Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD PC DL FRS RA was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom.

50th Anniversary: Sir Winston Churchill's Funeral by British Pathé

Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a non-academic historian, a writer, and an artist.

The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom.

Winston Churchill Biography by CloudBiography

He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall, lifetime body of work.

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction".

In 1963, he was the first of only eight people to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.

A person of exceptional merit, generally a non-United States citizen, may be declared an honorary citizen of the United States by an Act of Congress or by a proclamation issued by the President of the United States, pursuant to authorization granted by Congress.

Churchill was born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the Spencer family.

General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC, was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs.

The Spencer family is one of Britain's preeminent aristocratic families.

Duke of Marlborough is a title in the Peerage of England.

His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer; his mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American socialite.

The Chancellor and Under-Treasurer of Her Majesty's Exchequer, commonly known as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is a senior official within the Government of the United Kingdom and head of Her Majesty's Treasury.

Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill, CI, RRC, DStJ was an American-born British socialite, the wife of Lord Randolph Churchill and the mother of British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer-Churchill MBE was a journalist and a Conservative Member of Parliament for Preston from 1940-45.

As a young army officer, he saw action in British India, the Anglo–Sudan War, and the Second Boer War.

The Mahdist War was a British colonial war of the late 19th century, which was fought between the Mahdist Sudanese of the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam, and the forces of the Khedivate of Egypt, initially, and later the forces of Britain.

Provinces of India, earlier Presidencies of British India and still earlier, Presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in the subcontinent.

The Second Boer War, usually known as the Boer War and also at the time as the South African War, started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902.

He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns.

At the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions.

Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, and First Lord of the Admiralty as part of Asquith's Liberal government.

Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, normally referred to as the Home Secretary, is a senior official as one of the Great Offices of State within Her Majesty's Government and head of the Home Office.

World War I, also known as the First World War, or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918.

During the war, he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign caused his departure from government.

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli or the Battle of Çanakkale, was a campaign of World War I that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916.

He then briefly resumed active army service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers.

The Royal Scots Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1678 until 1959 when it was amalgamated with the Highland Light Infantry to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers which was later itself merged with the Royal Scots Borderers, the Black Watch, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the Highlanders to form a new large regiment, the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

He returned to government under Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, then Secretary of State for the Colonies.

The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort.

The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies.

The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas.

After two years out of Parliament, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Baldwin's Conservative government of 1924–1929, controversially returning the pound sterling in 1925 to the gold standard at its pre-war parity, a move widely seen as creating deflationary pressure on the UK economy.

A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold.

Out of office and politically "in the wilderness" during the 1930s because of his opposition to increased home rule for India and his resistance to the 1936 abdication of Edward VIII, Churchill took the lead in warning about Nazi Germany and in campaigning for rearmament.

Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication on 11 December the same year.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier.

Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister.

His speeches and radio broadcasts helped inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult days of 1940–41 when the British Commonwealth and Empire stood almost alone in its active opposition to Adolf Hitler.

He led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured.

After the Conservative Party lost the 1945 election, he became Leader of the Opposition to the Labour Government.