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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Tory Shepherd

‘Weirdly compelling’: the tale of Winston Churchill’s ‘interim’ platypus

Winston Churchill Stephen Australia Natalie Lawrence
David Fleay holding a platypus
Australia’s ‘father of conservation’, David Fleay, was approached to help fulfil Winston Churchill’s request for a live platypus, delivered to him in England. Photograph: Australian Museum Archives

There is a photo – or at least a “fabled” photo – that would tie up a lot of loose ends in the strange story of Winston Churchill’s platypuses.

Recent research has revived the tale of how the British prime minister asked Australia to send him a live monotreme at the height of the second world war. Sadly his namesake, Winston, died just two days before landing in England in 1943 in now-disputed circumstances.

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