Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born on the 30 November 1874 in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. He was the son of Lord Randolph, a Conservative politician and Lady Randolph Churchill. Churchill was educated at Harrow School, a private boarding school where he joined the Harrow Rifle Corps.
Having left Harrow in 1893, he applied to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, finally being accepted after three attempts at the entrance exam. Churchill, whilst serving with the Hussars regiment worked as the war correspondent for a number of London newspapers and also wrote several books about the campaigns that he was involved in.
He left the regular army in 1900 and at the beginning of the First World War, Churchill held the position of First Lord of the Admiralty. He was, however, obliged to give up his post in the war cabinet due to the disastrous happenings at the Battle of Gallipoli.
Churchill's Early Politicial Career
During the 1900 general election, Churchill stood for the parliament seat of Oldham. He joined the Liberal Party. When he lost the seat, he was invited to stand for election for the seat of Manchester North West, which he won in 1906. He held the seat for the next two years, until 1908. On winning the Manchester seat, he immediately became a member of the new Liberal government as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies.
When Herbert Asquith became Prime Minister in 1908, he promoted Churchill to be in his Cabinet and made him President of the Board of Trade.
In September 1908, Churchill married Clementine Spencer.
After the 1922 general election, Churchill left the Liberal Party and rejoined the Conservative Paarty and was elected to represent Epping in 1924. Stanley Baldwin, the new Conservative Prime Minister made Churchill the Chancellor of the Exchequer. After the Conservative government was defeated in 1929, Churchill focused on his writing for the next few years.
Winston Churchill as Prime Minister
After the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill was made First Lord of the Admiralty and in 1940, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned from his post due to disagreement within the party.
King George VI appointed Churchill as Prime Minister on 10 May 1940. Churchill formed a coalition government and put Labour Party figures such as Clement Attlee in key positions.
During the war, Churchill faced much criticism for apparently meddling in military matters and a number of other factors led to Clement Attlee winning the 1945 general election by a huge margin.
He continued to lead the Conservaive Party, even after suffering a number of stroke (which he kept secret) and retired from politics in 1955. Winston Churchill died on 24 January 1965.
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