Leadership positions

Leader of the Opposition
In office 26 July 1945 – 26 October 1951
Monarch	George VI
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
Preceded by	Manny Shinwell
Succeeded by	The Earl Alexander of Tunis
In office 10 May 1940 – 26 July 1945
Preceded by	The Lord Chatfield (Coordination of Defence)
Succeeded by	Clement Attlee
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office 3 September 1939 – 11 May 1940
Prime Minister	Neville Chamberlain
Preceded by	The Earl Stanhope
Succeeded by	A. V. Alexander

Ministerial offices 1908–1929

Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 6 November 1924 – 4 June 1929
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	Philip 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	The Viscount Milner
Succeeded by	The 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
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
Succeeded by	Andrew Weir
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
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
Secretary of State for the Home Department
In office 19 February 1910 – 24 October 1911
Prime Minister	H. H. Asquith
Preceded by	Herbert 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

Parliamentary offices

Member of Parliament for Woodford
In office 5 July 1945 – 25 September 1964
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Member of Parliament for Epping
In office 29 October 1924 – 15 June 1945
Preceded by	Leonard Lyle
Succeeded by	Leah Manning
Member of Parliament for Dundee
In office 24 April 1908 – 26 October 1922 Serving with Alexander Wilkie
Preceded by	Edmund Robertson Alexander Wilkie
Succeeded by	Edwin Scrymgeour E. D. Morel
Member of Parliament for Manchester North West
In office 8 February 1906 – 24 April 1908
Preceded by	William Houldsworth
Succeeded by	William Joynson-Hicks
Member of Parliament for Oldham
In office 24 October 1900 – 8 January 1906
Preceded by	Walter Runciman
Succeeded by	John Albert Bright

Personal details

Born

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

30 November 1874
Blenheim, Oxfordshire, England

Died

24 January 1965 (aged 90)
Kensington, London, England

Resting place

St Martin's Church, Bladon

Political party

Conservative
- (1900–1904
- 1924–1964)
Liberal
(1904–1924)

Spouse

Clementine Hozier

(m. 1908)

Children

Diana
Randolph
Sarah
Marigold
Mary

Parents

Lord Randolph Churchill
Jennie Jerome

Education

Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature (1953)

Signature

Military service

Allegiance

United Kingdom

Branch/service

British Army
Territorial Army

Years of service

1893–1924

Rank

See list

Commands

6th Battalion,
Royal Scots Fusiliers

Battles/wars

Churchill in military uniform in 1895

A young Winston Churchill on a lecture tour of the United States in 1900

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD FRS PC (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was an English politician. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, once during World War II, and again in the early 1950s.

Churchill is the only person to have been a member of the British Government during both World Wars, and the last commoner (non-royal) to be granted a state funeral. He was also a soldier, journalist, and author. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1953.

Churchill featured in two media polls. He was ranked as the greatest British prime minister of the twentieth century by 20 prominent historians, politicians and commentators. They were asked by BBC Radio 4's The Westminster Hour to rank the 19 prime ministers from Lord Salisbury at the turn of the century through to John Major in the 1990s. In a 2002 BBC 2 television poll, Churchill was ranked as the greatest Briton in history. A million votes were cast, and the voting was heavily influenced by public campaigns for various candidates.

He is the only British Prime Minister to have received the Nobel Prize.

Personal life
World War I
Between the wars
World War II
After the war
Books
- Essays and short stories
Images for kids
See also

Personal life

Winston Churchill was born on 30 November 1874 at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England, the home of the Dukes of Marlborough. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a younger son of the 7th Duke, and a leading Tory politician. His mother (née Jenny Jerome) was American.

As a boy, Churchill went to the famous Harrow School. He did not get good results, but said he was good at fighting.

He joined the British Army, in 1893. In 1896, he was transferred to Bombay, in what was the Indian Empire (British India). He fought in what is now Pakistan. After this, he fought in a war in Sudan, in 1898 as an officer in the cavalry. In 1899, he went to the Second Boer War in South Africa, to be a newspaper reporter. He was captured by the Boers, but managed to escape.

In 1900, he became a politician in the Conservative Party, and was elected to Parliament. In 1904, he changed parties and joined the Liberal Party, but later returned to the Conservative Party. He married Clementine Hozier in 1908, and had 5 children named Diana, Randolph, Sarah, Marigold and Mary.

World War I

In 1910 Churchill became Home Secretary, one of the most important members of the government. In 1911 he was made First Lord of the Admiralty, which put him in charge of the Royal Navy. When World War I broke out, he stayed in that job. He organized an invasion in Gallipoli which went wrong, and because of this, he was made to leave the government. He joined the army and was sent to fight in France, although he was still a Member of Parliament. In 1917 he was made minister in charge of military supplies (Minister of Munitions).

Between the wars

After World War I, in 1919, Churchill was made Secretary of State for War, and Secretary of State for Air (aircraft). In 1920, he ordered the first air bombing in Africa when he bombed the Darwiish State, (also called Daraawiish State).

In 1921 he was in charge of the colonies as Secretary of State. Soon after, in 1922 he lost in an election. In 1924 he became a member of Parliament again, this time not as a member of any party. In 1925 he joined the Conservative Party again. He became Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance) in 1924.

After 1929, Churchill disagreed with many things the Conservative party believed in. He was not given any job in the government. Instead he wrote books. One was called Marlborough: his life and times, about his famous ancestor John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough; another was A History of the English Speaking Peoples, which was not published until after World War 2.

When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Churchill warned that Britain should strengthen its military and oppose Hitler. However, very few leaders agreed with him.

