By Gayne C. Young
Sir Winston Churchill’s accomplishments are legendary.
No, not his saving the Free World, epic writings, quotes or extremely sought-after paintings.
I’m talking about his legendary accomplishments in drinking and smoking.
In that regard, the man wasn’t just a Prime Minister…he was king.
The British Bulldog’s unquenchable thirst for booze and voracious appetite for tobacco was known the world over and celebrated by most of it. Men stood in awe at what Churchill could do in a day, women desired a man that could consume and abide in such quantities yet never lose control, and physicians scratched their collective heads wondering how the hell he could live with no issues to 90 years of age.
But just how much did Churchill do in a day?
Let’s start with cigars.
Churchill fell head-over-heels in love with Havana smokes when he was a journalist in Cuba. When he made it back to London, he put in an order for imported Cubans at Robert Lewis on St. James’s Street. That first order saw him develop the habit of smoking around 11 per day. His favorite brands were Romeo y Julieta and La Aroma de Cuba. Historians estimate that he smoked about 200,000 cigars in his lifetime. Churchill loved his smokes so much he even had his own walk-in humidor at Chartwell, his home in the Kent countryside. The room could hold 3,000 to 4,000 cigars.
According to my math, that’s enough to last him just a few days short of a year.
Churchill’s affinity for booze also first showed itself when he was a journalist. When he was sent to the front to cover the Boer War for the Morning Post in 1899, the 25-year-old took 36 bottles of wine, 18 bottles of scotch, and six bottles of brandy with him. Years later he joked of this saying, “When I was a young subaltern in the South African War, the water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable we had to add whiskey. By diligent effort, I learned to like it.”
Churchill loved champagne and whiskey, the latter of which he started his day with in the form of mouthwash. Of this habit he is quoted as saying, “When I was younger I made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast.” As for champagne, his favorite was Pol Roger and most believe he consumed more than 42,000 bottles of it in his lifetime.
No one is sure exactly how much Churchill consumed in an average day, but it is known that he drank all day long. He started first thing in the morning and drank pretty much straight through until bed, and in bed as well. It is believed that despite this daily indulgence, he was never truly drunk. Once while drinking on the clock, a woman whom most historians believe was Conservative Lady Astor, told him, “You, Mr. Churchill, are drunk.”
Churchill responded, “My dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.”
Despite the admittance of having had too much, most that witnessed the event agreed Churchill was far from drunk.
Would I become intoxicated if I drank like that every day? Would I fall into a seizure if I partook of that many cigars?
Given the fact that I’m a professional outdoor writer and as such have pretty much the same habits as Churchill—although nowhere near to his extremes—I’m going to say … probably not.
But there’s only one way to be sure:
I’d have to live a day like Churchill did.
Wish me luck.
