The Last Lion. Volume 1: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932

pp. 80 - 81

“Characteristically, members of the upper class [in Victorian England] never lifted an unnecessary finger. It was said of Lady Ida Sitwell that she not only did not know how to lace up her own shoes; she would have been humiliated by the knowledge. Churchill’s cousin, the ninth duke, while visiting friends and traveling without his valet, or ‘man,’ complained that his toothbrush didn’t ‘froth properly.’ He had to be told gently that toothpaste had to be applied to the brush before it would foam. His man had always done that, and the duke hadn’t realized it. Winston himself lived ninety years without once drawing his own bath or riding on a bus. He took the tube just once. His wife had to send a party to rescue him; helpless, he was whirling round and round the tunnels under London. And all his life he was dressed and undressed by someone else, usually a valet, though during one period by a secretary in her twenties.