“Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.”
According to Churchill's assistant, Anthony Montague-Browne, Churchill had not coined this phrase, but wished he had.
Resembles an ironic aphorism cited by Langworth from the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations as 19th-century English naval tradition, “Ashore it’s wine, women and song; aboard it’s rum, bum and concertina” or variously “... rum, bum and bacca [tobacco]”.
Misattributed
Source: This Day in Quotes, Robert Deis, Churchill’s alleged quip about British naval tradition http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2010/08/rum-sodomy-and-lash-winston-churchills.html,
Source: [Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations, Richard Langworth, 1586489577, https://books.google.com/books/about/Churchill_by_Himself.html?id=vbsU21fEhLAC, 577, In dinner conversation ca. 1955, private secretary Anthony Montague Browne confronted WSC with this quotation. 'I never said it. I wish I had,' responded Churchill. (AMB to the editor.) 'Compare “Rum, bum, and bacca” and “Ashore it's wine women and song, aboard it's rum, bum and concertina”, naval catchphrases dating from the nineteenth century' -- Oxford Dictionary of Quotations]
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Winston S. Churchill 601
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1874–1965Related quotes
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