Winston Churchill's Olympic Speech

A little-known speech made by Winston Churchill in the run up to the 1924 Paris Olympics has been discovered in an archive.

Winston Churchill (above with his daughter Mary in 1924) was in his late 40s when he made the speech | CHURCHILL ARCHIVES CENTRE, CHURCHILL PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS, CHPH 1A/F2/8

The item was unearthed in the Churchill Archive Centre, part of the University of Cambridge, which holds the World War Two prime minister's papers. The statesman was supporting a 1923 fundraising campaign to enable British athletes to take part in the Games based on merit, not just on whether they could afford it.

"When people think of him now... they don't think of a sporting person, but he was the public school fencing champion in 1892 and when in the Army in India, his polo team won an inter-regimental cup in 1899," said Director Allen Packwood of the Churchill Archive Centre.

The discovery was made after David Freeman, who edits Finest Hour, the journal of the International Churchill Society, external, asked Mr Packwood to see if there was anything that might link Churchill to the Olympics.

Churchill delivered the speech at Mansion House, in the City of London, in July 1923, supporting an appeal chaired by his close friend Lord Birkenhead, who was trying to raise £40,000 (about £2 million today) for the athletes, reports the BBC. He added poignantly that the Games would be taking place "after a war in which our youth and manhood has suffered far more severely than some of the other great nations whom we shall meet in friendly rivalry".

"What struck me about it was many of the concerns mentioned in it are equally relevant to today - the need for funding so that everyone can compete regardless of background, the need for professionalism in sport and the power of sport as a uniting force in difficult international times," says Packwood.

The 48-year-old politician was in a brief period out of parliament at the time, having lost his Dundee seat in 1922.

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