Winston Churchill Biography

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, England, on 30th November of 1874. He was the son of a prominent British statesman, Lord Randolph Churchill and his mother, Jeannie Jerome, a New York socialite.

During his early life as a teenager, he did poorly at his first two schools, therefore he was sent in April 1888 to Harrow School, a boarding school near London. He decided to join the Harrow Rifle Corps, putting him on the path of a military career.

Although it took him three tries to pass the exam for the British Royal Military College, he graduated the 20th in his class of 130.

Family

Churchill met his future wife, Clementine Hozier at a ball in 1904 at Crewe House, home of the Earl of Crewe. He proposed to Clementine during a house party at Blenheim Palace on 10 August 1908. On 12 September 1908, Churchill and Clementine got married in St Margaret’s Westminster church. Their marriage rewarded them with five children:

Diana, born in London on 11 July 1901
Randolph, born at 33 Eccleston Square on 28 May 1911
Sarah, born at Admiralty House on 7 October 194
Marigold Frances Churchill, on 15 november 1918, four days after the official end of the First World War. In the early days of August 1921, Marigold had a cold, but was reported to have recovered from her illness. As days passed by, her illness progressed without anybody noticing, lately turning into septicaemia, turning fatal on 23 August 1921
Mary, born on 15 September 1922. The birth of Mary had made Churchill to buy Chartwell, which would be their house until Winston’s death.

Career

In 1900, Churchill became a Member of Parliament in the Conservative Party for Oldham, a town in Manchester. Unconvinced that the Conservative Party was committed to social justice, Churchill switched to the Liberal Party in 1904. Later in 1908, he was elected as a Member of Parliament, being appointed to the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, as the President of the Board of Trade.

In 1911 Churchill helped the process of modernization in the British Navy, ordering that the new warships to be built with oil-powered engines rather than coal-powered engines. He was also the one that has set up the Royal Navy Air Service. One of the biggest accomplishments of Churchill had been in May 10 1940, when King George VI appointed Churchill as prime minister and Minister of Defense. He is seen as a key figure in World War II, by securing vital U.S. goods through the Lend Lease Act, which allowed Britain to order war goods from the United States.

In 1953 Churchill was knighted By queen Elizabeth II, becoming Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill.

Later years

Churchill had shown signs of having a fragile health as early as 1941, suffering two heart attacks, in 1941 at the White House and in 1943 while battling pneumonia. Later in 1953, while he was 78 years old, he suffered a series of strokes. He decided to keep it secret from the public, offering an official statement that he was suffering from exhaustion. On January 15 1965, Churchill suffered a severe stroke which left him ill. He died nine days later, at age 90, on January 24 at his London home.

"Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war."
(Winston Churchill)

Winston Churchill Quotes