Background

Churchill was born at Blenheim palace on November 30, 1874 in Oxfordshire, England. He was the elder son of Lord Randolph Churchill and grandson of the 7th duke of Marlborough. His mother was Jenny Jerome, the beautiful and talented daughter of Leonard Jerome, a New York businessman. Winston idolized his mother, but his relations with his father, who died in 1895, were cold and distant.

Winston's parents spent much time taking pleasure in high life: they passionately loved riding usually they attended balls. The seven-month boy was born during one of such evenings in the room which was turned into a changing room. Winston grew, in essence without parents, because according to traditions parents didn't find time for upbringing of their children.

Education

At the age of 7, he attended the closed preparatory school in Ascot. It was very luxurious school which was proud of its traditions. As a result of poor health, in September 1884 he moved to Brunswick School in Hove; there, his academic performance improved but he continued to misbehave. It was difficult for little Churchill to study there, so in some years he was transferred to high school in Harrow in 1888. At Harrow his conspicuously poor academic record seemingly justified his father’s decision to enter him into an army career. So he then attended the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.

It was only at the third attempt that he managed to pass the entrance examination to the Royal Military College, now Academy, Sandhurst, but, once there, he applied himself seriously and graduated 20th in a class of 130 in 1894.

Later in life he held the following academic degrees and titles: Rector of the University of Aberdeen (1914–18), Rector of Edinburgh University (1929–32), Chancellor of the University of Bristol (1929–1965), Honorary Academician Extraordinary of the Royal Academy of Arts (1948–1965), Honorary Professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949, Member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium, Honorary doctorates from British universities including University of Aberdeen, University of Liverpool, University of London, Queens University, Belfast in Belfast Northern Ireland LL.D in 1926, Honorary doctorates from the Rochester in New York LL.D on 16 June 1941and Harvard LL.D on 6 September 1943, Honorary Doctorate from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec (LL.D) on 16 September 1944, Honorary doctorate in philosophy from the University of Copenhagen, Honorary doctorate (LL.D) from Leiden University in The Netherlands (10 May 1946), Honorary doctorate (LL.D) from the University of Miami in Florida (26 February 1946), Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri LL.D on 5 May 1946, University of London D.Litt in 1948.

Career

Churchill started his career as a soldier-journalist. He took part in the repulse of the insurgents who tried to cross the Spanish line at Trochem.

In 1896 he was in India, and while on the North-West Frontier with the Malakand Field Force he began work on a novel “Savrola: a Tale of the Revolution in Laurania” which was published in 1900.

In 1899 he went to South Africa to report on the war for the Morning Post, and as a member of the South African Light Horse he accompanied Ian Hamilton on his march to Pretoria as well; he was captured by Louis Botha, but managed to escape.

Back in England, Churchill was elected Tory member for Oldham in the election of 1900, but four years later crossed the aisle in the House of Commons to protest Joseph Chamberlain's tariff policy. In 1906 he was elected Liberal member for Manchester and joined the government as under secretary for colonies; the next year he became a privy councillor and in 1908 was appointed president of the Board of Trade by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith.

Churchill concentrated on social issues, such as unemployment insurance, hours of work, health, and pensions; he introduced the eight-hour work day in the coal mines and set up a system of labor exchanges. As home secretary in 1910/1911 he paid much attention to prison reform and quelled a general strike.

On October 25, 1911, during the height of the Anglo-German naval race, Churchill came to the Admiralty as first lord: "I accepted with alacrity." He brought Sir John Fisher out of retirement as first sea lord, created an Admiralty War Staff as well as a Royal Navy Staff College (Portsmouth), and laid down the four oil-fired Queen Elizabeth battleships in 1912. Churchill oversaw all facets of naval affairs with gusto.

