I don’t know about the dead ones, but he raised live butterflies starting in 1939 and again after Chartwell was opened up after the war. The butterfly “farm” was set up with the help of Hugh Newman, who described the events in Finest Hour 89, Winter 1995-96, starting at page 34; a .pdf can be downloaded from our website: http://bit.ly/wrzqix
Lady Soames is not sure when exactly this hobby ended, but it might have been after an event described by longtime Chartwell secretary and administrator the late Grace Hamblin, at the 1987 Dallas Churchill Conference, reprinted in Finest Hour 117: “...he had a little hut in the garden, which is still there. In those days he had the front covered with gauze, with a gauze door opening into it. A nearby butterfly farm sent him chrysalises which he liked to see develop. One morning, I was with him spreading out the chrysalises, and when he left the little hut he left the door open. I said, ‘Did you want to leave the door open, or should I close it?’ He said, ‘I can’t bear this captivity any longer!’ Thus we no longer kept butterflies, but they are supposed to remain in the garden once you start. It's a lovely occupation. When he knew that Chartwell would eventually go to the National Trust and be open to the public he said, ‘I hope the National Trust will grow plenty of buddleia for my butterflies.’” Grace’s “Chartwell Memories,” one of the finest pieces we have ever published, appeared in the 1987 Proceedings and Finest Hour 117. These are not on our website but I can provide the text by email (contact me offline). A postwar butterfly episode was recorded by former bodyguard the late Ronald Golding in “Guarding Greatness,” Finest Hour 143, Summer 2009: “...he sent for an expert, who bred very beautiful specimens....He took the breeder for a walk round the grounds and gave a general idea of his plans; the expert then gave advice and went into technical details. Mr. Churchill said very little. Rather like a penny dropping in the butterfly man’s mind, you could almost hear him thinking: ‘Ah, I’ve got the old boy. He’s not nearly as clever as I thought. This is one sphere in which I know a lot more than he does.’ “The butterfly man became just the slightest bit patronizing and boom! Mr. Churchill came back at him with very lucid comments showing that he was fully acquainted with everything being said. Visibly shaken, the expert never tried to ‘talk down’ again. It was a pattern of conversation I’d noticed with other experts. I can’t help feeling that WSC pretended ignorance to a certain extent, then came down like a ton of bricks if there was any attempt to patronize him. “A very successful scheme was put in hand and some of the rarest butterflies and moths of the greatest beauty were hatched out. By careful provision of the right flowers and bushes, the butterflies were kept well fed.” In 2009, Chartwell rebuilt the butterfly hut and Nigel Guest of the Churchill Centre, a Chartwell volunteer, reported “a terrific year for butterflies.” For this report and color photos of Churchill’s favorite species see Finest Hour 149, Winter 2009-10 (.pdf available to registered users of our website at http://bit.ly/w7aHTU). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en.
