Queer Places:
Lansworth House, 30 Brunswick Rd, Hove BN3 1DG, UK
Harrow School, 5 High St, Harrow, Harrow on the Hill HA1 3HP
Admiralty House, Whitehall, London SW1A 2AY, UK

Churchill, 67, wearing a suit, standing and holding a chairSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill,[1] KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, Churchill was Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, as leader from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924. Among the roll call of figures that activist Peter Tatchell announced under the heading of ‘famous homosexuals’ are Lord Mountbatten, Florence Nightingale, Lawrence of Arabia, Catherine Cookson, Winston Churchill, and William Shakespeare. Churchill, whom Tatchell includes on the basis that he had a ‘fling’ with Ivor Novello, stands for those who ‘had only one-off gay encounters’.

Privately Ivor Novello would have liasons with actors from the casts of his shows, chorus boys, and any other presentable gentleman who happened to stray into his circle. His 1987 biographer, James Harding, said: Bizarre stories were told about him in London society. Somerset Maugham once remarked in old age to Winston Churchill: `Winston, your mother often indicated that you had affairs in your youth with men.' Not true!' said Churchill. 'But I once went to bed with a man to see what it was like.' Who was it?' Ivor Novello."And what was it like?" Musical', replied Churchill committing a pun, since 'musical' was then the cant word for gay.

Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to a wealthy, aristocratic family. In the volatile year of Wilde’s conviction, the young Winston Churchill was accused, in the weekly review Truth, of having taken part in ‘acts of gross immorality of the Oscar Wilde type’ while at the Sandhurst military academy. Churchill sued, and was awarded damages with an apology.

Churchill joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns. Elected a Conservative MP in 1900, he defected to the Liberals in 1904. In H. H. Asquith's Liberal government, Churchill served as President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary, championing prison reform and workers' social security. As First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War, he oversaw the Gallipoli Campaign but, after it proved a disaster, he was demoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He resigned in November 1915 and joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front for six months. In 1917, he returned to government under David Lloyd George and served successively as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, and Secretary of State for the Colonies, overseeing the Anglo-Irish Treaty and British foreign policy in the Middle East. After two years out of Parliament, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's Conservative government, returning the pound sterling in 1925 to the gold standard at its pre-war parity, a move widely seen as creating deflationary pressure and depressing the UK economy. Out of office during the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in calling for British rearmament to counter the growing threat of militarism in Nazi Germany. At the outbreak of the Second World War he was re-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In May 1940, he became Prime Minister, replacing Neville Chamberlain. Churchill oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against the Axis powers, resulting in victory in 1945. After the Conservatives' defeat in the 1945 general election, he became Leader of the Opposition. Amid the developing Cold War with the Soviet Union, he publicly warned of an "iron curtain" of Soviet influence in Europe and promoted European unity. Re-elected Prime Minister in 1951, his second term was preoccupied with foreign affairs, especially Anglo-American relations and, despite ongoing decolonisation, preservation of the British Empire. Domestically, his government emphasised house-building and developed a nuclear weapon. In declining health, Churchill resigned as Prime Minister in 1955, although he remained an MP until 1964. Upon his death in 1965, he was given a state funeral. Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the UK and Western world, where he is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending Europe's liberal democracy against the spread of fascism. Also praised as a social reformer and writer, among his many awards was the Nobel Prize in Literature. Conversely, he has been criticised for some wartime events, notably the 1945 bombing of Dresden, and for his imperialist views and comments on race.

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