Sir Winston Churchill Biography (British politician and author)

Sir Winston Churchill Biography:

Sir Winston Churchill (30 November 1874 –         24         January       1965)   was          a       British politician     and         author, best        known      as Prime Minister of        the  United          Kingdom during the Second World War.

Churchill was    famous  for   his       stubborn resistance  to Hitler           during     the darkest hours of the Second World War.

Winston Churchill

Winston    was born    at      Blenheim  Palace, Woodstock near Oxford to an aristocratic family    –  the   Duke       of     Marlborough.  He was  brought up  by    servants  and friends of                  the  family. He  rarely       spoke     to his father,   and           he    spent         most        of                 his childhood at   boarding    school  –  Harrow. Churchill wasn’t  the  best student, having a   rebellious  nature       and    was reportedly slow  to    learn;    but  Churchill     excelled    at sports and joined the officer cadet corps, which he enjoyed.

On  leaving school, he went   to  Sandhurst to  train    as   an    officer.   After    gaining   his commission,  Churchill  sought to gain  as much       active            military  experience              as possible.    He                 used                           his       mother’s connections  to get postings    to    areas  of conflict.    The young      Churchill          received postings  to   Cuba and  North   West   India. He also combined his military duties with working            as       a           war       correspondent – earning substantial money for his reports on the fighting.

In    1899,        he resigned      from    the military and             pursued      his    career   as                     a  war correspondent.       He   was in   South  Africa for the Boer War, and he became a minor celebrity for    his     role in      taking  part  in   a scouting          patrol,    getting       captured   and later escaping. He might have gained the Victoria      Cross        for        his  efforts,  though officially   he       was  a   civilian   at    the   time. After             this experience,         he            gained        a temporary          commission     in     the          South Africa Light Horses and later commented he had  a ‘good war’   while   continuing his work as a war correspondent.

MP:

Churchill returned to  the  UK    in 1900 and successfully    stood  as         a       Conservative candidate for Oldham. After becoming an MP,  Churchill began  a lucrative  speaking tour,   where  he  could      command       a  high price for his speeches.

In        1904,    he               made a          dramatic  shift, leaving     the            Conservative  Party                and joining the  Liberal           Party.    He     was  later often        called a    ‘class     traitor’       by     some Conservative                   colleagues.               Churchill disagreed   with   an  increasing amount of Conservative  policies,             including        tariff protection.         Churchill       also          had     some empathy for improving the welfare of the working class and helping the poor.

In    the        Liberal Party,   Churchill        made    a meteoric  political rise. By      1908, he     was made President        of the    Board     of Trade, and   he   was a             key      supporter   of  Lloyd George’s   radical    People’s    Budget  –               a budget       which           saw  the      growth of       an embryonic               Welfare                                    State            and introduction   of  income    tax to  pay   for  it. The                       budget     made                        a    significant improvement    to     the life   of  the poor and helped to address the inequality of British society.

“What   is the  use of      living, if it    be   not  to strive  for noble  causes   and to make this muddled   world   a   better    place  for  those who will live in it after we are gone?”

– W.        Churchill   Speech    at  Kinnaird  Hall, Dundee,    Scotland                  (“Unemployment”), October 10, 1908,

However,             although              Churchill    was     a Liberal,     he                                 was   also                 staunchly anti-Socialist     and           suspicious of      trade unions. During the General Strike, he took a hardline stance  to defeat the  unions at any cost.

In  1911,     he    was   made First  Lord   of the Admiralty   – a post  he  held into   the   First World War.

On    the outbreak of    hostilities in   Europe, Churchill  was   one  of  the   most        strident members                 of   the   cabinet   arguing      for British  involvement  in the war. In   August 1914,   the Liberal cabinet  was      split   with some members  against  going to   war  on the   continent.   However,   Churchill’s  view prevailed, and          he    admitted             to      being enthused    about  the    prospects     of being involved  in  the  ‘Great   War’.       He    went   to Belgium                where   he        urged       the     Royal Marines    to                commit   to action     around Antwerp. This decision was criticised  for wasting resources.  Others   said it helped saved     the    channel       ports        from                   the advancing German army.

Churchill also   used     naval   funds    to help develop the   tank    –   something        he         felt would be useful in the war.

However, despite tremendous eagerness for  war,   his   flagship     policy       for  the  war was deemed   a failure.  Churchill  planned the 1915                Dardanelles    Campaign     –    a daring bid to knock Turkey out of the war. But,    unfortunately,             it   proved  a military failure                   with             thousands        of             Allied casualties and no military gain. Although the                   fault  of       the    failure     was    shared amongst others,  Churchill  resigned from his post and   sought  to gain   a position in the army on the Western Front.

seeing         relatively little       action            on        the Western    Front,    he     returned      to    London and                 sat     on     the      opposition    benches before          joining   Lloyd   George’s   coalition government. In 1917, Churchill was made Minister  of      Munitions     – a    job requiring strong   administrative     skills    to     manage limited                          resources      during the           war. Churchill was considered an efficient and skilled minister.

