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A phial of Winston Churchill’s blood that was due to be auctioned today has been withdrawn from sale on the wishes of his family.
The phial had been due to go under the hammer at Duke's Auctioneers in Dorset as a piece of memorabilia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the former Prime Minister's death in 1955.
It was taken from the wartime leader at the age of 87 as he recovered from a hip injury, sustained in Monte Carlo, Monaco, at Middlesex Hospital in 1962.
The item had been expected to fetch between £300 and £600.
Show all 30 1 /30Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill leaving London for his country home, Chartwell in Kent in 1964
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Sir Winston Churchill with his daughter Mary and son-in-law Christopher Soames (right) in 1964
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill (Seated left to right) Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal; Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Winston Churchill; Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, (standing left to right) the Secretary to the Chiefs of Staffs Committee, Major General L C Hollis; and the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Defence, General Sir Hastings Ismay at an unknown location
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill flashes the V-sign on 19 June 1963
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill feeds the deer in Richmond Park, accompanied by his private secretary Anthony Montague Brown and personal detective Edmund Murray on 25 March 1963
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston and Lady Churchill leaving their Hyde Park Gate home for an Ascot race meeting on 16 June 1961
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Jacob Epstein with Winston Churchill in 1958. The pair lived on the same London street
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Prime Minister Winston Churchill kisses Queen Elizabeth II's hand as she leaves 10 Downing Street in London, after a dinner on 4 April 1955
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill at the christening of his granddaughter, Charlotte Soames at Westerham Parish Church, Kent on 6 November 1954. Left to right: godparents Fitzroy MacLean and Diana Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill, Lady Clementine Churchill, Christopher Soames and his wife Mary Churchill. The children are Nicholas, Jeremy and Emma Soames with his grandson Nicholas Soames
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill French President Paul Ramadier awards the medaille Militaire to former British prime minister Winston Churchill on 12 May 1947
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill outside the German Reichstag during a tour of the ruined city of Berlin on 16 July 1945
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill The prime minister of the wartime Coalition government Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill during a speech 0n 2 July 1945. The July 1945 general election resulted in a resounding victory for the Labour Party
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (L) walking with General Bernard Law Montgomery near the Rhine river in Germany during an advance by Allied troops on 23 March 1945
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Marshal Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill together at the Livedia Palace in Yalta, where they were both present for the conference on 7 February 1945
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill with his daughter Mary and General Sir Frederick Pile (GOC Anti-Aircraft Command) watch anti-aircraft guns in action against V1 flying bombs on 30 June 1944
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill and General Sir Bernard Montgomery with his dog in 1944
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Prime Minister Winston Churchill Prime US President Franklin D. Roosevelt seated in the garden of the villa in Morocco where they met for a war conference surrounded by British and American war correspondants, on 23 January 1943
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, on board a naval auxiliary patrol vessel during a visit to the London docks on 25 September 1940
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill strolls in the grounds of his country home, Chartwell Manor on 31 October 1939
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill, recently appointed Hon Air Commodore to 615 Auxiliary Air Force Squadron, climbing out of a Gloster Gauntlet II aircraft during a visit to the Squadron at Kenley, Surrey on 16 April 1939
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill balancing a top hat on his walking stick watched by his daughter Mary, outside the Mansion House in London
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill British statesman Winston Churchill attends the Anglo-Irish Conference in Downing Street on 11 October 1921
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill The platform party is attentive to Winston Churchill as he delivers his address opening a new YMCA hostel for munitions workers at Enfield, Middlesex, on 20 September, 1915
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill won his first parliamentary seat in 1899
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill 2nd Lieutenant Winston Churchill of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars in 1895
Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill dressed in the uniform of Harrow School Rifle Corps
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill between the ages of 13 and 17 at the time he attended the Harrow School
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill in his school years
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill The former Jennie Jerome, Lady Randolph Churchill, born in New York, with her sons John (left) and Winston, in 1885
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Winston Churchill: Life in pictures Winston Churchill Winston Churchill as a young boy, aged 7, in Dublin, Ireland
According to the Guardian
A spokesperson for Duke’s Auctioneers told The Independent : "The phial of Churchill's blood has been withdrawn from sale on the wishes of the Churchill family."
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