Churchill's parrot still hurling insults at 104

[Winston]

BBC story

BBC News
Winston Churchill is best remembered for stirring speeches and cigars.
But the wartime leader also had a taste for exotic pets - one of which is still going strong.
Charlie, a blue macaw bought by Churchill two years before the outbreak of World War II, is now entertaining customers at a Surrey garden centre with obscene anti-Nazi tirades.
His owner, Peter Oram, says he believes Charlie is 104, making him the oldest parrot on record.
Mr Oram bought Charlie in 1965 for his pet shop, but was forced to take him into his own home when his constant swearing offended customers.
Bernard Matthews
Churchill apparently taught the bird to shout strings of obscenities, mostly aimed at Hitler and the Nazis.
But Charlie has won over customers at Mr Oram's Reigate garden centre, where he has lived for the past 12 years.
If truth be told, Charlie is looking a little scruffy
Sylvia Martin
"He looks a bit like a Bernard Matthews turkey nowadays, with lots of feathers missing, but he's a lovely old chap," Mr Oram told the Daily Mail.
"If truth be told, Charlie is looking a little scruffy," said Sylvia Martin, who works at the garden centre. "But he is very popular with the public. We are all very attached to him."
However, Leonard Small, who looks after Charlie, said he had become spiteful in his old age, and no longer said much.
"He's pulled many of the feathers out of his chest, but whistles away happily," he said.
Three Jocks
Mr Oram believes Charlie was born in 1899. He had already outlived two owners when Churchill acquired him in 1937.
If Charlie's age is confirmed he would be by far the oldest parrot on record. The next-oldest is a cockatoo named Cokky, who died at the age of 80.
But whether or not Charlie's provenance can be confirmed, the legacy of Churchill's love of pets lives on.
Before he died he asked that his home, Chartwell Manor, always keep an orange cat named Jock "in comfortable residence", in memory of a favourite cat given to him by his private secretary, Sir John Colville.
The National Trust, which now runs Chartwell Manor, has honoured his request, although Jock III has been barred from the house's main rooms.
"His claws could do a lot of damage," says Victoria Leighton, who looks after him. "We try to ensure he keeps to the garden, where he sits happily in the catmint."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ws/3410893.stm

Published: 2004/01/19 22:29:57 GMT

© BBC MMIV

Great to know that Churchill found a way to still insult the Nazis after all these years.

[Ecthy]

no parrott gets to 104. lies.

[Ned]

Wow, is all I can say.

Also proves parrots can hack second had smoke.

[Verto]

Could you provide some examples of the obscenities?

[Winston]

Well, according to a Danish paper citing The Mirror as its source, one of its favourites is to shout "F*ck the Nazis".

It also says Churchill named it Charlie despite it being a female bird, and that it was by his side during many of the wartime meetings, shocking a number of generals and politicians with its outbursts.

It could be a scam, but it's still funny to think about a bird sitting on its perch in Surrey cursing away at Hitler.

[Oerdin]

I like it!

[DanS]

[GePap]

for it top be 104 years old, she would have to have been born in 1900, and 37 years old already when Churchill got her- are they sure she is that old?

[Zopperoni]

It's funny that Winston started a thread on Churchill.

[Winston]

Yeah, I probably should've asked SpencerH to do it for me, to make it a bit more subtle.

[OzzyKP]

Thats great. Someone needs to make a recording of the parrot before its too late!

"F*ck Hitler, Squak! Never give in, never surrender, squak, bloody nazis can eat scottish shlt, squak!"

I'd pay to see that.

[Adalbertus]

Ecthy, I read this today in a newspaper. They said that parrots have a maximum life expectation of 120 years. The bird is quite old, but it's not impossible.

[Solver]

Also a report on REN-TV, the free Russian news channel.

[Arrian]

[Monk]

Just out of curiosity, which Danish paper ran this story?

[Winston]

Back page story in today's Jyllands-Posten.

Link

[Winston]

Hmm, the latest development according to a BBC Update is that experts are dismissing claims of the parrot having belonged to Churchill.

Experts quash Churchill bird rumours

Experts have dismissed the claim that a 104-year-old foul-mouthed parrot once belonged to the war leader Winston Churchill.
Charlie, a blue and yellow macaw, is spending his twilight years in a garden centre in Surrey but his owner Peter Oram says the bird used to live with Sir Winston Churchill in his heyday.
Mr Oram claims 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 bird now entertains customers at the Heathfield Nurseries, in Reigate, with a string of obscene anti-Nazi tirades, which Mr Oram claims Charlie picked up from Churchill.
But the Churchill family have questioned Mr Oram's story and historians have said they are unsure if the leader ever owned a parrot.
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."

Maybe this was too good to be true after all.

But I still say it's one cool parrot for continuing to bash the enemy on a daily basis.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Ecthelion
no parrott gets to 104. lies.

There is only one way to tell. Chop it in half and count the rings

[Boris Godunov]

Macaw's can live to be up to 80 years old, which is still surprising, but I find the 104 claim preposterous.

[Adalbertus]

Provost Harrison,

You are the biologist. You have to know.

[Seeker]

A bunch of monks in Korea once told me they had an 800 year old carp in a pool at their temple.

It was really big and had huge rolling blind eyes.

Even if it isn't true it definitely fits the Churchill legend.

Why did you brits vote him out anyways? He's the only one who could've kept the commonwealth together.

[Winston]

For the record, they did vote him back in 6 years later, and he stayed on as PM till he was 81. Churchill was continually re-elected to the House of Commons, and resigned himself at last in 1964 at the age of 90. He died six months later.

[Odin]

I saw her on CNN, not too bad for 104!

Here is factoid I heard. The oldest goldfish ever lived to be 46. It was so old that his scales had turned silver. And I thought my 5 year old male goldfish is over the hill.

[Alexander's Horse]

Parrots are very long lived, I know that much. You could easily pass a cockatoo or galah down through the family. If I got a young bird now it would probably outlive me.

[Tiamat]

We had a friend who wanted to purchase an African Grey parrot and he had to go through special classes since they bond with the owner and they really stressed to him that this was going to be at least a 70 year committment due to their longivity.

[Alexander's Horse]

Cockatoos are brilliant talkers - some family friends had one called Ben, a white sulphur crested one, who could exactly mimic every person in the house. It was a noisy household and the bird picked up every call. It got to the stage where people had to check if someone was calling them or if it was just the bird. It was uncanny.

The mimicry btw is partly related to boredom. The bird amuses itself that way. It's also a bonding thing of course.