Churchill, Winston (Leonard Spencer) (1874-1965)

Josef Stalin, Franklin D Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill sitting together at the Tehran Conference, Persia, 1943.

The British prime minister Winston Churchill, accompanied by General Charles de Gaulle of the Free French, reviews troops in the snow, in England, around 1940. Despite being so closely allied against a common enemy, the two leaders had a rather strained relationship; Churchill is quoted as saying ‘Of all the crosses I have to bear, the heaviest is the Cross of Lorraine’ (the latter being the emblem of the Free French).

Ceremony at Bristol University, England, on 21 April 1945. From left to right: Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour; Winston Churchill, Prime Minister; A V Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty. Churchill was Chancellor of the university from 1929 until his death.

British Conservative politician, prime minister 1940-45 and 1951-55. In Parliament from 1900, as a Liberal until 1924, he held a number of ministerial offices, including First Lord of the Admiralty 1911-15 and chancellor of the Exchequer 1924-29. Absent from the cabinet in the 1930s, he returned in September 1939 to lead a coalition government from 1940 to 1945, negotiating with Allied leaders in World War II to achieve the unconditional surrender of Germany in 1945. He led a Conservative government between 1951 and 1955. His books include a six-volume history of World War II (1948-54) and a four-volume History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956-58). War Speeches 1940-45 (1946) contains his most memorable orations. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.

Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, the elder son of Lord Randolph Churchill and his US-born wife, Lady Churchill (born Jennie Jerome). During the Boer War he was a war correspondent and made a dramatic escape from imprisonment in Pretoria. In 1900 he was elected Conservative member of Parliament for Oldham, but he disagreed with Chamberlain's tariff-reform policy and joined the Liberals. In 1911 he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1915-16 he served in the trenches in France but then resumed his parliamentary duties and was minister of munitions under Lloyd George in 1917, when he was concerned with the development of the tank. After the armistice he was secretary for war 1918-21 and then as colonial secretary played a leading part in the establishment of the Irish Free State. During the post-war years he was active in support of the Whites (anti-Bolsheviks) in Russia. From 1929 to 1939 he was out of office as he disagreed with the Conservatives on India, rearmament, and Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. On the first day of World War II he went back to his old post at the Admiralty. In May 1940 he was called to the premiership as head of an all-party administration and made a much quoted ‘blood, tears, toil, and sweat’ speech to the House of Commons. He had a close relationship with US president Roosevelt and in August 1941 concluded the Atlantic Charter with him. In February 1945 he met Stalin and Roosevelt at Yalta and agreed on the final plans for victory. On 8 May he announced the unconditional surrender of Germany. On 23 May 1945, the coalition was dissolved, and Churchill formed a caretaker government drawn mainly from the Conservatives. Defeated in the general election in July, he became leader of the opposition until the election October 1951, in which he again became prime minister. Knight of the Garter 1953. In April 1955 he resigned and retired to paint. After he died his paintings were exhibited in several shows, including a major retrospective in New York City in the 1980s.