Prime Minister1874–1965

    Winston Churchill

    The Man Who Refused to Surrender

    Born on 30 November 1874 at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Winston Churchill was Britain's Prime Minister through the Second World War, rallying the country to fight on alone in 1940. A soldier, journalist and historian, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953, while his imperial views and record in India remain fiercely debated.

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    • Prime Minister
    • War leader
    • Nobel laureate
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    A life in brief

    Winston Churchill: life and timeline.

    He was neglected by his parents and loved by his nanny, failed the Sandhurst entrance exam twice, then went looking for wars: Cuba, India's North-West Frontier, the cavalry charge at Omdurman and an escape from a Boer prison in Pretoria. Winston Churchill was in Parliament at twenty-five, blamed for Gallipoli at forty, and out of office through the 1930s, warning about Hitler to colleagues who no longer trusted his judgement. In May 1940, at sixty-five, he became Prime Minister and refused to discuss peace terms.

    1. 1874

      Born at Blenheim Palace

      Born 30 November to Lord Randolph Churchill, a rising Conservative politician, and the American heiress Jennie Jerome. His closest bond in childhood is with his nanny, Elizabeth Everest.

    2. 1894

      Sandhurst

      After struggling at Harrow and failing the Royal Military College entrance exam twice, he graduates eighth in his class. His father dies the following January, aged forty-five.

    3. 1898

      Omdurman

      Having watched fighting in Cuba and served on India's North-West Frontier, he rides with the 21st Lancers in one of the British Army's last cavalry charges, at Omdurman in Sudan, and turns the campaign into a book.

    4. 1899

      Escape from Pretoria

      Reporting on the Boer War, he is captured after an armoured train is ambushed and spends his twenty-fifth birthday as a prisoner. His escape over the prison wall makes him famous across the Empire.

    5. 1900

      Into Parliament

      Elected Conservative MP for Oldham at twenty-five. In 1904 he crosses the floor to the Liberals over free trade; he rejoins the Conservatives two decades later.

    6. 1908

      Marriage to Clementine

      Marries Clementine Hozier. They have five children. In 1911 he becomes First Lord of the Admiralty and drives the Royal Navy's switch from coal to oil.

    7. 1915

      Gallipoli

      The Dardanelles campaign he championed collapses into a bloody stalemate. He is removed from the Admiralty and serves for a time as a battalion commander on the Western Front.

    8. 1938

      The wilderness years

      Out of office since 1929 and distrusted over India and the abdication crisis, he warns about German rearmament. After Munich he tells the Commons Britain has sustained "a total and unmitigated defeat".

    9. 1940

      Prime Minister

      Becomes Prime Minister on 10 May as Germany attacks in the west. Between 26 and 28 May he overrules Lord Halifax's push to explore peace terms through Mussolini; the Dunkirk evacuation brings home about 338,000 troops.

    10. 1945

      Victory and defeat

      Germany surrenders in May. On 26 July the general election results give Labour a landslide, and he leaves office.

    11. 1946

      The Iron Curtain

      In Fulton, Missouri, with President Truman beside him, he warns that an iron curtain has descended across Europe — a defining image of the Cold War.

    12. 1953

      Second premiership and the Nobel

      Back as Prime Minister since 1951, he suffers a serious stroke in June that is hidden from the public, and is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He resigns in April 1955 at eighty and dies on 24 January 1965, aged ninety.

    Major achievements

    Winston Churchill: major achievements.

    • 01

      Leading Britain in 1940

      With France falling and his own War Cabinet divided, he refused to open peace talks with Hitler and kept Britain in the war alone until the Soviet Union and the United States joined it in 1941.

    • 02

      The speeches

      "Blood, toil, tears and sweat", "We shall fight on the beaches" and "Their finest hour" turned a military crisis into a story the country could believe in.

    • 03

      Nobel Prize in Literature

      Awarded in 1953 for a lifetime of history, memoir and oratory, including his multi-volume history of the Second World War and his biography of his father.

    • 04

      The Grand Alliance

      His partnership with Franklin D. Roosevelt and his uneasy dealings with Stalin held together the coalition that defeated Nazi Germany.

    • 05

      Modernising the Navy

      As First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 he converted the fleet from coal to oil and backed the early development of the tank through the Landships Committee.

    Turning points

    Winston Churchill: defining moments.

    • 1899

      Captured and escaped

      Taken prisoner by the Boers after helping clear an ambushed armoured train, he climbed the wall of his Pretoria prison, hid with an English mine manager and escaped on a freight train. He came home a celebrity, and won a seat in Parliament the next year.

    • 1915

      The Dardanelles

      He was the most visible sponsor of the attempt to force the Dardanelles and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war. It ended in disaster, with hundreds of thousands of casualties. He was forced from the Admiralty, and Gallipoli followed him for two decades.

    • 26–28 May 1940

      The War Cabinet crisis

      Halifax argued that Britain should explore terms through Mussolini while it still had bargaining power. Churchill refused, then took his case to the wider cabinet, whose fierce support isolated Halifax. Britain fought on.

    • 1943

      The Bengal famine

      Roughly two to three million people died in the famine in British-ruled Bengal. Historians debate the balance of causes — war, inflation, shipping and colonial failures — but Churchill's own remarks about Indians have left a lasting stain on his reputation.

    I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

    House of Commons, 13 May 1940

    What you’ll take away

    Lessons from Winston Churchill’s life.

    1. 01

      A record of failure is not a verdict

      He failed exams, crossed the floor twice, owned Gallipoli and spent a decade out of office. None of it prevented him from being right about the decisive question of his life.

    2. 02

      Unpopular warnings can be true

      Through the 1930s he warned about Hitler to a Parliament that had stopped listening to him. The people who dismissed him were judging his past, not his argument.

    3. 03

      Great leaders still need judging whole

      The man who would not yield in 1940 also opposed Indian self-government and held harsh racial views. Both belong in the same biography.

    FAQ

    Frequently asked questions about Winston Churchill.

    What was Winston Churchill's full name?

    Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill. He was a descendant of the Dukes of Marlborough, whose family surname is Spencer-Churchill, and was born at Blenheim Palace on 30 November 1874.

    How did Winston Churchill die?

    After a severe stroke. He died at his London home at Hyde Park Gate on 24 January 1965, aged ninety — seventy years to the day after his father's death — and was given a state funeral on 30 January.

    Where did Winston Churchill go to school?

    Harrow School, followed by the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He never went to university; he educated himself through wide reading as a young officer in India.

    What did Winston Churchill do in the First World War?

    He began it as First Lord of the Admiralty. After the failure of the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 he left the government and commanded a battalion on the Western Front, then returned as Minister of Munitions in 1917.

    Why did Winston Churchill lose the 1945 election?

    Voters wanted a different government to build the peace. Churchill remained personally admired, but Labour's promises of social reform, housing and a welfare state won it a landslide.

    Who was Winston Churchill's wife?

    Clementine Hozier, whom he married in 1908. They were married for more than fifty-six years and had five children: Diana, Randolph, Sarah, Marigold and Mary.

    Where is Winston Churchill buried?

    At St Martin's Church in Bladon, Oxfordshire, close to Blenheim Palace where he was born.

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