That same year, 1912, he reorganized the fleet by transferring the Mediterranean Fleet to Gibraltar and by creating a Home Fleet to deal with the mounting menace across the North Sea. In February 1912, at a time when Lord Haldane was in Berlin attempting to slow down the naval race, Churchill in Glasgow announced that the German fleet was "more in the nature of a luxury." On March 26, 1913, he proposed a "naval holiday," a notion not welcomed by the Germans who were far behind Britain in naval strength. With regard to strategy, Churchill basically favored the "seek out, hunt down, and destroy" school, and only reluctantly abandoned the notion of a close blockade in time of war in favor of a distant blockade at Scotland and the English Channel.

At 11 P.M. on August 4, 1914, the signal "Commence hostilities against Germany" was flashed by the Admiralty to all ships; the following day in the Commons tears streamed down the first lord's face as Prime Minister Asquith announced that Britain was at war with Germany.

The first three months were rocky ones at the Admiralty. In August, in what Churchill termed a "fine feat of arms," British units destroyed three German light cruisers off Helgoland, and the British Expeditionary Force was ferried across the Channel without loss. Then the horizon darkened. In August the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau eluded the British in the Mediterranean and steamed to Constantinople, aided in part by Admiralty muddling and misdirection.

On October 5 Churchill volunteered to take command of British troops to be sent to defend Antwerp, a notion that produced "roars of incredulous laughter" in the Cabinet; however, Lord Kitchener concurred, offering to raise the first lord to general rank. On October 10 Antwerp fell and Churchill was severely criticized for pitting raw marines against seasoned German troops. Matters then got worse.

The loss of the three elderly cruisers Aboukir, Cressy, and Hogue to a single German U-boat was laid at the feet of the first lord. And his speech in Liverpool, in which Churchill announced that the Royal Navy would dig the Germans out "like rats from a hole," was not calculated to enhance his statesmanship. Finally, the loss of Sir Christopher Cradock with the Good Hope and Monmouth at Coronel on November 11 constituted the nadir of Admiralty prestige.

December brought a welcome change. The new first sea lord, "Jacky" Fisher, "launched himself into this business with explosive energy," and on December 8 avenged Cradock at the Falkland Islands where Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee defeated Count Maximilian von Spee and destroyed the Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, Leipzig, and Nürnberg. With this action the Germans had been swept from all but the narrow seas. On January 23, 1915, the Grand Fleet caught German raiders at the Dogger Bank and destroyed the armored cruiser Blücher. In fact, Churchill was anxious that the fleet "do something," and he at first brought up his pet scheme of forcing the entry into the Baltic Sea and landing troops in Pomerania or Denmark; at other times he argued that the fleet should sail down the Elbe River, bomb the Kiel Canal, or seize the Dutch island Ameland and use it as an advanced base in the North Sea.

On the other hand, as early as August 31, 1914, the first lord had his eye on the Dardanelles—despite Lord Nelson's dictum that "any sailor who attacked a fort was a fool." When Grand Duke Nikolai of Russia on January 2, 1915, asked for a British "demonstration" at the Straits in order to relieve the pressure on his Army of the Caucasus, Churchill seized the chance. In February and March the Anglo-French navies bombed the forts and on April 25 troops were landed at Cape Helles and Anzac Cove. By May 8 it became apparent that the soldiers would not be able to advance from their beachheads, and Churchill became the public scapegoat for what loomed as a disaster of the first magnitude.

Certainly, the first lord had miscalculated. He overestimated naval fire power, overrode his professional advisers when they differed with him, and refused to wait until sufficient troops had been assembled for the undertaking. But the plan was brilliant and even his political enemy, Clement Atlee, conceded in 1957, "Sir Winston had the one strategic idea in the war." Interallied wrangling and intraservice jealousies had worked against success at Gallipoli almost from the start, and the failure to take the peninsula in May 1915 brought about the fall of the Asquith government and the forced retirements of Churchill and Fisher, who fell out over the causes of the debacle. The press was delighted by his fall as were Admirals John Jellicoe and David Beatty both glad to be "rid of the succubus Churchill."

