Winston Churchill

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born into an aristocratic family at Blenheim Palace on 30 November 1874; his father was Lord Randolph Churchill and his mother Jennie (Jerome) Churchill, an American socialite, and he was raised largely by a nanny before attending boarding schools such as Harrow and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Early in his career he served as a cavalry officer and war correspondent, seeing action and reporting in places including India, the Sudan, Cuba and South Africa, which helped establish his reputation as both a soldier and a writer. Churchill entered Parliament in 1900 as a Conservative MP but soon switched to the Liberal Party during a period of political reform, holding several cabinet posts before returning to the Conservatives later in his career; his early ministerial roles included President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary, and he was involved in domestic reforms in the pre‑World War I and interwar years. During the 1930s Churchill was out of high office but was an outspoken critic of appeasement and a vocal voice warning about Nazi Germany; when war broke out and political leadership changed, Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty again and in May 1940 was appointed Prime Minister, forming a wartime coalition government and guiding Britain through its darkest hours with rousing public speeches and strategic partnerships with Allied leaders such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. After leading Britain to victory in 1945 Churchill lost the postwar election but returned as Conservative Prime Minister from 1951 to 1955, focusing on foreign policy during the early Cold War and on rebuilding Britain; ill health forced his resignation in 1955, though he remained a Member of Parliament until 1964 and continued to write and paint in retirement until his death on 24 January 1965.