Winston Churchill: A Fish Out of Water, but a Witty One

In 1922, for the first time in his adult life, Winston Churchill was “a fish out of water.” He had served in the government in one capacity or another since 1900 when he was first elected to Parliament as a member of the Conservative Party, but in the election of 1922, he lost his Parliamentary seat in large part because of an event that occurred this week (Oct 17) in that year. Churchill was diagnosed with appendicitis.

It almost cost him his life (and think how different history would have been if it had!). The antibiotics and painkillers that today make appendicitis surgery a routine medical procedure were not as advanced in 1922, so Churchill’s operation was dangerous, and his rehabilitation was slow and painful.

More to the point, his fragile health prevented him from campaigning for his seat in Parliament during an election of particular gravity for Great Britain. World War I was a fresh memory, and its aftermath had saddled Britain with mammoth social and economic challenges, especially among members of the working class who wanted the government to provide more social benefits and security.

In response to these needs, Britain’s Labour party enjoyed a renewed popularity, especially in the Dundee district that Churchill represented. A prosperous industrial town before the war, Dundee had fallen on hard times by 1922, and although Churchill was then a member of the Liberal Party (he had switched parties in 1904), he faced both a Labour candidate and a social reformer for the two seats that represented Dundee. Unable to campaign, and out of touch with the concerns of the industrial workers that comprised much of Dundee’s electorate, Churchill was badly defeated — as was his Liberal Party in the general election, meaning he would not be offered a position in the new government being formed. Winston Churchill was, for the time being, out of politics.

It was among the most depressing periods of his life, but it did provide an occasion for one of his classic quips. The year 1922, he would remark later, “left me without an office, without a party, without a seat and without an appendix.”

Of course, it did not last. In 1924 he was back in Parliament, representing the Epping district, a seat he won by switching back to the Conservative Party from which he had originally been elected in 1900. This double switch from Conservative to Liberal and back to Conservative caused some grumbling among regulars from both parties, and Churchill was accused, with some merit, of being a shameless opportunist. But, as usual, he produced the last word in his inimitable style. “Anyone can rat,” he quipped, “but it’s a special person who can re-rat.”