Winston Churchill Biography

Winston Churchill was born on 30th November 1874 to Lord Randolph Churchill, a Conservative politician (who was also a British MP and grandson of a Duke of Marlborough) and Jennie Jerome in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock.

Winston Churchill was sent at Harrow to complete his education after which he was admitted to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. In his school days, Churchill was an ordinary student and he also faced a couple of failures in his education. Churchill was not so much attracted towards study, but he had interest in army and he joined the army as a cavalry officer. When he was in Fourth Hussars in 1898, he witnessed three battles including battle of Omdurman in the Sudan. As he had interest in Army, he was also fond of writing and reading. He wrote a couple of books, which were based on his battlefield experience (his books "The Story of the Malakand Field Force" and "The River War" are famous which he wrote in 1898 and 1899 respectively).

Churchill’s interest in writing; pulled him out of the army in 1899 and he joined Morning Post news group as a war correspondent. Churchill’s escape from the Boers when Boers held him while reporting the ‘Boer War’ in South Africa is very famous. His escape from Boers influenced him in such a way that, he wrote a book on his escape from Boers in 1900 when he returned back to England.

In 1900, Winston lost his father Randolph. He was requested to fight election to fill the vacated place of his father and he was elected as the Conservative MP for Oldham in the 1900 General Election. This was an unexpected beginning of Churchill’s political career. From the beginning of his political life, Winston wanted to bring changes in society he had been living; he wanted to change the condition of people and their living standards. Winston and his party leader’s thinking never ran parallel and this made him break away from his party and he joined Liberal Party in 1904. Churchill further campaigned and won a seat the North West Manchester General Elections in 1906; he was promoted to the post of Under-Secretary of State for Colonies in the new Liberal government formed by Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Churchill’s work at this post was so fair that he was offered a cabinet seat as ‘President of the Board of Trade’ even after Herbert Asquith replaced then Prime Minister in 1908. During his term of any post, Churchill always worked towards the expectations of working class people and his policies included works such as establishing employment exchanges, facilities for working class people etc.

Churchill married Clementine Ogilvy Spencer on 12th September 1908 when he was 34 years of age. Churchill kept himself engraved in the political life and never came out in his lifetime. He continued his work towards improvement of lives of all those living in the society, his thinking was not confined only to few white-collar elements but he considered other parts of the society also. In 1910 General Election Churchill was promoted to the post of Home Secretary after which he brought in policies to help prisoners in many aspects in their lives and also set up some ‘Special After-Care Associations’ for prisoners.

In 1911, Churchill became first Lord of the Admiralty. He knew that security was the most important factor that any country should keep its eye upon, and he helped the process of modernizing the Navy and Military and also gave some valuable suggestions, he even came up with idea of employing aircrafts in the military and helped in setting up Britain’s premier ‘Royal Naval Air Service’ in 1912. In year 1914 when war broke, Churchill wanted to be an important part of the war council, but in 1915, as a result of failure of Dardanelles Campaign, he was removed from the post and shifted as a Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Churchill never welcomed this shift and he resigned his post and joined the British Army as a commander of a battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers to become an active part of the war.

The next Prime Minister of Britain David Lloyd George, who was impressed by Churchill’s work and struggle for becoming an active part of the war, offered Churchill a seat as Minister of Munitions which interested Churchill very much, further he was also made in charge of the production of ammunitions and war vehicles, aero planes etc. Churchill’s policies against the enemies were very harsh and attracted many critics. He was criticized for his policies when he expressed his opinions such as using chemical weapons and poisoned gas against enemies.

Churchill re-joined the Conservative Party after the Liberal Party broke during 1922. In 1924, Churchill campaigned General Election from Conservative Party and won a seat from Epping. He was appointed at the post of Chancellor and Exchequer by that time Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.

Churchill witnessed a cold period in politics from 1929 to 1933 when his party had lost the election and was never invited by any Prime Minister for any post in the government. During this time, he wrote a few articles and books. Even when he was away from the active politics, he never gave up on his thinking and was considered as an extremist.

During the Second World War, Churchill was made First Lord of the Admiralty and further he was promoted to the chairman seat of the Military Coordinating Committee. Britain witnessed many political changes during the same period, that time Prime Minister Chamberlain resigned because of ongoing opposition. To handle the critical situation, George VI appointed Churchill as next Prime Minister of Britain. At one side German Army was emerging as immediate threat and had invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and even France and at the other side, Churchill had a challenge to stabilize the situation in Britain. Churchill decided to bring up the best leaders he had seen during last few years to handle the situation in Britain and started taking efforts in developing contacts with that time American President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was successful in creating a bond between Britain and America and won assurance from America for help and co-ordination during the war situation.

Churchill tried to handle situation at home front and even at war front, but few inevitable battle defeats brought him in front of the no-confidence motion in Britain Parliament, but was able to ensure majority and continued with his work in government. Churchill faced much opposition and was criticized for the strategies he used during the war period, but was unshaken by all of them. His strategies of uniting power of friend nations to fight enemy nations like German and Japan (and his nerve stimulating and speeches which inspired the Britain citizens) helped Britain, America and Soviet Union in ensuring a safe victory.

Further, at home, Churchill was unable to convince the Britain of the plans and strategies he had for the nation and lost the 1945 General Elections. He sat in opposition and continued his work from there. Because of old age, his health was getting deteriorated and he suffered several strokes after 1946. In 1951 General Elections, Churchill once again campaigned and was elected as a Prime Minister of Britain. In 1955 he received Noble Prize for Literature for the book he wrote ‘The Second World War’. In the same year, because of health reasons he took retirement from politics. He took his last breath on 24th January 1965 when he was about 91 year of age.