December 15, 2009

Churchill’s only surviving child visits the University

Press release issued 14 December 2009

On Saturday [12 December], Lady Soames, Winston Churchill’s youngest and last surviving child, attended a commemorative event in Wills Hall at the University to mark the 80th anniversary of the official opening of the Hall by her father in December 1929, following his installation as Chancellor.

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Lady Soames first visited the University with her father on 12 April 1941, when he conferred honorary degrees on the American ambassador to Britain, John Gilbert Winant, and the Australian prime minister, Robert Gordon Menzies.

Churchill and his daughter witnessed the damage caused by the previous night’s ‘Good Friday Raid’, one of the worst bombing raids of the ‘Bristol Blitz’, in which 180 people were killed and 382 were injured. Lady Soames also visited the University on 21 June 1946 and on subsequent occasions.

During her visit on Saturday, Lady Soames unveiled a commemorative plaque in the entrance hall and was presented with a framed coloured facsimile of the declaration in praise of Wills Hall which her father signed on its opening and which now hangs in the Warden’s house.

The document states:

‘I, Winston Spencer Churchill MP, Chancellor of the University of Bristol, declare there to be no finer hostel than Wills Hall among the universities of the British Empire.’

©University of Bristol