| In our last piece we chronicled Dwight D. Eisenhower’s [1890-1969] and Winston S. Churchill’s [1874-1965] role in saving Western Civilization.1 Europe was in Adolf Hitler’s [1889-1945] bullseye at that time and the demise of the continent was imminent through the ministry of Nazism and its anti-Semitic, anti-communist, racist, and fascist creed. In his usual masterful way, Winston Churchill noted in his Second World War memoirs that “It is where the balance quivers, and the proportions are veiled in mist that the opportunity for world-saving decisions presents itself.”2 Sir Winston was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”3 As a background, Winston Churchill suffered emotionally from a deprived childhood as his parents Randolph and Jennie Churchill were immersed in ‘perpetual jollity’ and ‘constant carousing’. Their unbridled lust for higher social status led both to marital infidelity and betrayal. Jennie Jerome Churchill [1854-1921] was a Brooklyn-born British socialite, the daughter of Leonard and Clara Jerome. Her father was a wealthy financier known as the ‘King of Wall Street’. Jenny spent much of her youth in Paris, where she was educated and exposed to European aristocratic circles, shaping both her life and her son Winston’s future opportunities. She was known for her beauty, wit, and charm. After a whirlwind courtship Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill [1849-1895], a rising British politician and son of the Duke of Marlborough. They married on April 15, 1874, at the British Embassy in Paris. Jennie was 19 years old and Randolph 25 at their wedding. Winston was born on November 30, 1874, later that same year. Randolph and Jennie were renowned for their spirited social lifestyle and, reportedly, their extramarital affairs. Their strained marriage and complex relationship endured until Randolph died in 1895. Jennie Churchill was much more than just Winston Churchill’s mother though – she was a force of nature in her own right, shaping British politics and social life in her era. After Lord Randolph’s death in 1895, Jennie married twice more. First with George Cornwallis-West, an officer in the Scots Guards and 20 years her junior. They divorced in 1914. Four years later, in 1918, she married Montagu Porch, a British civil servant in Nigeria who was three years younger than her son Winston. As may safely be assumed, Winston’s childhood was not ideal, which brings us to Elizabeth Ann Everest [1832–1895], Winston’s Nanny: The Woman Who Saved Western Civilization2, hired by Randolph and Jennie Churchill six months after his birth. ‘Mrs.’ Everest was an honorific title given to nannies and cooks as a courtesy in the mid-19th century, as she never married. |
| Elizabeth Ann began her career working for Pastor Thompson Phillips – “a clergyman in Cumberland” – around 1863. She served as a nanny to his daughter, Ella Phillips, for 12 years before joining the Churchill family in early 1875. She cared for Winston [and his brother Jack, six years younger] as the primary caregiver for the next eighteen years. In his book Never Give In: The Extraordinary Character of Winston Churchill, Stephen Mansfield describes Elizabeth Ann Everest as a “passionate woman of prayer,” who profoundly influenced young Winston by teaching him the Bible, praying with him on her knees daily, and explaining the world through a Christian perspective and worldview. Lauren Green McAfee and Jackie Green, in their book Only One Life: How a Woman’s Every Day Shapes an Eternal Legacy, highlight Everest’s deep faith and its impact on Churchill’s development, noting that “her spiritual guidance played a significant role in shaping the man he became.” Violet Bonham Carter [1887-1969], a close friend of Winston Churchill, remarked on the profound influence of Elizabeth Ann Everest: “In his solitary childhood and unhappy school days, Mrs. Everest was his comforter, his strength and stay, his one source of unfailing human understanding. She was the fireside where he dried his tears and warmed his heart. She was the night light by his bed. She was security.”4 In 1893, Jennie Churchill let Elizabeth Ann Everest go at the time that Winston left for the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Winston was devastated, as Mrs. Everest struggled financially, and he supported her the best he could. In July 1895, Winston learned that Mrs. Everest was on her deathbed and the young Sandhurst officer rushed to her bedside in North London. Holding her hand, he remained with her until she peacefully passed away at 2:15 a.m. on July 3, 1895. Churchill would later reflect on her passing, “Death came very easily to her. She had lived such an innocent and loving life of service to others and held such a simple faith that she had no fears at all, and did not seem to mind very much.” Upon her death, Winston telegraphed her former employer – now the Venerable Thompson Phillips – who still held Mrs. Everest in the highest of honor, asking him to perform the funeral service. Winston paid for her burial and tombstone. His son Randolph wrote in the first volume of his father’s biography that “For many years afterwards he [WSC] paid an annual sum to the local florist for the upkeep of the grave.” Last September, I went looking for and found Mrs. Everest’s grave in East London at the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium.5 As to the actual whereabouts of Mrs. Everest, she is “abundantly satisfied” [Psalm 36:8] in Heaven, like all who know Christ. William Arnot [1808-1875], the Scottish minister and theologian wrote, “I once heard a father tell that when he removed his family to a new residence where the accommodation was much more ample, the substance much more rich and varied than that to which they had previously been accustomed, his youngest son, yet a lisping infant, ran round every room and scanned every article with ecstasy, calling out in childish wonder at every new sight, ‘Is this ours, father? and is this ours?’ “The child did not say ‘yours’; I observed that the father while he told the story was not offended with the freedom. “I suppose such will be the surprise, joy, and appropriating confidence with which the child of our Father’s family will count all his own when he is removed from the comparatively mean condition of things present, and enters the Infinite things to come.” It is there where Elizabeth Ann Everest resides. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” [Matthew 25:21] David Lane American Renewal Project 1. myemail.constantcontact.com/What-are-the-5-essential-qualities-of-greatness-.html?soid=1106253726374&aid=Foz5vvR8hV4 2. Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm: The Second World War; 1948. 3. www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1953/summary/https://heavenstretch.wordpress.com/2020/12/20/how-winston-churchills-nanny-helped-to-save-christian-civilization/ 4. pcg.church/articles/6501/the-woman-who-saved-the-man-who-saved-the-world 5. www.findagrave.com/memorial/6380566/elizabeth_ann-everest |
