Paul Addison

“Churchill was convinced that mankind could destroy all the evils, from poverty to mutual destruction. In every sphere of human endeavour, he foresaw the dangers and potential for evil. Many of those dangers are our dangers today. He also pointed the way forward to our solutions for tomorrow. That is why his life is worthy of our attention, for he was a man of quality: a good guide for our troubled decade and for the generations now reaching adulthood.” —Sir Martin Gilbert

Scholarship accumulates and sources multiply, Todman writes. The perspective of Churchill’s memoirs persists—if sometimes heavily qualified.

Our grief and loss are deeply felt. Paul was a gentleman scholar: a man of strong convictions, who never let them interfere with his search for truth. Hagiography is fatal. Honesty matters. Those were his cardinal precepts. Above all, he left a corpus of excellence from which young people will always learn things worth knowing. His work abides, and as Churchill said, a man never dies as long as he is remembered. All who love history will forever remember Paul Addison.

Churchill was not philosophically hostile to the principle of women’s suffrage at any time in the 20th century. He voted for it as early as 1904. His hesitations in 1905-12 arose when militants tried to break up his speeches. He resisted certain measures at certain times for tactical reasons—unlike, say, Asquith, who in 1910-12 opposed the very principle. “Papa supported votes for women,” smiled his daughter Mary, “when he realized how many women would vote for him.”