At       the      end   of        the          First      World        War, Churchill was   active  in trying   to   support the          Russian    white         army    –   who  were trying       to  resist  the    Communist        forces which had gained control over  the  Soviet Union.

In              1924          Churchill   was     appointed  as Chancellor  of                             the           Exchequer           by Conservative  PM Stanley  Baldwin. Under advice from  many  economists,  Churchill made the decision to return Britain to the Gold Standard at a pre-war level. But, this proved to  be   damaging      to  the economy and     led    to      a          period    of  deflation, high unemployment and low growth. Churchill later     admitted    this         was      his        greatest domestic mistake.

The       low     growth       and     declining          living standards       contributed           to    the  General Strike of 1926 – Churchill eagerly  sought to     break              the    strikers  and     defeat     the trades    unions. During         this              period    he expressed  admiration   for     Mussolini    for being a strong leader.

In     the 1930s, his    political    eccentricities consigned    him    to       the                backbenches, where                   he          was              a    vocal              critic of appeasement and urged the government to  re-arm.  Churchill      was        often     a      lone voice     in         speaking       about    the     growing danger     of          Hitler’s       Germany.       He    also opposed Indian Independence and was a staunch supporter of the Empire.

After       an  unsuccessful            start                  to  the Second World  War,  the Commons   chose Churchill       to        lead     the    UK in   a   national coalition.     Churchill  was  instrumental     in insisting       Britain      keep              fighting.                 He opposed        the  minority       voices               in      the cabinet   seeking   to        make  any deal   with Hitler.

Churchill proved an adept war leader. His speeches became famous and proved an important rallying cry for a country which stood alone through the difficult years  of 1940   and     1941. These      early years  saw the     Battle of        Britain  and  the      Blitz      –   a period  where     invasion          by                   Germany seemed likely.

“we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost     may     be,    we        shall  fight    on                 the beaches,   we  shall       fight  on   the     landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,   we  shall fight  in   the hills; we shall never surrender”

Speech       in      the   House      of Commons    (4 June 1940)

“Let us therefore brace  ourselves     to   our duties,  and so bear ourselves  that,   if  the British       Empire    and   its     Commonwealth last     for a thousand  years,   men      will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.”

Speech  in  the House   of Commons, June 18, 1940

After   the   US   entry into  the   war   in  1942, the      immediate    crisis   was  over,  and the tide of war began to turn. After the Battle of El  Alamein,  Churchill was  able      to    tell the House of Commons.

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of  the     end.  but   it   is,  perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

From             1943    onwards       Churchill     spent more  time  managing  the         uneasy  Allied coalition of Soviet  Union,   US  and the UK. Churchill  was  involved  in   many    aspects of the   war,  taking an interest in all areas, especially   the  build  up    to             the            D-Day landings     in       Normandy.    Churchill         also participated     in   conferences      with  Stalin and Roosevelt     which   helped    shape    the war   and                    post-war    settlement.         With American money,   Churchill  played a  role in     avoiding   the   mistakes    of the                First World War as the Allies sought to avoid a harsh      settlement  and       rebuild occupied Europe.

“In  War:   Resolution. In   Defeat:  Defiance. In  Victory: Magnanimity. In  Peace:     Good Will.”

–    Winston Churchill,  The   Second     World War,      Volume  I:    The           Gathering         Storm (1948)

It    was Churchill   who       helped popularise the phrase ‘Iron  Curtain’ after he saw the growing   gulf              between the  Communist East and Western Europe.

“A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted   by the Allied victory….  From Stettin  in       the      Baltic      to   Trieste         in    the Adriatic   an iron    curtain has       descended across the Continent.”

Speech   at   Fulton,     Missouri  on March 5, 1946

After winning   the         Second             World  War, Churchill  was    shocked to    lose the  1945 general    election     to   a    resurgent   Labour party.  He      was Leader   of   the Opposition from 1945-51.

But, under the Conservatives, he returned to power in the 1950 election – accepting much of the post-war consensus and the end     of      the         British    Empire.            Churchill served        as               PM    from 1951-55       before retiring from politics. In his last speech in the   Commons      in     1955-03-01,  he ended with the words:

“The  day  may  dawn    when    fair play, love for  one’s fellow    men,   respect for   justice and              freedom,    will  enable           tormented generations   to    march     forth   triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell.  Meanwhile, never   flinch,       never weary, never despair.”

Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature     in    1953    “for    his       mastery   of historical and biographical description as well  as   for       brilliant oratory in  defending exalted   human values.” Towards the end of                  his      life,          Churchill      became                an accomplished artist, though he found the years  of retirement difficult and suffered periods of depression.

Churchill died  in  his     home at  age  90,  on the morning of Sunday 24  January 1965. His  funeral   was the largest  state funeral in the world, up to that point in time.