WINSTON CHURCHILL'S POIGNANT DESCRIPTION OF THE DEATH OF HIS NANNY
T. E. C. Jr. M.D.
Winston Churchill's nanny, Mrs. Everest, was engaged by the Randolph Churchills very soon after Winston was born in 1874. The depth of his love for Mrs. Everest and hers for him is shown in this passage from his My Early Life.
I travelled up to London to see her. She lived with her sister's family in North London. She knew she was in danger, but her only anxiety was for me. There had been a heavy shower of rain. My jacket was wet. When she felt it with her hands she was greatly alarmed for fear I should catch cold. The jacket had to be taken off and thoroughly dried before she was calm again. Her only desire was to see my brother Jack, and this unhappily could not be arranged. I set out for London to get a good specialist; and the two doctors consulted together upon the case, which was one of peritonitis. I had to return to Aldershot by the midnight train for a very early morning parade. As soon as it was over I returned to her bedside. She still knew me, but she gradually became unconscious. 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. She had been my dearest and most intimate friend during the whole of the twenty years I had lived.
