![]() ![]() Here he is seen riding after his famous exploit of escaping from a Boer prison camp.Ĭhurchill's parents were keen equestrians and he was born prematurely after his mother had a rough ride in a pony trap. Horses Churchill rode horses during his military career and then owned and bred racehorses in his old age. When he became Prime Minister again, he had five tanks of tropical fish installed at Chequers. Churchill admired these fish too and enjoyed feeding them personally. As these were tropical fish, Churchill arranged for them to be sent to Chartwell where a suitable aquarium was set up for them. Īfter the war, a small boy brought some black mollies to his London address as a birthday gift. When Harrods closed their livestock department during the Second World War, Churchill agreed to give refuge to their stock of fish at Chartwell. Otters devastated this school in 1945, leaving just one, but he restocked them and, in the 1950s, hand-feeding his "darlings" was still a passionate ritual. In 1938, the round pond was stocked with a thousand golden orfe which he often fed personally with maggots, even when he was Prime Minister during the Second World War. The cat Jock is buried next to them.įish The main pond where Churchill would meditate and feed his golden orfe The fish in 2023Ĭhurchill kept goldfish in his ponds at Chartwell. There is nothing like it." īoth Rufus and Rufus II were buried at Chartwell, on the top terrace, side by side. Churchill took to him too and wrote, "No one should not know the companionship of a dog. This Rufus was unhealthy but recovered and lived until 1962. But after a period of mourning, a similar poodle was found for him and this was also named Rufus. When Rufus was killed by a motor car in 1947, Churchill was upset. But Rufus was denied access to the Cabinet Room, "No, Rufus, I haven't found it necessary to ask you to join the wartime Cabinet." Rufus was a close companion and accompanied Churchill on his wartime adventures such as sailing the Atlantic to meet the US President, Franklin Roosevelt. ![]() But, for most of his life, he supposed that dogs did not like him until, during the Second World War, he acquired a brown poodle called Rufus. Dogs Churchill in the Punch cartoon, "Dogg'd" – an early example of such caricatures, when he was First Lord of the Admiralty The graves of Rufus II, Rufus and Jock (L–R) at ChartwellĪ popular image for Churchill was the British bulldog and his first dog was a bulldog called Dodo which he sold his bicycle to buy when he was a pupil at Harrow School. This tradition has continued and Jock VII became the current holder of this position in 2020. When he died and Chartwell was donated to the National Trust, the family asked that a marmalade cat with white bib and socks called Jock should always be maintained there. This cat became a favourite in his final years. This was a ginger cat with white markings that he called Jock too. In later life, he was given a cat by Jock Colville for his 88th birthday. He then took the cat with him to 10 Downing Street when he became prime minister, where it also chased Chamberlain's cat, the Munich Mouser. Churchill named him Nelson after the great admiral after seeing the cat chase a large dog away. But Churchill's most famous wartime cat was Nelson who was initially a mouser at the Admiralty when Churchill was First Lord. Tango was there in the 1930s and 1940s and appears in anecdotes about those years. At Chartwell, these included a tabby, Mickey, and Tango which was the orange hue called marmalade. He then owned and bred prize-winning racehorses, starting with Colonist II in 1949.Ĭhurchill had many cats in his life, both at Chartwell and in government service. He was an equestrian for much of his life, from riding the pony Rob Roy at the age of seven, leading lancers in Britain's last cavalry charge at the Battle of Omdurman, to playing polo in his fifties and riding to hounds in his seventies. He also kept a large variety of creatures on his estate, Chartwell, including butterflies, cows, fish, pigs and swans. He had pet cats and dogs such as his bulldog Dodo, wartime cat Nelson, poodle Rufus and marmalade cat, Jock. Winston Churchill was an animal lover and kept many pets. The National Trust maintains a marmalade cat with white bib and socks at Chartwell in memory of Churchill's last cat, Jock. ![]()
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