Sir Winston Leonard
Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, DL, FRS, RA (30 November 1874
– 24 January 1965) was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951
to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in
the British Army, a non-academic
historian, a writer (as Winston
S. Churchill), and an artist. He won the Nobel
Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.
Churchill
was born into the family of the Dukes
of Marlborough, a branch of the Spencer
family. His father, Lord Randolph
Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer; his
mother, Jennie Jerome, was an
American socialite. As a young army officer, he saw action in British India, the Anglo–Sudan War, and the Second Boer War. He gained fame as a
war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns.
At the
forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet
positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of
Trade, Home Secretary, and First Lord of the Admiralty as part of Asquith's Liberal government. During the war, he
continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign caused his departure from government.
He then briefly resumed active army service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of
the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He
returned to government under Lloyd
George as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, then Secretary
of State for the Colonies. After two years out of Parliament, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Baldwin's
Conservative government of
1924–1929, controversially returning the pound sterling in 1925 to the gold standard at its pre-war parity, a move widely
seen as creating deflationary pressure on the UK economy.
Out of
office and politically "in the wilderness" during the 1930s because
of his opposition to increased home rule for India and his resistance to the
1936 abdication of Edward VIII,
Churchill took the lead in warning about Nazi
Germany and in campaigning for
rearmament. At the outbreak of the Second
World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the
resignation of Neville
Chamberlain on 10 May 1940,
Churchill became Prime Minister. His speeches and radio broadcasts helped
inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult days of 1940–41
when the British Commonwealth and Empire stood almost alone in its active
opposition to Adolf Hitler. He
led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured.
After
the Conservative Party lost the 1945 election, he became Leader of the Opposition to the Labor Government. He publicly warned
of an "Iron Curtain" of Soviet influence in Europe and promoted
European unity. After winning the 1951 election, Churchill again became Prime
Minister. His second term was preoccupied by foreign affairs, including the Malayan Emergency, Mau Mau Uprising, Korean War, and a UK-backed coup d'état in Iran. Domestically his
government laid great emphasis on house-building. Churchill suffered a serious
stroke in 1953 and retired as Prime Minister in 1955, although he remained a
Member of Parliament until1964. Upon his death aged ninety in 1965, Elizabeth II granted him the honour of a state funeral, which saw one of the
largest assemblies of world statesmen in history. Named the Greatest
Briton of all time in a 2002
poll, Churchill is widely regarded as being among the most influential people
in British history, consistently ranking well in opinion polls of Prime Ministers of
the United Kingdom.
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