![Charles McMoran Wilson c1900](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Charles_McMoran_Wilson_c1900.jpg)
Charles McMoran Wilson, 1st Baron Moran,
MC,
PRCP
Lysosomal Pro-X carboxypeptidase is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''PRCP'' gene.
The protein encoded by this gene is a lysosomal prolylcarboxypeptidase, which cleaves C-terminal amino acids linked to proline in peptides such as ang ...
(10 November 1882 – 12 April 1977) was personal doctor to
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
from 1940 until the latter's death in 1965. His book ''The Struggle for Survival'' revealed much about Churchill's physical and psychological state, possibly including clinical depression, while coping with the strain of high office. It was not, however, the strict historical record that it appeared to be, as it lacked any accredited sources, such as diary-entries or confirmed reporting of conversations. Some people also felt that it breached patient–doctor confidentiality.
Background
Moran was born in
Skipton
Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Air ...
,
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
, younger son and youngest of three children of John Forsythe Wilson, a physician and general practitioner from
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
, and his wife Mary Jane, daughter of the Reverend John Julius Hannah, a Presbyterian minister of
Clogher
Clogher () is a village and civil parish in the border area of south County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Blackwater, 5.8 miles from the border crossing to County Monaghan. It stands on the townlands of Clogher Demesne and ...
.
He was educated at
Pocklington Grammar School
Pocklington School is an independent school in Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1514 by John Dolman. The school is situated in of land, on the outskirts of the small market town, from York and from Hull. I ...
then studied medicine at
St Mary's Hospital Medical School, now the
Imperial College School of Medicine
Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) is the undergraduate medical school of Imperial College London in England, and one of the United Hospitals. It is part of the college's Faculty of Medicine and was formed by the merger of several hist ...
, graduating with a MBBS in 1908. He took his MD degree in 1913 at the same medical school. As a student he played in the college
rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
fifteen as well as at county level for Middlesex.
He enlisted in the
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...
in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, rising to major. He was medical officer to the 1st Battalion of the
Royal Fusiliers
The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881.
The regiment served in many wars ...
from 1914 to 1917 and medical officer in charge of the medical facilities at the British 7th Stationary Hospital in
Boulogne
Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...
from 1917 to 1918.
He won the
Military Cross
The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries.
The MC i ...
in 1916 for services during the
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...
, and the Italian
Silver Medal of Military Valour
The Silver Medal of Military Valor ( it, Medaglia d'argento al valor militare) is an Italian medal for gallantry.
Italian medals for valor were first instituted by Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia on 21 May 1793, with a gold medal, and, below it, ...
in 1917 and was twice mentioned in despatches. After the war, he conducted research into
mustard gas
Mustard gas or sulfur mustard is a chemical compound belonging to a family of cytotoxic and blister agents known as mustard agents. The name ''mustard gas'' is technically incorrect: the substance, when dispersed, is often not actually a gas, b ...
poisoning.
Later medical career
Longer term, based on his frontline experience, he developed his study into the effects of wartime conditions on the resilience of troops which was published in the 1930s as a series of lectures titled ''The Mind in War'' and culminated in a book ''The Anatomy of Courage'', published in 1945 at the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
He lectured on courage to officer students at the
Staff College in Camberley.
He was the dean of
St Mary's Hospital Medical School between 1920 and 1945, where he oversaw the rebuilding of the premises, while also maintaining a private practice in London at Number 129,
Harley Street
Harley Street is a street in Marylebone, Central London, which has, since the 19th century housed a large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery. It was named after Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.< ...
. In 1938 he chaired a Home Office committee to plan the organization of London's hospitals to receive casualties expected in the then anticipated Second World War.
He was a prominent scientist in his day, and was elected president of the
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...
in April 1941 and was re-elected each year until 1950, when he resigned in favour of
Russell Brain
Walter Russell Brain, 1st Baron Brain (23 October 1895 – 29 December 1966) was a British neurologist. He was principal author of the standard work of neurology, ''Brain's Diseases of the Nervous System'', and longtime editor of the homonymo ...
