Revealed: Winston Churchill's sister-in-law feared he might convert to Islam

In the note, written in August 1907, Lady Gwendoline Bertie – who would later marry his brother, Jack – urged Churchill to ‘fight against’ the desire to convert. 

She wrote: ‘Please don’t become converted to Islam; I have noticed in your disposition a tendency to orientalise [fascination with the Orient and Islam], Pasha-like tendencies, I really have.

‘If you come into contact with Islam your conversion might be effected with greater ease than you might have supposed, call of the blood, don’t you know what I mean, do fight against it.’