Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

Getting There:
Churchill’s Wartime Journeys
In a time when the world leaders, and their spouses, fly jumbo jets stuffed with
aides and staffers, we recall how an embattled Prime Minister traveled to more vital
meetings rather less elaborately: an epic tale of determination for a man his age.
C H R I S T O P H E R H. S T E R L I N G
A turn at the helm of the Boeing flying boat Berwick, headed home after visiting Washington and Ottawa, January 1942.
least on paper, particularly fit. Aged 65 at the outset of his
premiership, working long hours and abhorring exercise, he
seemed ill-equipped for stressful travel. Indeed he became
seriously ill on one trip, and had health problems on others.
He persevered despite the inconvenience and danger. We
now know that Churchill was rarely in danger of German
attack, but the tension of flying or sailing made planning
for his trips complex and nerve wracking for his staff. 3
On the plus side, Churchill was a seasoned traveler
well before taking up residence at Downing Street. He had
sailed on many passenger liners, 4 had briefly learned to fly
and often flown as a passenger after 1918, 5 and regularly
took Imperial Airways flights to the Continent during the
1930s. As First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911-15 and >>
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