In Victorian England (1838 to 1901) it was common for women to be in service working as domestic servants from scullery maids to housekeepers. Near the top of this hierarchical work force were the nannies. These were women who cared for the children of the aristocratic class. Their job was to be the mother and/or father for children whose parents were busy with business or social affairs.

One such lady was Mrs. Elizabeth Everest. In February 1875 she became the nanny for the Churchill family. She first cared for the infant Winston and later his brother John (Jack). Because his father held important government positions, both his father and his mother had very busy schedules. Notwithstanding the fact that Victorian aristocratic parents had little involvement with their children, the Churchills had even less than the norm. Thus, the nanny, Mrs. Everest, became young Winston's surrogate mother and father. She was a woman who had simple but firm Christian beliefs.

Before the Churchills, she had looked after the small daughter of a Cumberland clergyman, who Winston retrieved twenty years later to join him at her graveside. Mrs. Everest also possessed great descriptive abilities. She related her life in that northern parsonage so vividly that it was one of Churchill's most permanent early memories. There is no evidence that a spousely Mr Everest had ever existed, so that her 'Mrs' was purely honorary as was common for housekeepers at that time. She was the central emotional prop of Winston's childhood, and mutual dependence continued throughout his adolescence.

When she left the Churchill family she went into the employ of the Attlee family. Their fourth son Clement, likely benefited from her early nourishing.

When she died in 1895, Winston Churchill said of her, "Death came very easily to her. She had lived such an innocent and loving life of service to others and held such a simple faith, that she had no fears at all and did not seem to mind very much."

In 1940 Prime Minister Chamberlain of England stepped aside and Winston Churchill became the Prime Minister. Clement Attlee joined the Churchill’s War cabinet and in 1942 became deputy Prime Minister. In July 1945 he became the Prime Minister, a post he held until 1951

Churchill guided England through WWII and Attlee over saw the instillation of the National Health system and the granting of independence to India.

When Winston Churchill died at age 90 the only picture in the room was one of Mrs. Everest that sat on his bedside table.