.
[
He was ]knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in 1938 and was created Baron Moran, of Manton in the County of Wilts on 8 March 1943 and made his maiden speech in the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
the same year, on the Beveridge Report
The Beveridge Report, officially entitled ''Social Insurance and Allied Services'' ( Cmd. 6404), is a government report, published in November 1942, influential in the founding of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It was drafted by the Libe ...
.[ He was also involved in many other debates on the ]National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
.[ His skilfulness in negotiations with the British Medical Association and the Ministry of Health gave him the nickname "Corkscrew Charlie".]
He helped set up the Spens Committee which laid down the remuneration of general practitioners and dentists, and chaired the government standing committee setting the payment of specialists from 1949 to 1961. He declined the appointment as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) offered at the end of the chairmanship.
Churchill's physician and ''The Struggle for Survival''
During his time as Winston Churchill's private physician, which began in May 1940, two weeks into Churchill's first term as Prime Minister, Moran accompanied Churchill on most of his travels, and met several prominent figures, including Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957.
Achieving rapid promo ...
, Field-Marshal Montgomery (later the 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein), Louis Mountbatten
Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of German ...
and Lord Beaverbrook
William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics o ...
. He also selected appropriate consulting specialists for Churchill when necessary. Although Moran found the travels frustrating when they conflicted with business planning the NHS in London, according to one biographer, Professor Richard Lovell, Moran saw his patient as "the greatest Englishman since Chatham
Chatham may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Canada
* Chatham Islands (British Columbia)
* Chatham Sound, British Columbia
* Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi
* Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
and regarded his care of him as his wartime duty".
In mid-1964, Clementine Churchill
Clementine Ogilvy Spencer Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, (; 1 April 1885 – 12 December 1977) was the wife of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and a life peer in her own right. While legally the daughter ...
learned that Moran was planning to publish a book detailing his personal relationship with Churchill. Lady Churchill criticised his intentions, "I had always supposed that the relationship between a doctor and his patient was one of complete confidence…". Moran's book, ''The Struggle for Survival'', is about Churchill during and after the war. It was published in 1966, fifteen months after Churchill's death, and aroused much controversy, as its detailed descriptions of Churchill's failing health appeared to constitute a breach of patient-doctor confidentiality.[Wellcome Library]
/ref> Moran maintained that he had compiled the book with Churchill's knowledge, although he had sought no permission to include conversations made in his professional capacity with the Cabinet Secretary, other officials and medical colleagues.
The book revealed that "Black Dog" was the name Churchill gave to "the prolonged fits of depression from which he suffered", leading many later authors to suggest that throughout his life Churchill was a victim of, or at risk from, clinical depression
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Introdu ...
. Formulated in this way, Churchill's mental health history contains unmistakable echoes of the seminal interpretation of Lord Moran's Black Dog revelations made in an essay by Dr Joseph Storr. In drawing so heavily on Moran for what he took to be the latter's totally reliable, first-hand clinical evidence of Churchill's lifelong struggle with "prolonged and recurrent depression" and its associated "despair", Storr produced a seemingly authoritative and persuasive diagnostic essay that, in the words of John Ramsden, "strongly influenced all later accounts".
However, Storr was not aware that, as Professor Lovell has shown, Moran, contrary to the impression created in his book, kept no actual diary during his years as Churchill's doctor. Nor was Storr aware that Moran's book as published was a much rewritten account which mixed together Moran's contemporaneous jottings with later material acquired from other sources. Wilfred Attenborough has demonstrated the key Black Dog "diary" entry for 14 August 1944 was an arbitrarily dated pastiche in which the explicit reference to Black Dog—the first of the few in the book (with an associated footnote definition of the term)—was taken, not from anything Churchill had said to Moran, but from much later claims made to Moran by Brendan Bracken
Brendan Rendall Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken, PC (15 February 1901 – 8 August 1958) was an Irish-born businessman, politician and a minister in the British Conservative cabinet. He is best remembered for supporting Winston Churchill during ...
