April 4, 2015

Finest Hour 133, Winter 2006-07

Page 36

By Paul H. Courtenay

Churchill’s Bodyguard: The Authorised Biography of Walter H. Thompson, by Tom Hickman. London: Headline, 312 pages hardbound, $45. Member price $36.


There is much of interest in this book, and also much to deplore. It is the “authorized” biography of Detective Inspector Walter Thompson, the familiar figure at Churchill’s side for so many years, and is based on his own writings. Thompson’s own words tell a compelling story, some of it already familiar, though much is new. It is the author Tom Hickman, despite some skilful merging of the personal narrative with his own commentary, who casts doubt on the accuracy of some of this background panorama by poorly verified detail.

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Thompson was Churchill’s protection officer from 1921 till 1930, briefly in 1931-32, and from 1939 until 1945. He himself published four books about his experiences: Guard from the Yard (1938), / Was Churchill’s Shadow (1951), Sixty Minutes with Winston Churchill (1953), and Assignment Churchill (1956). This new book contains plenty that was published there, but much new material, found by Thompson’s great-niece in an old suitcase many years later.

Thompson joined Churchill’s service in time to accompany WSC on his 1921 Middle East visit. Later, as a special concession to an ex-minister in a potentially dangerous situation due to the Irish question, Thompson was reassigned to Churchill for his 193132 New York visit, when WSC was accidentally hit by a car. Thompson, who was asleep after 26-hours’ nonstop duty, felt guilty that he had not been present and that, if he had been there as usual, he would probably have prevented his charge from stepping into the traffic flow.

Recalled to duty in 1939, Thompson travelled everywhere with Churchill, as many photographs testify. In 1945 he was abruptly withdrawn from this duty by Scotland Yard, which does not seem to have treated him well, overlooking promotion claims till late in the dayโ€””out of sight, out of mind.” A curious incident in 1943, in which Thompson accidentally shot himself at home, is of somewhat unusual interest.

Details of Thompson’s private life are revealed for the first time; it is curious that although he followed a strict moral code (asking to be relieved from guarding another dignitary due to the latter’s love affair), he was not above breaking his own marriage vows. We learn of his family life, of his three sons in the RAF (one killed in 1943), and of his later marriage to one of Churchill’s secretaries, May Shearburn.

A few errors might be excused; but there are so many that Hickman can be justifiably accused of knowing too little about Churchill to have been entrusted with this biography. For example, we are told that WSC held the appointment of First Sea Lord, that he crossed the Atlantic in 1941 in a “destroyer,” that his 1941 Ottawa speech contained the line, “Some neck! Some chicken!,” that his RAF uniform at Teheran was that of an Air Marshal, and so on and so on. Despite these blemishes, the book is still worth reading for a glimpse behind the scenes.

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