Who
was He? Politician
and British Prime Minister during the Second World
War.
Date and Place
of Birth:
30th November 1874, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire,
England.
Family Background:
Eldest son of Lord Randolph Churchill and his
American wife Jenny. He was a direct descendant
of John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough.
Education:
Harrow School. Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Chronology:
1895: Commissioned
in the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars.
1897: Served in the
Malakand campaign.
1898: Served in the
Nile campaign, and as a correspondent for a London
Newspaper during the Boer War. He was captured
but escaped and a £25 reward was offered for his
re-arrest.
1900: Entered Parliament
as a Conservative MP.
1906: Crossed the
floor of the House of Commons to join the ruling
Liberal Party. He was appointed Colonial Under-Secretary.
1908: As President
of the Board of Trade he introduced Labour Exchanges.
1912: As Home Secretary
he witnessed the Siege of Sidney Street and as
First Lord of the admiralty he began strengthening
Britain’s army and navy for the war with Germany
that he could see coming.
1915: His reputation
took a knock after the disastrous Dardanelle’s
Expedition in the First World War.
1917:
Prime Minister David Lloyd George made
him Minister of Munitions.
1919-1921: Held the
office of Secretary of State for War and Air.
Afterwards he fell from favour and was excluded
from the Cabinet.
1924-1929: Moved
back to the Conservatives and became Chancellor
of the Exchequer. Played a key role in ending
the General Strike of 1926.
1930’s: His warnings
of the rise of Nazism and his criticisms of the
National Government’s unpreparedness for war go
unheeded.
1939: Beginning of
the Second World War.
1940: Neville Chamberlain
resigns and Churchill becomes Prime Minister of
the wartime Coalition Government on 13th May.
1940-45: Wins the
support of the British and American people. Develops
as an accomplished orator. Masterminded the overall
strategies for the Battle of Britain, Alamein
and the North African Campaign.
1945: Attends the
Yalta Conference with Joseph Stalin and Franklin
D. Roosevelt to try to put an end to the power
base of Germany once and for all. Loses the General
election to the Labour Party.
1951: Elected Prime
Minister again at the age of 77. Promoted the
development of Britain’s first Nuclear weapons.
Began a series of measures to help with the post-war
reconstruction of Britain.
1953: Won the Nobel
Prize for Literature.
1955: Retired in
favour of Anthony Eden at the age of 81.
Written
Works:
-
1941:
"Into
Battle".
-
1948:
"The Second World War".
-
1951:
"A
History of the English Speaking Peoples".
Marriage:
1908 to Clementine Hozier.
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
The
Cabinet War Rooms, Whitehall.
OXFORDSHIRE:
Blenheim Palace, Woodstock.
KENT:
Chartwell House.
Date and Place
of Death:
24th
January 1965, London, England.
Age at Death:
90.
Site of Grave:
St. Martin’s Churchyard, Bladon, Oxfordshire,
England
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