Churchill's Parrot: No comment

[Yithian]

Churchill's parrot won't squawk
Mon 19 January, 2004 18:25

LONDON (Reuters) - Winston Churchill's foul-mouthed 104-year old parrot has refused to surrender to after a newspaper tracked the bird down and discovered it was still alive.

"They've been trying to get him to talk all day, but he's not saying much," said Sylvia Martin, who manages Heathfield Nurseries where parrot Charlie has lived for the last 12 years.

Charlie, who kept Churchill company during World War Two, was famous for occasionally squawking four-letter obscenities about Hitler. But Martin told Reuters the bird has mellowed.

"He doesn't say very much anymore -- usually just hello and goodbye. But he does get so excited about music and dances to it. He's very fit."

Charlie -- invariably referred to as "he" despite being female -- is now owned by Peter Oram, the garden centre's owner, Martin said. Oram's father-in-law sold Churchill the bird and was asked to take it back after the prime minister died in 1965.

Steve Nichols, founder of Britain's National Parrot Sanctuary, said on Monday that although parrots did not often live longer than 40 in the wild, some had lived to up to 110.

"It's obviously had the best life possible," he said.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticl...=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=4160386&section=news

 

[Anonymous]

Churchill's parrot gets the bird
Charlie entertains garden centre customers with anti-Nazi tirades

Experts have dismissed the claim that a 104-year-old foul-mouthed parrot once belonged to the wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Charlie, a blue and yellow macaw, is spending his twilight years in a garden centre in Surrey and his owner Peter Oram says the bird used to live with Sir Winston Churchill in his heyday.

Mr Oram says his father-in-law Percy Dabner sold Charlie to the former prime minister in 1937 and then took the bird back after his death in 1965.

The Churchill family has questioned Mr Oram's story and historians have said they are unsure if the leader ever owned a parrot.

The bird entertains customers at the Heathfield Nurseries, in Reigate, with a string of obscene anti-Nazi tirades, which Mr Oram says Charlie picked up from Churchill.


He loved animals, he had dogs, cats, pigs - but there's no record of a parrot
Judith Seawell

Staff at the National Trust's Chartwell property, Churchill's former country home in Kent, said they had conducted a thorough search of records and photographs but could find no evidence of him ever owning a parrot.

Judith Seaward, marketing manager at Chartwell, said: "We really looked and looked and know he had a budgerigar and all sorts of other animals.

"He loved animals, he had dogs, cats, pigs - but there's no record of a parrot.

Standing by the bird

"We have searched what we've got here and spoken to members of the family who I really thought would have known."

Staff at the nurseries were standing by the bird on Tuesday and defending his claim to fame.

Sylvia Martin, Heathfield's nursery manager, said: "He definitely did belong to Churchill.

"My boss Peter Oram's father-in-law sold the parrot to Churchill and when he died they were asked to go back to Chartwell and collect the birds and brought them away."

"When he died they were asked to go and collect some birds and Charlie was one of them."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3414323.stm

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

More parrot news

Foul-mouthed parrot banned for Queen’s visit

Sunny will be sent ashore from HMS Lancaster

Updated: 12:53 p.m. ET March 03, 2004

LONDON - A foul-mouthed parrot, which blurts out expletives and pecks people when she’s angry, is to be removed from a British Royal Navy ship to spare any embarrassment during a visit by Queen Elizabeth.

African-grey parrot Sunny will be sent ashore from HMS Lancaster so she doesn’t ruffle any royal feathers when the queen and her husband Prince Philip visit the ship on British newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The frigate’s 205-strong crew are determined to avoid a repeat of a recent visit by the British fleet’s commander-in-chief, when Sunny’s four-lettered rantings could be heard even though she was locked in a cupboard.

“She learns new words all the time and mimics what people say,” Lieutenant Commander John Pheasant was quoted as saying.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4439833/