Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill
Churchill, 21, in uniform as one of the Queen's Own Hussars.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 26 October 1951 – 5 April 1955
Monarch	George VI Elizabeth II
Deputy	Anthony Eden
Preceded by	Clement Attlee
Succeeded by	Anthony Eden
In office 10 May 1940 – 26 July 1945
Monarch	George VI
Deputy	Clement Attlee (1942–1945)
Preceded by	Neville Chamberlain
Succeeded by	Clement Attlee
Senior political offices Father of the House of Commons In office 8 October 1959 – 25 September 1964 Preceded by David Grenfell Succeeded by Rab Butler Leader of the Opposition In office 26 July 1945 – 26 October 1951 Prime Minister Clement Attlee Preceded by Clement Attlee Succeeded by Clement Attlee Leader of the Conservative Party In office 9 October 1940 – 6 April 1955 Preceded by Neville Chamberlain Succeeded by Anthony Eden
Ministerial offices 1939‍–‍1952 Minister of Defence In office 28 October 1951 – 1 March 1952 Prime Minister Himself Preceded by Manny Shinwell Succeeded by Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis In office 10 May 1940 – 26 July 1945 Prime Minister Himself Preceded by Ernle Chatfield, 1st Baron Chatfield Succeeded by Clement Attlee First Lord of the Admiralty In office 3 September 1939 – 11 May 1940 Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain Preceded by James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope Succeeded by A. V. Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough
Ministerial offices 1908‍–‍1929 Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 6 November 1924 – 4 June 1929 Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin Preceded by Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden Succeeded by Philip Snowden Secretary of State for the Colonies In office 13 February 1921 – 19 October 1922 Prime Minister David Lloyd George Preceded by Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner Succeeded by Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire Secretary of State for Air In office 10 January 1919 – 13 February 1921 Prime Minister David Lloyd George Preceded by William Weir, 1st Viscount Weir Succeeded by Frederick Guest Secretary of State for War In office 10 January 1919 – 13 February 1921 Prime Minister David Lloyd George Preceded by The Viscount Milner Succeeded by Laming Worthington-Evans Minister of Munitions In office 17 July 1917 – 10 January 1919 Prime Minister David Lloyd George Preceded by Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison Succeeded by Andrew Weir, 1st Baron Inverforth Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster In office 25 May 1915 – 25 November 1915 Prime Minister H. H. Asquith Preceded by Edwin Montagu Succeeded by Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel First Lord of the Admiralty In office 24 October 1911 – 25 May 1915 Prime Minister H. H. Asquith Preceded by Reginald McKenna Succeeded by Arthur Balfour Home Secretary In office 19 February 1910 – 24 October 1911 Prime Minister H. H. Asquith Preceded by Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone Succeeded by Reginald McKenna President of the Board of Trade In office 12 April 1908 – 14 February 1910 Prime Minister H. H. Asquith Preceded by David Lloyd George Succeeded by Sydney Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton
Parliamentary offices Member of Parliament for Template:Constlk In office 5 July 1945 – 25 September 1964 Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by Constituency abolished Member of Parliament for Template:Constlk In office 29 October 1924 – 15 June 1945 Preceded by Leonard Lyle, 1st Baron Lyle of Westbourne Succeeded by Leah Manning Member of Parliament for Template:Constlk In office 9 May 1908 – 26 October 1922 Serving with Alexander Wilkie Preceded by Edmund Robertson, 1st Baron Lochee Alexander Wilkie Succeeded by Edwin Scrymgeour E. D. Morel Member of Parliament for Manchester North West In office 8 February 1906 – 12 April 1908 Preceded by William Houldsworth Succeeded by William Joynson-Hicks, 1st Viscount Brentford Member of Parliament for Template:Constlk In office 24 October 1900 – 8 January 1906 Preceded by Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford Succeeded by John Albert Bright
Personal details
Born	Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-11-30)30 November 1874 Blenheim, Oxfordshire, England
Died	24 January 1965(1965-01-24) (aged 90) London, England
Resting place	St Martin's Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire
Political party	Conservative (1900–1904, 1924–1964)
Other political affiliations	Liberal (1904–1924)
Spouse	Clementine Hozier ​ (m. 1908)​
Children	5
Parents	Lord Randolph Churchill Jennie Jerome
Education	Harrow School RMC Sandhurst
Occupation	Historian painter politician soldier writer
Military service
Branch/service	British Army Territorial Army (from 1902)
Years of service	1893–1924
Unit	4th Queen's Own Hussars Malakand Field Force 21st Lancers South African Light Horse Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars Grenadier Guards Royal Scots Fusiliers
Commands	6th bn, Royal Scots Fusiliers
Battles/wars	North-West Frontier Mahdist War Second Boer War (POW) First World War

Churchill during the First World War, during which he helped oversee naval operations, including the infamous disaster at Gallipoli.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British aristocrat and imperialist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War and again from 1951 to 1955. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) almost continuously from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. An ardent elitist and lifelong advocate of British imperialism, Churchill was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924, after which he became disillusioned with the party's inability to prevent a Labour government and switched to the Conservatives. Churchill would remain a Conservative Party member for the rest of his life, serving as its leader from 1940 to 1955.

Churchill was born in Oxfordshire into the wealthy, aristocratic Spencer family in 1874. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British India, the Mahdist War (Anglo-Sudan War), and the Second Boer War, later gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns. Churchill served as First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War and oversaw the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, for which he was demoted and later resigned. In 1917, he returned to government under the Liberal PM David Lloyd George, notably overseeing the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and British foreign policy in the Middle East.

During the 1920s, Churchill became enamored with fascism as an "antidote" to the growing communist movement. However, by the 1930s he came to view the fascist governments in Italy and Germany as a threat to British imperial hegemony as solidified by the Treaty of Versailles. He continued to openly advocate for British imperialism and called for the harsh suppression of the growing independence movement in India.

At the outbreak of the Second World War Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and, in May 1940, succeeded the Conservative Neville Chamberlain as prime minister. He formed a national government and oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against the Axis powers, including during the Battle of Britain and the reopening of the Western Front. Churchill presided over British wartime policies which have widely been held responsible for the Bengal famine, which killed 2 to 3 million Indians. In 1945, the Conservatives were defeated by Attlee's Labour government, and Churchill served as Leader of the Opposition until 1951. Amid the developing Cold War with the Soviet Union, Churchill developed the "iron curtain" doctrine, which was denounced by Stalin as fomenting conflict between the former Allies. His second term was preoccupied with foreign affairs, especially Anglo-American relations and the preservation of what remained of the British Empire after Indian independence. Domestically, his government emphasised housebuilding and completed the development of a nuclear weapon. In declining health, Churchill resigned as prime minister in 1955, remaining an MP until 1964. Upon his death in 1965, he was given a state funeral.

Churchill remains popular in the Anglosphere and has been portrayed in countless plays, films, and television shows as a fearless leader who led the Allies to victory against fascism in Europe. However, in the 21st century, Churchill's overt racism and support for imperialist domination have become more widely known, tarnishing his reputation among some sectors of the English speaking world. Churchill remains unpopular in India for his role in the Bengal famine and his racist and imperialist views. Most official and popular histories in the Anglophone world continue to represent Churchill positively.

Quotes

In violent opposition to all this sphere of Jewish effort rise the schemes of the International Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up among the unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race. Most, if not all, of them have forsaken the faith of their forefathers, and divorced from their minds all spiritual hopes of the next world. This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It played, as a modern writer, Mrs. Webster, has so ably shown, a definitely recognisable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.

— "Zionism versus Bolshevism", 1920