WINSTON CHURCHILL 1874 - 1965

Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was the eldest son of Lord Randolph Churchill and a grandson of the 7th Duke of Marlborough born on St. Andrew's Day (November 30th), 1874, at Blenheim Palace. His mother was the daughter of an American business man. After studying at Harrow and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he entered the army in 1895 joining the 4th Hussars, but immediately obtained permission to go to Cuba to cover the fighting there for the Daily Graphic. He saw much active service, fighting in India, Egypt and finally South Africa. During the latter war he acted as the war correspondent of the Morning Post. On 15th November 1900 he was taken prisoner by the Boers, but escaped within a month. to see the campaign through and return to England for the Khaki Election of 1900, in which he became Conservative member for Oldham and held it for nearly 6 years. When Chamberlain's Tariff Reform was launched in 1903, Churchill was one of the active opponents of any change in the fiscal system. He was a rebellious politician and in 1905 turned Liberal over the free trade issue, at the election of 1906 he won North West Manchester as a Liberal.

He had in the meantime been appointed undersecretary of state for the colonies (1906 - 08) in the Campbell-Bannerman administration, and in 1908 became president of the Board of Trade. He was, however, defeated at the by-election at that time necessitated by his appointment, he soon obtained another seat at Dundee.

He married in 1908 Lady Churchill, formerly Miss Clementine Hozier (who became a life peeress in April 1965); They lived together in their country home Chartwell in Kent having five children, one died in infancy, the others were Mr. Randolph Churchill born 1911 ( a former Conservative M.P.and subsequently a political journalist ) ; Miss Sarah Churchill, the actress; and Mary, the wife of Mr. Christopher Soames, M.P. and Diana who died in 1963.

In (1910 - 11) Churchill was appointed home secretary. It was during his tenure of this office that he became a national figure as a result of his part in the Sydney Street affair (1911) . He was home secretary for nearly 2 years, and then appointed first lord of the Admiralty (1911 - 15). In his pre-war work in that office he conferred frequently with Lord Fisher, then in retirement. The Navy were mobilised and ready before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. On the recall of Lord Fisher to duty in October, they persuaded the government to project a diversion in the East and sponsored the fateful Dardanelles campaign which cost more than 250,000 Allied lives. On Balfour taking the Admiralty, May 1915, Churchill became chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, but was not included in the War Cabinet, Churchill was not responsible for mismanagement, but was forced in November by criticism to resign, and spent the early part of 1916 as lieutenant.-colonel. commanding the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers in Belgium.

It was during this period, when Churchill was out of office, that he first took up painting, selling his pictures under the name of 'Charles Mona' .

In 1917 the Dardanelles Report completely exonerated Winston Churchill from any blame. He re-entered politics as the Minister of Munitions under Lloyd George, the direction given to the vast war industry was brilliant and he took a leading part in the development of the tank.

Revolution occurred in Russia in 1917 the workers Communist Party, led by Lenin, took control of Russia, later called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). After the war, in a Coalition Government, Winston Churchill was Secretary of State for Air (1919 - 21) in that capacity he lent troops and other aid to the White or anti-Bolshevik armies in Russia.When Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin became the most powerful man in the Soviet Union.

Winston Churchill remained a loyal adherent of Edward VIII, even when it was obvious that the King could not keep both his throne and Wallis Simpson .

Churchill was Colonial Secretary in 1921 until the coalition fell in Oct. 1922, and again there fell to him tasks of urgency after the First World War. He played a vital role as chief peacemaker in negotiations with the Irish leaders in setting up the Irish Free State.

At the Colonial Office, too, Churchill had much to do with the setting up of British Mandatory rule in Iraq and Palestine. However, in the general election in November 1922 Churchill lost his seat to Labour and found himself politically isolated. Subsequently Churchill stood for West Leicester, and was again defeated by Labour. He dissented from the Liberal-Labour agreement to throw out the Baldwin government, and stood as an Independent candidate in a by-election in the Abbey division of Westminster, but was narrowly defeated by the official Conservative.

