Figure 1.--This 1878 portrait by Irish artist P. Ayron Ward shows Winston Churchill aged four. The long curls were later cut off and preserved and are still on display at Churchill's birthplace, Blenheim palace. Notice the red hair. |
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British statesman and author, considered by most historians to be the greatest of all primeministers for his role in warning about the dangers of Germany' military buildup in the 1930s, and after being ignored, leading the seemingly hopeless resistance to the NAZIs during the darkest days of World War II when Britain stood alone. He was born at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire and had a trurbulent childhood. He was born into one of te most elustrious families in England, a descendent of the Duke of Marlborough. His father was a brilliant parlimentarian who considered his son slow and a disappointment. His mother was the beautiful American heiris, loving but tied up in the social swirl of the time. He was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst, the Royal Military Academy.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, was a decendent of one of the most illustrious British families, the decendents of John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlbourough. Sometimes forgotten is that Sir Winston was half American. As he was later to tell the U.S. Congress after World War II, "If my father had been American and my mother British, I might have gotten her on my own."
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, a direct descendant of John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough, was born on November, 30 1874 at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Winston's father was the brilliant, but mercurial Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-95) 3rd son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough. Winston lived in fear and awe of his father. Lord Randolph was a leader in the Conservative Party and many believed he would one day rise to be primeminister. Lord Randolph, however, showed little affection for Winston and was disappointed at his poor performance in school. He thought Winston a stupid boy. His letters show no real affection and a modern reader would judge them as cruel. Among the many people Lord Randolph has offended was the Prince of Wales and his wife Alexandra. She forgave him, but the future Edward VII never did. Lord Randolph's son Winston went on to be a confident of Edward's grandson George VI during the dark days of World War II.
His mother Jeanette (Jennie) Jerome (1854-1921) was a wealthy American heiress. Many down-in-the-heel British aristocrats tuened to eligible Americans from the families benefiting grom rising American industrial economy of the late 19th century. (Edith Wharton wrote a novel on this, The Bucaneers). Jennie was beautiful, personable, and an accomplished piano player. Like many of her class, she did not want to be encumbered with motherhood. As the wife of Lord Randolph, she also had many duties, especially revolving around her husband's political career. As a result, she had little time for Winston. She was certainly more affectionate than her husband, but by all standards must be judged to have been a distant mother. This was not uncommon at the time. Many wealthy families shunted the children off to the nursery where they were in effect raised by nannies. In later life Winston Churchill wrote of his mother: "She shone for me like the Evening Star. I loved her dearly--but at a distance."
John (Jack) Strange Churchill (1800-1947) was Winston's only sibling. When Winston and Jack were small boys they went to Austria on a holiday with their parents. They had tea with Prince Bismarck.
The care of young children born into wealthy fmilies in the 19th century was commonly put in the hands of servants. Women were more concerned with the ocial whirl. Such was the case of Winston. Not only did his mother not want to be bothered with him, but his father didn't even like him. In many cases these children developed much closer relaionships with their childhood nurse maids than their own mothers. Here an exception was Franklin Roosevelt, Winston's great war-time comrade, who was born 8 years after Winston. Winston came to look on his beautiful mother as an unapproachable vision. Winston loved to ride his pony, Rob Roy, at Blenheim. Some of his favorite childhood toys were lead soldiers. They are still on display at Blenheim. Winston lived in Ireland with his parents (after his grandfather, the 7th Duke of Marlborough, was made Viceroy) from the time he was 2 years old; he returned to England when he was 5. A favorite childhood hobby was butterfly collecting. Surely some of his sence of history was developed there as a child.
The only real affection Winston received as a boy was from his beloved nanny. He called her "Wommany". Winston's nickname for his beloved nanny, Elizabeth Ann Everest, was "Woomany". He remembered her all his life. He wrote, "Mrs. Everest it was who looked after me and tended all my wants. It was to her I poured out my many troubles." As an adult he kept a photograph of her in his bed room.
As a young boy Winston wore Little Lord Fauntleroy suits with lace collars. He was painted in this outfit in 1878, nearly a decade before Mrs. Burnett wrote her famous book, popularizing the style.
Winston also wore thick ringlet curls as seen in the P. Ayron Ward portrait. An HBC contributor remembers in 1960 as a school boy in junior school being on an outing to
Blenheim and recalls seeing Winston's curls on display.
