Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician and author, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War.
Churchill was famous for his stubborn resistance to Hitler during the darkest hours of the Second World War.
Short Bio Winston Churchill
Short Bio Winston Churchill
Winston was born at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock near Oxford to an aristocratic family – the Dukes of Marlborough. He was brought up by servants and friends of the family. He rarely spoke to his father and his mother rarely saw him when at boarding school. Churchill went to Harrow school. He wasn’t the best student, having a rebellious nature and slow to learn; but Churchill excelled at sports and joined the officer cadet corps, which he enjoyed.
On leaving school, he went to Sandhurst to train as an officer. After gaining his commission, Churchill sought to gain as much active military experience as possible. He used his mothers connections to get postings to areas of conflict. The young Churchill gained postings to Cuba, and North West India. He also combined his military duties with working as a war correspondent – earning substantial money for his reports on the fighting.
In 1899, he resigned from the military and pursued his career as a war correspondent. He was in South Africa for the Boer War, and he became a minor celebrity for his role in taking part in a scouting patrol, getting captured and later escaping. He might have gained the Victoria Cross for his efforts, though officially he was a civilian at the time. After this experience, he gained a temporary commission in the South Africa Light Horses and later commented he had a ‘good war’ whilst continuing his work as a war correspondent.
MP
Churchill returned to the UK in 1900 and successfully stood as a Conservative candidate for Oldham. After becoming an MP, Churchill began a lucrative speaking tour, where he could command a high price for his speeches.
In 1904, he made a dramatic shift, leaving the Conservative Party and joining the Liberal Party. He was later often called a ‘class traitor’ by some Conservative colleagues. Churchill disagreed with an increasing amount of Conservative policies, including tariff protection. Churchill also had more empathy for improving the lot of the working class and helping the poor.
In the Liberal Party, Churchill made a meteoric political rise. By 1908 he was made President of the Board of Trade and he was a key supporter of Lloyd George’s radical People’s Budget – a budget which saw the growth of an embryonic Welfare State and introduction of income tax to pay for it. The budget made a significant improvement to the life of the poor and helped to address the inequality of British society.
What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?
– W. Churchill Speech at Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, Scotland (“Unemployment”), October 10, 1908,
However, although Churchill was a liberal, he was also staunchly anti-Socialist and suspicious of trade unions.
In 1911, he was made First Lord of the Admiralty – a post he held into the First World War.
On the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, Churchill was one of the most strident members of the cabinet arguing for British involvement in the war. In August 1914, the Liberal cabinet were split with some members against going to war on the continent. However, Churchill’s view prevailed and he admitted being enthused about the prospects of being involved in the ‘Great War’. He went to Belgium where he urged the Royal Marines to commit to action around Antwerp. This decision was criticised for wasting resources. Others said it helped saved the channel ports from the advancing German army.
Churchill also used naval funds to help develop the tank – something he felt would be useful in the war.
However, despite tremendous eagerness for war, his flagship policy for the war was deemed a failure. Churchill planned the 1915 Dardanelles Campaign – a daring bid to knock Turkey out of the war. But, unfortunately, it proved a military failure with thousands of Allied casualties and no military gain. Although the fault of the failure was shared amongst others, Churchill resigned from his post and sought to gain a position in the army on the Western Front.
After seeing relatively little action on the Western Front he returned to London, and sat on the opposition benches before joining Lloyd George’s coalition government. In 1917, Churchill was made Minister of Munitions – a job requiring strong administrative skills to manage limited resources during war. Churchill was considered an efficient and skilled minister.
At the end of the First World War, Churchill was active in trying to support the white army – resistance to the Communist forces which had gained control over the Soviet Union.
In 1924 Churchill was appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer by Conservative PM Stanley Baldwin. Under advice from many economists, Churchill made the decision to return Britain to the Gold Standard at a pre-war level. But, this proved to be damaging to the economy and led to a period of deflation, high unemployment and low growth. Churchill later admitted this was his greatest domestic mistake.
The low growth and declining living standards contributed to the General Strike of 1926 – Churchill eagerly sought to break the strikers and defeat the trades unions. During this period he expressed admiration for Mussolini for being a strong leader.
In the 1930s, his political eccentricities consigned him to the backbenches, where he was a vocal critic of appeasement and urged the government to re-arm. Churchill was often a lone voice in speaking about the growing danger of Hitler’s Germany. He also opposed Indian Independence and was a staunch supporter of the Empire.
After an unsuccessful start to the Second World War, the Commons chose Churchill to lead the UK in a national coalition. Churchill was instrumental in insisting Britain keep fighting. He opposed the minority voices in the cabinet seeking to make any deal with Hitler.
Churchill proved an adept war leader. His speeches became famous and proved an important rallying cry for a country which stood alone through 1940 and 1941.
“we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”
Speech in the House of Commons (4 June 1940)
“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.”
Speech in the House of Commons, June 18, 1940
After the US entry into the war, the immediate crisis was over and Churchill spent more time managing the uneasy Allied coalition of Soviet Union, US and the UK. Churchill was involved in many aspects of the war, taking an interest in all areas. He also participated in conferences withStalin and Roosevelt which helped shape the war and post-war settlement. It was Churchill who helped popularise the phrase ‘Iron Curtain’ after he saw the growing gulf between the Communist East and Western Europe.
“A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory…. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”
Speech at Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946
After winning the Second World War, Churchill was shocked to lose the 1945 general election to a resurgent Labour party. He was leader of the opposition from 1945-51.
But, under the Conservatives he returned to power in the 1950 election – accepting much of the post war consensus and the end of the British Empire. Churchill served as PM from 1951-55 before retiring from politics.
Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values” Churchill was also an accomplished artist
Churchill died in his home at age 90, on the morning of Sunday 24 January 1965. His funeral was the largest state funeral in the world, up to that point in time.
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