![]() ‘I did not feel so ill in this attack as I had the previous February,’ he claimed. ![]() It was no time for Churchill to be at death’s door, although by no means the first time he had been seriously unwell. At the Tehran Conference towards the end of November, he had met Stalin and Roosevelt to discuss the invasion of northern Europe, and at the Cairo Conference a few days before, Churchill and the American President had met Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, where they pondered how to beat Japan. In fact, Churchill’s illness in 1943 came at an equally crucial time during the war, with his involvement with strategic planning at the very highest level. In the film Churchill has to decide between suing for peace with Hitler or fighting on. In a way, the period can be seen as dark a time for Churchill as the events of May 1940 depicted in the new movie Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman. It reveals that the credit for his recovery should not just rest with Churchill’s personal doctor, Lord Moran, but also with the brilliant and eccentric Pulvertaft. Thanks to exclusive access to a private memoir written by Pulvertaft, the complete story of how Churchill survived an illness that would have killed most men can be told. Of course, Churchill would live for another two decades, yet the extraordinary events of the time when he came close to death have never been fully disclosed – until now. ‘In what better place could I die than here – in the ruins of Carthage? ![]() ‘I am tired out in body, soul and spirit,’ he admitted. The previous night, with his temperature at about 101F, Churchill had confided his fears to his protection officer. The man was Winston Churchill, and he was gravely ill. But what was anything but routine was the 69-year-old patient himself, the man who both Pulvertaft and the other medical men in attendance strongly suspected was lying on his death bed. In a way, the period can be seen as dark a time for Churchill (pictured right) as the events of May 1940 depicted in the new movie Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman (pictured left)įor a vastly experienced pathologist such as Pulvertaft, taking blood samples was routine.
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