Charlie, also known as Charlie the Curser was a female
blue-and-yellow macaw who lived for decades in a garden centre in
Reigate
Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...
,
Surrey, England.
Claimed association with Churchill
The owner claimed the parrot was that of Sir
Winston Churchill while he was prime minister during
World War II
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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. He claims that his father-in-law sold the parrot to Churchill in 1937 and then reclaimed the bird shortly after Churchill's death in 1965. According to his stories, the vocal bird was taught by Churchill to shout curses at
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
leader
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
.
[ "Daughter scotches Churchill parrot claim,"]
BBC News. 21 January 2004.
The claim is solidly rejected by the administrators of the
Chartwell property, Churchill's former country home, who note only that he kept a grey parrot elsewhere. Further, Churchill's daughter,
Lady Soames, has denied her father ever owned a macaw. She added he owned a
grey parrot
The grey parrot (''Psittacus erithacus''), also known as the Congo grey parrot, Congo African grey parrot or African grey parrot, is an Old World parrot in the family Psittacidae. The Timneh parrot ''(Psittacus timneh)'' once was identified a ...
named Polly, but sold the bird before becoming Prime Minister.
[ It is reported Charlie has been living at Heathfield Nurseries, where she is most frequently cared for by the establishment's manager, Sylvia Martin, who says that she's gotten slightly grumpy in her old age but is still a bright bird.
]
See also
* List of individual birds
Notes
References
* Hoffman, Bill. "Churchill's parrot still squawking at 104," ''New York Post.'' January 20, 2009, p. 7.
"In A Flap Over 'Churchill's' Old Bird,"
Sky News. 20 January 2004.
* Lyall, Sarah
'New York Times.'' March 9, 2004.
"Winston's obscene parrot lives on,"
BBC News. 19 February 2004.
*
{{Refend
1899 animal births
Individual parrots
Individual animals in England