Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain and winner of the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature, had a lifelong love of animals. Horses, dogs, cats (find out more in my forthcoming book), geese, and especially pigs, were all creatures he adored. However, one little bird had a very special place in Churchill’s heart. In 1954 Dido Cairns, sister of his private secretary, gave Churchill a little budgie named Toby. The bird was mainly green in colour and Churchill marvelled at his looks: “How is each feather clever enough to know that it should grow green, yellow or black so precisely according to its position on Toby’s anatomy?”, he asked. Toby could squawk out a few words when he wanted to impress. Churchill taught Toby tricks – the bird learned how to carry a salt spoon, although it often meant the breakfast table was liberally scattered with salt.
Toby slept in his own special cage in Churchill’s Downing Street bedroom, he was permitted to peck at cabinet room documents (Churchill was certain that Toby was reading them all carefully), perch on his master’s shoulder, and even take nips from the whisky-and-soda by the bed (he acquired such a taste for drink that he once had to be fished out of a brandy glass). Rab Butler, Chancellor of the Exchequer, was so used to Toby landing on his bald head and leaving little deposits there, that he came equipped with a handkerchief to clean up the messes.
Toby was often mentioned in Churchill’s correspondence and was sometimes acknowledged as co-author in letters to Clementine. The Downing Street secretaries wrote letters to Toby, which Churchill could read aloud to his pet, and favoured correspondents would sometimes find a tiny budgie feather tucked into an envelope from Churchill.
Toby travelled with his master and the journeys to France required endless forms and full supplies of sandpaper for his cage, seed, grit and cuttlefish. Sadly, there proved to be one overseas trip too many, and in 1960 he went with him to Monte Carlo, spotted an open hotel window and flew away. A £22 reward was offered, but Toby was never seen again and his master was very distressed at the loss of his bird. A replacement named Byron arrived, but he proved irascible and was given away. In Churchill’s view, Toby’s delightful personality could not be replicated.
What do you think of this literary pet? Tell me your thoughts in a comment.
Selected links for relevant websites, books, movies, videos, and more. Some of these links lead to protected content on this website, learn more about that here.