Churchill accepted what he termed the "well-paid inactivity" as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, but early in 1916, as lieutenant colonel he was appointed commander of the Sixth Royal Fusiliers in France. It might be pointed out that as first lord he had already supported the concept of the tank, but the military proved lukewarm to the idea, one general denouncing it as "Winston's folly." Prime Minister David Lloyd George recalled Churchill, to the great dismay of the Tories, as minister of munitions in July 1917. He enthusiastically endorsed the Zeebrugge raid in April 1918, claiming that it returned to the Royal Navy "the panache that was lost at Jutland."

After the war, Churchill served as secretary of state for war and for air (1918-1922) and for the colonies (1921-1922). He then wrote his four-volume The World Crisis, which Arthur James Balfour called "Winston's brilliant autobiography, disguised as a history of the universe." From 1924 to 1929, he was chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. During the 1930s he cried out in vain against Germany's military resurgence and returned to politics in September 1939, for a second time as first lord of the Admiralty. On May 10, 1940, the day the Germans invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister with the sober synopsis: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

His brilliant career as Britain's wartime leader lies beyond the scope of this work; suffice it to note that a less than grateful nation voted him out of office in July 1945. After six years as leader of the opposition, Churchill returned in October 1951 as prime minister for eighteen months. He was knighted in April 1953 and died on January 24, 1965, being accorded a lavish state funeral that he personally had designed and planned.

Achievements

• Sir Winston Churchill served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. As a Member of Parliament, he represented five constituencies over the course of his career. As Prime Minister, Churchill led Britain to victory during the Second World War. He led the Conservative Party for fifteen years from 1940 to 1955.
  
  In 1953, Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. The same year, he was named the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • My Early Life: 1874-1904

Religion

Churchill had never been a Christian and has been described as an agnostic. In 1898 he wrote to his mother stating that "I do not accept the Christian or any other form of religious belief". In a letter to his cousin he referred to religion as "a delicious narcotic" and expressed a preference for Protestantism over Roman Catholicism, relating that he felt it "a step nearer Reason".

Churchill was very interested in Islam and the culture of the Orient, to the point that relatives feared he might convert. In 1907, Churchill received a letter from his future sister-in-law, Lady Gwendoline Bertie, in which she pleaded: "Please don't become converted to Islam; I have noticed in your disposition a tendency to orientalize [fascination with the Orient and Islam], Pasha-like tendencies, I really have."

Politics

In 1900, Churchill became a member of Parliament in the Conservative Party for Oldham, a town in Manchester. Following his father into politics, he also followed his father's sense of independence, becoming a supporter of social reform. Unconvinced that the Conservative Party was committed to social justice, Churchill switched to the Liberal Party in 1904.

Views

Named the first lord of the Admiralty in 1911, Churchill helped modernize the British Navy, ordering that new warships be built with oil-fired instead of coal-fired engines. He was one of the first to promote military aircraft and set up the Royal Navy Air Service. He was so enthusiastic about aviation that he took flying lessons to understand firsthand its military potential.

On May 13 Churchill faced the House of Commons for the first time as prime minister. He warned members of the hard road ahead—“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”—and committed himself and the nation to all-out war until victory was achieved. Behind this simplicity of aim lay an elaborate strategy to which he adhered with remarkable consistency throughout the war.

Quotations: "I wanted to draw the attention of the country, by means of cases perfectly legitimate in themselves, to the evil by which 7,000 lads of the poorer classes are sent to gaol every year for offences for which, if the noble Lord had committed them at College, he would not have been subjected to the slightest degree of inconvenience." — Winston Churchill in the House of Commons.

"I admit that the perfectly genuine apprehensions of the majority of the people of North-East Ulster constitute the most serious obstacle to a thoroughly satisfactory settlement... But whatever Ulster's rights may be, she cannot stand in the way of the whole of the rest of Ireland." — Winston Churchill, introducing the second reading of the Home Rule Bill, April 1912.