He turned towards Conservatism and in the general election of October 1924, was elected for Epping, becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Baldwin Government. Where he was conspicuous in his decision to return to the gold standard, and where he showed a gradual drift away from his old principles of Free Trade. During the General Strike (May 1926) he edited the British Gazette, the Government's newspaper.

Baldwin lost the election of 1929 and no post was found for Churchill in the National Government formed two years later. He was destined to remain in the political wilderness, he was the chief critic of the National government's policy on the question of Indian self rule ; In government in the 1920's Churchill had been foremost among those who had cut Britain's military spending, the originator of the pernicious Ten-Year Rule, which decreed that government policy should assume, from one year to the next, that Britain need not expect to fight a war for at least a decade ahead.

At this time the countries of Europe were finding trade difficult, factories were closing down, millions of people were loosing their jobs. In Germany it was even worse, Adolf Hitler was supported by the powerful businessmen who hoped to make fortunes equipping a new army, navy and air-force. In all parts of Germany he made speeches urging the German people to win back the lands they had lost and to wipe out the disgrace of defeat. He blamed the Jews and Communists for the hardship and misery the Germans were suffering, he gathered together a party of followers called the National Socialists, (Nazis).

The Italians were also discontented as they had not been rewarded for their part in World War One. Mussolini promised to make Italy great, many agreed to follow him, and he became Dictator, or supreme ruler of the country. His followers were called Fascists. For some years it seemed as if the world would settle down in peace and prosperity.

In 1933 Hitler became dictator of Germany and at once set out to make her the strongest country in the world. Those who did not agree with him were imprisoned or murdered. Those Jews who did not manage to escape from the country were robbed of their goods and many thousands were imprisoned or killed. The Armed forces were now in a desperate condition in fact many military men believed that Winston Churchill when in office had done his part to make them so. He did however see the menace of Hitler and Nazi Germany, and called for the British to prepare for war, few heeded his solemn warnings.

In 1931 Japan seized part of China, Although the League of Nations blamed Japan, no one was prepared to take action against her. In 1935 Mussolini led the Italians against Abyssinia in north-east Africa. Abyssinia asked the League of Nations for help, but again the members did not act, and the country was conquered.

Hitler knew, then, that he had nothing to fear from the League of Nations. In 1936 his armies marched into the lands on the borders of France which the Germans had promised not to fortify. Two years later he conquered Austria. Then he stirred up trouble in Czechoslovakia, saying, untruly, that Germans who lived in part of that country were being ill-treated. War now seemed near, and in Britain gas masks were issued to everyone and preparations were made against attack.

Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, visited Hitler and asked him to live in peace with his neighbours. Hitler replied that all he wanted was the part of Czechoslovakia in which there was a majority of Germans. To avoid war France and Britain persuaded the Czechs to surrender this part of their country. No sooner was this done when Hitler invaded and conquered all of Czechoslovakia. Poland was to be the next victim.

		Britain and France now declared that if Hitler invaded this country they would fight. But Hitler made an agreement with Stalin to share Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union and on September 1st, 1939, the Germans invaded Poland. Two days later Britain and France declared war and immediately the Commonwealth countries stood by their sides. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 Churchill returned to office as First Lord of the Admiralty. Here his influence was immediately felt in the steps taken to combat the submarine and mine menace - a task he had shouldered in the previous war under equally difficult circumstances. Poland was soon conquered. German U-boats began sinking Allied ships in the Atlantic; but little else happened in the West until the following spring. In Britain children were moved from the cities to safe parts of the country, with their teachers going with them. Many articles were rationed. The factories and shipyards were working day and night to produce guns, tanks, aircraft and ships.
Thirty-eight million gas masks were distributed to prepare for a Gas Attack.		All over the country and in the Dominions, men and women were being trained for the army, navy and air-force.

An army was sent to France to meet the German attack, but after the collapse of the Norwegian campaign early in May 1940 and a dramatic debate (8 May) in which Churchill had chivalrously supported his chief, Chamberlain resigned (10th May) : The government was nominally sustained by a majority of 81, but only 252 of the 365 Conservatives in the House voted for the government which was in effect a heavy moral defeat for Chamberlain. Chamberlain tried to restore the government's position by broadening the basis of his ministry, but Labour refused his offers.

