Winston Churchill's pets

When he died and Chartwell was donated to the National Trust, the family asked that a marmalade cat with white bib and socks called Jock should always be maintained there.

Rufus was a close companion and accompanied Churchill on his wartime adventures such as sailing the Atlantic to meet the US President, Franklin Roosevelt.

In 1938, the round pond was stocked with a thousand golden orfe which he often fed personally with maggots, even when he was Prime Minister during the Second World War.

[12] When Harrods closed their livestock department during the Second World War, Churchill agreed to give refuge to their stock of fish at Chartwell.

This started at the age of seven with rides on a pony called Rob Roy at Blenheim Palace, which was his grandfather's estate.

[13] Soon after their arrival at Chartwell, a wire fence was erected around the upper lake to protect them from his mute swan named Jupiter, whom Churchill described as "irate".

[19][13] In July 1938, three of the black swans left Chartwell in what biographer Stefan Buczacki has called "a celebrated avian burst for freedom".

[13] Buczacki writes, "the local and national press pounced on the story and accounts ensued of 'Chartwell black swans' being spotted on the Thames, at Dartford, at Sheerness, heading for the Isle of Wight and across much of southern England".

[20] Evatt stated that in return, Australia would be receiving assistance from the United Kingdom in the form of "certain other things of much more consequence" to the war effort.

[20] In 1946, Churchill wrote to Australian prime minister Ben Chifley that "The male swan has died at the hands of its truculent spouse.

[22] That year, one of his female black swans was killed by a fox, leading him to send her six cygnets and their father to be looked after temporarily at the London Zoo at Regent's Park.

[25] When one of his eight remaining swans escaped from Chartwell in June 1954, Churchill advertised in the Sevenoaks Chronicle, offering a £5 reward for information leading to its recovery.

[19] Number 10 Downing Street issued an announcement that the missing swan had a "white-ringed red beak";[18] the identifying mark was a small "V-sign" on its bill.

[26] To Churchill's joy, six days after the disappearance, an "exhausted" black swan which initially appeared to match the description was found at a farm near Uden in the Netherlands.