(a non-clinician and wartime Minister of Information) in 1958. Although seemingly unnoticed by Storr and those he influenced, Moran later on in his book retracts his earlier suggestion, also derived from Bracken, that, towards the end of the Second World War, Churchill was succumbing to "the inborn melancholia of the Churchill blood". Also unnoticed by Storr and others is Moran's statement in his final chapter that Churchill had managed before the start of the First World War "to extirpate bouts of depression from his system".
Despite the difficulties with Moran's book, the many illustrations it provides of a Churchill understandably plunged into temporary low moods by military defeats and other severely adverse developments make a compelling portrait of a great man reacting to, but not significantly impeded by, worry and overstrain, consistent with the portraits of others who worked closely with Churchill. Moreover, it can be deduced from Moran's book that Churchill did not receive medication for depression—the amphetamine
Amphetamine (contracted from alpha- methylphenethylamine) is a strong central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity. It is also commonly used ...
that Moran prescribed for special occasions, especially for big speeches from the autumn of 1953 onwards, was to combat the effects of Churchill's stroke of that year.
Besides medical observations, Moran also recounted personal political comments made by Churchill in conversation. Visiting Churchill on the afternoon following the announcement of the 1945 General Election results, Moran commiserated with him on the "ingratitude" of the British public for voting in a Labour government, to which Churchill, referring to the recent wartime hardships, replied "I wouldn't call it that. They have had a very hard time". He also recalled Churchill suggesting in 1946—the year before he put the idea (unsuccessfully) in a memo to President Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
—that the United States make a pre-emptive atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
attack on Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
while the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
did not yet possess nuclear weapons. The motivations behind the publication of Moran's book, ''The Struggle for Survival'', and his criticisms of Churchill, may have been due to Moran's personal grievances against Churchill's staunch imperialist attitudes. He once stated: "Winston thinks only of the colour of their skin."
Family and later life
Moran married in 1919 Dorothy Dufton, daughter of Samuel Felix Dufton, HM Inspector of Schools for Yorkshire. She was a research physiologist, who had been appointed MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
for work with the Ministry of Munitions in World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. They had two sons, John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
(the second Baron) and Geoffrey. He died in 1977 aged 94 at the latter son's home in Newton Valence
Newton Valence is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 4.4 miles (7.1 km) south of Alton, just off the A32 road.
The nearest railway station is Liss, 4.5 miles (7.3 km) southeast of th ...
, Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
, and was buried in the churchyard there. He was survived by his wife, who died in 1983.
Moran said he was a descendant of essayist William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt (10 April 177818 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English lan ...
, whose surname was given as a middle name to his own second son. Richard Lovell notes the ancestor was surnamed ''Haslett''.
Publications
*''The Anatomy of Courage'' (1945), London: Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...
,
*''Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival'' (1966) London: Constable,
*''Churchill taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran: The Struggle for Survival, 1940–1965'' (1966 – 1st American ed.) Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
*''Churchill at War 1940 to 1945: the memoirs of Churchill's doctor'', with an introduction by Lord Moran's son, John, the second Lord Moran, who held the title at the time. This diary paints an intimate portrait of Churchill by Sir Charles Wilson, his personal physician (Lord Moran), who spent the war years with the Prime Minister. In his diary, Moran recorded insights into Churchill's character, and moments when he let his guard down. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2002. Reissue
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Wellcome Library blurb on Lord Moran
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moran, Charles Wilson, 1st Baron
1882 births
1977 deaths
People from Skipton
Royal Army Medical Corps officers
Wilson, Charles
Winston Churchill
British Army personnel of World War I
Recipients of the Military Cross
20th-century English medical doctors
Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians
People educated at Pocklington School
Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians
Harley Street
Barons created by George VI