The Game is Afoot, Churchill!

Anyone who knows a decent amount about Winston Churchill would admit that his was no ordinary
personality. His recklessness in battle, fierce defiance, rare mastery of the English language, and witty repartee are just a few of his powerful traits. Despite his unusually potent character, however, I hope that all of my readers can join me in saying, emphatically, that Sir Winston Churchill was a real person. If you can, you will be smarter than 23% of British teens when it comes to Churchillian knowledge. Here's why:

23% percent of British teens surveyed in 2008 thought that Winston Churchill was a myth. Meanwhile, 58% believed that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes had actually existed.

A 1904 sketch of the (fictional?) detective Sherlock Holmes
Although Doyle may have taken this statistic as a complement to his writing, Churchill would certainly have been insulted. It is interesting to reflect that Churchill could have actually read about Sherlock Holmes' adventures as they were being published. Indeed, the Churchills actually socialized with the Doyle family on numerous occasions.
Winston Churchill and Sherlock Holmes were both household names of the Edwardian Era, and perhaps this is the reason why the line between fact and fiction about them has been smeared in the postmodern era. Still, it is shocking to believe that Winston Churchill, the man who played a mammoth role in saving the world from Hitler and the Nazi regime is believed to be a fictitious character by some.



Sources:

The Telegraph, "Winston Churchill Didn't Really Exist, Says Teens" by Aislinn Simpson:  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1577511/Winston-Churchill-didnt-really-exist-say-teens.html

Daily Mail, "Challenge Churchill! One in Four Think Winnie Didn't Exist (But Sherlock Holmes Did)" by Rebecca Camber:   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-512087/Challenge-Churchill-One-think-Winnie-didnt-exist-Sherlock-Holmes-did.html

Outside the Beltway, "Winston Churchill a Myth, Sherlock Holmes Real" by James Joyner:  https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/winston_churchill_a_myth_sherlock_holmes_real/


Comments

  1. Abigial RoseDecember 22, 2019 at 9:07 PM

    Wow! That's a sad fact and yet interesting. I wonder what the stats are in America. Good point about the smearing line. What do you mean by the last sentence (and no spoilers).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Abigial RoseDecember 22, 2019 at 9:08 PM

    Also I forgot, good title. (:

    ReplyDelete
  3. Meredith LairdDecember 22, 2019 at 10:42 PM

    I updated the post; the last sentence was just bad writing. BUT.... if you want I can give you information on the ending to the Hound of Baskervilles :)

    Another thing I thought that was interesting was that the Americans have shown similar results in polls on American history. I read these stats a few weeks ago:

    One half of (American) students in a survey didn't know that Patrick Henry said "give me liberty or give me death!"

    Eight in ten couldn't list even two of the rights listed in the Declaration of Independence

    Nine out of ten couldn't list one writer of the Federalist Papers

    ...so really, we are just as bad.


    ReplyDelete

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