Winston Churchill's other darkest hour: Astonishing story of the hero who helped save Britain's war leader from a deadly illness (but left 後援s in the PM's posterior!)

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Just?a few hours before, 中尉／大尉／警部補-陸軍大佐 Robert Pulvertaft, of the 王室の Army 医療の 軍団, had been engaging in small talk at drinks party in Cairo. But now the 46-year-old was 1,300 miles away 近づく Tunis, having been 運ぶ／漁獲高d out of the party by an irascible 准將, 派遣（する）d on a bumpy flight across North Africa, and 護衛するd 銃をつきつけて by two 脅迫的な US 軍隊／機動隊s to a large white 郊外住宅 in Carthage.

He was 素早い行動d into a small bedroom on the ground 床に打ち倒す, where he saw an 年輩の and decidedly portly man lying in bed. ‘He looked 猛烈に ill,’ the 病理学者 解任するd. ‘I thought he was dying.’

Pulvertaft had brought along what he called his ‘travelling 研究室／実験室’ of 器具／備品, 含むing a microscope and lamp. He proceeded to take a 減少（する） of 血 from the man’s ear ーするために 成し遂げる a 実験（する）. The 患者 seemed impressed by how deftly Pulvertaft 得るd the 見本. ‘That sir,’ he said, ‘was competently done.’

In a way, the period can be seen as dark a time for Churchill (pictured 権利) as the events of May 1940 描写するd in the new movie Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman (pictured left)

For a vastly experienced 病理学者 such as Pulvertaft, taking 血 見本s was 決まりきった仕事. But what was anything but 決まりきった仕事 was the 69-year-old 患者 himself, the man who both Pulvertaft and the other 医療の men in 出席 堅固に 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd was lying on his death bed.

The man was Winston Churchill, and he was 厳粛に ill. What’s more, the 総理大臣 knew it.

The previous night, with his 気温 at about 101F, Churchill had confided his 恐れるs to his 保護 officer. ‘I am tired out in 団体／死体, soul and spirit,’ he 認める. ‘In what better place could I die than here ? in the 廃虚s of Carthage?

Of course, Churchill would live for another two １０年間s, yet the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の events of the time when he （機の）カム の近くに to death have never been fully 公表する／暴露するd ? until now. Thanks to 排除的 接近 to a 私的な memoir written by Pulvertaft, the 完全にする story of how Churchill 生き残るd an illness that would have killed most men can be told.

It 明らかにする／漏らすs that the credit for his 回復 should not just 残り／休憩（する） with Churchill’s personal doctor, Lord Moran, but also with the brilliant and eccentric Pulvertaft.

In a way, the period can be seen as dark a time for Churchill as the events of May 1940 描写するd in the new movie Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman. In the film Churchill has to decide between 告訴するing for peace with Hitler or fighting on.

In fact, Churchill’s illness in 1943 （機の）カム at an 平等に 決定的な time during the war, with his 関与 with 戦略の planning at the very highest level. A t the Tehran 会議／協議会 に向かって the end of November, he had met Stalin and Roosevelt to discuss the 侵略 of northern Europe, and at the Cairo 会議／協議会 a few days before, Churchill and the American 大統領 had met Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, where they pondered how to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 Japan.

It was no time for Churchill to be at death’s door, although by no means the first time he had been 本気で unwell. ‘I did not feel so ill in this attack as I had the previous February,’ he （人命などを）奪う，主張するd.

The February episode Churchill was referring to was a 一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合 of 肺炎 that had seen his 気温 rise to an alarming 102F. However, によれば 専門家 医療の opinion, the 肺炎 that he was to 苦しむ in December 1943 was far more likely to have killed him.

The credit for Churchill's 回復 should not just 残り／休憩（する） with his personal doctor, Lord Moran, but also with the brilliant and eccentric James Pulvertaft (pictured)

‘There was no 疑問 that he was very 本気で ill,’ says Professor Allister Vale, a 臨床の pharmacologist at City Hospital, Birmingham, who has made 詳細（に述べる）d 熟考する／考慮するs of Churchill’s illnesses.

‘The mortality 率 from 肺炎 in the 早期に 1940s for a man of Churchill’s age [he was 69] was 40 per cent, and with 治療 it was 20 per cent. For those age 70 and over, the mort ality 率 was 40 per cent, even with 治療.’