Churchill in his career had held nearly every great office of state, in his sixty-sixth year, he became Prime Minister, (May 1940) and set out on a tenure of 5 years during which his gifts as a statesman and strategist were seldom at fault . Churchill was a warrior, the greatest source of inspiration Britain had known., he became the outstanding war leader of British history. Disasters came thick and fast after, for the county was almost entirely unprepared for a major war. A building programme was the remedy he infused a new spirit into both government and nation. Victory at all costs; victory in spite of all the terrors; victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.

The realism and effectiveness of Churchill's policy in times of deepest stress and anxiety manifested itself after the collapse of France, in the face of the armistice concluded by Pétain, which Churchill heard of with emotions of 'grief and amazement '. He acted ruthlessly and decisively on hearing that the French fleet was preparing to go over to the Germans and to resist British action to turn it from that course. At the battle of Oran, Churchill's government, having formally severed relations with the Pétain government, succeeded in thwarting German hopes of acquiring this fresh accession of naval power. Britain now had to fight on alone as ' the sole champions now in arms to defend the world cause . . . We shall do our best to be worthy of that high honour.' (Churchill on 17 June).

The German army and air-force had stormed through Holland and Belgium into France.The British forces, were cut off from their allies, and retreated to the coast. The epic Dunkirk evacuation of the forces was almost a miracle, the Royal Navy and every ship and boat that could, rushed to the beaches to carry back troops safely to England. Churchill, warned the nation that 'victories were not won by evacuations '. In a month France was conquered, country after country fell to the Nazis. Italy now entered the war on the side of Germany.

		The Battle of Britain was fought during August and September of 1940, in the clouds over the south-east of England. Fleets of German bombers attacked London, the ports and the airfields to prepare for a German invasion. Britain had few planes to meet them, but, so many German planes were shot down that Hitler called off the attack, and for the time gave up the plan of invading Britain. Instead he would starve her with his U-boats which lay in wait for shipping supplies..
The Hurricane and Spitfire fighters were more than a match for the German bombers		This continued almost to the end of the war, but, although hundreds of ships and thousands of lives were lost, it failed .

During the darkest hours Britain stood alone Churchill's characteristic utterances created the will to win :-

' Never in the history of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few ',

House of Commons, August 20, 1940. ( In reference to the brave British pilots during the Battle of Britain.)

" I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.,. You ask: What is our aim? ' I can answer in one word; ' 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."
House of Commons, May 13, 1940.

' Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and the Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, This was their finest hour.'
House of Commons, Jane 18, 1940.

Churchill's most striking contribution, to the victory of the Allies was his understanding of the crucial importance of the Mediterranean operations, although his judgment on individual episodes (the decision to send a British force to Greece, for example) has since been questioned. He appreciated that the Middle East was the vital artery of the British Empire, hence his concern to render harmless the French fleet at Alexandria, and reinforce the British Mediterranean fleet in the September of 1940 and his bold decision to send to the Middle East, Britain's one armoured division . His exceptional knowledge of warfare and ability, was to provide Churchill with many disappointments before the tide eventually turned in Britain's favour.

By June 1941 Britain's shipping losses, due to U-boat action, were reaching such proportions that Churchill appealed to the U.S.A.

"Give us the tools, and we wilt finish the job."
Radio Message to Roosevelt, February, 1941.

The United States wished Britain well, their President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, gave 50 destroyers to help fight the U-boats in exchange for bases in the West Indies, and sent much needed war supplies to Britain.

Churchill's relations with Roosevelt was, in the early years of the war, those of perfect mutual understanding and confidence. The growth of an Anglo-American special relationship which began before the U.S.A. entered the war, and lasted long after it ceded, was one of Churchill 's greatest triumphs, and America acknowledged it many years later by making him an honorary U.S. citizen. In Aug. 1941 Roosevelt and Churchill met on a warship in the Atlantic when, as the result of the famous if somewhat impracticable Atlantic Charter, American policy took a vital step forward in international commitment. Churchill was able to announce that he and the president of a still neutral nation had ' jointly pledged their countries to the final destruction of Nazi tyranny ', a statement which was borne out by the President's subsequent course in speech and action. In a memorable invocation to the conquered after the Atlantic conference,

Churchill said: ' Help is coming. Mighty forces are arming in your behalf. Have faith. Have hope. Deliverance is sure'.

