History of Dundee - Important Dundonians - Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Between 1908 and 1922, one of the city's MP was Winston Churchill, at that time a member of the (Coalition) Liberal Party. He had won the seat at a by-election on May 8, 1908 and was initially popular, especially as he was the President of the Board of Trade and, later, senior Cabinet minister. However, his frequent absence from Dundee on cabinet business, combined with the local bitterness and disillusionment that was caused by the Great War strained this relationship. In the build up to the 1922 general election, even the local newspapers contained vitriolic rhetoric with regards to his political status in the city. At a one meeting he was only able to speak for 40 minutes when he was barracked by a section of the audience. Prevented from campaigning in the final days of his reelection campaign by appendicitis, his wife Clementine was even spat on for wearing pearls. Churchill was ousted by the Scottish Prohibitionist Edwin Scrymgeour - Scrymgeour's sixth election attempt - and indeed came only fourth in the poll. Churchill would later write that he left Dundee "short of an appendix, seat and party". In 1943 he was offered Freedom of the City — by 16 votes to 15 — but refused to accept. On being asked by the Council to expand on his reasons, he simply wrote: "I have nothing to add to the reply which has already been sent".