Winston Churchill

The former home of Sir Winston Churchill is carrying on the tradition of being home to a marmalade cat called Jock.

Since the National Trust opened Chartwell near Westerham in Kent, the family of the war-time prime minister requested there always be a marmalade cat with a white bib and four white socks in residence.

Jock VII, a six month old rescue kitten, was welcomed to the property in May after Jock VI retired from public life after going blind.

Jock VII, who was rescued along with 30 other cats from squalid condition, was the most confident of the group and was already playful and full of fun, Viktoria Austen, Chartwell’s visitor experience manager, said.

"He has already made friends and started to explore the 80 acres that Chartwell has to offer him," she said.

National TrustCopyright: National Trust

The artist behind a mural of Winston Churchill in Croydon town centre said he would be happy to see the street art replaced.

David Hollier painted the mural, which is made up quotes from the wartime Prime Minister’s diary, back in 2016.

The 48-year-old artist from Wolverhampton who has lived in New York for the past 20 years said he thinks that Churchill was a “completely racist warmonger”.

His comments come after two petitions gained hundreds of signatures calling for the mural, on the corner of Park Street and High Street to be removed.

Hollier said: “I am very proud of painting that picture but I would have preferred it to be of someone else.”

He was commissioned to paint the mural after a previous artwork he created of Amy Johnson was vandalised.

Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly from England to Australia in 1930, setting off from Croydon.

The artist said he was keen to paint another mural of the pioneering pilot but was commissioned to create the Churchill piece.