Jack Churchill

Churchill was born in Colombo, British Ceylon, Soon after Jack's birth, the family returned to Dormansland, Surrey, where his younger brother, Thomas Bell Lindsay Churchill (1907–1990), was born. In 1910, the Churchills moved to British Hong Kong when Alec Churchill was appointed as Director of Public Works there; he also served as a member of the Executive Council. The Churchills' third and youngest son, Robert Alec Farquhar Churchill, later a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm, was born in Hong Kong in 1911. The family returned to England in 1917. Churchill was educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man. He graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1926 and served in Burma with the Manchester Regiment. He enjoyed riding a motorbike in Burma. Churchill left the army in 1936 and worked as a newspaper editor in Nairobi, Kenya, and as a model. He took second place in the 1938 military piping competition at the Aldershot Tattoo. He used his archery talent to play a small role in the 1940 film The Thief of Bagdad. ==Second World War==

75 mm field gun. France (1940) Churchill resumed his commission after Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and was assigned to the Manchester Regiment, which was sent to France in the British Expeditionary Force. A common story is that Churchill killed a German with a longbow. After fighting at Dunkirk, he volunteered for the Commandos. Jack's younger brother, Thomas Churchill, also served with and led a commando brigade during the war. After the war, Thomas wrote a book, Commando Crusade, that details some of the brothers' experiences during the war. Their youngest brother, Robert, also known as 'Buster', served in the Royal Navy and was killed in action in 1942. Norway (1941) Churchill was second in command of No. 3 Commando in Operation Archery, a raid on the German garrison at Vågsøy, Norway, on 27 December 1941. As the ramps fell on the first landing craft, Churchill and his Commando leapt forward from their position, while he was playing "March of the Cameron Men" on his bagpipes. They overran the garrison in less than ten minutes, killing or capturing all the enemy soldiers they encountered. Churchill later walked back to the town to retrieve his sword, which he had lost in hand-to-hand combat with the German regiment. On his way there, he encountered a disoriented American patrol mistakenly walking towards enemy lines. When the NCO in command of the patrol refused to turn around, Churchill told them that he was going his own way and that he would not come back for a "bloody third time". A delegation of prisoners told senior German army officers that they feared they would be executed. A German army unit commanded by Captain Wichard von Alvensleben moved in to protect the prisoners. Outnumbered, the SS guards moved out and left the prisoners behind. ==Postwar==

Palestine In 1948, Churchill was posted to British Palestine. He helped defend a train convoy against 250 men with just 12, and later helped coordinate the evacuation from Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Retirement In retirement, he enjoyed sailing coal-fired ships on the Thames between Richmond and Oxford, as well as making radio-controlled model warships. ==Death==

Churchill died on 8 March 1996 at 89 years old, in the county of Surrey. ==Family==

Churchill married Rosamund Margaret Denny, the daughter of Sir Maurice Edward Denny and granddaughter of Sir Archibald Denny, on 8 March 1941. They had two children, Malcolm John Leslie Churchill, born 1942, and Rodney Alistair Gladstone Churchill, born 1947. ==See also==