Leaders and Illness: How Winston Churchill Dodged the Influenza Pandemic; Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, and Franklin D. Roosevelt Were Not So Fortunate

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April 3, 2020 Topic: History Region: Americas

Leaders and Illness: How Winston Churchill Dodged the Influenza Pandemic; Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, and Franklin D. Roosevelt Were Not So Fortunate

These stories of leaders and illness raise sobering “what if” questions about the unfolding of history. What if the flu had taken Franklin D. Roosevelt as one of its victims in 1918, or if a burst appendix had killed Winston Churchill in 1922? Who would have served as President in bringing the United States out of the Great Depression?

Churchill wrote back: “What a cataclysm! Poor darling I expect you have had an awful time. But as usual you have risen to the occasion & your letter about it all is Napoleonic.” From Churchill, to be described as Napoleonic was a high accolade, even if we do not typically associate the French emperor in the role of a mother caring for a sick child and a wife seeking to reassure her husband. Churchill could not help but feel pangs of guilt that he had dodged the flu bullet once again and was not around to help care for his family. “I feel a recreant hastening off to the Riviera and dwelling among these flesh pots while you are on the rack at home.” Since Clementine had arranged for nursing staff to watch over the children, Churchill recommended that she get bed rest. “A week on y[ou]r back will do you all the good in the world. Then come out here to recuperate in this delicious sunshine and let me mount guard in y[ou]r place over the kittens.” Little did the famous couple know but Clementine was likely pregnant with their youngest daughter Mary at this time when she was exhausted from looking after a household of sick children. 

While Churchill avoided contracting influenza during the Great War, he had given thought to the disease. He even wrote a poem about influenza almost thirty years before in 1890 when he was fifteen and a student at Harrow. The poem was a reflection upon an influenza epidemic that was then striking Russia. 

Oh how shall I its deeds recount 

Or measure the untold amount 

Of ills that it has done? 

This poem from the young Churchill certainly captures what we are all thinking today in trying to assess the political, strategic, and social effects, as well as the deeply personal human toll of contagion. 

While Churchill avoiding contracted influenza, he did come close to death in 1922 when he became seriously ill with appendicitis. He recalled: “I had a very serious operation performed only just in time, and an abdominal wound seven inches long.” The operation and recovery occurred at a crucial time when a nation-wide election was underway. His illness curtailed his ability to campaign, and his wife Clementine tried to act as a substitute while he remained confined to bed. When he finally did recover, his weakened physical condition hobbled his ability to conduct a vigorous election effort. The election result was not surprising: Churchill would lose his seat in Parliament, while the Liberal Party to which he then belonged went down in catastrophic defeat. This crushing personal and party election defeat tossed Churchill out from high executive office of state in the government. Putting on display his famous humor, he would write: “In the twinkling of an eye I found myself without an office, without a seat, without a party, and without an appendix.” 

These stories of leaders and illness raise sobering “what if” questions about the unfolding of history. What if the flu had taken Franklin D. Roosevelt as one of its victims in 1918, or if a burst appendix had killed Winston Churchill in 1922? Who would have served as President in bringing the United States out of the Great Depression? Who among American political leaders was better equipped than Roosevelt to lead the country during the Second World War? In the case of Britain, who would have better led the British people during its “finest hour” during the grim days of 1940 in standing up to the Nazi menace? To ask these uncomfortable questions is to highlight the role of chance, of individual leaders, of illness in history. But Churchill and Roosevelt did survive and lived to save Western Civilization from falling into an evil dark age as awful to imagine as any contagion. We are fortunate that their robust constitutions kept them alive to fight again another day. 

John H. Maurer serves as the Alfred Thayer Mahan Distinguished University Professor of Sea Power and Grand Strategy at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone. 

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