A cigar half-smoked by Sir Winston Churchill has sold for ?�2,000 ($3,092) at Duke's in Dorchester, UK.
The former prime minister smoked it in his bed at Middlesex Hospital in London in 1962, where he was undergoing hip surgery.
 Churchill even smoked his beloved cigars in his hospital bed |
He injured himself while holidaying in Monaco and returned to the UK, telling his family that he didn't want to die away from England.
A duty nurse at the hospital collected the cigar from an ashtray and brought it home as a memento for her younger brother.
Churchill was 87 at the time and although he was increasingly frail, he refused to give up his beloved vices. He died three years later, an occasion marked by a state funeral.
Dukes' Timothy Medhurst commented: "This cigar marks a pivotal moment for Sir Winston Churchill.
"Churchill had already experienced many injuries and to have such a devastating injury occur at such an old age was a threat to his stalwart 'British Bulldog' image.
"This injury in 1962 was also a poignant moment in Churchill's personal life - his beloved poodle Rufus II died whilst he was in hospital recovering."
Churchill was rarely photographed without a cigar and surviving specimens are highly sought after among collectors.
Another half-finished example sold for ?�4,500 ($6,910) in a 2010 sale.
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