Our wartime leader Winston Churchill once told the nation that all he could offer was “Blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

Somewhat bizarrely a small phial of the former Prime Minister’s blood was to be sold at auction on Thursday.

But it was withdrawn at the last minute due to complaints from the war leader's family, who asked for it to be removed.

It seems the blood was drawn from Churchill when he was in the Middlesex Hospital in 1962 recovering from a broken hip, aged 87.

Churchill by then had retired to Chartwell, his home in Westerham, near Sevenoaks, which he had owned since 1922.

The blood should have been disposed of, but was kept by a student nurse called Patricia Fitzgibbon, who hung onto the tube, clearly labelled with Churchill’s name, until her own death, when her relatives put in up for auction at Duke’s Auction House in Dorchester, Dorset.

It was due to go under the hammer last Thursday, with an estimated value of between £300 and £600, but was removed from the sale at the last minute at the request of Churchill’s family.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Mr Churchill’s death in 1965, aged 90.

A spokesman for Duke’s said: “The phial of Churchill’s blood has been withdrawn from sale on the wishes of the Churchill family.”