A friend went to lunch today (this is in Perth W.A.- they are a bit whacky). The name Winston Churchill was mentioned and there were few blank looks on some of the younger folk- mid 20’s to 30’s.
They did not know Winston Churchill.
To me that is unbelievable.
That is definitely weird.
What makes Perth wacky? Is it something that would explain why none of them were paying attention in history class? Perhaps it’s because they’re all the way off in the middle of nowhere.
How horribly depressing.
I guess the 30 year old is of Indian descent- so maybe his background didn’t cater for this. But he does have a string of university degrees. The others were quite well educated normal people in respectable (as in white collar) jobs. It is bizarre to me that they hadn’t heard of him.
As to why Perth is whacky- it is 2,000 miles from anywhere of note.
I hate to think of mentioning the Siege of Sidney Street and Peter the Painter.
I’ll betcha they’ve heard of Ned Kelly though
Probably. Though he was a Victorian Bushranger (Victoria being a state here- one of the ones we rank low on the social scale 
)
I’ll bet you’ve never heard of Winston Churchill, either.
Okay waht am I missing? 
The link is to the wiki page for a now-unknown novelist who was, initially, “the famous Winston Churchill”. Couple of battles and some good speeches later, and BAM! he was a historical footnote.
Even if he’d gone to school in India he’d normally know who Winston Churchill was. Apart from anything else he was one of the foremost proponents of maintaining British rule in India.
He’s not THAT unknown. He had his own entry in World Book Encyclopedia when I was a kid. I stumbled across him when looking up that OTHER Winston Churchill.
Years ago I learned that, after he had his first book published, the statesman Winston Churchill wrote to novelist Winston Churchill, just for the heck of it. That’s be like Congressman Paul Simon writing to songster Paul Simon, without SNL getting them together.
The British Winston Churchill used “Winston S. Churchill” as his byline when he started out as a newspaper reporter in order to avoid confusion.
Thanks. I should have picked that up. And I still can’t believe anyone of adult age should not know of Churchill.
Curmudgeon here.
He’s got a Wikipedia page now. By “unknown” I meant “not known to the majority of people” rather than “unknown to history”. I suspect the vast majority of those who do know of him stumbled upon him accidentally much as you did.
I’d only heard of him because he was very briefly mentioned in the rather good HBO film The Gathering Storm.
I got told off in a game of charades once for including the obscure historical figure “Stalin”.
Well, of course. “Stalin” indeed.
Normal people only know him as Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, silly.
By coincidence, I’m the one who started that page.
Really?
Yes, really. If I were making up stories about myself I would be telling people about the affair I’ve been having with Rosario Dawson.
That woman can’t get enough of me.
That’s very naughty Cicero. Here in Victoria we know that the sandgropers are constructing the world’s biggest pneumatic drill so that they can cut themselves off and just float away from the rest of us (they didn’t want to join the Federation remember …) Anyway, I was over there in 2000 and bought some groceries, and was promptly told “You do know that this is an Eastern states yoghurt?” Oh, and Perth is whacky because my ex-husband lives there! 
They don’t know Winston Churchill because he doesn’t play for Freo …
She has been remarkably horny since the sex change.