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Britain Unlimited covers 250 Great British people and what made them famous
Who was Winston Churchill? 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.
Statue of Churchill in
Parliament Square, London
(© A Blagg)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:
CAMBRIDGESHIRE:
Churchill Archive Centre, Cambridge.
KENT:
Chartwell House, Westerham.
LONDON:
The Cabinet War Rooms, King Charles Street, Whitehall.
OXFORDSHIRE:
Blenheim Palace, Woodstock.
WEST SUSSEX:
Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead has a mural of monkeys including one of Churchill.
Date and Place of Death: 24th January 1965, London, England.
Age at Death: 90.
Site of Grave: St. Martin’s Churchyard, Bladon, Oxfordshire, England.
