Winston Churchill’s thoughts on infant Queen revealed in letter

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The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, a network of 3,800 individuals “who are inspiring change in every part of UK life”, was named after the iconic Prime Minister and was founded on February 1, 1965. The charity has announced it will be changing its name to the Churchill Fellowship over concerns about the World War II leader’s views on race.

In a statement, the charity said: “There is controversy about aspects of Sir Winston’s life.”

The controversy has led to them rebranding the trust named after him.

It said: “Many of his views on race are widely seen as unacceptable today, a view that we share.

“At the same time, he is internationally admired for his wartime leadership in saving Britain and the world from Nazism.

“We acknowledge the many issues and complexities involved on all sides, but do not accept racism of any kind.

“As a forward-looking charity aiming to improve lives throughout the UK, what we take from Sir Winston’s example are values for the future: global learning, public service and, above all, a belief in the potential of all individuals.”

After the rebranding, volunteers at the Churchill Fellowship were left livid and felt the charity was trying to erase the former Prime Minister.

One told the Sun: “He was voted, by the people, as the Greatest Briton in a BBC poll in 2002 but is now erased from his own charity by the woke brigade.

“You can’t imagine what he would have to say about it all but I’m sure he wouldn’t think it was Britain’s finest hour.”

Another volunteer added: “It beggars belief that the man who saved this nation in our darkest hour finds himself cancelled in this way.”

In recent years, academics and experts have taken issue with Sir Winston’s racist views, which were more commons during the early 1900s, and have blamed him for several controversial episodes in Britain’s history.

Churchill advocated the use of chemical weapons, particularly against the Kurds and Afghans.

In a 1919 war memo he wrote: “I cannot understand this squeamishness about the use of gas.

“I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes.”

The wartime leader also appeared to blame Indians for a famine that killed three million people in 1943, when India was still a part of the British Empire.

According to Conservative Leo Amery, Churchill stated any potential relief efforts sent to India would accomplish little to nothing as Indians “bred like rabbits”.

It comes after the BBC was forced to partially uphold a complaint about suggestions made in a News At Ten report, which claimed Churchill’s attitude towards the Bengal Famine was motivated by racism.

The BBC admitted it fell short of its own impartiality guidelines by not offering up alternative views of Churchill’s opinions on and actions with regards to the humanitarian disaster.

The offending broadcast was part of a series of reports “looking at Britain’s colonial legacy worldwide”.

On the broadcast, Oxford University’s Yasmin Khan claimed Churchill was “prioritising white lives over Asian lives” by not sending aid to India.

Rudrangshu Mukherjee, historian at Ashoka University, added Churchill is “seen as the precipitator of mass killing”.

A complainant argued the report “did not take proper account of the fact that Britain was engaged in a world war at the time; and it suggested the absence of effective action to alleviate the famine reflected racism on Churchill’s part”.

The BBC’s executive complaints unit (ECU) upheld the complaint, and said: “This bulletin included one of a series of reports introduced as ‘looking at Britain’s colonial legacy worldwide’ which dealt with the Bengal famine of 1943 in which about 3,000,000 people are believed to have died.’

“A number of the interviewees in the report, suggested Churchill regarded Indians with a degree of disdain if not outright hostility, and the impression that this explained his behaviour was reinforced by the citation of a contemporary account reporting Churchill as having said Indians ‘breed like rabbits’.

“It is hardly controversial to say Churchill on occasion expressed attitudes which many would now regard as evidence of racism, and the ECU thought it editorially justifiable to refer to the issue of racism in the context of a report focusing on Indian attitudes which run counter to the received view of Churchill.

“In the ECU’s judgement, however, more exploration of alternative views of Churchill’s actions and motives in relation to the Bengal famine was required to meet the standard of impartiality appropriate to a report in a news bulletin of this kind.

“This aspect of the complaint was upheld.”

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