May 4, 1960

Winston Churchill had a grandson named after him, the child Winston, son of Randolph and Pamela Churchill. Randolph, elsewhere in the wartime theater, wrote in 1941, to assure Pamela of his love, and with the directive to give Winston their child a kiss. Also, wrote Randolph, "be nice to Alexander." A request which suggests a melodramatic history.

Pamela, (March 20, 1920 to February 5, 1997) would soon divorce Randolph, in part because of her affair with the then highest ranking American civilian in London at the time, Averell Harriman. Her life included many affairs with powerful men and two more marriages-- to Leland Hayward, the Broadway producer, on May 4, 1960, and later, to the aforementioned Averell Harriman.

And what of Alexander. Her biographer Sally Bedell Smith (Reflected Glory, The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman, 1996) gives us some background on Alexander. Alexander was Randolph's white pekinese. After Alexander "playfully nipped," young Winston. Pamela, perhaps unaware of what stern stuff the Churchills were made, banished the pooch, and got a gray Persian cat.

Considering how the twice widowed Pamela mistreated her stepchildren, the fate of Alexander is best left vague.

On May 17, 1993 Pamela Churchill Harriman was sworn in as the American ambassador to France.