How a young Winston Churchill fell in love with Cuban cigars

We remember Winston Churchill, who passed away on this week in 1965 at 90. Churchill was one of the great leaders of the 20th century and UK Prime Minister 1940-1945 and 1951-55.   Churchill was also a great author and won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his six-volume history of World War II and for political speeches.

He also loved Cuban cigars.  We know now that he met his first Cuban cigar during a visit to the island circa 1895.  My late father once told me that the Cuban embassy in London would often deliver Mr. Churchill a complimentary box of cigars.  Those long cigars came to be known as the “Churchill.”

We remind you that Cuba was still a Spanish colony at the time, three years before the Spanish American War that paved the way to Cuban independence in 1902. According to H.P. Klepak, author of “Churchill Comes of Age, Cuba 1895“, the young Churchill spent 18 days in Cuba.  

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