Did Winston Churchill have a brother who was airbrushed out of his life?
Winston's little-known younger brother, Jack, has proved to be the key to appreciating the truth about several mysterious aspects of the astonishing tale of the Spencer-Churchills. The myths that grew up around them were not, it seems, only peddled by envious detractors or credulous gossips.Jack, the father of Peregrine and born six years after his more famous brother, has largely been forgotten but he is vital to understanding this complicated family. His low profile is partly due to Winston himself. Much of the writing about his childhood draws upon his autobiography, My Early Life. This hugely readable and amusing story, published in 1930, was how he wanted the world to see him, but it needs to be read with a critical eye.
In one extraordinary passage Winston describes how, on a holiday in Switzerland, he and ''another boy" climbed out of their boat to swim in a lake. The boat then started to drift away, leaving both in danger of drowning. Through great exertion, Winston managed to secure the boat and rescue the ''other boy". According to Peregrine, Jack was that other boy; but why would Winston not make this clear?
Some people believe it to be one of several examples of Winston ''airbrushing" Jack out of the story. Yet there is no question that the brothers loved each other dearly. The evidence is there in the letters they exchanged throughout their lives. This is despite the fact that Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill's letters to Winston show that as he turned into a rather naughty and underachieving schoolboy, his exasperated parents frequently held Jack up as an ideal role model. The younger brother was consistently successful and well-behaved at school.
In fact, if anyone should be criticised for abuse to the children(His father is said to have hated kids, and was a very neglectful father )it is their mother Jennie (née Jerome), an exuberant American socialite who effectively robbed her sons of some £16,800 of income that was rightfully theirs – the equivalent of about £850,000 today.
Lord Randolph had made his will in 1883, leaving his estate in a trust fund for the benefit of his wife while she lived, and for his two sons and their children after her death. But he also inserted a clause that said if Jennie were to marry again, "his sons or their children should have access to the trust fund in order to help his or her advancement in the world".
For years Winston and Jack were led to believe that their father had left no provision for them in his will, except that they would inherit a small trust fund after the death of their mother. Jack wanted a career in the Army but was forced to work in a City firm for financial reasons, and even had to delay his marriage to the beautiful Lady Gwendeline Bertie because he didn't have the money to marry.
It was only in February 1914 that the truth was discovered. struggling with his mother's chaotic finances as she divorced her second husband, George Cornwallis-West, Jack took the opportunity to read his father's will in detail. He was surprised to find that he and Winston could have received up to £600 a year each (around £30,000 today) from the trust fund since Jennie's second marriage in 1900.
In one extraordinary passage Winston describes how, on a holiday in Switzerland, he and ''another boy" climbed out of their boat to swim in a lake. The boat then started to drift away, leaving both in danger of drowning. Through great exertion, Winston managed to secure the boat and rescue the ''other boy". According to Peregrine, Jack was that other boy; but why would Winston not make this clear?
Some people believe it to be one of several examples of Winston ''airbrushing" Jack out of the story. Yet there is no question that the brothers loved each other dearly. The evidence is there in the letters they exchanged throughout their lives. This is despite the fact that Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill's letters to Winston show that as he turned into a rather naughty and underachieving schoolboy, his exasperated parents frequently held Jack up as an ideal role model. The younger brother was consistently successful and well-behaved at school.
In fact, if anyone should be criticised for abuse to the children(His father is said to have hated kids, and was a very neglectful father )it is their mother Jennie (née Jerome), an exuberant American socialite who effectively robbed her sons of some £16,800 of income that was rightfully theirs – the equivalent of about £850,000 today.
Lord Randolph had made his will in 1883, leaving his estate in a trust fund for the benefit of his wife while she lived, and for his two sons and their children after her death. But he also inserted a clause that said if Jennie were to marry again, "his sons or their children should have access to the trust fund in order to help his or her advancement in the world".
For years Winston and Jack were led to believe that their father had left no provision for them in his will, except that they would inherit a small trust fund after the death of their mother. Jack wanted a career in the Army but was forced to work in a City firm for financial reasons, and even had to delay his marriage to the beautiful Lady Gwendeline Bertie because he didn't have the money to marry.
It was only in February 1914 that the truth was discovered. struggling with his mother's chaotic finances as she divorced her second husband, George Cornwallis-West, Jack took the opportunity to read his father's will in detail. He was surprised to find that he and Winston could have received up to £600 a year each (around £30,000 today) from the trust fund since Jennie's second marriage in 1900.