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Churchill began his efducation at a prep school in Brighton. A school administrator said Winston was "regular in his irregularity," other faults he accused him of having were forgetful, unpunctual, and careless (1888). His parents finally visited him at school in Brighton when he contracted a serious case of pneumonia. While he did not do well at school, he did shine at history--his favorite subject. He wrote to his parents about his unhappines. They did not visit on the various open days like many of the parents of the other boys.
When Winston Churchill was 12 years old he started attending Harrow School, a prominent English secondary school. To his dismay, Churchill was listed under the S's as Spencer Churchill when he first attended Harrow. At that time Winston was a stocky boy with red hair who talked with a stutter and a lisp. Winston did so well on math in his Harrow entrance exam that he was put in the top division for that subject. In his first year at Harrow ge was recognized as being the best in his division for history. Winston entered the school, however, as the boy with the lowest grades in the lowest class, and he remained in that position. Winston never even made it into the upper school because he would not study the classics. Though he did poorly in his schoolwork, he grew to love the English language. He hated Harrow. As a school boy at Harrow, he requested his father's autographs in order to increase his pocket money. His father was not pleased. Winston's nickname at Harrow was "Copperknob" for his red hair. He wrote many times pleading with his parents to visit him on the various open days, but they almost never came.
After Harrow in 1893 at the age of 18, Winston entered the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He trained as an infantry officer. He failed the entrance exam twice before finally passing it. Soon, however, he became the leader in his class on the two most important subjects, tactics and fortifications. When he graduated Churchill was 8th in his class of 150 students.
Churchill in 1895 (aged 21) he was commissioned in the Fourth Hussars and saw active service in both Cuba and India. He returned to England, became involved briefly in politics before returning to India to report for The Daily Telegraph.
In 1898 during the Boer war he was sent to South Africa as the Morning Post's Correspondent. The book Winston S. Churchill: War Correspondent 1895-1900 by his grandson Winston Churchill M.P. tells of these times. While there he was captured by the Boers and held as a Prisoner of War in Pretoria. However within a month he, along with 2 other prisoners, escaped. His book My Early Life covers these years.
Churchill returned to England and in the General Election of 1900 was elected Conservative Member for Oldham. However just 4 years later, because he disagreed with
Joseph Chamberlain's tarif reform policy, he left the Conservatives and joined Herbert Asquith's Liberal Party and soon became Secretary of State for the colonies. In 1908, not only was he promoted to be President of the Board of Trade, but he also married Clementine Hozier. Churchill 2 years later was partly responsible for a split in the government resulting in a General Election. The Liberals were returned to power and Churchill became Home Secretary.
Nationalism was rampant in Europe at the turn of the 20th century. The bombastic Kaiser and Prussian militarists envied the English colonies. The French wanted revenge from the Franco Prussian War. The English feared Germany's naval building program. Russia and Austria ruled over a multiplicity of nationalities seeking independence. Storm clouds were beginning to gather over Europe. Some thought there might be war between Germany and France and because England had treaty obligations to France would have to help France. Churchill was made First Lord of the Admiralty to prepare in case of a war. He set to immediately to expand the fleet modernization program begun by Firsrt Sea Lord Jacki Fisher and where necessary replace Admirals.
Finally the spark which resulted in World War I came in the Balkans with the assassination of Austraian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Germany on August, 3, 1914, declared war on France and marched into neutral Belgium. In turn Britain declared war on Germany. After some early, but indecisive, naval successes in the North Sea, Churchill promoted the idea of taking an army through the Dardanelles to Constantinople (Istanbul) the capital of Germany's ally Turkey. The goal was to knockout Turkey and support the Russians. Russia was already reeling against German offensives and the Turks opened up new fronts against the Russians when they entered the War. Keeping the Russians in the war was vital to the Allies. Galiopli showed the visionary Churchill at his best, but also Churchill's not infrequent lack of judgement. The Galiopli offensive was a disaster and over 200,000 men were killed in the operation. Churchill was held responsible and excluded from the coalition government formed in 1915. He rejoined the army and served in the front line in France. When Lloyd George was appointed Prime Minister he was brought back into the government as Minister for Munitions. In this role he played an important part in the development of the tank.
Churchill after the Armistace wanted to persue a war against the Bolshevicks in Russia who had murdered the Tsar. There was, however, no appetite in Britain for a new war. Lord George complained, "The trouble with Winston is tht he is always getting out his maps." in After World War I, Churchill served as Secretary for War and then Colonial Secretary. He lost his seat in the General Election of 1922 and the following year left the Liberal party. On a more positive note, in 1922 he bought his house Chartwell near Westerham in Kent. He ran for Parliament again, this time as a Conservative again.
