Winston Churchill’s Father Paid For The Education of The Discoverer of Penicillin…then, in turn, Winston Churchill’s Life Was Later Saved by Penicillin-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A Scottish farmer saves a drowning boy’s life, but refuses a reward from the boy’s nobleman father. The nobleman then offers to provide an education for the farmer’s son. The son grows up to become Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. Years later, the nobleman’s son is stricken with pneumonia but saved by penicillin. That nobleman’s son is Winston Churchill.
The Truth:
According to the Winston Churchill center in Washington, D.C., this is a myth. There is no evidence these events ever happened. Churchill’s official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, says there’s no record of Churchill nearly drowning or of his father paying for Fleming’s education. Churchill was once treated for pneumonia, but according to the center, not with penicillin.
updated 07/06/07