Winston Churchill has become legendary for many reasons; He was a Nobel prize winner and the United Kingdom's Prime Minister at a pivotal time during the war, and also became recognizable with his look of a suit and bow tie, red hair, and constant cigar. Throughout it all, he also battled depression, and called it his "black dog."
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, to Lord Randolph Churchill, the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, and Lady Randolph Churchill, the daughter of a millionaire from America. The young Churchill didn't do so well with his schooling at a boarding school, and his rebellion brought him frequent punishment. However, he did excel at English, history, and fencing. He was never particularly close to his mother, and because of this, she rarely visited him at school. Churchill was, however, quite close to his nanny, and years later even came home from the war to be with her as she passed. By then, he had worked things out with his mother, although it didn't appear to be a typical mother/son relationship.
After boarding school, Churchill was accepted at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and had to take a placement exam three separate times to find where he'd serve. He succeeded on his third try, after studying maps the night before the test, and choosing a country, decided on Norway. As luck would have it, he was asked on the test the following day to draw a map of Norway. Churchill's father had waned him to be an infantryman, because it was cheaper, but instead he was placed as a Fourth Hussar.
Churchill was deployed to India and immediately injured his shoulder, though he still participated in polo tournaments. He wrote about one of the first battles he witnessed, and it was published in the Daily Telegraph. Churchill started drinking at this time to stave off disease, originally just a small bit a day, but later drinking much more. Hoping to be allowed to write about and cover more historic battles, he enlisted his mother's help, and had her call on some of her ex-lovers for favors. He covered the battle between the Spanish and Cuban guerrillas, and tried to cover the Greco-Turkish War, but the war was ending as he got there. While covering the Second Boer War, Churchill was captured and became a P.O.W. After his escape, he wrote about the conflicts he covered in the books The Story of the Malakand Field Force, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria, and Ian Hamilton's March.
Churchill left the military for a try at politics in 1899, but lost in his first election. He won and was elected to Parliament the following year, and headed off to America to give speeches to raise money, as parliament members weren't paid at that time. He was introduced by Mark Twain. Growing dissatisfied with the Conservatives, Churchill switched to the Liberal party. Once the Liberals took office, Churchill quickly began to move up in the ranks, becoming under-secretary of state for the colonies.
At the same time Churchill was being promoted to president of the board of trade in 1908, he was also marrying Clementine Hozier after being rejected by a different woman. They had five children, with one son and two grandsons also finding careers with the Parliament. In Churchill's spare time, he would not only write, but also paint, often with his good friend playwright Noel Coward. After becoming home secretary, he was still having a hard time leaving the military behind, as he would still watch battles whenever he could.
From 1911 until WWI, Churchill was first lord of the admiralty, yet he seemed to be feeling not very useful with a war going on, and left politics to rejoin the military, commanding the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusilies. He made a triumphant return to the government in 1916, becoming minister of munitions, and later secretary of state for war and secretary of state for air. When the war was over, Churchill became secretary of state for the colonies in 1921, and after a short time away to have his appendix taken out, with everything changing, Churchill returned to the Conservatives, after losing two consecutive elections with the Liberals. He soon grew dissatisfied once again, and left politics, spending a lot of time on his writing.
With the onset of WWI, Churchill was brought back, and given the title first lord of the admiralty. Before long, the country lost confidence in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and after Lord Halifax turned down the job, it was decided the job of prime minister would be given to Churchill. His first speech as prime minister was the one that contained, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." Churchill stood strong in his positions in the war, refusing to back down to Germany. He got along with the United States and Franklin D Roosevelt, and was visiting the States when he suffered a minor heart attack in 1941.
After the war, Churchill fell out of favor with the country once again and lost reelection. He was still instrumental in politics, though, being the one to make famous the phrase, "Iron Curtain." Churchill again came back into power, and again performed the duties of the prime minister. The country went to war again, this time with Kenya, after the Mau Mau Rebellion. Later he was instrumental in de-colonizing Malaya. In 1953, Churchill, now seventy-eight, suffered a stroke, but the news of this was kept from Parliament. The year also had good news, as he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. By 1955, it was becoming hard for him to hide his ill-health, and he resigned.
In 1963, John F Kennedy honored Churchill by naming him the first Honorary Member of the United States. With his health diminishing even more at this point, he was too sick to make the trip, and sent his son and grandson in his place. After suffering a second stroke early in 1965, Churchill died January 24, 1965, exactly seventy years after his father had died. He funeral brought in more statesmen from throughout the world than had ever been witnessed up to that point, and wasn't seen again until the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Nine years later, Richard Burton played Churchill in the TV movie The Gathering Storm.
YUDDY
