Randolph Churchill, aged twenty-eight, was exceedingly handsome despite a reputation for drunkenness, boorishness and treating most people with the utmost contempt. He made a spasmodic living by journalism and lecturing until he joined the army. When on leave he
met, and immediately became engaged to, a jolly, plump, red-haired, nineteen-year-old girl, Pamela Digby. Within days they were married, making the war an excuse for haste, though there was not much going on with the 4th Hussars. The wedding took place at Admiralty House and his parents, Winston and Clementine, hoped that Pamela would "settle him down".

Randolph was quite open about the fact he wanted a son, which was the reason why he married, lady friends were for sex but Pamela he regarded as "breeding" material. Continuing to womanize, when Pamela was in the process of giving birth, it was reported that he was in bed with another woman. Even during the war, when stationed in Egypt, he had a long affaire with Momo Marriott and when she was not available had a succession of girlfriends, some of them protitutes. However, during the war Randolph proved his courage many times and was to do so again as a war reporter in Korea, where he was shot in the leg. But his capacity for drink remained prodigious and he was
embittered by his father's evident lack of enthusiasm for his company. Although the rows between them became increasingly exhausting for the older man with the passing years, yet there remained a deep affection between them.

Randolph's long-delayed divorce came through a few months after the end of the war and, in November 1948, he married June Osborne. It was inevitably a tempestuous relationship held together only by their beautiful daughter, Arabella, although finally ending in divorce in 1961. In the previous year Randolph had been entrusted with the writing of his father's biography, incontrovertibly the single most important and worthwhile task of his life. He went about it with
professional zeal, surrounding himself with a team of researchers and secretaries at his place at Stour.

However, his health was already failing, his prodigious cigarette smoking taking its toll. In a life touched by tragedy, insecurity and loneliness, the worst blow was his being able to complete only the first two volumes of a biography that gave strong evidence of matching its subject in its quality and understanding. He died on 6 June 1968.
(Condensed from Richard Hough's "Winston and Clementine".)

Source: Leo van de Pas