Image of the Month

Here we see Churchill's daughter Mary, speaking during War Weapons Week in Westerham, Kent. Mary was the youngest of Churchill's five children, born in September 1922. During the war, she served in the Red Cross and Women's Voluntary Service, from 1939-41, then in 1941, aged eighteen (at about the time when this photograph was taken), she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service or ATS and served as a Junior Commander in anti-aircraft batteries in England and north-western Europe. Mary also accompanied her father to several of his wartime conferences as his aide. She was awarded the MBE (military) in 1945 and in 1947 married the future Conservative politician (later to be a highly successful diplomat, particularly as Ambassador to Paris and the final governor of Southern Rhodesia), Christopher Soames. Mary Soames was awarded the DBE in 1980.