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Churchill—here in 1928, building a cottage for his daughters at his Chartwell estate—found physical labor a good counterpart to mental labor. He was also at work on a book at the time and wrote with satisfaction of laying “200 bricks and 2,000 words a day.” Bricklaying became a lifelong outlet for the man—one made official in the fall of 1928 when he was inducted into the Amalgamated Union of Building Trades Workers. His membership card read “Winston S. Churchill, Westerham, Kent. Occupation, bricklayer.” (Keystone/Getty Images)
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