Winston voted the Mother of all Brits

4:53pm Monday 28th July 2008

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Wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill has been named the 'Mother of all Britons' - a "clever and true" assessment, according to historians at his birthplace, Blenheim Palace.

In 2002, he was voted Greatest Briton in a BBC2 series but has now been given the new accolade in a survey by Virgin Media Broadband.

A total of 2,367 adults were quizzed online, and almost a quarter, 23 per cent, considered the Second World War leader the ultimate Brit, beating the Queen, on 18 per cent, and William Shakespeare, with 10 per cent.

Blenheim-based John Forster, archivist to the Duke of Marlborough, said: "At first sight this seems a surprising description of such a masculine figure as Winston Churchill.

"In fact, it is a clever and perceptive assessment. Mothers shape their families, protecting them from danger, guiding them to a safe and happy future.

"What truer description of Winston Churchill could there be than this? His powerful leadership of Britain to victory and safety in the Second World War is his memorable and lasting achievement. Admiration and respect could not be better deserved.

"Mothers inspire another powerful response. They are loved - and so was, and is, Winston.

"This is not only because of his war leadership but also because of his humanity. He is not a distant idol; we can see part of ourselves in him.

"We respond with affection to familiar aspects in the human man he was: Family man as husband and father with a ready sense of humour and wit, brave soldier, fond of his cigars and a tipple, prone to tears and even despair occasionally.

"In Oxfordshire, he is a figure specially close to us, born as he was at Blenheim Palace, built to honour his great ancestor, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, the great inspiration of Winston's sense of destiny."

In 2005, members of the Churchill family gathered for a service of thanksgiving on the 40th anniversary of Sir Winston's death, at St Martin's Church, in Bladon, where he is buried in a family plot, a short distance away from the Blenheim estate.

Among the congregation at the service were Lady Mary Soames, Sir Winston's daughter, grandson Randolph Churchill, granddaughter Celia Sandys and the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough.

Following his death in 1965, Sir Winston's body was taken to St Martin's by train and interred at the church after his state funeral in St Paul's Cathedral, London.

Sir Winston died on January 24, 1965, aged 90, and attracted more than a million votes in BBC's nationwide poll in 2002.

In 2005 at Blenheim, a special exhibition was staged called Churchill's Destiny, which celebrated the achievements of Sir Winston as well as his ancestor, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough.