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| Species | Blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna) |
|---|---|
| Sex | Female |
| Hatched | 1899 (age 124–125) England |
| Employer | Heathfield nurseries |
| Notable role | Captive |
| Training | English words |
| Owner | Heathfield Nurseries, Reigate |
Charlie, also known as Charlie the Curser is a female blue-and-yellow macaw who lived for decades in a garden centre in Reigate, Surrey, England. [1]
The owner claimed the parrot was that of Sir Winston Churchill while he was prime minister during World War II. He claims that his father-in-law sold the parrot to Churchill in 1937 and then reclaimed the bird shortly after Churchill's death in 1965. According to his stories, the vocal bird was taught by Churchill to shout curses at Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. [2]
The claim is solidly rejected by the administrators of the Chartwell property, Churchill's former country home, who note only that he kept a grey parrot elsewhere. Further, Churchill's daughter, Lady Soames, has denied her father ever owned a macaw. She added he owned a grey parrot named Polly, but sold the bird before becoming Prime Minister. [2] It is reported Charlie has been living at Heathfield Nurseries, where she is most frequently cared for by the establishment's manager, Sylvia Martin, who says that she's gotten slightly grumpy in her old age but is still a bright bird.
The "Dead Parrot Sketch", alternatively and originally known as the "Pet Shop Sketch" or "Parrot Sketch", is a sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus about a non-existent species of parrot, called a "Norwegian Blue". A satire on poor customer service, it was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman and initially performed in the show's first series, in the eighth episode.
Winston Spencer-Churchill, generally known as Winston Churchill, was an English Conservative politician and a grandson of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. During the period of his prominence as a public figure, he was normally referred to as Winston Churchill, in order to distinguish him from his grandfather. His father Randolph Churchill was also an MP.
Major Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer-Churchill was an English journalist, writer and politician.
Spix's macaw, also known as the little blue macaw, is a macaw species that was endemic to Brazil. It is a member of tribe Arini in the subfamily Arinae, part of the family Psittacidae. It was first described by German naturalist Georg Marcgrave, when he was working in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil in 1638 and it is named for German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix, who collected a specimen in 1819 on the bank of the Rio São Francisco in northeast Bahia in Brazil. This bird has been completely extirpated from its natural range, and following a several-year survey, the IUCN officially declared it extinct in the wild in 2019. However, after over 20 years of conservation efforts, 200 macaws have been bred from just two parent birds, and 52 individual birds have since been reintroduced into their natural environment in June 2022.
A companion parrot is a parrot kept as a pet that interacts abundantly with its human counterpart. Generally, most species of parrot can make excellent companions, but must be carefully managed around other common pet species like dogs and cats as they might be hostile towards them.
The article lists the records of prime ministers of the United Kingdom since 1721.
Sir John Rupert Colville, CB, CVO was a British civil servant. He is best known for his diaries, which provide an intimate view of number 10 Downing Street during the wartime Premiership of Winston Churchill.
The hyacinth macaw, or hyacinthine macaw, is a parrot native to central and eastern South America. With a length of about one meter it is longer than any other species of parrot. It is the largest macaw and the largest flying parrot species; the flightless kākāpō of New Zealand outweighs it at up to 3.5 kg. While generally easily recognized, it could be confused with the smaller Lear's macaw. Habitat loss and the trapping of wild birds for the pet trade have taken a heavy toll on their population in the wild, so the species is classified as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, and it is protected by its listing on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Ararat is a brand of Armenian brandy produced 10 years before the Yerevan Brandy Company was established (1877). It is made from white grapes and spring water, according to a traditional method. The brand's "ordinary brandies" are aged between 3 and 6 years. Its "aged brandies" are between 10 and 30 years old.
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The ghost of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, also known as the White House Ghost, is said to have haunted the White House since Lincoln's assassination in 1865. Lincoln's ghost has also been said to haunt many of his former residences in Springfield, Illinois, including his former law office.
Charles John Addison Doughty, QC was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
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Helen Grant is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone and The Weald since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, she succeeded Ann Widdecombe, who was first elected in 1987.
Mary Soames, Baroness Soames, was an English author. The youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, she worked for public organisations including the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1941. She was the wife of Conservative politician Christopher Soames.
The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London, is a bronze sculpture of the former British prime minister Winston Churchill, created by Ivor Roberts-Jones.
Jacob Epstein's bronze bust of Winston Churchill was completed in 1947 and cast in an edition often said to number 10. Epstein was commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee to create a sculpture of former British prime minister Winston Churchill in August 1945, after the end of the Second World War and shortly after Churchill lost the 1945 UK general election. Two casts have been previously displayed in the Oval Office. Another remains on display in the atrium of Churchill College, Cambridge.
Sir Winston Churchill, the British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War, died on 24 January 1965, aged 90. His was the first state funeral in the United Kingdom for a non-member of the royal family since Edward Carson's in 1935. It was the last state funeral until Queen Elizabeth II's on 19 September 2022. The official funeral lasted for four days. Planning for the funeral, known as Operation Hope Not, began after Churchill's stroke in 1953 while in his second term as prime minister. After several revisions due to Churchill's continued survival, the plan was issued on 26 January 1965, two days after his death.