Winston Churchill

30 November 1874 (Woodstock, Oxford) - 24 January 1965 (London). British politician and national icon. Prime Minister 1940-1945 and 1951-1955. Major role in the Second World War as Prime Minister and in the alliance between Great Britain, the United States and the USSR.

Born Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill. His father Lord Randolph Spencer, son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, was a politician in the Conservative Party and his mother Jenny Jerome was an American. Jerome's family took part in the Revolutionary War 1775-1785 and fought with George Washington for the independence of the colonies. In 1908 Winston Churchill married Clementine Hozier and had five children with her.

Education and First War Experiences

Churchill attended Harrow, a famous Public school, from 1888-1892 and entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1893. After graduation in December 1894 he was sent to India, Cuba and Sudan in order to serve in the cavalry. After these Colonial Wars, he went to South Africa as a war correspondent for the Morning Post in order to cover the Boer War. There, he was held prison by Boer soldiers in Pretoria but he managed to escape on his own.

Back in Great Britain and First World War

In 1900 he was elected to the House of Commons for the Conservatives but changed to the Liberals in 1904. The Liberals won the elections of 1906 and Churchill became the Secretary for the Colonies. In 1911 he became the First Lord of the Admiralty and was responsible for the English Navy. He helped Lloyd George in introducing the first elements of a welfare state and modernised the fleet. He took part in the Dardanelles campaign in 1915 against the Turks but resigned from his political positions after the defeat [defeat of what?] and joined the army again. After his stay in France as a battallion commander he was Minister of Munition in 1917 and from 1918-1921 Secretary for War and Air and Colonial Secretary. [too unstructured. Please revise] Interwar Era

After the First World War he was Colonial Secretary (1921-1922) and joined the Conservative Party in 1924. Under Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin he was appointed as the Treasury Secretary and served until 1929. Between 1929 and 1939 he held no political office but criticised the policies of Appeasement.

Second World War

After the Second World War broke out on 1 September 1939, Prime Minister Chamberlain appointed Churchill again as the First Lord of the Admiralty and later he became Prime Minister in 1940. During the war he worked with the President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt on the Atlantic Charter, which was presented on 14 August 1942 and is seen as the foundation of the United Nations (UN). On 6 June 1944 the Allies landed on the shores of the Normandy and started to liberate German occupied France and later Europe. After the war he took part at the Conference of Potsdam and helped to reorganise Europe. But he had to resign as Prime Minister after the Conservatives lost the elections.

Post-War Britain

Churchill campaigned against the Soviet Union (coining the term "Iron Curtain" in a speech in Fulton, Missouri, USA). He became Prime Minister again in 1951 and served until 1955. In 1953 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. On 24 January 1965 he died in London at the age of 91.

Sources:

www.winstonchurchill.org

www.dhm.de (Deutsches Historische Museum)