Winston churchill childhood
Early Life
Winston Churchill came from a long line of English aristocrat-politicians.
Winston churchill biography ducksters history Churchill was famous for his stubborn resistance to Hitler during the darkest hours of the Second World War. He was brought up by servants and friends of the family. He rarely spoke to his father, and he spent most of his childhood at boarding school — Harrow. On leaving school, he went to Sandhurst to train as an officer. After gaining his commission, Churchill sought to gain as much active military experience as possible.His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was descended from the First Duke of Marlborough and was himself a well-known figure in Tory politics in the s and s.
His mother, born Jennie Jerome, was an American heiress whose father was a stock speculator and part-owner of The New York Times. (Rich American girls like Jerome who married European noblemen were known as “dollar princesses.”)
Did you know?
Sir Winston Churchill won the Nobel Prize for Literature in for his six-volume history of World War II.
Churchill was born at the family’s estate near Oxford on November 30, He was educated at the Harrow prep school, where he performed so poorly that he did not even bother to apply to Oxford or Cambridge.
Winston churchill biography title: Winston Churchill was one of the great world leaders of the 20th century. His leadership helped Britain to stand strong against Hitler and the Germans, even when they were the last country left fighting. He is also famous for his inspiring speeches and quotes. Winston was born November 30th, in Oxfordshire, England.
Instead, in young Winston Churchill headed off to military school at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Battles and Books
After he left Sandhurst, Churchill traveled all around the British Empire as a soldier and as a journalist. In , he went to India; his first book, published in , was an account of his experiences in India’s Northwest Frontier Province.
In , the London Morning Post sent him to cover the Boer War in South Africa, but he was captured by enemy soldiers almost as soon as he arrived. (News of Churchill’s daring escape through a bathroom window made him a minor celebrity back home in Britain.)
By the time he returned to England in , the year-old Churchill had published five books.
Churchill: “Crossing the Chamber”
That same year, Winston Churchill joined the House of Commons as a Conservative.
Winston churchill 3 volume biography
On 8 May Winston Churchill stood on a Whitehall balcony and addressed the excited crowd below. Half a century on from his death, Churchill is considered by many to be the greatest Briton. But his legacy didn't always look so secure. From trouble at school to errors in office, Churchill's path to greatness was often a rocky one. His father, Lord Randolph, was a prominent Conservative politician and his mother the daughter of a New York financier.Four years later, he “crossed the chamber” and became a Liberal.
His work on behalf of progressive social reforms such as an eight-hour workday, a government-mandated minimum wage, a state-run labor exchange for unemployed workers and a system of public health insurance infuriated his Conservative colleagues, who complained that this new Churchill was a traitor to his class.
Churchill and Gallipoli
In , Churchill turned his attention away from domestic politics when he became the First Lord of the Admiralty (akin to the Secretary of the Navy in the U.S.).
Noting that Germany was growing more and more bellicose, Churchill began to prepare Great Britain for war: He established the Royal Naval Air Service, modernized the British fleet and helped invent one of the earliest tanks.
Despite Churchill’s prescience and preparation, World War I was a stalemate from the start. In an attempt to shake things up, Churchill proposed a military campaign that soon dissolved into disaster: the invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.
Churchill hoped that this offensive would drive Turkey out of the war and encourage the Balkan states to join the Allies, but Turkish resistance was much stiffer than he had anticipated. After nine months and , casualties, the Allies withdrew in disgrace.
Winston churchill biography amazon Winston Churchill was one of the best-known, and some say one of the greatest, statesmen of the 20th century. Though he was born into a life of privilege, he dedicated himself to public service. But for many people in Great Britain and elsewhere, Winston Churchill is simply a hero. Winston Churchill came from a long line of English aristocrat-politicians. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was descended from the First Duke of Marlborough and was himself a well-known figure in Tory politics in the s and s.After the debacle at Gallipoli, Churchill left the Admiralty.
Churchill Between the Wars
During the s and s, Churchill bounced from government job to government job, and in he rejoined the Conservatives. Especially after the Nazis came to power in , Churchill spent a great deal of time warning his countrymen about the perils of German nationalism, but Britons were weary of war and reluctant to get involved in international affairs again.
Likewise, the British government ignored Churchill’s warnings and did all it could to stay out of Hitler’s way. In , Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain even signed an agreement giving Germany a chunk of Czechoslovakia – “throwing a small state to the wolves,” Churchill scolded – in exchange for a promise of peace.
A year later, however, Hitler broke his promise and invaded Poland.
Britain and France declared war. Chamberlain was pushed out of office, and Winston Churchill took his place as prime minister in May
Churchill: The “British Bulldog”
“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat,” Churchill told the House of Commons in his first speech as prime minister.
“We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.
You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”
Just as Churchill predicted, the road to victory in World War II was long and difficult: France fell to the Nazis in June In July, German fighter planes began three months of devastating air raids on Britain herself.
Though the future looked grim, Churchill did all he could to keep British spirits high. He gave stirring speeches in Parliament and on the radio.
He persuaded U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide war supplies – ammunition, guns, tanks, planes – to the Allies, a program known as Lend-Lease, before the Americans even entered the war.
Though Churchill was one of the chief architects of the Allied victory, war-weary British voters ousted the Conservatives and their prime minister from office just two months after Germany’s surrender in
The Iron Curtain
The now-former prime minister spent the next several years warning Britons and Americans about the dangers of Soviet expansionism.
In a speech in Fulton, Missouri, in , for example, Churchill declared that an anti-democratic “Iron Curtain,” “a growing challenge and peril to Christian civilization,” had descended across Europe. Churchill’s speech was the first time anyone had used that now-common phrase to describe the Communist threat.
In , year-old Winston Churchill became prime minister for the second time.
He spent most of this term working (unsuccessfully) to build a sustainable détente between the East and the West.
Winston churchill biography books Find out more about Winston Churchill. And Britain seemed to be losing. But a leader came along to help the British fight back and win and he did it with the power of words! Churchill came from a wealthy family and was a soldier, a journalist and then, a Member of Parliament, where he helped make laws. Churchill was clever and determined but some people thought he was difficult and only interested in himself.He retired from the post in
In , Queen Elizabeth made Winston Churchill a knight of the Order of the Garter. He died in , one year after retiring from Parliament.
By: Editors
works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the team.
Articles with the “ Editors” byline have been written or edited by the editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan, Matt Mullen and Christian Zapata.
Citation Information
- Article Title
- Winston Churchill
- Author
- Editors
- Website Name
- HISTORY
- URL
- Date Accessed
- January 19,
- Publisher
- A&E Television Networks
- Last Updated
- June 7,
- Original Published Date
- October 27,
Fact Check
We strive for accuracy and fairness.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.