Equally memorable was Churchill's prompt pledge of all aid to Russia made immediately on receiving intelligence that the Wehrmacht had invaded Russia, an offer more striking in view of Churchill's unchanged views concerning Communism.

Almost every night German planes bombed London and the ports and large cities, but the British people did not give up hope. A large Italian army now attacked the British forces in Egypt; but the Royal Navy at the Battle of Taranto destroyed a great part of the Italian fleet and, soon after, General Wavell's small army drove the Italians out of Egypt, capturing thousands of prisoners. The Germans now sent a strong army under General Rommel to North Africa to help their allies and the British were driven back into Egypt.Hitler now turned on his ally, Stalin, and huge German armies swept eastwards into Russia.

Japan attacked America at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, they had not yet joined in the war, but they sent an air fleet without warning to the Pacific island of Hawaii and destroyed a great part of the United States fleet. Churchill kept his promise given a month before, that a British declaration of war would follow ' within the hour '. The ' Pacific War ' began disastrously for the Allies, by the invasion by Japan through China into Indo-China and the Dutch East Indies, capturing all the American bases in the Philippines, followed by a rapid advance through Malaya and Singapore. Before long the Japanese had conquered the whole of south-east Asia. - This was the darkest hour of the war !

It was not until 1942 that the Russian tide began to turn. However, under Churchill's lead the British aerial effort against Germany was now growing apace, as was shown, for example, on the night of 30 May 1942, when over 1100 planes were concentrated in a mass attack on Cologne.

Churchill grimly forecast that - 'as the year advances German cities, harbours and centres of war production will be subjected to an ordeal the like of which has never been experienced by any country in continuity, severity or magnitude'.

Now Britain had two great allies, Russia and the United States. At a conference in Moscow, held early in August, Churchill with Stalin, together with various military leaders, had a 4-day discussion on strategic plans. Churchill's made changes in the Middle East Alexander was supreme commander and Montgomery commander of the Eighth Army, which led to the victory 23 Oct. - 4th Nov. of the British Army under General Montgomery over Rommel's army at El Alamein in Egypt. Shortly afterwards the Russians surrounded a huge German army at Stalingrad. Roosevelt and Churchill now met and made their plans. Churchill was quick to point out that the struggle was as yet far from over. The American General Eisenhower was placed in supreme command of the Allied forces.

In the matter of the 'second front', it was agreed between Britain and America to postpone an attack on Europe and to undertake an expedition to North Africa, but it was left to Churchill to explain this delay to Stalin and to gain his acquiescence, which he did with some success.However after hard fighting, the German invaders were slowly driven back from Russia. .

Meanwhile, from Britain, R.A.F. and American bombers were making heavy attacks on German cities. Churchill fully supported the strategic task of night bombing imposed on the R.A.F., a policy that was certainly justified by its results. His strategical gifts were once again evident in the conduct of the campaign in Italy in 1943, when the Germans had been destroyed in North Africa, the Allies crossed to Italy and the Italians surrendered. They shot their dictator, Mussolini.. There were critics who (then, and subsequently) thought that valuable time had been lost between the fall of Mussolini and the delivery of the major assault on the mainland of Italy, a charge which Churchill vigorously refuted by the defence that the 'condition and the preparation of the landing craft were the sole and decisive limiting factors'.

Churchill never regarded the North African operation and its sequel in Italy as a substitute for a direct attack across the Channel upon the Germans in France or the Low Countries, but only as an essential preliminary to the main attack on Germany and her ring of subjugated states. With Churchill and his advisers the second front existed and was a main preoccupation already with the enemy, and 'on the day', he said, ' when we and our American allies judge to be the right time this front also will be thrown open and thrown into play, and a mass invasion of the Continent from the West and South will begin ' - a promise which was amply fulfilled on D day in June the following year.

