Churchill Named Britain's Greatest Gentlemen of the Last Century

Sir Winston Churchill has been named the greatest British gentleman of the last century in a new poll. The former Prime Minister, who inspired the nation to stand in defiance of Hitler during World War Two, topped the survey of 4,000 people to uncover the greatest gentlemen in modern memory.

Runner-up went to Sir David Attenborough, Britain’s best-known natural history film maker who brought the hidden secrets of the world to living rooms across the country with programs like Life, The Blue Planet and Frozen Plane

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Winston Churchill named Britain's greatest gentleman of the last century | Mail Online

 

way to go Winnie !

nice to see David Tennant (#22) and Daniel Craig (#31) also considered.

 

Seems like a weird poll..."gentlemen"? If they are judging gentlemen Churchill would be way down the list...he had a healthy disrespect for women! "i am drunk madam and you are ugly...the difference between you and i is that in the morning i"ll be sober..." Greatest many things but gentleman? Just my opinion of course...

 

I vote Professor Elemental for so far this century.

[video=youtube;0iRTB-FTMdk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iRTB-FTMdk[/video]

~A

 

I don't see it at all??

WWII?
I'd have gone with the suave Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, or Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle--Drax - coz I love that "noble, gentlemanly" name.

Actor?
Olivier's the guy to beat, Alan Rickman has to get an honourable mention - coz I just love that voice,

Music?
Do I hear a vote for George Formby?? How about "Boy George"? Hey he gets it on fashion sense alone!

Cheerio!

 

I have read he was anything but a gentleman.

 

Churchill was a lunatic who almost lost the war for Britain and was directly responsible for hundreds - if not thousands - of civilian deaths in WWI
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/raico-churchill1.html

 

I do not know what criteria was used to determine "best" or "gentleman" so it is difficult to say.
calling the Minister of War during one of the biggest wars of carnage in the 20th Century is daring to say the least.
as a Gentle man would have found this job unacceptable.
perhaps it should simply have been "Greatest British MAN of the last Century"

 

I have nothing but respect and admiration for Britain and the free worlds saviour over the spring summer months of 1940. Without him we would be living different lives.

A great man...I have no problem with that statement. A Great Briton...Again no problem...But Gentelman....No...I with others have issues with that statement.

 

Indeed, without good old Sir Winston we would have lived in quite different world. Given the circumstances he has faced as a leader of his nation and the Free World, he was far beyond the definition of gentleman.

 

Ah...I see...Austin Reed...So it has nothing to do with gentleman in the sense of what a gentleman is rather Austin Reed pushing what a gentleman wears...David Beckham a gentleman? Austin Reed and the Daily Mail need to look into what a gentleman is....clothes do not maketh man....Brookie as someone else said...outshines the lot of them and meets the description of a gentleman including Austin Reeds perceived thoughts...He wore breeches when bird spotting too....Gentleman Churchill can best be seen being a gentleman in his response to Lady Astor...Not a nice woman I'll admit...His response to her own remark in the commons says a lot about what a gentleman does not do in public. Funny though.

 

Churchill is an odd choice, but remember that a gentleman need be neither gentle or kind. I think of 'Gentleman Johnie Burgoune' of the American Revolution. He was a gentleman ... polite, but quite capable of hanging someone. Gentlemen fought duels over percieved insults. The whole thing turns on the term "gentleman"; is it used in the traditional sense (implied a tyype of upper class/ nobility) or some more modern form?
Winston Churchill saw the threat to Britian posed by Hitler very early on, however, he saw a threat in the USSR/Stalin also and (I'm not sure) thought about some type of intervention in Russia. Don't forget that he was also a member of Chamberlain's Cabinet.
A great man to be sure. As was Napoleon and many other powerful rulers. Good for Britain? Not everyone would agree to that, depending on your class and station. He was more a man of the 19th century than the 20th in that he represented the 'old guard' of imperialism. I'm not a Brit so I don't know who to choose, but he seems a odd pick. BY the way, as soon as the war seemed won wasn't he voted out? And he did write the history book (as he said he would).

 

Churchill is one of the greatest men and an outstanding politician, but a Gentleman? Maybe we should ask the ladies?

 

Let us face if WW2 had never happened Churchill would have been voted the worst Politician and Strategist of all time.


WW1 vets still remembered the Gallipoli disaster and my Grandfather never forgave him for beaking the 1926 general stike.


Every economist worth his salt believes that Churchill's decision to instigate the Gold Standard condemned the Country to misery.


He was responsible for WW2 Norwegian Disaster which got Chamberlain the sack and many many blunders of WW2.


However, his courage, inspiration and refusal to be beaten, make him the leading Brit of the Century but never a gentleman.

 

Another silly 'poll' which surely should have defined the term 'Gentleman' more clearly.

One thinks of the comment attributed to Beau Brummel ; -

'The difference between a Gentleman's suit and an Ordinary one is so subtle that only a true Gentleman can tell....'

 

He was good enough to give fat Goering the boot and to give hope to his people and who actually cares whether he was a gentleman or not.

 

Thats it Skip..no one cares...But the company that ran the survey. They did it for commercial marketing means. It was not a scientific survey by any means.

Ask the question again to the British people as a whole in a proper survey and he would not even appear in the list. Nor David Beckham methinks.

 

Then again maybe I understimate my fellow Brits these days and Simon Cowell would win it hands down...