Historical Figure
Winston Churchill
1874–1965
British statesman and writer (1874–1965)
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Biography
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. For some 62 of the years between 1900 and 1964, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) and represented a total of five constituencies over that time. Ideologically an adherent to economic liberalism and imperialism, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
Timeline
The story of Winston Churchill, told in moments.
Born two months premature at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. His mother, Jennie Jerome, is American. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, is a prominent Conservative politician who will flame out young. Winston barely knows him.
Born at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. Half-American through his mother, Jennie Jerome, a Brooklyn socialite. His father Lord Randolph Churchill was a prominent but troubled politician. Winston was a mediocre student who failed military entrance exams twice.
Captured by Boers during the Second Boer War while working as a war correspondent. Escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp in Pretoria by climbing over a wall at night. Made it 300 miles to Portuguese East Africa. Came home a celebrity.
Captured by Boer forces in South Africa after an armored train is ambushed. He escapes a month later by climbing over a prison wall in Pretoria, hiding in a coal truck, and making his way 300 miles to Portuguese East Africa. He comes home a celebrity.
The Gallipoli campaign, which he championed as First Lord of the Admiralty, turns into a catastrophe. Over 44,000 Allied soldiers die. Churchill is demoted to the least important cabinet post. He resigns, joins the army, and commands a battalion in the trenches of the Western Front. He is 40. His political career appears finished.
Became Prime Minister as Germany invaded France and the Low Countries. "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." He was 65 and had spent a decade in political wilderness. The timing was accidental and perfect.
Died at his London home at 90. He'd suffered a severe stroke nine days earlier. His state funeral was the largest in British history. 300,000 people filed past his coffin. Cranes along the Thames dipped in salute as the barge carrying his body passed.
Dies at his London home at age 90. He had told his doctor years earlier: "I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter." His state funeral draws 350 million television viewers. Dockers on the Thames lower their crane jibs as the barge carrying his coffin passes. He is buried in a village churchyard in Bladon, near where he was born.
Show full timeline (17 entries)
Hit by a car crossing Fifth Avenue in New York. He looked the wrong way. The impact fractures ribs and causes severe internal bleeding. He nearly dies. He writes about the accident for the Daily Mail, turns it into a paid article, and uses the hospital stay to lecture on the experience of being hit by a car at 35 miles per hour.
Becomes Prime Minister. Neville Chamberlain has resigned after losing the confidence of Parliament. Churchill takes office on the same day Germany invades France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Three days later he tells the House of Commons: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
Delivered the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech to Parliament. Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany. The Dunkirk evacuation had just saved 338,000 troops. Churchill turned a retreat into a rallying cry.
Delivers his "Finest Hour" speech after the fall of France. Britain stands alone. The RAF has 700 fighters. The Luftwaffe has 2,600 aircraft. "If the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: This was their finest hour."
Loses the general election in a landslide to Clement Attlee's Labour Party. The war in Europe ended two months earlier. The British public wants a welfare state, not a war leader. Churchill is stunned. His wife Clementine tells him it may be "a blessing in disguise." He replies: "At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised."
Delivers the "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." He is no longer Prime Minister. He has no power. The phrase defines the next 45 years of world politics.
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his historical and biographical writing. Not in Physics or Peace. He'd also won a Grammy for best spoken word album. He painted over 500 oil paintings in his lifetime.
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Not for a single book. For his body of work: six volumes on the Second World War, four on the English-speaking peoples, speeches, journalism, a novel. The Swedish Academy praises his "mastery of historical and biographical description."
The BBC polls the British public to name the greatest Briton of all time. Churchill wins. He receives more votes than Shakespeare, Darwin, Newton, and Elizabeth I. Sixty-three years after the war began, the country he rallied still places him first.
In Their Own Words (20)
She shone for me like the Evening Star. I loved her dearly — but at a distance.
On his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, Chapter 1 (Childhood)., 1930
I then had one of the three or four long intimate conversations with him which are all I can boast.
On his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, Chapter 3 (Examinations)., 1930
Although always prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it should be postponed.
Chapter 4 (Sandhurst), p. 72., 1930
No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.
My early life, 1874–1904 (1930), Churchill, Winston S., p. 45 (1996 Touchstone Edition),, 1930
Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence, which is a noble thing.
On studying English rather than Latin at school, Chapter 2 (Harrow)., 1930
Artifacts (15)
Winston Churchill
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q110975090
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