Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born 150 years ago today. Born on 30th November 1874 in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, he died on 24th January 1965 in London.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill is regarded as the most important British statesman of the 20th century. He was Prime Minister twice - from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955 - and led Great Britain through the Second World War. He had previously held several government posts, including Home Secretary, First Lord of the Admiralty and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was also a prominent author of political and historical works and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
Winston Churchill (1941)
Churchill came from the British aristocracy and was the son of a leading Conservative Party politician. After a career as an officer and war correspondent, he became a member of the House of Commons in 1901, where he would remain for over 60 years. After switching from the Conservatives to the Liberals in 1904, he held successive government offices. As First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill oversaw the modernisation of the Royal Navy from 1911. During the First World War, he was forced to resign in 1915 because of the defeat at Gallipoli for which he was blamed. However, David Lloyd George brought him back into the War Cabinet as Armaments Minister in 1917. In 1924, Churchill switched back to the Conservatives, who made him Chancellor of the Exchequer (1924-1929).
During the 1930s, when Churchill's political career seemed to be over, he was mainly active as a publicist and writer. He was one of the few politicians to warn the government, parliament and the public against the aggressive, revisionist policies of Nazi Germany, but he was hardly listened to.
It was not until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 that Adolf Hitler's declared opponent was once again given a government post and initially became First Lord of the Admiralty again. When Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had to resign as a result of the hapless Allied war effort, Winston Churchill took over as head of government on 10 May 1940. His refusal to enter into negotiations with Hitler and his speeches during the critical months of spring and summer 1940 strengthened the British will to resist and their willingness to continue the war against Nazi Germany. In terms of foreign policy, he played a decisive role in the realisation of the anti-Hitler coalition between Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, which ultimately achieved victory over Germany and Japan. Despite this military triumph, he lost the 1945 general election with the Tories.
After the end of the war, Winston Churchill became a pioneer of European unification. Re-elected Prime Minister in 1951, he resigned in 1955. He represented his constituency of Woodford in north-east London in the House of Commons until 1964, one year before his death.
