Churchill: History in an Hour

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Introduction

Youth: 1874–1895

The 4th Hussars: 1895–1899

Young Radical: Early Political Career 1899–1914

The First World War: 1914–1918

Recrossing the Floor: The Journey Back to the Conservatives 1919–1924

High Office: 1924–1929

In the Wilderness: 1929–1938

Birth of a Legend: 1939–1941

Striding the Global Stage: 1942–1945

Declining Years: 1945–1965

Legacy

Appendix 1: Key Players

Appendix 2: Timeline – The Life of Sir Winston Churchill

Copyright

Got Another Hour?

About the Publisher

Few figures from the twentieth century have had more written about them than Sir Winston Churchill. With good reason – for his was a prominent and eventful life. Many will immediately recall images of the cigar and stubborn ‘V’ for victory gesture from the Second World War. Churchill had politics in his blood. Both his father and grandfather had been prominent politicians. As well as serving as Prime Minister during the Second World War, Churchill had also held senior ministerial rank during the First World War and switched parties on two occasions.

Yet he managed to cram his life with so much more. As a soldier, he took part in Britain’s last great cavalry charge in the Sudan and fought in the fierce tribal wars on the Indian frontier. As a journalist, he witnessed the rebellion against the Spanish in Cuba and accompanied Britain’s army in the Second Boer War. His escape from Boer captivity became the stuff of legend. He was a prolific writer, too; at one time the highest paid in the country. His sweeping histories and the personal accounts of his adventures still make riveting reading. Such was his achievement in this field that in 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Churchill’s multiple and overlapping careers would have been enough for ten men. It was politics, though, that really drove him. Here, too, he was at the heart of some of the most important events in Britain’s modern history. As well as his inspired leadership during the Second World War, Churchill played pivotal roles in the disastrous Dardanelles policy, Britain’s return to the Gold Standard in 1925, the Abdication Crisis, Irish independence and the genesis of the Cold War. As such, it is not surprising that he remains a controversial personality.

Churchill’s life is one of huge achievement and huge controversy, lived at full tilt. Love him, hate him, or take a position somewhere in between, there are plenty of reasons why his is a story worthy of study. For clearly, his was one of the most astonishing and important lives of modern times.

This, in an hour, is the story of Sir Winston Churchill.

Winston Churchill’s childhood was to be a privileged one. Born into wealth and power, he would attend one of the most expensive schools in the country. He would, however, face very real difficulties. A strained relationship with his father and a tendency to rebel, meant that he was troubled. From an early age, too, there were signs that this boy was perhaps a little special.

When Lady Randolph Churchill unexpectedly went into labour three weeks early, she and her husband were staying with his brother, the Duke of Marlborough. The new baby was therefore born in the Cotswold majesty of Blenheim Palace, a huge mansion which Queen Anne had given to his ancestor, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Marlborough had commanded the British Army at the decisive Battle of Blenheim in 1704. Baby Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born on 30 November 1874. He was to grow up steeped in British military tradition.

Winston’s parents lived at the margins of the old British aristocracy, and he hailed from a famous family. His father Randolph was a Conservative Party politician, representing the seat of Woodstock, where Blenheim is situated. The Churchills, however, lived in London. Randolph was an ambitious man and he wanted to be at the centre of political activity. This was not to last, for in 1876, Randolph was implicated in a scandal involving the Royal Family. He had fallen out with the Prince of Wales, whom he threatened to expose as an adulterer. In those times, such behaviour from a public figure was completely unacceptable. He was marginalized by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, being sent to work as viceroy in Dublin for the next four years.

Seven years old – this photograph was taken in Dublin.

Dublin was the first home that Winston clearly remembered. It was there that he developed a strong attachment to Elizabeth Everest, the woman who served as his nanny and with whom he remained close throughout her life. When she lay dying in the summer of 1895, Churchill rushed to be by her side. Such ties were not uncommon for children of his background. It was normal for wealthy parents to employ a nanny to undertake most of their childcare. This, coupled with the somewhat distant attitude of Victorian parenting, meant that Winston gravitated towards those he spent the most time with. As well as Mrs Everest, there was his younger brother Jack, born in 1880.