Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill (b. 1874–d. 1965) was a British politician who became prime minister during the Second World War and whose identity and reputation are indelibly linked with Allied victory in that conflict. Celebrated for his oratory, especially for his warnings about the dangers of appeasing Hitler and his defiance in the face of direct German attacks on Britain, he also published over forty major works and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was rare in being both a man of words and action, briefly serving as a soldier at the end of the Victorian period, before embarking on a long and often controversial political career. Starting out as a Conservative in 1900, he defected to the Liberals in 1904 and worked alongside Asquith and Lloyd George on social reform at home, before becoming first lord of the admiralty at the beginning of the First World War. His involvement in the Dardanelles operation almost ended his career, although he was to return as minister of munitions, secretary of state for war and air, and then colonial secretary in the immediate postwar period. He rejoined the Conservative Party in 1924 and served as chancellor of the exchequer under prime minister Stanley Baldwin until 1929. Churchill was a lifelong imperialist with a belief in racial hierarchies, and refused to support greater independence for India. Relegated to the political backbenches, it was his persistent opposition to Hitler that led to a gradual restoration of his reputation, culminating in his return as first lord of the admiralty on the outbreak of war in September 1939. He became prime minister in May 1940 as the leader of a coalition government, ultimately forging a “special relationship” with President Roosevelt and the United States and a more uneasy alliance with Stalin and the Soviet Union. Following his defeat in the 1945 general election, he remained an important figure on the world stage, advocating an Anglo-American alliance and greater European union as bulwarks against Soviet expansionism. He served as a peacetime prime minister between 1951 and 1955 and was accorded a state funeral on his death in January 1965. Churchill’s legacy has been complicated by the role that 1940 has assumed in British national mythology. He has become a contested figure, celebrated as a national savior or denigrated as a racist imperialist. His words are regularly evoked and debated in the context of contemporary issues.