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Churchill dodging bullets - so you thought you had a dodgy week?

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    Churchill dodging bullets - so you thought you had a dodgy week?

    Sorry - just a cut 'n paste. But I thought you'd enjoy reading it.

    http://observer.guardian.co.uk/polit...641535,00.html

    Fresh light cast on Churchill's shadow

    The uncensored memoirs of the PM's bodyguard were found in a farm loft

    David Smith
    Sunday November 13, 2005
    The Observer

    In London during the Blitz, amid the mass jubilation of VE Day, the image of Winston Churchill is unmissable. Far easier to overlook in the same photographs is a keen-eyed, set-lipped face beneath a trilby. It belonged to Churchill's 'faithful vigilant guardian', who repeatedly saved him from assassins, flying bombs and his own reckless lust for adventure.

    Detective Inspector Walter Thompson was Churchill's personal bodyguard for 18 years. He accompanied him over 200,000 miles across Europe, America and the Middle East and witnessed some of the defining moments of the 20th century. 'From the outbreak of war in 1939 until May 1945, except for a short period when I had a breakdown, owing to the long hours of work, I saw more of Winston than any other human being,' he wrote.

    The discovery in a farmhouse attic of the original typescript of his memoir means his story can be told in full for the first time. It reveals how narrowly and how often he escaped death, and how only the quick-witted Thompson's willingness to take a bullet prevented the loss of Britain's war leader.

    'Churchill had 20 brushes with death, seven of which were direct attempts on his life where Walter personally intervened in some shape or form,' said Philip Nugus, a producer who has adapted the memoir for a 13-part television series. 'Talk about a charmed life.'

    Among the threats to his life were from an Indian nationalist who tried to kill him in America, a German sniper team in Antibes, a loner with a loaded revolver as Churchill was about to board a flying boat, a sewer bomb in Athens planted by Greek communists, a German attempt to target his plane, and a navigational mix-up which could have seen the British Prime Minister shot down by the RAF.

    On one occasion, according to the memoir, the pro-Nazi French countess Hélène de Portes lunged at Churchill's throat while concealing a knife but was thwarted by Thompson. On another, Churchill insisted on standing on the roof of 10 Downing Street to witness the Blitz, and it was only by throwing himself on top of the Prime Minister that Thompson saved him from shrapnel. In North Africa, Churchill fell ill and stopped breathing; Thompson nursed him and, his family believe, gave him the kiss of life. Even on VE Day, he saved Churchill from crushing crowds, inadvertently breaking a woman's arm.

    Churchill's disregard for his safety was a bodyguard's nightmare. Confronted by IRA hitmen as they drove through Hyde Park, he growled: 'If they want trouble, they can have it.' But Thompson decided it was 'not part of my duty to pander to his desire for a hand-to-hand scrap in Hyde Park'. He drew his gun, forced Churchill down and told the chauffeur to hit the accelerator. Churchill bellowed: 'Don't ever do that again!'

    The former Post Office messenger's East End background could not have been further removed from that of Churchill, but they developed mutual respect and admiration. This was strained when Thompson wrote his memoir in 1945 but was prevented from publishing it by Churchill and the authorities, who threatened his pension. He was allowed to put out a heavily censored version, I Was Churchill's Shadow, in the early Fifties. The full 360,000-word manuscript was believed lost. But half a century later Thompson's great-niece, Linda Stoker, tracked it to a suitcase in a Somerset farmhouse loft. 'My jaw dropped,' she said. 'This is a story written from the heart. It's the relationship between two mates, one who's prepared to run the country and one who's prepared to die for it.'

    Thompson, who died nearly 20 years ago, records the moment Churchill learnt Hitler was dead: 'He went to a window and looked out, remaining there for some time... I asked if he thought Hitler had committed suicide. Quite quietly he replied: "That is the way I should have expected him to have died." Later he added: "That is what I should have done under the same circumstances".' Such was Thompson's devotion to duty, and Churchill, that it cost him his first marriage. His second wife was the war leader's secretary. But Thompson's mission was accomplished, as Churchill eventually died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 90.

    · Nugus/ Martin Productions' 'Churchill's Bodyguard' premieres on UKTV History at 9pm daily from Monday, 21 November

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