When young Winston met Cuban cigars

We remember that Winston Churchill was born on this day in 1874. Churchill was one of the great leaders of the 20th century and UK Prime Minister (1940-1945) and (1951-55). Churchill was also a great author and won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his six-volume history of World War II and for political speeches.

Public domain; cropped.

Churchill apparently fell in love with Cuban cigars during a visit to the island circa 1895. My late father once told me that the Cuban embassy in London would often deliver Mr. Churchill a complimentary box of cigars. Eventually, those long cigars that he smoked came to be known as a “Churchill.” I mean those long ones that take an eternity to smoke.

The former PM smoked several of them daily, a sign that he married a British lady with lots of patience and who stood by her man. Let’s call Mrs. Churchill the wonderful and pretty Clementine, who caught his eye at a ball sometime in 1904. They had five children.

Cuba was still a Spanish colony when young Winston visited, three years before the Spanish-American War that paved the way to Cuban independence in 1902.

According to H.P. Klepak, author of “Churchill Comes of Age, Cuba 1895,” the young Churchill spent 18 days in Cuba. He was there on loan from the British army to observe colonial Spain’s defense against independence fighters, as Klepak said in an interview:

History previously recorded that Churchill saw combat in Cuba and discovered the siesta, which would later help him keep long hours as British prime minister during World War Two.

But Klepak, a former Canadian military officer, argues previous works overlooked how influential the Cuban venture was, including the months of maneuvering Churchill needed to land his assignment.

With his Cuba experience he became a war correspondent, political analyst, strategist and liaison with a foreign army, all for the first time. His writings start to show legendary humor. He discovers rum and Cuban cigars’ breadth and quality.

Inspired by observations from local historian Lourdes Mendez, Klepak believes he became the first to scrutinize and cross-check the Cuban, British and Spanish archives, discovering for example that Churchill was fired upon by no less than Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez, two of Cuba’s greatest independence leaders.

“Very quickly when I looked at it from a historical perspective it was pretty obvious that this was an amazing story which for some reason had never been told,” Klepak said.

Neat story. This is also a book that you may want to pick up when you need a break from politics. It is another chapter in the amazing life of one of the most important figures of the 20th century.

And maybe we can discuss your comments on my AT post while we’re smoking a long Churchill!

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