lectures in the Sorbonne in Paris. After a brief spell in Germany, she
returned to London and gave tutoring in French. She also worked in a cousin’s
Dressmaking Business and learned to make her own clothes - a fact which was
the cause of much derision in snobbish society circles upon her engagement to
Winston, but essential for her to keep up with the demands of Dressing for the
Social Season in the lavish Edwardian era.
Although she had been a shy and sensitive child, often in the shadow of her
beautiful and outgoing older sister, Clementine blossomed during her teenage
years and had no shortage of admirers in London. Her younger sister joked
that they needed to keep a file to keep track of the proposals she had received:
"Discussed", "Answered" and "Pending Decision".
Despite twice becoming secretly engaged to an admirer and great friend, Sidney
Peel, she felt that her esteem and affection for him were not enough to settle for
the marriage. Something greater was awaiting her.
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Clementine Ogilvy Hozier
Bio
Clementine first met Winston at a Ball during the summer season of 1904,
when she was 19. Winston was 30 and already a public personality, with a
career as a Soldier, War correspondent and Author of six books already under
his belt. That year he was also making his mark politically, abandoning the
Conservatives and crossing the Floor of the House to join the Liberal Benches
in defence of Free Trade.
On their first meeting, after being asked to be introduced to the beautiful
young woman who had caught his eye, Winston was overwhelmed and didn’t
make a great impression. Clementine was quickly rescued from the awkward
encounter and went to dance with another suitor.
It was the spring of 1908 when their paths finally crossed again in a more
meaningful manner, seated beside each other at a dinner. After an entrancing
evening of conversation, he made sure it wouldn’t be years before they saw
each other again and asked his mother, Lady Randolph, to invite Clementine
and her mother to spend a weekend in their country house. It was a great
success and by September of that year they were married.
They set up home first in Winston’s bachelor pad at No 12 Bolton Street in
London, before moving to a more substantial family house at No 33 Eccleston
Square in 1909, where they welcomed Diana, the first of their five children, in
July of that year.
Throughout the years of her children’s early lives, and the tragic death of
daughter Marigold aged just three, Clementine’s interest in public events and
politics never wavered. During the First World War, she organised Canteens for
Munitions Workers on behalf of YMCA in London, which earned her the honour
of being appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in
1918. Later, during World War II, she was Chairperson of the Red Cross Aid to
Russia Fund, the President of the Young Women's Christian Association War
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Clementine Ogilvy Hozier
Bio
Time Appeal and the Chairwoman of Maternity Hospital for the Wives of
Officers, Fulmer Chase.
In 1946, Clementine was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the
British Empire, becoming Dame Clementine Churchill GBE. Excluded from
playing an active part in public life because of her gender, in her match with
Winston Churchill, she found an intellectual connection as well as a deep and
enduring love. It is said that Clementine’s charm and astuteness did much to
help smooth over strained relations with World Leaders including Stalin,
Roosevelt and de Gaulle.
Churchill, ever appreciative of his formidable wife, declared that out of all his
life, marrying her had been his most brilliant achievement. “For what,” he
asked, “could be more glorious than to be united with a being incapable of an
ignoble thought?”
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1885 - 1977 (92 years)
