Posted on behalf of Finest Hour Editor Richard Langworth: Churchill was fond of clear turtle soup (Ernie Bevin preferred it creamy), and probably picked up the taste as First Lord of the Admiralty during the Great War, when turtles were brought in from St. Helena for the Admiralty table. Here are three references.
We served turtle soup at our Williamsburg, Virginia conference in 1988. An archivist at Colonial Williamsburg unearthed an amusing piece of correspondence documenting the frantic search for turtle accompanying a request by Churchill for turtle soup, which is unfortunately not quotable in a public forum. Apparently there were three grades, one of which was fed only to pigs, another to a slightly higher form of life, and only the top grade was suitable for WSC, and hard to get....very funny. H.V. Morton, ATLANTIC MEETING, 105 It is typical of the Prime Minister that he should have remembered it was once the custom of the Lords of Admiralty when they voyaged abroad to take with them a turtle, which they were entitled to draw from a naval establishment. This strange custom began when Britain, in order to watch Napoleon at St. Helena, took over Ascension Island,and every warship on its way to England from Ascension Island brought a turtle home with it. The custom has, of course, long since lapsed and Mr. Churchill, even if he would have revived it, might have been hard put to it to discover a turtle in war-time London. Nevertheless he managed to serve turtle soup to the President. It so happened thatshortly before the party left London, Commander Thompson, who had heard Mr. Churchill wish for a turtle, was in a grocer's shop in Piccadilly and, noticing some bottles of turtle soup and finding that neither coupons nor ration books were required for them, promptly bought them and took them back in triumph to No. 10. Gilbert, WINSTON S. CHURCHILL VII. 1115 >From the Foreign Office [on WSC’s December 1944 trip to Athens] came Pierson >Dixon, who later recalled the scene in the “VIP waiting room”: “There were so >many senior Air Force officers in the room that when they came in I didn't at >first recognize the PM and Jock Colville, one in Air Commodore's, the other in >Pilot Officer's uniform. The PM waved us all in the aircraft at once—his new >C54, a huge and luxurious thing, bigger and quieter than a York, but alas >American. We took off at 01.05. A conversation in the saloon, over turtle >soup, ham sandwiches and whisky, about Greece and what we should do.” Fishman, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, 356-57 On 31 October 1950, 275 Conservative Peers and M.P.s gave a dinner to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Winston's first return to Parliament. This was one great milestone Clementine had to miss. She had promised to attend an important engagement in Edinburgh on the night of the banquet and so missed an occasion granted to few Parliamentarians in any age. Even so, Clementine was still, in certain respects, represented at the dinner. Each course traced his Parliamentary life from election at Oldham in 1900. Sherries, turtle soup, and appetizers were named after two of his constituencies. Fillets of sole were named after the Cinque Ports of Dover, Hastings, Sandwich, New Romney, and Hythe of which he had been Warden since 1951. Mushrooms from his 1941-5 electorate of Epping Forest followed. Partridge on toast with English sauce became “les perdreaux rotis sur canapes Clementine,” and in this sense Clementine was there in the flesh. Dinner was topped off with coffee, “hot and strong … la Winston Spencer Churchill.” On Feb 10, 2:33 pm, Oliver <[email protected]> wrote: > I've often seen it said that Churchill would have a bowl of turtle > soup pretty-well every day. Is there, however, any evidence of this? > Did Churchill in any of his writings ever mention turtle soup or did > any contemporaries refer to his supposed liking of it? Any references > -- or pointers to reference -- on this admittedly trivial topic would > be appreciated! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en.
