Churchill Becomes Duke of Marlborough in 1944

A slight variation on the various threads we have about his dying during the war but suppose that Churchill via the vagaries of fate, his cousin the 10th Duke lives longer but dies without an heir or his nephews predecease him, inherited the title of Duke of Marlborough in mid-1944. Whilst I can't see people wanting to change horse at that stage so he remains Prime Minister it does cause complications as his elevation, or depending on your views demotion, to another place means that he's now unable to speak in the House.

My general thinking was Churchill stays as PM, Attlee remains as Deputy PM, and someone in the Commons is elected as the new Leader of the Conservative Party, a position along the lines of First Secretary of State is created to give them precedence, and they speak in Churchill's stead. This neatly sets them up for the post-war general election. Other than the obvious choice of Eden would there be any other candidates that might have been able to steal it?
 
That or Churchill refuses to be elevated and gives up or delays inheriting the title, I would think both the houses would be very willing to write any rules needed?
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Churchill can remain Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party (assuming he doesn't delay the inheritance), and given the precedent for this kind of thing Eden would have taken his place in the Commons as, at this time, Eden is the Leader of the House of Commons.
 
By mid-1944, the war was... pretty clearly decided. Churchill was no longer essential. He would retire as PM for Eden or a caretaker. Or maybe not; perhaps it would be assumed that he would retire at the end of the war, which was within sight. He could finish out the war without appearing in Commons.
 
Not a problem - the 2nd Viscount Stansgate got the law changed to permit it, and given the war situation (i.e. D-Day has just happened) I'm quite sure Parliament could manage the same thing very rapidly if needed. Essentially that means somebody else (probably Atlee or Eden) speaks in the house for the week or two it takes to get the bill drafted and passed while Churchill acts as PM from the House of Lords, then it's back to business as usual.
 
Not a problem - the 2nd Viscount Stansgate got the law changed to permit it, and given the war situation (i.e. D-Day has just happened) I'm quite sure Parliament could manage the same thing very rapidly if needed.
That is potentially one of the options, I'm actually in the middle of D. R. Thorpe's biography of Alec Douglas-Home. :) Having the Peerage Act passed almost twenty years earlier than in our timeline would certain cause some butterflies to start flapping. Mainly I was considering a 1945 general election where Churchill wasn't the leader but still able to stick his oar in, and wanted to see if there were any other real candidates than Eden.
 
How close was he to the 10th Duke. His father Randolph was the 3rd son of the 7th Duke so by the time the 10th Duke dies surely he will be quite a few steps away from the title.
 
Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, was a close friend of his first cousin, Winston Churchill, as well as a Conservative politician, his son John Spencer-Churchill, 10th D.o.M, was born in 1897 and would live until 1972, aged 74, if he died in 1944, he would be succeeded by his uncle, Ivor Spencer-Churchill, born 14 October 1898, he was close in life (and death buried beside his cousin, Sir Winston Churchill, and close to his mother at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.)

Just to show who needs to be killed off. With these out of the way, Winston would become the 11/12/13th Duke of Marlborough, being the last British Prime Minister to sit in the House of Lords was, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury in 1902, so its only 42 years later rather than 61 years later.
 
Not possible. You would have to completely change Winston's personality for this to happen and that causes so many butterflies. In OTL Winston was indeed offered a noble title so he could go to the House of Lords. He refused. He came in as a commoner, he would leave as a commoner. No way would he ever accept a title. Want to learn more I'll give you a tour of the National Churchill Museum, where I happen to work.
 
Not possible. You would have to completely change Winston's personality for this to happen and that causes so many butterflies. In OTL Winston was indeed offered a noble title so he could go to the House of Lords. He refused. He came in as a commoner, he would leave as a commoner. No way would he ever accept a title. Want to learn more I'll give you a tour of the National Churchill Museum, where I happen to work.

Irrelevant I'm afraid. There's a difference between being offered a peerage and inheriting - specifically at this point in time there's no means of refusing the latter. What's more likely is that somebody revives the suggestion that was made when Lord Halifax was suggested as PM instead of Churchill after Chamberlain's resignation, namely a swift law is passed allowing the PM to address (but not vote in) the House of Commons from the government front bench.
 
There always was a slight possibly that Winston Churchill was the illegitimate son of King George V ,he and Winston's mother were rumored to have had an affair.So if that was true it could get Winston Churchill a Dukedom for other reasons and would explain the 19 gun salute at his funeral.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
There always was a slight possibly that Winston Churchill was the illegitimate son of King George V ,he and Winston's mother were rumored to have had an affair.So if that was true it could get Winston Churchill a Dukedom for other reasons and would explain the 19 gun salute at his funeral.
Bastards don't get Dukedoms.
 
When Sunny (Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, [9th] Duke of Marlborough) married Consuelo Vanderbilt, she was told to hurry up and provide a heir, because Winston was heir-presumptive.

So, at the great entertainment to greet the Duke and his new Duchess, the very uncheery Sunny is urged to pet this very bright-eyed, chubby-cheeked lad . . . who has the mumps.

In adults, an attack of the mumps can cause sterility.

Despairing, Sunny gives up smoking and lives longer than in OTL. He dies not in 1934 but 1944.

There we go.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Only if officially acknowledged as a bastard.Unofficially if nobody knows it is possible.
Here's the thing; Churchill was offered the Dukedom of London (which he turned down due to the effects it would have had on his son and grandsons political life, as well as the expenses it would entail), but it was offered to him as a sign of honouring his service to the country when the customary Earldom was considered to not be enough. He wasn't offered it because he was the secret love child of George V or whatever fantasy (because to be perfectly frank that's what it is, gossipy fantasy) people wish to indulge in, it was offered to him because people genuinely saw him as a hero and felt that a Dukedom was what he deserved.
 
That is potentially one of the options, I'm actually in the middle of D. R. Thorpe's biography of Alec Douglas-Home. :) Having the Peerage Act passed almost twenty years earlier than in our timeline would certain cause some butterflies to start flapping. Mainly I was considering a 1945 general election where Churchill wasn't the leader but still able to stick his oar in, and wanted to see if there were any other real candidates than Eden.
Personally I doubt that in 1945 Churchill would decide not to run just because he was a duke.

I don't think it would hurt him either, although naturally following the election a great deal of the blame for his defeat would probably be attributed to his peerage.
 
Top