W. Churchill Used British Navy Flag for Wash Cloth

Winston Churchill reached for a towel after shaving. There was no towel. On board a British destroyer in the North Sea, his face and fingers dripping, he fumbled about in a linen closet in the captain's cabin and dried his face with the first available cloth. It turned out to be a British ensign, and is now hanging in C-33, Kirkland House, in the room of David E. Mann '44.

The ship's captain had appointed a special steward to assist the British Prime Minister, who, at the time of the irregularity, was shaving before a small mirror in the captain's cabin. The steward was embarrassed when he could find no towel in the cabin or anywhere on the vessel.

Vessel Torpedoed

Several weeks after Mr. Churchill had left the destroyer, it was torpedoed and sunk. One of the few articles rescued front the wreck was the ensign, which Seaman Robert Sickle, shipmate of the Prime Minister and source of the tale, carried in his jacket.

Recently, Sickle was entertained in Mann's home and gave him the flag. Now Mann has it hanging on the wall in his room, in case something happens to his towels at the Coop laundry.