Lady St. Helier, aka Lady Jeune, convinced Sir Evelyn Wood to get Churchill to the
Omdurman campaign and in March 1908 held a dinner party where Winston devoted all his attention to his beautiful neighbour, Miss Clementine Hozier. In the spring of 1908 Churchill met Clementine Hozier (1885 - 1977), who was the daughter of a retired army officer. Clementine and Churchill were married on September 12, 1908. Churchill would later write that after his marriage he "lived happily ever afterwards". When they married Winston was 33 and Clementine was 23. Clememtine was a spirited person in her own right--no doubt she had to be to live with Winston. Once when a suffragette was trying to push Winston in front of a train, Clementine wacked the suffragette with her umbrella. The pet names of Winston were 'pig' (initially 'pug') and Clementine was called 'kat'. They were very differemnt, people. Churchill could not have found a more supportibe soulmate. She was supportive, but an independent person in her own right. His mother once remarked when asked how her husband could have accomplished so much, Winston "never did anyting he didn't want to do, and left someone to clean up the mess afterwards". There is no doubt that Clementine provided the stable home environment that Winston could always rely upon during the ups and downs of his political career. She also produced a calming influence oin him, especially his tendency to browbeat his staff. [Soames]
Churchill became a devoted parent to his four children, no doubt remembering the lack of attention he received as a child. Clementine and Winston's children were Randolph (1911-68), Diana (1909-63), Sarah (1914-82), Mary (1922- ), and Marigold (d. 1921). Marygold's death crushed Churchill and Clemmi. It followed Churchill's loss of his mother. Clemmie and Winston had a pet name for Randolph before and just after he was born--"Chumbolly". Winston and Clementine's ten grandchildren were Winston (Randolph and Pamela Digby); Arabella (Randolph and June Osborne); Julian, Edwina & Celia (Diana and Duncan Sandys); Nicholas, Emma, Charlotte, Jeremy & Rupert (Mary and Christopher Soames). Churchill had a stormy relationship with his son Randolph. "You appear to be leading a perfectly useless existence," Churchill commented in 1929 to his son Randolph.
Churchill in 1924 he was elected to Parliament as a Constitutionalist and rapidly became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's government. He played a prominent part in the defeat of the 1926 General Strike. He supported better conditions for the coal miners, but supported harsh action against the General Strike. He developed at this time ahe reputation of the embodiment of unfeeling coinservatism. Churchill disagreed, however, with many Conservative policies. This put him out of office from 1929 to 1939 (the wilderness years.) It is at this time he goes on his first lecture tour of the United Statres. Most political observers thought that Churchill's political career was over. A visit to Germany in 1932 was shoicking. Hitler had not yet seized power, but he saw the NAZIs on the street. After Hitler and the NAZIs seized power, Churchill was increasingky concerned with German rearmament and later with Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy. Churchill was out of government and a back bencher. Hewas the one of the few important British political leaders urging action aginst the NAZIs and therearmament of Germany. He seem to be one of the few English politicans of any stature to see the dangers if German rearmament or recognized the NAZI tyranny for what it was. At first he was seen as a crank, wanting to involve Britain in another War. After Munich, however, many Englishmen began to see him in a different light.
Churchill had been brought up in Victorian Britain. He came to see the Empire as a great force for good in the world. [Cannadine] Churchill for all his admiration of America, Churchill had conflicting views. He blamed President Wilson American idealism in large measure for the rise of the modern Totalitarian states. Churchill saw the great Continental Empires and aristocratic families as a forcefor stability. Dividing those empires on national and democratic lines was introducing dangerous American ideals. He was also disturbed by the hostile view of te British Empire in America. Churchill was an advocate of the Empire. He said upon becoming primeminister that he had not taken the office to oversee the disolution of the British Empire. One of the great ironies of World War I was that by refussing to deal with Hitler after the fall of France, Churchill was in fact dooming the Empire. It was not Hitler that was an enemy of the Empire. He in fact saw the Epire as a force for stability. What he wanted was for Britain to acceed to Germany's domination of the Comtinet and support or at least acquiesence for his crusade in the East. The enemies of the Empire were in fact Stalin and Churchill's great World War II partner, Franklin Roosevelt. Many would of course say that in choosing to defy Hitler and reject a British Vichy, Churchill was in fact choosing what was really great about Britain, a concept of liberty that had first been conceived by England's yeoman farmers. [Schama]
NAZI Germany posed a danger to Western Civilization unequaled since Gengis Kahn. For over a year it was only valliant Britain which opposed the NAZI juggernaught. It was at this time that Britain could have lost World War II. After the fall of France, victory was no longer possible, but at this time had it not been for Churchill Britain and America might have well lost the War.
