In post-war 1950, returning to the island after many years, Sir Winston and Lady Churchill chose to stay at Reid`s Palace Hotel, the most famous luxury hotel in Madeira. The idea was to get away from England to recover from a sustained period of illness. Churchill had visited Madeira previously several times, not for holidays in Madeira as such, but as a brief stop off to gather his composure on the way to report on events around the world when he was a news correspondent.



Prior to his Madeira holidays in January 1950, Winston Churchill had telegraphed the British Consul in Madeira, to make inquiries about Madeira's luxury hotels and ask about paintable scenes to practice his art, but the primary reason was to ensure that his trip was kept secret.

Like his war-time American counterpart, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was important for Churchill to control publicity regarding his ill-health. It was known in confidential circles that in recent months Churchill had been bed-bound with a bad case of the flu. With elections potentially on the horizon, Sir Winston wanted to embody his usual image of stoicism and strength, so aimed to conceal his illness from the public. But the news of his holidays in Madeira leaked, and when Churchill's liner arrived at the harbour in Funchal, he was greeted by crowds of English residents and Madeiran locals shouting ?the man who saved the world!? He retreated immediately to his hotel.

The suite in which Churchill stayed at Reid`s Palace Hotel is now named after him. Reid's Palace is a classical, luxury hotel in Madeira's capital Funchal, the kind of high-class place where you can picture Sir Winston enjoying his cigar in comfort. He used the hotel as a base from which to venture out and paint the scenery.

Sir Winston was impressed with the look of Cam'ra de Lobos in particular, where he painted various scenes of the village during his holidays in Madeira. The locals were enamoured by him, too. Churchill was jovial to the islanders. He often responded cheerfully to salutations with his traditional V-symbol, and to this day, the bars in the area display his photographs, and some establishments carry his name. Some of the oil canvases he painted here during his Madeira holidays now hang on the walls of his room at the hotel.

Winston Churchill had his holidays in Madeira cut short when a date for the next election was announced in England, but by the time of his homecoming he was in better shape. He recovered from his illness and returned to run another successful campaign, winning the election in 1951. Sir Winston's rare retreat for reasons of convalescence shows that even our heroes need to get away from it all from time to time.