Winston Churchill is perhaps the most significant British politician/ persona of the 20th century. Born into the aristocratic Spencer family Churchill from the start was set for greatness. Churchill attended Harrow school and then the royal military school at Sand Hurst. He was a decorated officer in the British army and saw active service in India and the Sudan. In 1900 Churchill became the Conservative MP for the seat of Oldham. In 1904 Churchill switched allegiances and became a Liberal MP. Between 1906-1908 Churchill was MP for Manchester Northwest, which he lost in a by-election.
This brings us to my point of interest; soon after losing his seat in Manchester Churchill was duly elected MP for Dundee on the 9th May 1908. This is a fact that I was unaware of until in passing noticed a plaque, which had been dedicated to this fact by his daughter, The Lady Soames to celebrate the centenary of his election in 2008.
Upon further investigation and research into Churchill’s time in Dundee I discovered that The Queens hotel On Perth road had been his Election HQ and his temporary constituent residency. During his 1908 election campaign a famous story tells that Churchill wrote to his wife informing her that “This hotel is a great trial to me, yesterday I had half eaten a kipper when a huge maggot crept out and flashed his teeth at me!”
Churchill was eventually ousted as Dundee’s MP in 1922 by prohibitionist Edward Scyrmegeour due to the formers support by the city’s publishing mogul David Coupar Thomson.
As we all known from history Churchill was duly re-elected to parliament in 1924 becoming prime minister on the 10th May 1940. To me and to many locals this is a little known fact that the most influential figure of the 20th century built his fledgling political career from this modest city of Dundee.
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