How many cigars did Winston Churchill smoke a day?

Winston Churchill typically smoked between eight and ten cigars per day, although he did not constantly smoke his cigars but often allowed them to burn out so that he could chew on them instead. In this manner of consumption, the cigars often became mauled and frayed.

To address this problem, Churchill devised what he called a "bellybando," which was a strip of brownish paper with a little glue on one end. To prevent the cigar from becoming excessively moist and to keep it from fraying, he would wrap the bellybando around the end.

The bellybandos also made it somewhat easier for Churchill to smoke so many cigars every day because they limited direct contact with the tobacco and, therewith, Churchill's intake of nicotine.

He sometimes let the cigars continually burn without inhaling them, which may have limited the amount of tobacco he was actually taking in.

Never the most assiduous of men, Churchill left a wave of cigar smoke and ashes in his wake, often to the horror and dismay of society hostesses. His wife, Clementine, reportedly devised a kind of bib for her husband to wear in bed to keep both alcohol and ashes from damaging his clothes to no avail — his clothes had to be mended regularly to repair the damage.