"I cannot feel that we in this island [i.e. Britain] are in any serious degree responsible for the wave of madness which has swept the mind of Christendom. No one can measure the consequences. I wondered whether those stupid Kings and Emperors could not assemble together and revivify kingship by saving the nations from hell but we all drift on in a kind of dull cataleptic trance. As if it was somebody else's operations." — Winston Churchill to his wife, July 1914.

Churchill told Stalin: "Let us settle about our affairs in the Balkans. Your armies are in Rumania and Bulgaria. We have interests, missions, and agents there. Don't let us get at cross-purposes in small ways. So far as Britain and Russia are concerned, how would it do for you to have ninety per cent predominance in Rumania, for us to have ninety per cent of the say in Greece, and go fifty–fifty about Yugoslavia?"

"Liberalism is not Socialism, and never will be. There is a great gulf fixed. It is not a gulf of method, it is a gulf of principle... Socialism seeks to pull down wealth; Liberalism seeks to raise up poverty. Socialism would destroy private interests; Liberalism would preserve private interests in the only way in which they can be safely and justly preserved, namely by reconciling them with public right. Socialism would kill enterprise; Liberalism would rescue enterprise from the trammels of privilege and preference... Socialism exalts the rule; Liberalism exalts the man. Socialism attacks capital; Liberalism attacks monopoly." — Winston Churchill on liberalism and socialism, 1908.

Ironically, in 1941 Churchill returned to Harrow, the school that nearly flunked him as a youth, and exhorted the students in a passionate address:

"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never in nothing, great or small, large or petty never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense."

Membership

Winston Churchill was a Freemason and a member of the Loyal Waterloo Lodge of the National Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

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  Churchill was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1941.

  Royal Society , Great Britain

  1941 - 1965

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  He was elected a President of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association in 1959.

  Victoria Cross and George Cross Association , Great Britain

  1959 - 1965

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  Royal Society of St George , Great Britain

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  Society of the Cincinnati , United States

  1952

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  Sons of the American Revolution , United States

  1963

Personality

Churchill was plump, inactive, almost continuously smoked. And he always said that the reason of his longevity is a sport. But he never did it. Churchill truly did love the good life, and would brook little compromise when it came to eating, drinking and smoking. When required to travel by aeroplane during the Second World War, he even had his oxygen mask adapted so that he might be able to smoke through it.

Winston Churchill was the great politician, had extraordinary thinking, cunning and wit. Once Lady Astor said to him, "If I were married to you, I'd put poison in your coffee," Churchill is supposed to have replied: "If I were married to you, I'd drink it."

Churchill was a voracious reader known for his ability to process vast quantities of text and to quickly grasp its key points. For a man who is quoted in the English language perhaps more than anybody, with the exception of Shakespeare, it is interesting to note that Churchill was a great fan of quotation collections too. They were, he found, a short cut to unending pools of knowledge.

He was personally very brave. In at least two of his actions, one in India where he led a rearguard action saving the lives of the men under his command and another in South Africa where he led a group of men defending a train exposing himself to fire. He was known to say “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” If either action was witnessed by another officer,he would have been awarded a medal.

He had a deep conviction of his own destiny. He’d stand unprotected on rooftops during air raids when most of London were sensibly hiding in shelters. He was sure he wasn’t going to be killed as his work in defending Britain was not yet complete.

He cut through red tape like a demon, he was known to write in the margins of documents “Action this day.” Which meant that the proposed remedy was to be implemented immediately without any bureaucratic nonsense.

He had a passion for clandestine and underground methods. He saw first hand in Cuba the actions of the guerrilla forces and applied them very effectively in WWII.

His mother was American and despite being a loyal subject of the crown and a committed royalist, loved America and Americans.

He thought Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the finest men ever to walk the earth.

Physical Characteristics: He had a formidable appetite from a young age, once receiving a thrashing at school for stealing sugar from a pantry.