Of all the conferences between Churchill and Roosevelt the Quebec Conference (which began on 11th August 1943) was the most comprehensive : for then fundamental agreement on immediate ends was arrived at, including action in China, though once again, as at Casablanca the previous January, no Russian representative was present. In Nov.-Dec. 1943, however, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met at Teheran to discuss their common war policies.

In 1944 the Germans struck with flying bombs from Belgium and Holland, and later, V1 and V2 machines, launched from Holland, Churchill scorned the idea that Parliament should transfer its location to some safer city and called upon all who had duties in London to remain at their posts. The Allies were now succeeding on all fronts: Europe was in process of liberation, but civil war in Greece and political upheaval in Italy marred the general pattern of success. Soon after the invasion of France, Churchill visited the battle-front, and indeed it was a feature of his premiership that he was often overseas, whether at vital conferences or in theatres of war. On 10 September Churchill went again to Quebec to confer with Roosevelt, and there he and the President reached decisions on all points respecting the completion of the war in Europe and the destruction of Japan, power in the Pacific. Less than 3 weeks after his return from Quebec Churchill left England again for Moscow. This conference (Oct.) was the sequel to Quebec, the discussions concerning, chiefly, common problems in East Europe.

At last, in June 1944, the great invasion was launched. Protected by the navies and air forces, the huge fleet sailed for Normandy. Harbours in sections were towed across the Channel and a pipe-line was laid below the sea to carry petrol. After bitter fighting, the Germans were driven out of France, the British and Americans entered Germany from the west, the Russians advanced from the east.

		In Feb. 1945 Churchill. went to Yalta, in the Crimea, where, with Roosevelt and Stalin, the Allies drew up a plan for the final defeat of Germany, and the occupation and control of that country after her unconditional surrender. The conference also reaffirmed the Allies common determination to maintain in the peace the unity of purpose and action which had made victory certain; Early in April (1945), as victory was approaching, the exchange of recriminations between Conservative and Labour ministers heralded the break up of the coalition. Germany, her cities in ruins and her armies beaten, surrendered on May 7th, 1945. Hitler had killed himself just before the surrender. The ultimate delimitation of Germany's boundaries was considered by a 3-power conference on 16 July 1945 between Churchill, Truman and Stalin, but certain changes had then already taken place . In the Commons in August 1945, after the change of government, Churchill, in the debate on the King's Speech, said, as to the results of that conference, that it would be impossible to conceal the divergence's of view which existed about the state of affairs in East and Middle Europe.
In March 1945 victory in sight - Churchill flew out - to cross the Rhine to tread on German soil. accompanied by Field-Marshal Montgomery.		With the war with Germany over, Churchill sounded the Labour leaders on the possibility of continuing the Coalition government until the end of the war with Japan, but their response was unfavourable

On 25th May Churchill formed a new government (the ' Caretaker Government ' ) almost exclusively of Conservatives. Parliament was prorogued on 15th June and immediately afterwards formally dissolved.

In the ensuing election campaign Churchill toured the provinces and London and everywhere was greeted with enthusiasm, but it was evident that they intended to draw a line between his personality and policies advocated by his party. In this campaign Churchill never rose above the partisan, his broadcast address on 30th June on the relations between the Labour party executive and Labour ministers, and in particular on the influence of the Labour 'caucus', being all too reminiscent of the 'Zinoviev Letter ' tactics of 1924. The results of the election disclosed a great victory for Labour with 203 gains and won in all 394 seats to the Conservatives 210. On 26th July 1945 Churchill, undoubtedly shocked by the election result, resigned. His defeat in the election must have been a bitter disappointment, in the debate on the Address from the Throne (August 1945) the new Labour Prime Minister (Clement Attlee) paid a warm tribute to Churchill for his services as a war leader.

In the Far East the Japanese were being driven from the lands they had seized. At the end of July the Allies told Japan that, if she did not surrender, she would be completely destroyed. On August 6th the Japanese city of Hiroshima was destroyed by a small atom-bomb and three days later the same fate befell Nagasaki. On August 14th Japan surrendered.

