Even as he recovered from a severe stroke in the summer on 1953, the top priority for Sir Winston Churchill was to reschedule a Big Three summit of world leaders in Bermuda.

The legendary British prime minister's daughter, Lady Mary Soames, recounted the story to The Royal Gazette yesterday on the eve a conference which opens today to mark the 50th anniversary of the summit.

Lady Soames, who was with Churchill during some of the most momentous crises of the 20th Century, is a living link to history.

The 81-year-old is Churchill's only surviving child, and she got to personally meet many of the great wartime and post-war world leaders.

Today, she will attend a three-day conference to mark 50 years since Churchill, US President Dwight Eisenhower, and French Premier Joseph Laniel met at the Mid Ocean Club to discuss pressing issues such as the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the defence of Western Europe, the growth in atomic weapons, and the size of the US force in Europe.

Around 200 delegates from overseas will attend the conference to hear papers from Churchill experts on the theme of summits and the special relationship between Britain and the US.

And tomorrow, Lord Michael Heseltine, who was British Defence Minister under Margaret Thatcher, will address a black-tie dinner at the Fairmont Hamilton Hotel.

In her suite at the Fairmont Hamilton yesterday, Lady Soames, who was 31 at the time of the Bermuda summit, recalled it was originally to be held in July 1953, but it had to be postponed after her father suffered a stroke.

“When my father had this major stroke in June it had to be put off, and as soon as he started to get better, the first thought of his was how could the summit meeting be reinstated.

"He made this remarkable recovery,” she said.

“What I do remember was his deep wish for this conference to take place because he was a tremendous believer in this personal contact, especially at this juncture in the Cold War.”

Lady Soames and her mother were in Stockholm, Sweden, to collect Sir Winston's Nobel Prize for Literature while the Bermuda summit was held in December 1953.

“The date for the Nobel Prize is absolutely fixed, so when it clashed with the summit here, this had priority so my mother went to represent him, otherwise we might have come here.

“When we got home, naturally we were all exchanging views about our travels. Of course my father talked about this and he set great store by it.”

After decades in the political wilderness, Churchill became British Prime Minister in 1940 to rally a nation that looked set to fall to Hitler's Germany, but instead fought back heroically to win the war.

Churchill's country home, Chartwell, soon became a hub of international affairs as he plotted his return to power to ensure Britain could defend itself against the growing Nazi threat.

“As well as my father having a great public life, I have wonderful memories at home in Chartwell when I was a child and gradually realising the part he was playing in world affairs. It was wonderful.”

Lady Soames will be speaking at several Island schools and giving away Churchill books for their libraries. Part of the mission of the Churchill Centre in England, which is organising the conference, is to educate young people about the ideals of freedom and democracy.

“I am looking forward to speaking to the children very much. I always love talking about my father and I hope that they or the teachers ask questions,” she said.

“I don't want to make a great oration to them. Quite often I've been to sixth form colleges in England, but I very much like talking to younger groups. I find they can be amazingly interested and ask intelligent questions. Sometimes they are prompted by their teachers but they don't ask any questions any sillier than ones grown ups ask me.”

Lady Soames will also give a talk at Government House and inspect the cedar Churchill planted during a previous visit to Bermuda in 1942.

She has a fleeting memory of flying over Bermuda with her father some time during the cedar blight of the 1940s and 1950s but does not recall stopping off on the Island.

“I have a feeling it was on my father's travels with my mother and that we didn't stay. Didn't you have a blight? Those wonderful cedars. I remember that absolutely clearly as we came in. I remember we could see what happened to the trees, but we didn't stop.”

Lady Soames arrived in Bermuda on Tuesday night, but hadn't had a chance to see any of the Island yesterday morning when she spoke to The Royal Gazette.

“Coming in last night I just saw the twinkling lights, but this morning I opened the curtains onto this lovely bay. It's beautiful.”

Her father was a great champion of the British Empire and would surely be saddened if Bermuda voted for independence.

Lady Soames said: “It is a matter entirely for the Bermudian people, but I hope that if they do, it doesn't mean there is a break in the relationship with the Commonwealth.

“Will Bermuda still wish to be a member of the Commonwealth? That has been the path for nearly all the Commonwealth countries that attained independence. It seems to be a happy ands successful and solid relationship that develops.”

When asked what her father's greatest legacy to the world had been, she replied instantly: “1940 when he rallied Britain. That was his finest hour and Britain's finest hour. That wasn't just an amazing flash in the pan. There was his influence thereafter, the hard war years and his relationship with Roosevelt was crucial. But it (1940) is what other people think of instantly.

“I like also when I speak of my father for people to realise that it was for literature that he won the Nobel Prize. He wrote for a living, books and for newspapers and he was a very good amateur artist. He was a man of very different talents.”