The Last Defence

When, in 1924, Winston Churchill took up residence at Chartwell, his beloved country house near Westerham in Kent, he soon discovered the existence of an obscure ancient rivalry between a faction from the west of the county going by the name “Kentish Men” and another from the east who rejoiced under the similar moniker “Men of Kent”.

The Oxfordshire-born Churchill doubtless did not share the fervour of feeling on either side; he did, however, years later, come to lay unique claim to both sides when, in 1941, he was appointed to the lifelong post of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, with the role’s attendant right to take up residence in the county’s Tudor artillery fort, Walmer Castle. That he united both rival factions in mutual approval of this non-native of the “Garden of England” is testament to Churchill’s knack for pulling off the impossible, more than anything else.

In the