Churchill joked his tropical fish were breeding so fast he’d have to ‘move out on to the lawn’
Winston Churchill once joked that a pair of tropical fish he owned were breeding so fast he’d have to “move out on to the lawn”, a letter has revealed.
The wartime leader would have had a general election and the increasingly frosty relations with Soviet Russia on his mind in August 1951. But the letter disclosed that Churchill was also preoccupied with a domestic issue – his tropical fish, and how well they were breeding.
He had hoped that Golly and Cleopatra, the Siamese fighting fish he had taken delivery of, would successfully breed in one of several tanks he kept at Chartwell, his country home in Kent.
Writing to Ronald Whitwell, a distributor of tropical fish, Churchill said he may have to give up as Cleopatra had played hard to get with Golly.
However, he had more luck with the black molly fish Mr Whitwell had also sent him. They reproduced at such a rate that Churchill joked he and his wife Clementine would have to move out soon.
Churchill was a great lover of pets and animals, and before the Second World War he started keeping thousands of goldfish in the garden ponds at Chartwell.
His interest in aquarium fish grew when a boy gave him some black mollies as a birthday present.
Mr Whitwell, who ran fish wholesalers R J Whitwell of West Bergholt, Essex, regularly supplied him with warm water specimens.
As a thank you, Churchill gave him one of his Cuban cigars which remains to this day unopened and in its original plastic wrapping.
In his letter dated Aug 8, 1951, Churchill thanked Mr Whitwell for his latest supply of “the most interesting selection of fish”.
He wrote: “The Siamese fighters, Golly and Cleopatra, both had three days together, but she remained coy, protected in her grove, and would not come out under the nest he had made. I have therefore returned them to their separate apartments and will have another try soon.
“Ought the water in which he made his nest to be changed, or can it be used again?
“The black mollies are breeding at so great a rate and the other children are growing up so fast that we shall soon have to move out onto the lawn.
“You will, I hope, let me remind you that I specially asked you to bill me for the fish you sent. I do hope you will do this because I should feel free to ask for more when I want them.”
The two-page signed letter and the La Aroma de Cuba cigar have been made available for sale for the first time by the late Mr Whitwell’s nephew.
Robert Henshilwood, books and ephemera valuer at TW Gaze, said: “The letter is a great insight into one of Churchill’s many and varied interests and is quite amusing showing his characteristic wit and humour.
“For me, it also serves to illustrate his dynamism as a person, with all his responsibilities and all that he achieved as a leader and a statesman, I find it staggering that he was also able to pursue his interests such as this with great vigour and energy, he really is incomparable.”
He said Mr Whitwell had evidently stayed at Chartwell overnight when advising him on keeping the fish.
Mr Whitwell “clearly cherished the cigar he was given by Churchill as a memento of the occasion”, he said, as he “kept it unopened in the original plastic wrapping and had a special case made up for it at the time”.
The vendor has supplied a letter of provenance with the two items.
