Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born on 30 November 1874 in Woodstock (Oxford) and died on 24 January 1965 in London. He was Prime Minister between 1940-1945 and 1951-1955 and played a major role in WW 2 for his country and for the allinace between Great Britain, the United States and the UdSSR.

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. Jeromes 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 chlidren with her. Education and First War Experiences Churchill attended Harrow school, a boy’s school in London, from 1888-1892 and entered the Royal Military Academiy 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 WW I

In 1900 he was elected into 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 Secratry for the Colonies. Later in 1911 he became the First Lord of the Admiralty and was responsible for the English Navy. He helped Lloyd George in creating a welfare state and modernized the fleet. He took part in the Dardanelles campaign in 1915 against the Turks but resinged from his politcal positions after the defeat and joined the army again. After his stay in France as a battailon commander he was Minister of Munition in 1917 and from 1918-1921 Secretary for War and Air and Colonial Secretary.

Interwar Era After WW I 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 politcal office but critized the Appeasement Politic towards Adolf Hilter.

WW II

After WW II 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 WW II he worked with the President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt on the Atlantic Charta, 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 WW II he took part at the Conference of Potsdam and helped to reorganize Europe. But he had to resign as Prime Minister after the Conservatives lost the elections.

After WW II

The war in Europe was over but Churchill didn’t rest. He was aware of the threat of the Soviet Union and held a famous speech in Fulton, Missouri and talked about the „Iron Curtain“. Chruchill was leader of the Opposition in Parliament and became Prime Minister again in 1951 and served until 1955. In 1953 he received the Nobelprice for Literature for his work „ The Second World War“. On 24 January 1965 he died in London at the age of 91.

Sources: www.winstonchurchill.org www.dhm.de (Deutsche Historische Museum)