Great Contemporaries

On the surface, a non-smoking, teetotaling vegetarian who disliked publicity might seem an odd companion for the voluble Churchill, prominent consumer of cigars, alcohol, meat and attention. But the statesman was won over.

Despite Churchill’s own belief, he and Botha probably did not meet each other in the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). But they met afterward, and forged a notable friendship which lasted through World War I.

Since the early 1990s it has been stated and endlessly repeated that Winston Churchill said Alan Turing OBE FRS (1912-1954) “made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany.” Turing’s contribution was indeed great, but there is no record of Churchill having issued such a singular encomium.