The truth was that Churchill was overworked and overtired. The crunch （機の）カム on Saturday December 12, 1943, when he was 飛行機で行くing from Cairo to Tunis ? after …に出席するing the gruelling Tehran and Cairo 会議／協議会s, he had 報告（する）／憶測d feeling unwell. His 計画（する） was to spend a night at the 郊外住宅 of General Eisenhower, and then 飛行機で行く to Italy to see Generals Alexander and Montgomery.

However, while waiting at an 離着陸場, it was obvious Churchill was ill. Lord Moran 公式文書，認めるd he had ‘a grey look on his 直面する that I did not like’, while 保護 officer Walter Thompson thought his boss ‘looked 恐ろしい’.

Even the 普通は indefatigable Churchill knew that he was 本気で unwell, and 知らせるd Eisenhower as soon as he arrived.

Churchill spent much of the day 残り／休憩（する）ing and sleeping, but in the 早期に hours of Sunday morning, he woke Lord Moran, complaining of a 苦痛 in his throat and a 気温, which was 設立する to be at 101F.

Moran 個人として 公式文書，認めるd that Churchill was in a ‘poor 形態／調整 to 直面する an 感染’.

‘If he is going to be ill we have nothing here in this God-forsaken 位置／汚点／見つけ出す,’ he wrote. ‘No nurses, no milk, not even a 化学者／薬剤師.’

Moran knew that he needed help.

THE man Moran 召喚するd was Pulvertaft. There was no better 病理学者 in the whole of North Africa and southern Europe, and deciding to call on him undoubtedly saved Churchill’s life. There was only one problem: Pulvertaft needed to be flown the 1,300 miles from Cairo to Tunis, the modern city closest to the 場所／位置 of 古代の Carthage.

A 退役軍人 of the First World War, during which he had been in a 空中戦／乱闘 against the 騎兵大隊 of 非，不，無 other than Hermann Goering, Pulvertaft was both 勇敢に立ち向かう 同様に as brilliant. A 卒業生（する） of Camb 山の尾根 University and St Thomas’s Hospital in London, he was 任命するd director of 研究室／実験室s at Westminster Hospital at the startlingly young age of 34.

When war broke out, Pulvertaft ? who was affectionately known as Bulgy because of his somewhat bulging 注目する，もくろむs ? took 命令（する） of the Central 研究室／実験室 housed in the 15th (Scottish) General Hospital in Cairo.

Churchill is pictured 権利 wearing his famous サイレン／魅惑的な 控訴 and a colourful dressing gown while conferring with General Dwight D Eisenhower

It was there that he undertook a remarkable 一連の 裁判，公判s on 負傷させるd 兵士s with his own form of 天然のまま penicillin that he 用意が出来ている in ‘broths’. As penicillin was in short 供給（する）, Pulvertaft’s ingenuity in making a ‘home brewed’ 同等（の） saved 非常に／多数の lives.

After Pulvertaft had flown to Churchill’s 病人の枕元 and 診察するd the 総理大臣, the 病理学者 and Moran agreed that the PM was 苦しむing from 肺炎.

‘I spoke with Moran and told him something of the 資源s of British 薬／医学 in North Africa and its 欠陥／不足s,’ Pulvertaft 記録，記録的な／記録するd in his hitherto 私的な memoir. ‘The British Army had no portable X-ray apparatus, or electro-cardiograph and no modern up-to-date 麻薬s and I had finished all my penicillin.’

Pulvertaft decided to 長，率いる into Carthage to find what he needed. （軍用に）徴発する／ハイジャックするing a car , he 長，率いるd to an American hospital, where he 遭遇（する）d a monosyllabic 命令（する）ing officer.

‘I guess this is breaking 安全, but I’m here doctoring Churchill,’ Pulvertaft 宣言するd.

‘Yes,’ the officer replied.

‘Have you any sulpha-diazine?’ Pulvertaft asked, referring to an 抗生物質 麻薬.

‘Yes,’ （機の）カム the terse reply.

‘Have you a portable X-ray?’

‘Yes’

‘Have you a portable electro- cardiograph?’

‘No.’

‘Can you get one? Try anyway.’

The 命令（する）ing officer made some calls, and Pulvertaft soon returned to the 郊外住宅 with everything he 要求するd.

But Pulvertaft’s 出資／貢献 did not stop at finding 薬／医学 and diagnostic 道具s.

にもかかわらず all the care, by Tuesday, Churchill’s 条件 was growing worse. The 総理大臣 is pictured

He was also 責任がある 召喚するing two more renowned medics ? pharmacologist Gladwin Buttle, and Evan Bedford, a 最高の，を越す heart specialist, both of whom would help.