World War II

At the start of World War II, Churchill was again put in charge of the Navy. In 1940 the war was going badly for Britain. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned on May 10 and Churchill was given the job. Some people thought that Britain could not win the war, and that the British government should make peace with Hitler. Churchill was sure that Britain could win, and promised to continue the fight. He made famous speeches that are still remembered today.

He was friends with the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt. He persuaded Roosevelt to give supplies to Britain, and to help Britain. He had many meetings with Roosevelt and with Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, after they came into the war. They were called the Big Three.

After the war

In 1945, his Conservative party lost an election, and he stopped being Prime Minister. However, he became Prime Minister again in 1951, which he was until 1955.

He was knighted in 1953, and became Sir Winston, and also won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In 1955, he retired from being Prime Minister. In 1964, he retired from Parliament.

Winston Churchill's identification document as an Honorary Citizen of the United States, provided as a gift from President John F. Kennedy.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy named him 'Honorary Citizen of the United States' but too ill to attend a White House ceremony, his son and grandson accepted the award.

Sir Winston died of a stroke at the age of 90, in 1965. When he died, his wife Lady Clementine Churchill and other members of the family were at his bedside.

Books

Title (US Title) (Year of publication)

The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898)
The River War (1899): about the reconquest of the Sudan, after the revolution of the self-proclaimed Mahdi, Muhammed Ahmed.
Savrola (1900; serialised 1899 and published USA 1899): a novel
London to Ladysmith via Pretoria (1900): the Second Boer War, and the Relief of Ladysmith
Ian Hamilton's March (1900): Second Boer War continued
Mr. Brodrick’s Army (1903)
Lord Randolph Churchill (1906): two-volume biography of his father
For Free Trade (1906)
My African Journey (1908)
Liberalism and the Social Problem (1909)
The People’s Rights (1910)
The World Crisis (1923–1931)
My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930): autobiography
India (1931)
Thoughts and Adventures (Amid These Storms) (1932)
Marlborough: His Life and Times (1933–1938): four-volume biography on his greatest predecessor
Great Contemporaries (1937): short biographies
Arms and the Covenant or While England Slept: A Survey of World Affairs, 1932–1938 (1938): a call to arms, warning about Hitler, urging rearmament
Step by Step 1936–1939 (1939)
Addresses Delivered in the Year 1940 (1940)
Broadcast Addresses (1941)
Into Battle (Blood Sweat and Tears) (1941)
The Unrelenting Struggle (1942)
The End of the Beginning (1943)
Onwards to Victory (1944)
The Dawn of Liberation (1945)
Victory (1946)
Secret Sessions Speeches (1946)
War Speeches 1940–1945 (1946)
The Second World War (1948–1954): six volumes (12 in paperback)
The Sinews of Peace (1948)
Painting as a Pastime (1948)
Europe Unite (1950)
In the Balance (1951)
The War Speeches 1939–1945 (1952)
Stemming the Tide (1953)
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956–1958): four volumes
The Unwritten Alliance (1961)

Essays and short stories

"Man Overboard!" (1899). First printed in The Harmsworth Magazine, January 1899
"If Lee had not won the Battle of Gettysburg" (1930). First published in Scribner's Magazine, December 1930.

Blenheim Palace: the birthplace of Winston Churchill

Images for kids

Jennie Spencer Churchill with her two sons, Jack (left) and Winston (right) in 1889.
Churchill in 1900 around the time of his first election to Parliament.
Churchill in 1904 when he "crossed the floor".
Churchill and German Kaiser Wilhelm II during a military manoeuvre near Breslau, Silesia, in 1906.
Churchill and his fiancée Clementine Hozier shortly before their marriage in 1908.
Churchill (second left) photographed at the Siege of Sidney Street.
As First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill's London residency became Admiralty House (music room pictured).
Churchill commanding the 6th Battalion, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 1916. His second-in-command, Archibald Sinclair, is on his right.
Churchill meets female workers at Georgetown's filling works near Glasgow in October 1918.
Churchill's main home was Chartwell in Kent. He purchased it in 1922 after his daughter Mary was born.
Churchill with children Randolph and Diana in 1923.
Churchill on Budget Day with his wife Clementine and children Sarah and Randolph, 15 April 1929.
Churchill meeting with film star Charlie Chaplin in Los Angeles in 1929.
Churchill and Neville Chamberlain, the chief proponent of appeasement.
Churchill with Lord Halifax in 1938
Churchill takes aim with a Sten sub-machine gun in June 1941. The man in the pin-striped suit and fedora to the right is his bodyguard, Walter H. Thompson.
Churchill walks through the ruins of Coventry Cathedral with Alfred Robert Grindlay, 1941.
Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill in Tehran.
Churchill's crossing of the Rhine river in Germany, during Operation Plunder on 25 March 1945.
Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at the Yalta Conference, February 1945.
The destruction of Dresden, February 1945.
Churchill waving the Victory sign to the crowd in Whitehall on the day he broadcast to the nation that the war with Germany had been won, 8 May 1945. Ernest Bevin stands to his right.
Churchill at the Potsdam Conference, July 1945.
Churchill in 1949.
Churchill with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, 10 February 1953.
Churchill with Anthony Eden, Dean Acheson and Harry Truman, 5 January 1952.
Churchill's grave at St Martin's Church, Bladon.
Allies (1995) by Lawrence Holofcener, a sculptural group depicting Franklin D. Roosevelt and Churchill in New Bond Street, London.
The statue of Churchill (1973) by Ivor Roberts-Jones in Parliament Square, London.
British Empire at its territorial peak in 1921.

Winston Churchill facts for kids

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