Clementine Churchill Clementine's biological father was Capt. William George "Bay" Middleton, a noted horseman; Mary Soames, Clementine's youngest child, believed this. However, Clementine's biographer, Joan Hardwick, has surmised (due in part to Sir Henry Hozier's reputed sterility) that all Lady Blanche's "Hozier" children were actually fathered by her sister's husband, Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale (1837–1916), better known as a grandfather of the famous Mitford sisters of the 1920s. Whatever her true paternity, Clementine is recorded as being the daughter of Lady Blanche and Sir Henry. In the summer of 1899, when Clementine was fourteen, her mother moved the family to
Clementine Churchill eighteen. Clementine first met Winston in 1904 at a ball in Crewe House, home of the Earl and Countess of Crewe. In March 1908, they met again when seated side by side at a dinner party hosted by Lady St Helier, a distant relative of Clementine's. On their first brief encounter, Winston had recognised Clementine's beauty and distinction; now, after an evening spent in her company, he realised she was a girl of lively intelligence and great character. After five months of meeting each other at social events, as well as frequent correspondence, Winston proposed to Clementine during a house