Love Letter from Winston Churchill to Clementine Churchill
(23 January 1935)

Excerpt:

My darling Clemmie,

… you wrote some words very dear to me, about my having enriched your life. I cannot tell you what pleasure this gave me, because I always feel so overwhelmingly in your debt, if there can be accounts in love... What it has been to me to live all these years in your heart and companionship no phrases can convey.

Time passes swiftly, but is it not joyous to see how great and growing is the treasure we have gathered together, amid the storms and stresses of so many eventful and, to millions, tragic and terrible years?…

With tender love from your devoted,

W.

Winston Churchill first met Clementine Hozier in 1904, but it wasn’t until their second meeting in April of 1908 that their romance began.  After a four-month courtship, Winston proposed to Clementine on August 11, 1908.  They were married one month later at Saint Margaret’s Church, Westminster, in London on September 12, 1908.

Their marriage was a lasting and happy one but they also had fiery arguments.  Clementine was a determined, dignified, loyal, sympathetic and yet also challenging partner.  She was the critic Winston heeded above all others.  During their fifty-six year marriage, Winston and Clementine wrote warmly to one another whenever they were apart.  They even wrote love notes back and forth to each other while living in the same house.  Their letters and notes often ended with drawings illustrating their pet names for each other.  He was her "pug" (a breed of dog) and she was his "cat."
 

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