In Paris in 1946, many months after Churchill had resigned, it became evident that the policies of the Western democracies and Russia were entirely divergent. It was later clear, too, that the West had been unintentionally weakened by the fact that, towards the end of his life, Roosevelt had failed to give Churchill his whole-hearted support on a number of strategic matters, placing what would in retrospect appear to have been an undue faith in Stalin's disinterestedness in the internal affairs of the countries Russia was to ' liberate '.

The next 6 years of Churchill's life were spent in opposition, as Leader of the Opposition he continued to influence foreign policy. Criticising the Labour government's internal policy and opposed the new government's policy towards India and Burma: but gave his wholehearted support in matters of foreign affairs, and foreign policy during the period 1945 - 51 .

As a statesman and oratory, he made several telling speeches, both in and outside Parliament, which had a profound effect at home and abroad, on the close association of Britain and America, and the development of European unity. He also warned the world against the Communism .

"An iron curtain has descended across the Continent [of Europe] ."
Fulton U.S.A., March, 1946.

To combat this, Churchill urged co.-operation with America, and, at Zurich in September 1946 declared:

' We must build a United States of Europe '. Today the United Europe that Churchill so ardently preached for including Britain, looms large .

" In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance : In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill, "
The Second World War, Vol. i, 1948.

He enjoyed painting, and was made a Royal Academician Extraordinary, an honour he greatly cherished.Churchill was a versatile man, who also enjoyed humdrum pastimes such as bricklaying. A passionate romantic, above all, about England. It was during his years out of office that he wrote much of his history of The Second World War, which has become a modern classic.

Published, works include :-

The River War, 1899; Savrola (his only novel), 1900: Lord Randolph Churchill, 1906; The World Crisis (4 vols.),1923 - 29 (abridged and revised ed. in 1 volume, 1931); My Early Life, 1930; Marlborough (4 vols.), 1933 - 38; Great Contemporaries, 1937; Into Battle (speeches), 1941; The Unrelenting Struggle (speeches), 1942; The End of the Beginning (speeches), 1943; Onwards to Victory (speeches), 1944; The Dawn of Liberation (speeches), 1945; Victory (speeches), 1946; Secret Session Speeches, 1946; Sinews of Peace (speeches), 1948; Painting as a Pastime, 1948; The Second World War (6 vols.), 1948 - 54; A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, 1956 - 58 .

In 1950 the Conservatives gained seven seats in the general election, but Labour still held a majority, although only a slender one; 18 months later, at the next general election, the Conservatives returned to power. Churchill again became Prime Minister in 1951 and his peace ministry was a great personal triumph. It saw the end of the Korean war, and an apparent lessening of the 'cold war ' ; at home the country's economy made a pronounced revival.

At the general election in May 1955 the Conservative majority actually increased - a rare achievement for a party already in power and on which fittingly set the seal on Churchill's political career, for the result was at least as much an approval of Churchill 's policy as a mandate for his successor. He resigned in 1955 and give place to a younger man Anthony Eden, characteristically he declined the highest honours, preferring to remain a member of the House of Commons, while cherishing the Knighthood of the Garter conferred on him earlier in 1953.

Churchill's eightieth birthday was celebratedted by numerous presentations. Honours, showered on him by a grateful world. He was awarded the Charlemagne Prize for services to Europe (1956) and the Cross of Liberation (1958). He was Grand Seigneur of the Company of Adventurers into Hudson's Bay and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He was proclaimed (1963) an honorary citizen of the United States. He was elected to the Royal Academy as Royal Academician Extraordinary. He was honoured by more than twenty universities and fifty towns and cities.

He remained in Parliament as M.P. for Woodford until the dissolution in 1964, and his retirement was the occasion of a special motion by the Commons ' putting on record its unbounded admiration and gratitude for his services to Parliament, to the nation and to the world ....'

When he died a state funeral was held at St. Paul's, which was attended by the Queen and heads of many foreign and Commonwealth states, followed by interment alongside members of his family at Bladon, Oxon. A memorial plaque in Westminster Abbey was unveiled, September 1965.