にもかかわらず all the care, by Tuesday, Churchill’s 条件 was growing worse. Pulvertaft would 記録，記録的な／記録する an 交流 with the 総理大臣 that 明らかにする／漏らすs that he really did 恐れる he was 近づくing his very darkest hour. ‘ I’m dying, am I not?’ Churchill asked him.

‘No sir, you are not. I thought you were, but you are on the way up,’ Pulvertaft replied.

‘I don’t believe you. 肺炎, I’ve got. Osler said it was the old man’s friend,’ said Churchill referring to the august Canadian 内科医 who had coined the phrase.

‘Osler had not got sulpha-diazine,’ Pulvertaft 答える／応じるd. ‘It’s a better friend.’

‘Carthage,’ the 総理大臣 then said in a failing 発言する／表明する. ‘Not a bad place for Churchill to die. Dido... 燃やすing... Dido...’

Churchill’s fatalistic mood was not 鈍らせるd the に引き続いて day when he 報告（する）／憶測d to Lord Moran that his ‘heart is doing something funny ? it feels to be bumping all over the place.’

The 総理大臣 was now 苦しむing from atrial fibrillation, an 不規律な and often abnormally 急速な／放蕩な heart 率 that is 一般的に associated with 肺炎.

‘A man feels pretty rotten, I imagine, when he fibrillates during 肺炎, but the PM was very good about it,’ Lord Moran 公式文書，認めるd in his diary.

Although Pulvertaft had been 保証するd that there were no 後援s, the に引き続いて morning at breakfast, ‘Churchill said something very rude indeed’, which left those 組み立てる／集結するd in no 疑問 that using the commode had been an 極端に prickly experience

While the 条件 would be 扱う／治療するd with digitalis by Evan Bedford, at Churchill’s 主張 Pulvertaft continued to take 血 見本s from his ears.

‘You can’t have a count every day,’ Pulvertaft told Churchill. ‘In fact you can’t have any more. Never in the history of haematology has such a mess been made of a 総理大臣’s ears.’

Churchill 示唆するd that there were 代案／選択肢 places from which to take 血.

‘Sir,’ Churchill replied, ‘I have, and readily 収容する／認める it, but two ears. But sir, let me tell you, I have ten fingers, and, その上に sir, I have ten toes. And, finally, I have an infinite expanse of arse.’

It was Pulvertaft who also 安全な・保証するd something upon which the prime 大臣の posterior could be parked during the night if he needed the lavatory ? a 原始の 木造の commode.

‘It was far from impressive, made from packing 事例／患者s stencilled “乾燥した，日照りのd Milk,” ’ he 解任するd.

Although Pulvertaft had been 保証するd that there were no 後援s, the に引き続いて morning at breakfast, ‘Churchill said something very rude indeed’, which left those 組み立てる／集結するd in no 疑問 that using the commode had been an 極端に prickly experience.

As the days passed, the 影響s of the 薬／医学s 安全な・保証するd by Pulvertaft, Bedford and Buttle took 影響, and by December 20, Churchill was beginning to convalesce. On Christmas Day, he was 井戸／弁護士席 enough to celebrate while wearing a flamboyant silk Chinese dressing-gown emblazoned with dragons.

Speaking of Churchill, pictured,? Pulvertaft said: ‘Not long before he died, I saw him again as a 患者. H e did not recognise me and he had 生き延びるd himself'

After two weeks at the 郊外住宅, Pulvertaft returned to Cairo, his 職業 井戸／弁護士席 done.

‘It was a bewildering experience and what I saw was of course 大いに distorted by the ominous 見込み of 災害 and death,’ he wrote.

‘What impressed me most about Churchill was his capacity for instant and 明らかに 排除的 集中 on the 利益／興味 of the moment.’

After the war, Pulvertaft became the first professor of 臨床の pathology in London.

‘His own lectures were as popular as they were unorthodox, and ひどく laced with laughter,’ it was 観察するd after his death in 1990. One man would perhaps admire him more than any other ? Churchill himself.

‘After the war he 招待するd me to dine,’ Pulvertaft 明らかにする／漏らすs in his memoirs. ‘I excused myself; the anterooms of the 広大な／多数の／重要な, I felt, were not for me.’

But the doctor would see Churchill once more.

‘Not long before he died, I saw him again as a 患者. He did not recognise me and he had 生き延びるd himself,’ he 公式文書，認めるd.

The moment may have been poignant, but it was thanks to Pulvertaft that his 患者 had not died in the 廃虚s of Carthage. Finally, this remarkably modest man’s 出資／貢献 to the course of history can now be fully recognised.

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