Roosevelt and Churchill had begun to correspond when Churchill entered the Government as First Lord of the Admiralty in September 1939. It was a remarkable correspondence and was to continue throughout World War II between the two men who would play key roles in effect saving Western Civilization. [Tarapani] One historian was to refer to it as "the supreme partnership". They were two very different men both in character and outlook, but Roosevelt was aware of Churchill's long struggle to alert Britain to the dangers posed by Hitler and the NAZIs. The men were so different with such different vissions of their respective countries' interests that on has to wonder if any series of events short of the rise of Hitler would have drawn them together. [Schlesinger] Churhchill's goal was to draw America into the War. Roosevelt at first still hoped that Hitler could be stopped without using American troops. President Roosevelt played a key role in forging the great Arsenal of Democracy that would in the end play a key role in saving Britain and destroying the Axis.
Churchill, on the outbreak of World War II, was immediately appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. After Chamberlain had resigned, many assumed Lord Halifax would replace Chamberlain. He could have had the job and he was prepared to deal with Hitler. It is unclear why he stepped aside. It appears that he realized he was not up to the job. Churchill was. On May, 10, 1940, the day the NAZIs struck in the West, Churchill was made Prime Minister of the war time coalition government. Just 3 days later he made his famous "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat" speech. There was much support within the War Cabinent for making a deal with Hitler. Lord Beaverbrook was convinced that it was the only course. It was Churchill that carried the day and the British decided to resist the NAZI onslaught. After the fall of France, Britain could no longer loose the War, but thet it could have lost the War. [Luckacs] At the time many in Britian and Americam thought the War was lost and Britain could not stand alone against German military prowess. The photographs and political cartoons of Churchill with his "V" for victory sign became a symbol for resistance to the NAZIs during the darkest days of the War. To Churchill and Britain the world owes an eternal debt of gratitude. Without Britain the Germans may have been defeated, but almost certainly the Soviets would have succeded in taking over most of Western Europe. The British stirred by Churchill, dealt the NAZIs there first defeat--the Battle of Britain.
As President Kennedy explained, "He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle." The amazing thing about Churchill's speecehes is not only the inspired delivery, but the fact that he wrote them himself. A journalist describing Churchill's oratory writes, "Churchill didn't just exhort the British people ('We shall fight on the beechges ...") and denounce Hitler (' ... every stain of his infected and corroding fingers will be ... blasted from the surface of the earth'). He also marshalled humor into definace ("They though that they would wring our neck like a chicken. Some chicken! Some neck!') and even made a point of pronouncing the word 'NAZI' with a drawn-out nasal 'a' and a soft, slushy 'z' that makes it sound like something disgusting discovered beneath a toilet seat." [Ringle, p. F1.] Churchill's speeches were carefully constructed. He believed that the "scaffolding" of a great speech was constructed with elements such as contrast, rhyme, echo, alliteration, and metaphor. Phrases of Churchill's speeches have become incorporated into the English language, such as Iron Curtain and summit conference as well as whole phrases. There was the memorable passage aboyt the RAF in the Battle of Britain, "Never in the history of humna conflict has so much been owed to so few by so many." Or after the victory at El Alamein, " ... is not the end ... not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." [Humes]
One of the other significant points in the political history of the War were the alliance with Russia in June 1941.
The Atlantic Charter is one of the key documents of the 20th century and remains still relevant today. President Roosevelt and Primeminister Churchill meet aboard the Prince of Wales on August 9-13, 1941 at Placentia Bay. The crux of the victory of the Wester democracies in World War II was the Atlantic Charter of August 1941. There was much in it that in fact Churchill objected to because of considerations over the Empire. At thge time, however, his primary concern was to draw America into the War. This was the first meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt since a brief encounter after World war I. The wartime relationship between Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt was perhaps the most important personal relationship in the 20th century. [Alldritt]
Churchill as a war leader is not without his critics. There were mistakes such as in Norway and Greece, but many of these decissions were enthusiastically supported by the military as was is obsession with the eastern Mediterranean, the not so soft "soft under-belly of the AXIS". World War II was an emense undertaking. Any major war leader mase both right and wrong decissions. In fact Churchill was right much more than he was wrong. The decission to keep fighting in 1940 alone would rank Churchill as a key archetect of victory. There was, however, much more. He did not accept the generals' judgement that Russia would fall in 1941 or that American involvement would not fundamentally alter the course of the War.
