Greatest Briton

Winston Churchill was the twentieth century’s most famous PM, who led Britain to victory in World War II. While he is best remembered as a statesman, politician and world leader who saved the world from Nazi domination in the dark days of 1940, throughout his life he cared for his family and sustained his lifestyle through use of the pen. His books and speeches were numerous and, generally, memorable and have led to witticisms from which one might be able to select just the right quotation for almost any occasion. In 1953 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his “History of English-speaking people”. Recently he has been voted ‘Greatest Ever Briton’ in a major BBC poll, beating the likes of Isambard Brunel, Princess Diana and Charles Darwin.

Born at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1874, Winston was the son of Randolph Churchill, British aristocrat and Conservative politician and Jennie Jerome, daughter of a New York millionaire. Young Winston loved his parents dearly, but for most of his early life he saw little of his mother and even less of his father. Left to the care of nannies and sent away to school at a very early age, Winston lamented on his lack of parental love throughout his boyhood and youth.

He was in the end of a progress bill at school. He was a stubborn boy ready to study only what he wanted. He was keen only on English and English literature. His father thought him to be a bigoted young man and didn’t see any sense of sending him to university.

He was educated at Harrow Royal Military College, after which he saw service in India and Sudan. Churchill left the army in 1899 to take up politics, but first travelled to South Africa as a journalist. He provided military reports for the Daily Telegraph and started his literary career. Although taken prisoner by the Boers, he made a daring escape and returned to safety despite the ransom on his head. His consequent fame aided his success as the Conservative parliamentary candidate in 1900, and his political career went on.

At this time that he met the woman who was to remain at his side for the rest of his life, Clementine Hozier. Winston was 34 years of age when they married in 1908 and Clementine was 23. He told once: “My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me”. She made him the perfect wife, intelligent and quick witted. They lived at Chartwell near London with their four daughters and a son. The Chartwell house was one of the great passions of his life and perhaps the one that his wife found the most difficult to understand. As much as he hated being out of politics, Winston loved being at Chartwell. He built walls, rockeries and even managed to revamp the family swimming pool. He painted and concentrated on writing about his ancestor, Marlborough. And, it was at Chartwell that Churchill got news of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany.

With the fleetness of his brilliant mind Churchill foresaw the implications of Hitler’s leadership of the German people. Thus, he began his long, lone campaign to warn the Government, the country and the world of the dangers to come. Indeed, long afterwards, his campaign during those years was said to be ‘without parallel in English history’. His warnings about the rise of Nazi Germany and the need for British rearmament were ignored. Chamberlain, that days’ Prime Minister was intended to appease Hitler. It meant to agree his seizing lands in the Eastern Europe to avert his invading of Western Europe.

In April 1940 Hitler invaded and occupied Denmark and Norway. Britain was the next. King George VI sent for Churchill and appointed him Prime Minister. He was 65.

In November 1940 heavy German aircraft bombed heavily British cities. Hitler’s army was about to land. It was during the dark days of war when his special gift of using splendid language served to rally the British people as never before. The people listened and responded, along with him – in the cause of freedom, they gave their all. Women toiled long hours in munitions factories, young girls worked the land in place of men, women and girls nursed in hospitals at home and at the front, young boys lied about their age in an attempt to serve their King and country. It was a true case of ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man’ the British people needed, as never before, the wisdom and boldness of a strong leader and Winston Churchill provided that leadership all through the war years. Here some parts of his best-known speeches.

Asking the House of Commons for its confidence, he told: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

Attending to nation: “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!”

About British pilots who had won in the Battle of Britain and made Hitler give up his plans of invasion: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

On leading Britain to victory in World War II Churchill was the most respected leader in Europe and so it came as a sudden blow when at the 1945 General Election, the country he had saved, voted in the Labour Government. Once again he retreated to Chartwell and found solace in family life and the house and lands he loved so much. He spent time painting and began his history of World War II.

In 1951 the Conservatives won the General Election and at an age when most men had settled down to enjoy their retirement, Churchill, almost 77, continued to serve as Prime Minister until he retired a few months after his eightieth birthday. Telling friends and colleagues of his intent ‘to bury myself in the country’ Winston Churchill found inactivity difficult to cope with. He filled his days with painting and writing; he sat in his garden with friends and family, doubtless still discussing politics and the state of nations. His life, during which he gave so much to so many, drew to a close in 1965. He was 89 years of age.

Winston Churchill was accorded the honour of a state funeral. His body was drawn on a Gun Carriage used previously for the funerals of Queen Victoria, Edward VII, George V and George VI, this was the first time it had been used for the funeral of a commoner. The greatest Englishman the world has ever known is buried in a quiet corner of St.Martin’s churchyard in the village of Bladon and within sight of his birthplace, Blenheim Palace.