CHURCHILL, SIR WINSTON (LEONARD SPENCER)

born Nov. 30, 1874, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, Eng. died Jan. 24, 1965, London British statesman and author who as prime minister (194045, 195155) rallied the British people during World War II and pursued a global war strategy in concert with President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States. After graduation from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and service as a subaltern (189599) and war correspondent in Cuba, India, and South Africa, Churchill entered politics as a Conservative and won a seat in Parliament (1900). In 1904, however, he broke with his party over the tariff question, joined the Liberals, and in 1906 became under secretary of state for the colonies in a Liberal government. In 1908 he became a member of the Cabinet, first holding the post of president of the Board of Trade and later that of home secretary. Transferred to the Admiralty in 1911, he strengthened the British navy. But after World War I broke out, and after the failure of the Dardanelles expedition (which he had promoted), he resigned from his post with the Admiralty and served as an active military officer (191516). He returned to Parliament as a private member in 1916, then as minister of munitions (191718). After the war, Churchill, while serving as secretary of war (191921), as head of the Colonial Office (192122), and chancellor of the Exchequer (192429), became increasingly conservative in his political views. Although he remained outside the government from 1929 to 1939, he continued to hold a seat in Parliament and repeatedly warned of the menace of Hitler's Germany. In 1939 he was reappointed to leadership of the Admiralty, and, after Germany invaded the Low Countries, he was installed as prime minister. He rallied his people to resist despite the fall of France, and he led them, fighting at the side of the United States and the Soviet Union, to ultimate triumph. In the postwar world Churchill's Conservative Party was voted out of power in a Labour sweep in 1945 but was returned to power, with Churchill its prime minister, in 1951. He resigned in 1955. For his many writings, especially The Second World War, 6 vol. (194853), he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (1953). He was knighted in 1953 and was made an honorary U.S. citizen (1963) by Act of Congress. Major Works: History The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898); The River War (1899); The World Crisis (192329); The Unknown War: The Eastern Front (1931); The Second World War (194853); A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (195658). Biography and autobiography Lord Randolph Churchill (1906); My African Journey (1908); My Early Life (1930); Marlborough: His Life and Times (193338). Speeches Into Battle (1941); The Unrelenting Struggle (1942); The End of the Beginning (1943); Onwards to Victory (1944); The Dawn of Liberation (1945); Victory (1946); Secret Session Speeches (1946); The Sinews of Peace (1948); Europe Unite (1950); In the Balance (1951); Stemming the Tide (1953); The Unwritten Alliance (1961). The speeches have been collected in Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 18971963, 8 vol. (1974). Other works Savrola (1900); Thoughts and Adventures (1932); Painting As a Pastime (1948).