Churchill strongly supported a cross-Channel invasion when many generals thought it too risky. Here he was strong supporter of technological spllitions, such as Mullberry. Churchill lso has to be credited with disuading the Americans from lauching an invasion of France in 1942 and even 43. The Allies were mnot yet ready for it. D-Day was sucessful in 1944, primarily because of Allied air superiority. It is very likely that an invasion in 42 would have failed. The NAZIs wold have still probablybeen defeated in the end, but it would have had disastrous comnsequences for the future of post-war Europe. [Luckacs]
Churchill throughout the War promoted technology such as in air defense and the cracking of Ultra at Bletchley Park. [Cohen] Ultra was to play a major role in both North Africa and the even more critical defeat of the U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Germany surrendered unconditionally on 8th May, 1945 and the war was finally over. Just 2-weeks later the war time coalition was ended and in July 1945 the Conservatives were defeated in the General Election. It should be emphasized that the British election in 1945 should not be seen as a reudiation of Churchill personally , but more a repudiation of the Conservative Party. [Lukacs] Churchill became leader of the opposition. During these years in opposition he wrote his 5 volume history of the World War II which was published in 1950. It was a masterful account of the War. The General Election of 1951 returned the Conservatives to power and Churchill was again Prime Minister. Churchill in 1953 won the Nobel Prize for literature. He served as Prime Minister until 1955 when he resigned to be replaced by Anthony Eden. He died in January 1965 and was buried in Bladon Churchyard, Oxfordshire.
It is Churchill's magnificent speeches that are best remembered today. He personally wrote his World War II speeches, dictating to a secretary late ar night. He also delivered them. There was a great deal of time spent, both in the writing and revising as well as practicing the deliverance. There were in the 1930s three masters of radio as a political medium, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Hitler. Churchill's grandson Winston has published a very usefulmselection of those speeches. [Churchill, Never.]
Part of the reason that Churchill succeeded was that he recognized more than many other British politicans the importance of the relationship with America. Perhaps a vital factor here was that Churchill was half American, his mother Jennie being an American. He famouslt told the Congress on his first visit after America entered the War that had it been the other way around, his father being American "I might have gotten here on my own. Churchill even in World War Ireognizedthe importance of America. Bavck in Government by 1917, he assessed the military situation and is reported to have said, that there remained only two ways that the allies could win the War, "aereoplanes and the other is America". The Kaiser calculated just the oppisite, that the U-boats could win the War even if America came in. Britain was in even more desperate straits in 1940. This time Britain could probably not even survive without America. The result was the most remarkable political association of the 20th century that between the Churchhill and Fraklin Roosevelt. A few months before America ntered the War, the relationship and Allied vission of a free democratic Europe was sealed with the Atlantic charter. Thankfully for Western democracy, Roosevelt was prepared to risk the ire of the Isolatiinists to assist. After the War, it was Churchill who warmed Amerucans about the Russians an developing Cold War. When Churchill, his health failing, finally retired in 1955, his final message to his countrymen was, "never be separated from the Americans".
Alldritt, K. The Greatest of Friends: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill,
1941-1945 (London, 1985).
Cannadine, David. In Churchill's Shadow: Confronting the Past in Modern Britain (Allen Lane History).
Churchill, Jennie. Jennie: the Mother of Winston Churchill.
Churchill, Winston M.P. Winston S. Churchill: War Correspondent 1895-1900.
Churchill, Winston. (grandson) Never Give In (Hyperion).
Cohen, Eliot. Supreme Command (Free Press, 2002), 288p.
Humes, James C. Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln (2002).
Luckacs, John. Churchill: Vissioary, Statesman, and Historian.
Martin, Ralph G. Jennie: The Life of Lady Randolph Churchill (Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1971), two volumes.
Ringle, Ken. "George Bush and the words of war," Washington Post (March 9, 2003), pp. F1-2.
Schama, Simon. A History of Britain.
Schlesinger, Arthur Jr. "The Supreme Partnership," The Atlantic Monthly (October 1984).
Soames, Mary.Clementine Churchill (Mariner, 2003).
Trapani, Carol, "Letters cemented partnership," Poughkeepsie Journal (December 8, 2001).
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