LONDON — "We are all worms," Winston Churchill once said, "but I do believe that I am a glowworm."

He was a man of destiny, the living symbol of freedom during World War II, the indomitable bulldog who defied the Nazi war machine at the height of its evil power — who's celebrated in a new museum in London that opened Friday.

But what was Winston Churchill really like? Elizabeth Nel, one of his secretaries during some of the most dire moments of the war, wants to set the record straight.

"He was difficult, he was impatient, he was demanding — but never impossible," she recalled at the Churchill Museum dedicated to Britain's great wartime leader. Nel, who was 23 when she went to work for Churchill in 1941, says he never betrayed a moment's doubt, even in the darkest hour.

"Nineteen forty-two was a terrible year," she said. Convoys were sunk, bombers shot down, Singapore and Tobruk fell. No matter. "He never flinched. He just stayed absolutely firm. Whatever he felt in himself nobody knew."

The Churchill Museum is the first in Britain to be billed as dedicated to Churchill's life. It opened to the public Friday after an official opening the previous day by Queen Elizabeth. It is an ultramodern affair, packed with interactive features, film and photo displays, and dozens of artifacts such as his christening gown, the imposing black door of No. 10 Downing Street, his black felt top hat and cigars, even his "siren suit" — the custom-made velvet overalls he wore when he had to take cover in an air raid shelter.

It opened near the 60th anniversary of the Allied triumph in World War II and just after the 40th anniversary of Churchill's death in January 1965, at age 90.

The museum is in the basement of the Treasury building alongside the Cabinet War Rooms, the evocative and claustrophobic underground chambers where Churchill and his ministers met almost daily to conduct the war. (There's a small bedroom for the prime minister, but Churchill hated to be underground and slept there only three times, the curators acknowledge.) The war rooms get more than 300,000 visitors a year, and most of those from overseas are from the United States, said Robert Crawford, director general of the Imperial War Museum, which owns and operates the new museum.

As the museum makes clear, Churchill's life wasn't all about his Finest Hour in opposing Hitler. There was constant adversity. The man spent much of his political career as a lonely and disliked figure.

Yet as everyone recalls, it was Churchill who rode to Britain's rescue in 1940 — the right man at the right moment with the right spirit, and the oratory to match. But it's easy to forget the bitter moment in July 1945 when, after he led them to glorious victory, the British people rewarded Churchill by unceremoniously dumping him and giving a landslide electoral victory to the opposition Labor Party.

"It brought home to him the chanciness of history," said Cambridge University historian David Reynolds. "Here one moment he's on top of the world; the next he's out on his ear."

Churchill did not attempt to hide his bitterness. "I was kicked out," he wrote.

Jane Williams went to work for him in 1950 when, at age 75, he was plotting his return to power even while finishing the last two volumes of his six-book memoir of World War II.

He was exhilarated to be back in office after his Conservative Party won the 1951 election, she recalled. And despite his age, she felt he was completely in control until 1953, when he suffered a stroke. In 1955 he stepped down as prime minister.

Churchill died on Jan. 24, 1965, to national mourning and the first state funeral for a non-royal in nearly a century.

More than 300,000 people lined the streets of London as his flag-draped coffin was taken through the city, and such was the level of feeling that dock workers dipped the jibs of their cranes in silent tribute as the funeral barge passed along the River Thames.

Some material from Reuters news service was included in this report.