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Clementine Churchill

The Right Honourable
The Baroness Spencer-Churchill
GBE CStJ
Clementine Churchill 1915.jpg
Clementine Churchill in 1915
Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In role
26 October 1951 – 6 April 1955
Monarch George VI
Elizabeth II
Preceded by Violet Attlee
Succeeded by Clarissa Eden
In role
10 May 1940 – 26 July 1945
Monarch George VI
Preceded by Anne Chamberlain
Succeeded by Violet Attlee
Personal details
Born Clementine Ogilvy Hozier
(1885-04-01)1 April 1885
Mayfair, London, England
Died 12 December 1977(1977-12-12) (aged 92)
Knightsbridge, London, England
Spouse(s) Winston Churchill (m. 190865)
Children Diana Churchill
Randolph Churchill
Sarah Tuchet-Jesson, Lady Audley
Marigold Churchill
Mary Soames, Baroness Soames
Mother Blanche Henrietta Hozier
Father Henry Montague Hozier

Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, GBE, CStJ (née Hozier; 1 April 1885 – 12 December 1977) was the wife of Sir Winston Churchill and a life peeress in her own right.

Although legally the daughter of Henry Montague Hozier and Lady Blanche Hozier (a daughter of David Ogilvy, 10th Earl of Airlie), her paternity is a subject of much debate, as Lady Blanche was well known for infidelity. After Sir Henry found Lady Blanche with a lover in 1891, she managed to avert her husband's suit for divorce due to his own infidelities, and thereafter the couple separated. Lady Blanche maintained that Clementine's biological father was Capt. William George "Bay" Middleton, a noted horseman; Mary Soames, Clementine's youngest child, believed this. However, Clementine's biographer, Joan Hardwick, has surmised (due in part to Sir Henry Hozier's reputed sterility) that all Lady Blanche's "Hozier" children were actually fathered by her sister's husband, Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale (1837–1916), better known as a grandfather of the famous Mitford sisters of the 1920s. Whatever her true paternity, Clementine is recorded as being the daughter of Lady Blanche and Sir Henry.

In the summer of 1899, when Clementine was fourteen, her mother moved the family to Dieppe. There the family spent an idyllic summer; bathing, canoeing, picnicking, and blackberrying filled the happy days. While in Dieppe the family became well acquainted with ‘La Colonie’, or the other English inhabitants living by the sea. This group consisted of military men, writers and painters, such as Aubrey Beardsley and Walter Sickert, the latter who came to be a great friend of the family. According to Clementine's daughter, Mary Soames, Clementine was deeply struck by Mr Sickert and thought he was the most handsome and compelling man she had ever seen. The Hoziers' happy life in France soon came to an end when Kitty, the eldest daughter, became ill with typhoid fever. Blanche Hozier decided that the best thing to do would be to send Clementine and her sister Nellie to Scotland, so she could devote her time completely to Kitty. Kitty died on 5 March 1900.


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