Later in life he gained a lot of weight, so in the year before he died, his wife Clemmie insisted he go on a diet.

Quotes from others about the person

• A friend quipped: "Winston has written an enormous book about himself and called it The World Crisis."
  
  Paul Johnson in his book "Churchill" stated: "In the history of the XX century there are a lot of prominent figures – geniuses and villains, however Winston Churchill's identity is certainly the most considerable and the most attractive. To write about his life – pleasant occupation, it is more fascinating – to read about it. Reading is capable to teach, first of all, young people. How to learn lessons from the difficult childhood. How to reach a maximum of the opportunities – physical, moral and intellectual. How to achieve success. How to remain faithful to friendship and not to lose nobility, compassion and decency".

Interests

• In 1915 Churchill began his painting career, going on to produce some 500 works during his lifetime. He made countless attractive, idealized landscapes, many of which were later reproduced on greetings cards. Pablo Picasso even noted that “If that man were a painter by profession he’d have no trouble in earning a good living.”
  
  In 1947 Churchill had two works accepted by the Royal Academy, which he had submitted under the pseudonym David Winter. By the time he died, Churchill had exhibited no less than 50 of his works at the Academy.
  
  Churchill’s other hobbies included landscaping and, somewhat unexpectedly, bricklaying. He discussed this particular passion in Volume I of The Second World War: “I lived mainly at Chartwell, where I had much to amuse me. I built with my own hands a large part of two cottages and extensive kitchen-garden walls, and made all kinds of rockeries and waterworks and a large swimming pool which was filtered to limpidity and could be heated to supplement our fickle sunshine.”

Connections

Churchill met his future wife, Clementine Hozier, in 1904 at a ball in Crewe House, home of the Earl of Crewe and Crewe's wife Margaret Primrose (daughter of Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, and Hannah Rothschild). In 1908, they met again at a dinner party hosted by Lady St Helier. Churchill found himself seated beside Clementine, and they soon began a lifelong romance. He proposed to Clementine during a house party at Blenheim Palace on 10 August 1908, in a small Temple of Diana. On 12 September 1908, he and Clementine were married in St. Margaret's, Westminster.

Father:

Lord Randolph Churchill

Mother:

Jennie Jerome

Jennie Spencer-Churchill (née Jerome; 9 January 1854 – 29 June 1921), known as Lady Randolph Churchill, was an American-born British socialite.

Wife:

Clementine Hozier

Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill

Daughter:

Diana Churchill

Son:

Randolph Churchill

Daughter:

Sarah Churchill

Daughter:

Marigold Churchill

Born on the 15th of November, 1918 Marigold Frances Churchill, the fourth child of Clementine Hozier and Sir Winston Churchill, only four days after the Armistace ending WWI. At age two she contracted what was reported as a cold. The illness progressed quietly, however, worsening until an apparent resultant blood infection attacked her immune system. She succumbed to illness some seven weeks before her third birthday. She died on 23 Aug 1921 (aged 2) in London, City of London, Greater London, England.

She was buried at the Kensal Green Cemetery, Kensal Green, London Borough of Brent, Greater London, England.

Daughter:

Mary Soames

Grandfather:

John Spencer-Churchill

John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough (2 June 1822 – 4 July 1883), styled Earl of Sunderland from 1822 to 1840 and Marquess of Blandford from 1840 to 1857, was a British Conservative cabinet minister, politician, and nobleman.

Friend:

Arthur Balfour

Friend:

Lionel Rothschild

He went then to Venice, and from there toured Italy by motorcar with his friend, Lionel Rothschild.

Friend:

Paul Maze

Churchill was persuaded and taught to paint by his artist friend, Paul Maze, whom he met during the First World War.

References

• Winston Churchill: Soldier, Statesman, Artist
• Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill
• Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill
• Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom
• Winston Churchill: The 20th Century (Primary Source Readers)
• Churchill: A Life