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To: Spheres who wrote (31993)	7/28/2004 2:26:59 AM
From: Spheres	Respond to of 62574

Parrot swears he was once Churchill's JOHN BINGHAM THE mystery of whether a foul-mouthed, 104-year-old parrot really was a feathered friend of the wartime prime minister Winston Churchill deepened yesterday, as experts threw doubt on the claims. Charlie, a blue and yellow macaw thought by his owner to be the oldest bird in Britain, has long since retired from public life and is living out his days in a garden centre in Reigate, Surrey. His owner, Peter Oram, claims that his father-in-law sold Charlie to the future war leader at his Croydon pet shop in 1937, and took the bird back after Sir Winston’s death in 1965. Mr Oram believes Charlie may have picked up his repertoire of swear words from Sir Winston. However, the Churchill family has questioned the story, and experts doubt whether he ever even owned a parrot. Staff at Chartwell, Churchill’s country home in Kent, have conducted a painstaking search of records and photographs and spoken to family members without finding evidence that he once had a parrot. Judith Seaward, the 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. We have spoken to members of the family who I really would have thought would have known." Sylvia Martin, the nursery manager at Heathfield Nurseries, where Charlie is spending his retirement, defended the parrot’s claim to wartime valour. She said: "He definitely did belong to Churchill. My boss’s father-in-law sold the parrot to Churchill, and when he died, they were asked to go back to Chartwell and collect it. Churchill had him from 1937 to 1965." Charlie then spent time at the family’s Croydon pet shop, before retiring to Mr Oram’s nursery in Reigate. Mrs Martin added: "He did used to swear, but since he’s come to us he’s a lot more educated. His vocabulary isn’t very extensive." Mr Oram’s son, Mark, who still runs Dabner’s pet shop, would not be drawn on whether the parrot once belonged to Churchill. "My dad had him before I was born," he said. news.scotsman.com