Mary Soames (1922–2014)
Author of Clementine Churchill
About the Author
Mary Spencer-Churchill was born at Chartwell, in the county of Kent in southeast England, on September 15, 1922. She was the youngest child of former United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill. During World War II, she enlisted as a private and served as a personal aide to her father for show more several summit meetings, including the Potsdam conference in 1945, where her father, President Harry S. Truman and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin planned the postwar world. She married Christopher Soames and nurtured his career as a prominent Tory politician, ambassador to France, and the last governor of one of Britain's last major colonies, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). After her husband's death in 1987, she wrote a series of books about her family including Clementine Churchill: The Biography of a Marriage, which won the Wolfson History Prize, and A Daughter's Tale: The Memoir of Winston Churchill's Youngest Child. She was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Dame of the British Empire. In 2005, Queen Elizabeth appointed her a Ladies Companion of the Garter, Britain's highest chivalric order. She died on May 31, 2014 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: U.S. Army Signal Corps photo, cropped by uploader (trumanlibrary.org)
Works by Mary Soames
The Profligate Duke: George Spencer Churchill, Fifth Duke of Marlborough, and His Duchess (1987) 17 copies, 2 reviews
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Soames, Mary Soames, Baroness
- Birthdate
- 1922-09-15
- Date of death
- 2014-05-31
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Manor House School, Limpsfield, Surrey, England, UK
- Occupations
- biographer
aide-de-camp
autobiographer
British Army - Organizations
- Auxiliary Territorial Service (WWII)
- Awards and honors
- Order of the Garter (Lady Companion ∙ 2005)
Order of the British Empire (Dame Commander)
Royal Society of Literature (Fellow)
Order of the British Empire (Member, 1945) - Relationships
- Churchill, Winston S. (father)
Churchill, Randolph (brother)
Churchill, Lady Randolph (grandmother)
Churchill, Lord Randolph (grandfather)
Churchill, Sarah (sister)
Devonshire, Deborah (second cousin) (show all 7)
Soames, Christopher (husband) - Short biography
- Mary Soames, née Spencer-Churchill, was born at her family's estate at Chartwell in Kent, the youngest of the five children of Sir Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine. Early in World War II, she volunteered for the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service (1939 to 1941). In 1941, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women's branch of the British Army, and became an anti-aircraft gunner in London, rising in 1944 to command 230 other women volunteers. She also served as her father's aide-de-camp on several of his overseas missions, including his trip to the Potsdam Conference at the end of the war to meet with President Harry S. Truman and Russian leader Josef Stalin. In 1945, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of her military services. In 1947, she married Conservative politician Christopher Soames (later Baron Soames, making her a Baroness), with whom she had five children. She wrote several books, including an acclaimed biography of her mother, published in 1979; a volume of edited letters between Sir Winston and Lady Churchill; and her memoirs, A Daughter's Tale (2012).
She also served as an invaluable source of information to other historians and biographers of her father. - Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Chartwell, Westerham, Kent, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Chartwell, Westerham, Kent, England, UK
Castle Mill House, Odiham, Hampshire, England, UK - Place of death
- London, England, UK
- Burial location
- St Martin's Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
Mary Soames, born in 1922, is the only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. This memoir covers her early life and the war years, up to the defeat of Churchill's government in the 1945 election. Her father, normally shown as a gruff, serious statesman is portrayed here as a tender affectionate family man. Soames' interest in the times and the events that had such a profound effect on so many makes her point of view an interesting one. She is able to provide an intimate show more background to events that are familiar to history and the entire memoir is written from a very different perspective than the more formal accounts we usually see. As an gunner in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, she accompanied her father as his ADC on several overseas journeys, including the Quebec Conference with President Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, and the Potsdam Conference with Truman and Stalin. Although this is essentially Mary Churchill's story, it naturally involves the life and times of her parents, particularly her father. Much of the text is taken from Soames' diaries giving it a refreshingly youthful tone and a family intimacy that makes it all the more interesting. I really enjoyed this charming memoir and can recommend it highly to anyone interested in the subject. show less
The profligate duke : George Spencer-Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough, and his duchess by Mary Soames
A biography of her great, great, great grandfather and grandmother by the daughter of Winston Churchill. As Soames rightly noted in introducing her subjects, “This book is about unimportant people.” Nevertheless, the author created an interesting sketch of her ancestors and of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century milieu in which they lived. Aficionados of Churchill family history will note characteristics and enthusiasms of the fifth Duke of Marlborough (1766-1840)—such as show more musical ability, a love of exotic plants, and a tendency to wander beyond the confines of marriage—that show up in later generations of the family. Lovers of Blenheim will appreciate Soames’s description of palace life during the fifth duke’s tenure. show less
The profligate duke : George Spencer-Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough, and his duchess by Mary Soames
written by Mary Soames, Winston and Clementine Churchill's youngest child, this book is both a biography and a portrait of an age and a house (Blenheim) in the 18th and early 19th Century. George Spencer-Churchill was the fifth Duke of Marlborough , a descendant of the great Duke of Marlborough , John Churchill. He was a man of intilligence and passion who took his rank, his status, his patrimony and his wealth for granted and squandered the family's wealth. Although he produced 6 legitimate show more children by his wife Sarah Stewart (a fine botanic artist in her own right) and in later life a second illegitimate family of 6 children clearly gave him comfort in old age . The Fifth Duke was a great collector, gardener and landscape garden designer and creator of grand houses . He was a bibliophile and keen musician. Being the Duke, spending now strained wealth of the family , collecting was his profession and his passion. Mary Soames has made effective use of her family archives and records and it makes for a fascinating very readable social history at a popular level, Direct quotations from family letters bring personalities to life. It's a well illustrated book (family portraits and paintings ) with the family tree printed on the end papers making for easy reference, It is a story about unimportant persons who thoug they had the pedigree, wealth and knew the right people made no contribution to public life or service.. It is not surprising that the later Marlborough sought to marry wealthy American heiresses to rescue the material fortunes of the family by the late 19th century. At another level, the study of one talented wastrel raises questions about inherited wealth , the preservation of grand houses, entail and property disposals. If you are interested in 18th century English social history and the life of the aristocracy it's a worthwhile read. show less
Well, that was an interesting book about the wife of Winston Churchill, written in minute detail by her youngest daughter.
This book centers on the intense correspondence between husband and wife. My first thought was.... where on Earth did they keep all these letters for over 50 years of marriage. Also, Clementine might have been a very friendly, helpful person, but you still can not compare her with the "normal" women of her time, because most of them did not have the time or means to write show more their husbands multiple letters (and telegrams) each day. The Churchills were able to always have the help of nannies, secretaries, cooks, etc. to take care of all of these mundane daily chores. I was also surprised to read how often they went on trips (some in GB, but many overseas) and they thought nothing of leaving their children in the care of others for many weeks. show less
This book centers on the intense correspondence between husband and wife. My first thought was.... where on Earth did they keep all these letters for over 50 years of marriage. Also, Clementine might have been a very friendly, helpful person, but you still can not compare her with the "normal" women of her time, because most of them did not have the time or means to write show more their husbands multiple letters (and telegrams) each day. The Churchills were able to always have the help of nannies, secretaries, cooks, etc. to take care of all of these mundane daily chores. I was also surprised to read how often they went on trips (some in GB, but many overseas) and they thought nothing of leaving their children in the care of others for many weeks. show less
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 7
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 846
- Popularity
- #30,226
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 7
- ISBNs
- 39