Winston Churchill’s blood to be auctioned | CNN

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on his way to hand in his resignation to King George VI in July 1945.

Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images/file

Blenheim Palace (Oxfordshire) —

Churchill spent his early years at Blenheim Palace, a 2,000-acre, 187-room Baroque mansion built in the early 1700s to honor his distant relative John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough.

Courtesy Blenheim Palace

The Blenheim proposal —

Highlights at Blenheim Palace include visits to the chapel where he was baptized and the Temple of Diana where Churchill proposed to Clementine, his wife.

Courtesy Blenheim Palace

Harrow School (London) —

Despite flunking its entrance exam, Churchill attended Harrow School, in a leafy northwest London suburb, from 1888 to 1893.

Courtesy Harrow School Enterprises Ltd

Return of an old boy —

The room at Harrow School in which Churchill, returning as prime minister in 1941, made a famous speech: "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never."

Courtesy Harrow School Enterprises Ltd

Chartwell (Kent) —

Chartwell, Churchill's family home in rural Kent, southeast of London.

Courtesy National Trust

Chartwell as painted by Churchill —

Churchill, a keen painter, said of his family home: "A day away from Chartwell is a day wasted."

Courtesy National Trust

Churchill War Rooms (London) —

The atmospheric secret bunker beneath the streets of London where Churchill gathered his war cabinet is open to the public.

Courtesy Imperial War Museum

Ditchley Park (Oxfordshire) —

Surrounded in wartime by a thick forest, Ditchley Park was used as a rural retreat by Churchill during World War II.

Courtesy The Ditchley Foundation

Bletchley Park (Buckinghamshire) —

Bletchley Park was the home of Britain's crucial wartime code breaking operations, which Churchill championed.

Courtesy Bletchley Park

In the footsteps of Winston Churchill

Story highlights

Blood reportedly taken from the former British prime minister will be auctioned on March 12

Duke's auction house says the blood was taken during a hospital stay in 1962

Nurse drew the blood and kept it after the hospital was going to dispose of it

CNN —

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat,” Winston Churchill once told the British House of Commons.

A UK auction house is taking the former prime minister’s words literally.

Duke’s auction house has announced it will auction a vial of Churchill’s blood, taken during a hospital stay in 1962, three years before his death.

A vial of Winston Churchill's blood will be sold at auction March 12, according to Duke's auction house.

Duke's Auctions

Churchill had fallen out of bed and fractured a hip, necessitating a multiweek stay at Middlesex Hospital.

The blood was drawn by nursing student Patricia Fitzgibbon, according to the auction house. The sample was never used and the hospital was set to dispose of it when Fitzgibbon asked to keep it.

Before her death, Fitzgibbon gave the vial to a friend, who has decided to sell it.

“This is probably the first time that such a personal piece of Churchill’s history has been offered on the open market,” Duke’s said.

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death – the blood is a poignant reminder of an injury which marked the beginning of the end for Churchill, and as such we expect there to be great interest in it.”

Churchill died in 1965 at age 90. The iconic British leader is best known for his leadership of Britain during World War II.

The blood will go up for auction on March 12 in Dorchester, England, along with a signed declaration from Fitzgibbon attesting to its origins.

CNN’s Sam Stringer contributed to this report.