Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill
by Ricky

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, in Oxfordshire, England. In school, he was the worst student in his class. Churchill spoke as he wrote - clearly, vividly, and majestically. Yet he had a stutter.

In 1895, Churchill graduated from Royal Military College. His military career ended in 1901, when he entered the House of Commons. He began to criticize many conservative policies. In 1904, Churchill broke with his party completely. He dramatically crossed the floor of Commons, among the howls of Conservatives and the cheers of Liberals, to sit with the Liberals. In the 1906 election, Churchill ran as a Liberal and won. He soared through many government jobs through the years. He served as undersecretary of state for the colonies from 1906 to 1908, the president for the board of trade from 1908 to 1910, and home secretary from 1910 to 1911. Churchill and His Wife

In the spring of 1908, Churchill met Clemintine Hozier, the daughter of a retired Army officer. They married on Sept. 12, 1908. Churchill became a parent devoted to his children, Diana, Randolph, Sarah, and Mary. Another daughter, Marigold, died at the age of 3.

In the year 1940, Churchill was appointed Prime Minister of Great Britain. In August, 1942, Churchill went to Moscow to meet with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. After being invaded by Germany, Stalin had demanded that the British open a second fighting front in Western Europe to relive some military force on Russia. Churchill brought the United Kingdom into World War II early on and stood against Nazi Germany alone. Later other countries including the United States joined them to fight the Nazis. They were called the Allies. In January 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt met in Casablanca. They announced that the Allies would only accept complete surrender from Italy, Japan, and Germany. When Churchill went back to England, he got sick with pneumonia, but he recovered quickly. Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.

In 1951, Churchill became Prime Minister again. He focused most of his energy on foreign affairs. He traveled to Washington D.C. more than 3 times. In April, 1953, Soldier Queen Elizabeth knighted Churchill. The queen made him a knight of the Order of the Garter, Britain’s highest order of knighthood. Churchill had originally been offered this in 1945, but he refused it because of his political party’s defeat.

Churchill also was known as a soldier, painter, speaker, historian, biographer, and a war reporter. In 1953, he won the Nobel Prize for literature.

For some time it had been rumored that Churchill would retire because of his old age. But he showed no intention of doing so. In 1963, the United States Congress made Churchill an honorary U.S. citizen. Churchill suffered a stroke on Jan. 15, 1965. He died nine days later, at the age of 90.

Citations

Web Sites & Other Media

Biography Resource Center, "Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill," The Gale Group, <http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=1888>, 2001.

Thompson, Carol L. "Churchill, Winston," The World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Chicago: World Book Inc., 1998.

Carol L. Thompson, "Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer," World Book Online Americas Edition,
<http://www.worldbookonline.com/ar?/na/ar/co/ar114840.htm>, April 1, 2003.

Images

Image of soldier from "Microsoft Office Design Gallery Live" <http://dgl.microsoft.com/?CAG=1> Images free for non-profit and personal use. (December-March, 2003).

Photographs of Winston Churchill and Winston Churchill and his wife from "ArtToday.com" <http://members.clipart.com/en/index> (2003).