Churchill’s prescription

Winston Churchill was taking a taxi up Fifth Avenue in New York City during December of 1931. It was about 10:30pm, and he was headed over to a friend's house to catch up and have a drink before his planned speeches coming up later in the week.

When the cab arrived, Churchill, who was used to traffic coming from the opposite direction, looked right and didn’t see a car coming. He stepped into the street and was hit by a car, then dragged about 20 feet down the road. He had bruising along the right side of his chest, a sprained right shoulder, and cuts on his forehead and nose.

Naturally he was rushed to the hospital, where he spent a few weeks recovering. But not wanting to heal up without any booze to take the edge off, Churchill had his American doctor, Otto Pickhardt, write him a prescription for “the use of alcoholic spirits especially at meal times.”

Below is the doctor’s note that was created about a month after the accident as a formality.