Churchill in 3025

Churchill in 3025

The Oxford Historical Review, 23 March 3025

Looking back at the fragmentary sources which have come down to us after World War III, it is clear that the name Churchill can be seen visible throughout much of the early to mid-twentieth century history.

The naïve perspective which we can see in the records of historians 500 years ago, was to believe that all references to Winston Churchill referred to one man. It is clear that this cannot be the case. Some records place his birth somewhere in the 1870s but there is also evidence of a Winston Churchill who died in the early 21st century. No man can live that long, so it is clear that there is more than one man who bore the same name. Familial use of names is not unknown, indeed there are clear evidences of it throughout history. It was a way of preserving the identity of families through time.

So how many Churchills were there. I think we can identify at least five.

1) the so called "Young Winston", who seemed to have been involved in adventures in South Africa during what we call the Colonial Civil War, between Dutch and English settlers, neither native to the land, who had invaded and subjugated the population. There is even some old cinema footage which although scrappy has been preserved in the archive whose few surviving frames show a young man most unlike the appearance of later Churchills. The documentary film maker from the partial sources seems to have had the name Attenborough, presumably the same Attenborough who we know was responsible for wildlife documentary films.

2) Moving on from those to Great War, we find a Churchill whom the records record as a Lord of the Admiralty, and a Liberal MP. All the other references in sources refer to Churchill as belonging to the Conservative party, not a party which became extinct some time in the last century. This is clearly a clumsy attempt to rewrite history to bolster the reputation by association of Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who singlehandedly destroyed the Liberal party as any kind of political force. Records do place him as part of the war time coalition, but sober historians think the historical record has been amended at a later date to change him from Conservative to Liberal for propaganda purposes.

3) The Churchill of the 1930s is a vocal backbench MP, a fervent supporter of Empire and the Colonial imperative, who is totally opposed to the independence of India and whose rhetoric betrayed the worse kind of political dinosaur, referring to Gandhi as "a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir" Out of touch, this Churchill is at odds with the popular sentiment, always taking on failed projects, such as his support for Edward VIII in the abdication crisis. He is a Churchill who lacks all political judgment and cannot command public support, and spends most of his time painting.

4) The War Time Leader of the 1940s. This Churchill, probably the son of the 1930s Churchill, is quite different. He is a man who captures the public sentiment, who makes bold and charismatic speeches, and builds alliances with the opposition parties, and negotiates for support from the Americans. This Churchill is on the other side of the divide with Royalty, being a fervent supporter of George VI.

5) The Post-War Leader. This is probably the same Churchill as the war time leader, who has retained his hold on the party leadership. It is this Churchill who is according to some sources accorded a State Funeral. However some historians who see the War Time leader as a younger man (the son of the 1930s Churchill) think this is an embellishment to explain how he fell back into the role of a minor MP away from the party leadership. There is film footage but they argue that it was part of a fictional movie . It is clear that some fictional depictions of historical figures in the late 20th century were common, and Churchill as a great war time leader was depicted by a great many actors. As with Jesus movies, which also proliferated, sometimes the film make played fast and loose with history.

6) The Final Churchill. This Churchill appears in the record when he makes very outspoken speeches on issues in the Middle East and on the Communist Bloc. He is the one who dies in the early part of the 21st Century. It can be argued that he could be the same as the War Time leader who coined the phrase "The Iron Curtain" and was clearly also outspoken on the so-called Cold War.

So in summation, what the record may show is the following, with a high degree of probability.

The young Churchill, probably another figure with the name Winston (as the title of the fragmentary documentary does not actually mention the name Churchill) who was associated with the Churchill name, or who could have been an ancestor of the War Time Leader.

The first War Time Leader. A conservative at the heart of the coalition government who seems to have been successful after 1922 when the government fell apart but later retired from politics due to age and infirmity.

The Wilderness Churchill. Probably a cousin and certainly a strange man of no judgement who backed all the wrong causes, and who failed to engage with the public.

The Second War Time Leader. Probably the son of the first, a charismatic individual who went on to lead his party after the war, and then retired to the back benches. Later writers invented the fiction of an early death and a State funeral as they could not imagine a Prime Minister taking their place as a back bencher although there is plenty of evidence from the late 20th and early 21st century that this was commonplace. This man was outspoken from the back benches and died in the early 21st century, by which time, with peace movements rising, he quietly slips from the record without fuss.