Lady Randolph Churchill

Jennie Spencer-Churchill CI RRC DStJ (née Jerome; 9 January 1854[citation needed] – 29 June

1921), known as Lady Randolph Spencer-Churchill,[a] was an American-born British socialite,
the wife of Lord Randolph Churchill, and the mother of British prime minister Sir Winston
Churchill.

Early life[edit]

The Jerome Mansion on Madison Avenue, New York City (c. 1878)

Jennie[b] Jerome was born in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn in 1854,[1] the second of four

daughters (one died in childhood) of financier, sportsman, and speculator Leonard Jerome and
his wife Clarissa (always called Clara[2]), daughter of Ambrose Hall, a landowner. Jerome's father
was of Huguenot extraction, his forebears having emigrated to America from the Isle of Wight in
1710.[3] Hall family lore insists that Jennie had Iroquois ancestry through her maternal
grandmother;[4] however, there is no research or evidence to corroborate this.[5]

She was raised in Brooklyn,[c] Paris, and New York City. She had two surviving sisters, Clarita
(1851–1935) and Leonie (1859–1943). Another sister, Camille (1855–1863) died when Jennie
was nine.[6]

There is some disagreement regarding the time and place of her birth. A plaque at 426 Henry St.
gives her year of birth as 1850, not 1854. However, on 9 January 1854, the Jeromes lived nearby
at number 8 Amity Street (since renumbered as 197). It is believed that the Jeromes were
temporarily staying at the Henry Street address, which was owned by Leonard's brother Addison,
and that Jennie was born there during a snowstorm.[7]

She was a noted beauty; an admirer, Lord d'Abernon, said that there was "more of the panther
than of the woman in her look."[8]

Personal life[edit]
The Jerome sisters: Jennie (1854–1921), Clara (1851–1935) and Leonie (1859–1943)

Jennie was a talented amateur pianist, having been tutored as a girl by Stephen Heller, a friend
of Chopin. Heller believed that his young pupil was good enough to attain "concert standard" with
the necessary "hard work", of which, according to author Mary S. Lovell, he was not confident she
was capable.[9]

In 1909, when American impresario Charles Frohman became sole manager of The Globe

Theatre, the first production was His Borrowed Plumes, written by Jennie. Although Mrs Patrick
Campbell produced and took the lead role in the play, it was a commercial failure. It was at this
point that Campbell began an affair with Jennie’s then husband, George Cornwallis-West.[10]

Jennie served as the chair of the hospital committee for the American Women's War Relief
Fund starting in 1914.[11][12] This organization helped fund and staff two hospitals during World War
I.[13]

First marriage[edit]

Lord and Lady Randolph (pregnant with Winston) in Paris (1874) by Georges Penabert

Jennie Jerome was married for the first time on 15 April 1874, aged 20, at the British Embassy in
Paris, to Lord Randolph Churchill, the third son of John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of
Marlborough and Lady Frances Anne Vane.[14] The couple had met at a sailing regatta on the Isle
of Wight in August 1873, having been introduced by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward
VII.[15]

Although they became engaged within three days of this initial meeting, the marriage was
delayed for months while their parents argued over settlements.[16] By this marriage, she was
properly known as Lady Randolph Churchill and would have been addressed in conversation as
Lady Randolph.
Lady Randolph with her two sons, John and Winston, 1889

The Churchills had two sons: Winston (1874–1965), the future prime minister, was born less than
eight months after the marriage. According to his biographer William Manchester, Winston was
most likely conceived before the marriage, rather than born prematurely. A recent biography has
stated that he was born two months prematurely after Lady Randolph "had a fall."[17] When asked
about the circumstances of his birth, Winston Churchill replied: "Although present on the
occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up to it."[16] Lady Randolph's sisters
believed that the biological father of the second son, John (1880–1947) was Evelyn Boscawen,
7th Viscount Falmouth,[18] although that was mostly discredited due to the boys' striking likeness
to Randolph Churchill and to each other.

