Sir Winston Churchill's chewed cigar sells for £2,000

The chewed end of a cigar smoked by Sir Winston Churchill in a hospital bed has sold at auction for £2,000.

It was picked out of an ashtray by a nurse while the former prime minister was recuperating from a fractured hip at Middlesex Hospital in 1962.

She saved it for her little brother in a bag marked "soiled dressings disposal" where it has been kept since.

The butt had been expected to fetch £1,000.

Churchill, who died in 1965, aged 90, once said smoking cigars was like falling in love

Churchill, then 87, was admitted to hospital after falling out of bed while on holiday in Monte Carlo.

He was flown to the UK on an RAF VC10 at the request of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, and spent weeks in the private Woolavington Wing.

Churchill also contracted bronchitis and pneumonia, which led to thrombosis, but he kept up his smoking habit and eventually recovered.

Timothy Medhurst, from Duke's Auctioneers in Dorchester, said: "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."

The winning bid came from an online buyer, although Mr Medhurst said he did not know where in the world they were based.