Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill

1874 –1965

Winston Churchill was an English Priminister during the Second World War, a states man and an author. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature for many books on English and world history. In the British poll “The 100 Greatest Britons” he was voted the most favorite person of all time.

Early life

Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire on 30th November 1874. His father was Lord Randolph Churchill, the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough; Winston's mother was Lady Randolph Churchill (née Jennie Jerome), daughter of American millionaire Leonard Jerome.

Growing up as an upper-class boy, Churchill went to a boarding school. He did poorly in all subjects, only excelled in English and literature. Churchill was a fatty red-haired kidwhom children often called “Carrot”. He didn’t want to learn, however, he found joy in sports such were polo or cricket.

Getting experience

Churchill was accepted at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst after three attempts. Upon his graduation at age 20, Churchill joined the army as a Subaltern of the IV (Queen's Own) HussarsCavalry regiment. Seeking excitement and action, Churchill was more than willing to join any armed forces around the world. In 1895, he traveled to Cuba to observe the Spanish battles against Cuban guerrillas. In 1897, Churchill attempted to travel to the Greco-Turkish War, but this conflict effectively ended before he could arrive. By October 1897, Churchill was back in Britain and his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force was ready for release.

Another of Churchill’s travels has led him to India. Here, Churchill used his family connections and got himself assigned to the army which traveled to Sudan. In Sudan, Churchill participated in what has been described as the last meaningful British cavalry charge at the battle of Omdurman. He also served as a war correspondent for the Morning Post. By October 1898, he had returned to Britain and begun work on the two volumeThe River War.

A conflict between the British and Africans broke out on 12 October1899. Churchill went to South Africa as a war correspondent to cover second Anglo-Boer war in 1899. Caught in an ambush while riding a train, Churchill helped clear the track and get the train moving again with the wounded. Churchill himself, however, was captured and held in a camp in Pretoria. He escaped his prison camp and traveled almost 480 km to PortugueseLourenço Marques in Delagoa Bay. His escape made him a minor national hero for a time in Britain.

Parliament

Churchill never stopped thinking about joining the parliament. After returning home from South Africa, his social position was much better. He had handy experience from all over the world; he was a good spokesman, a great supporter of the British Empire and determined to join the Parliament like his father. And so he did, first as a candidate for the conservative party. In the 1900 general election, Churchill won himself a seat in the parliament, but rather than sitting and discussing problems, he went and tried to solve them. He traveled all over the UK and US, giving speeches and attacking the British Parliament with great criticism. Upon his return he continued in his negativeness and earned himself an unpopular reputation.Churchill found it hard to agree with the conservative party in a while. He was for social reforms and free trade. In 1904 Churchill's dissatisfaction with the Conservatives had grown so strong that he crossed the floor to sit as a member of the Liberal Party.This made him an enemy for nearly a decade as the conservatives seen a traitor in him. The only savior to him was his wife Clementine whom he married in 1908 and who’s helped him and supported him his whole life.

When the Liberals took office, with Henry Campbell-Bannerman as Prime Minister, in December 1905, Churchill became Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. In 1910, Churchill was promoted to Home Secretary. In 1911, Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty, a post he would hold into World War I. He gave impetus to reform efforts, including development of naval aviation, tanks, and the switch in fuel from coal to oil. During this time Churchill began working on a two-volume biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill.

Bad times

In 1915, Churchill was one of the political and military engineers of the disastrous Gallipoli landings on the Dardanelles during World War I. Prime Minister Asquith formed an all-party coalition government and Conservatives demanded Churchill's demotion. This was their revenge. Winston retired for a while, but not for too long. In December 1916, Asquith resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by Lloyd George, a close friend of Winston. In July 1917, Churchill was appointed Minister of Munitions and Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1921.

In October 1922 a General election took place. Churchill had lost nearly every post he ran for, mostly for his ant-socialist views. He was against workers rights, he opposed the Indian Home Rule and declared Mahatma Gandhi to be a half-naked fakir. He stood even strongly against women rights which made him terribly unfavored by the Suffrages. They whistled him off on nearly every speech he gave. His ideas no longer corresponded with the views of the Labor party, however, it was too soon for him to reunite with his old conservative friends.

In 1931, Churchill was yet again not invited to join the Cabinet. He was now at the lowest point in his career. He lost all hope in coming back to the parliament and instead decided to travel and pay attention to his family. He sold books for living, started to paint (learned from Gauguin’s students in South of France) and enjoyed his time off. One of his most famous books, Marlborough: His Life and Times, was started in this time.

Although not involved in politics, Churchill still remained a fierce critic of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler, an opponent to the later Munich Agreement and seemed to have been a lone voice calling on Britain to strengthen itself to counter the belligerence of Germany. Hitler constantly neglected the Versailles treaty signed after World War One and Churchill found himself politically isolated in this matter.

World War II

At the outbreak of World War Two, Winston was welcomed back and appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. He became a member of the War Cabinet, just like during the First World War and the Navy immediately sent out a signal of hope and honor, “Winston is back!”The parliament celebrated Churchill as a hero and a savior and neglected Chamberlain, even accusing him of betrayal. After Leo Amery’s famous words, “In the mane of God, go!” Chamberlain was forced to resign. On May 30, 1939, Winston Churchill became Priminister.

„I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. “

Churchill persuaded cabinet and parliament that Britain and its empire could survive. His inspiring speeches encouraged the British people to be courageous and hopeful, and he invited the rest of the world - especially the United States, whose support he hoped to secure - to back them up.

Churchill’s greatest achievement was that he refused to capitulate when Germany was very close. He was a very strong leader and he strongly opposed any negotiation with the Germans. By this act, Briton became the base from which the Allies could attack Germany. He worked tirelessly throughout the war, building strong relations with US President Roosevelt while maintaining a sometimes difficult alliance with the Soviet Union. His good friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt secured vital food, oil and munition via the North Atlantic shipping routes. When Roosevelt was re- elected in 1940, Churchill was relieved. He had 12 strategic conferences with Roosevelt which covered the Atlantic Charter, Europe first strategy, the Declaration by the United Nations and other war policies.

After Pearl Harbor, Churchill worked closely with Franklin D. Roosevelt to ensure victory over Germany and Japan. He was also a loyal ally of the Soviet Union after Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa in June, 1941. Churchill held important meetings with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at Teheran (November, 1943) and Yalta (February, 1945). Although Churchill's relationship with Stalin was always difficult he managed to successfully develop a united strategy against the Axis powers.

Despite intense pressure from Stalin to open a second-front by landing Allied troops in France in 1943, Churchill continued to argue that this should not happen until the defeat of Nazi Germany was guaranteed. The D-Day landings did not take place until June, 1944 and this delay enabled the Red Army to capture territory from Germany in Eastern Europe. In public Churchill accepted plans for social reform drawn up by William Beveridge in 1944. However, he was unable to convince the electorate that he was as committed to these measures as much as Clement Attlee and the Labour Party. In the 1945 General Election Churchill's attempts to compare a future Labour government with Nazi Germany backfired and Attlee won a landslide victory.

After the War

Churchill became leader of the opposition and when visiting the United States in March 1946, he made his famous Iron Curtain speech at Fulton, Missouri. He suffered the first of several strokes in August 1946 but this information was kept from the general public and he continued to lead the Conservative Party. Churchill returned to power after the 1951 General Election. After the publication of his six volume, The Second World War, Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Churchill's health continued to deteriorate and in 1955 he reluctantly retired from politics. Winston Churchill died on 24th January, 1965.