Lady Randolph is believed to have had numerous lovers during her marriage, including the
Prince of Wales, Milan I of Serbia, Prince Karl Kinsky, and Herbert von Bismarck.[19]

As was the custom of the day in her social class, Lady Randolph played a limited role in her sons'
upbringing, relying largely upon nannies, especially Elizabeth Everest. Winston worshipped his
mother, writing her numerous letters during his time at school and begging her to visit him, which
she rarely did. He wrote about her in My Early Life: "She shone for me like the evening star. I
loved her dearly – but at a distance."[20] After he became an adult, they became good friends and
strong allies, to the point where Winston regarded her almost as a political mentor, more a big
sister than a mother.

Lady Randolph was well-respected and influential in the highest British social and political circles.
She was said to be intelligent, witty, and quick to laughter. It was said that Queen
Alexandra especially enjoyed her company, although Lady Randolph had been involved in an
affair with her husband the king, which was well known to Alexandra.[21] Through her family
contacts and her extramarital romantic relationships, Lady Randolph greatly helped her
husband's early career, as well as that of her son Winston.

Later marriages[edit]
Lord Randolph died in 1895, aged 45. His death freed Jennie to move on effortlessly despite her
lack of money; she mixed in the highest London society circles. Attending a party hosted by Daisy
Warwick, Jennie was introduced to George Cornwallis-West, a captain in the Scots Guards who
was just 16 days older than her own son Winston; he was instantly smitten, and they spent much
time together. George and Jennie were married on 28 July 1900 at St Paul's Church,
Knightsbridge.[22]

Around this time, Jennie became well known for chartering the hospital ship RFA Maine to care
for those wounded in the Second Boer War. [23] She headed the effort to charter the ship in
partnership with two American-born socialites residing in London: Jennie Goodell
Blow and Fanny Ronalds.[24][25][26] For this work, Churchill was awarded the decoration of the Royal
Red Cross (RRC) in the South Africa Honours list published on 26 June 1902.[23] Churchill
received the decoration in person from King Edward VII on 2 October 1902 during a visit
to Balmoral Castle.[27]

In 1908, she wrote her memoirs, The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill.

George doted on Jennie, amorously nicknaming her "pussycat". However, they drifted apart. The
Churchills were becoming a dedicated literary family, and George, who was a financial failure
in the City, slowly fell out of love with his wife, who was old enough to be his mother. Short of
money, Jennie contemplated selling the family home in Hertfordshire to move into the Ritz
Hotel in Piccadilly. George was in fragile health, and recuperated at the Swiss skiing resort of St
Moritz. Jennie took to writing plays for the West End, in many of which the star was Mrs. Patrick
Campbell.

Jennie separated from George in 1912, and they were divorced in April 1914, whereupon
Cornwallis-West married Mrs. Campbell. Jennie dropped the surname Cornwallis-West, and
resumed, by deed poll, the name Lady Randolph Churchill.[28]

Her third marriage, on 1 June 1918, was to Montagu Phippen Porch (1877–1964), a member of
the British Civil Service in Nigeria, who was younger than her son Winston by three years. At the
end of World War I, Porch resigned from the colonial service. After Jennie's death, he returned to
West Africa, where his business investments had proven successful.[29]

Death[edit]
Jennie's grave at St Martin's Church, Bladon

In May 1921, while Montagu Porch was away in Africa, Jennie slipped while coming down a
friend's staircase wearing new high-heeled shoes, breaking her ankle. Gangrene set in, and her
left leg was amputated above the knee on 10 June. At age 67, she died at her home at 8
Westbourne Street in London on 29 June, following a haemorrhage of an artery in her thigh
resulting from the amputation.[30][31]

She was buried in the Churchill family plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire, next to
her first husband.

Cocktail misattribution[edit]
The invention of the Manhattan cocktail is sometimes erroneously attributed to Jennie Churchill,
who supposedly asked a bartender to make a special drink to celebrate the election of Samuel J.
Tilden to the New York governorship in 1874. However, though the drink is believed to have been
invented by the Manhattan Club (an association of New York Democrats) on that occasion,
Jennie could not have been involved as she was in Europe at the time, about to give birth to her
son Winston later that month.[32]

Portrayals[edit]
 Jennie Churchill was portrayed by Anne Bancroft in the film Young Winston (1972) and
by Lee Remick in the British television series Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill (1974).

See also[edit]
 The Anglo-Saxon Review, a quarterly miscellany edited by Lady Randolph Churchill