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Updated - 28 Jun 2008
Sir Winston Churchill
30th November 1874 - 24th January 1965
Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace, on 30th November, 1874. The son of Randolph Churchill, a Conservative politician, and Jennie Jerome, who was the daughter of Leonard Jerome, a New York businessman.
He was educated at Harrow, and then attended the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.
In 1895 he joined the 4th Hussars, and saw action in India and also in the Sudan, where he took part in the Battle of Omdurman (1898).
After leaving the British Army in 1899, Churchill worked as a war correspondent for the Morning Post. While reporting the Boer War in South Africa he was taken prisoner by the Boers but made headline news when he escaped.
Churchill was first elected to parliament in 1900, shortly before the death of Queen Victoria. He took his seat in the House of Commons as a Conservative member for Oldham. After four years he crossed the floor and joined the Liberals, rising swiftly through their ranks.
In the 1906 General Election Churchill won North West Manchester and immediately became a member of the new Liberal government as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. When Herbert Asquith replaced Henry Campbell-Bannerman as Prime Minister in 1908 he promoted Churchill to his cabinet as President of the Board of Trade. As President of the Board of Trade he helped to lay the foundations of the welfare state.
On the 12th of September 1908 Winston Churchill married Clementine Ogilvy Spencer, granddaughter of the 10th Earl of Airlie. They had five children, four of whom survived into adulthood. The marriage was to prove a long and happy one.
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Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine Churchill & Lloyd George 1915
After becoming the Home Secretary following the 1910 General Election, Winston Churchill introduced several reforms to the prison system, including the provision of lecturers and concerts for prisoners and the setting up of special after-care associations to help convicts after they had served their sentence. However, Churchill was severely criticized for using troops to maintain order during a Welsh miner's strike.
In October 1911 Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty, and he helped modernize the navy. Then in 1912 he set up the Royal Naval Air Service. He also established an Air Department at the Admiralty so as to make full use of this new technology. Churchill was so enthusiastic about these new developments that he took flying lessons.
On the outbreak of war in 1914, Churchill joined the War Council. However, he was blamed for the failure at the Dardanelles Campaign in 1915 and was moved to the post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Unhappy about not having any power to influence the Government's war policy, he rejoined the British Army and commanded a battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front.
When David Lloyd George replaced Herbert Asquith as Prime Minister, he brought Churchill back into the government as Minister of Munitions and for the final year of the war, Churchill was in charge of the production of tanks, aeroplanes, guns and shells.
He
returned to the conservative government in 1924 and was given the job of
Chancellor of the Exchequer. For ten years during the depression Churchill
was denied cabinet office. His backing and support for King Edward VIII
during his abdication were frowned upon by the national government.
However in September 1939, when Nazi Germany declared war on Poland, the
public supported him in his views. Once again Neville Chamberlain
appointed him First Lord of the Admiralty on September 3rd, 1939.
In London in 1940, it was announced that Winston Churchill would lead a coalition government after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said he was stepping aside.
During this time he inspired courage throughout the entire British nation even though he had promised nothing more than "blood, toil, tears and sweat." Churchill travelled endlessly during the war establishing close ties with leaders of other nations and co-ordinated a military strategy which subsequently ensured Hitler's defeat.
He
was defeated however during the 1945 election by the Labour party who
ruled until 1951. Churchill at the age of 77 regained his power in 1951
and lead Britain once again until 5th April 1955 when ill health forced
him to resign. The
news was announced in a statement from Buckingham Palace, It said:
"The Right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill had an audience with the
Queen this evening and tendered his resignation as Prime Minister and
First Lord of the Treasury, which Her Majesty was graciously pleased to
accept."
Sir Winston Churchill's resignation followed a dinner party held at 10 Downing Street the night before, which was attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh as well as a number of the prime minister's past and present government colleagues. Tributes to the 81-year-old premier, who will be replaced by Sir Anthony Eden tomorrow, have poured in from around the world.
On the 24th of April 1953 Winston Churchill was made a Knight of the Order of the Garter in recognition of his services to his country.
He spent much of his latter years writing, and painting. Churchill was a gifted amateur painter, and wrote Painting as a Pastime in 1948. His works numbered over 500, are of remarkable quality and have received the most positive criticism in the English press.
In 1963, pursuant to an Act of Congress, U.S. President John F. Kennedy named Churchill the first Honorary Citizen of the United States. Churchill was too ill to attend the White House ceremony, so his son and grandson accepted the award for him.
On January 15 1965 Churchill suffered another stroke, a severe cerebral thrombosis, that left him gravely ill. Sadly on the 24th January 1965 Sir Winston Churchill died in his London home at Hyde Park Gate, he left a wife and three children. His eldest daughter, Diana, had committed suicide in 1963 and another daughter died in infancy.. Earlier in his illness, there had been crowds anxiously waiting for news at the top of the quiet Kensington cul-de-sac - but when the announcement finally came there was only a handful of journalists in the street.
An official announcement went across the world from 10 Downing Street at 8:55am in a message from the Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Wilson. "It is with great regret that I have heard of the death of Sir Winston Churchill. He will be mourned all over the world by all who owe so much to him. He is now at peace after a life in which he created history and which will be remembered as long as history is read. Our thoughts and sympathy are with his family."
Within half-an-hour, crowds began to gather near his home to pay homage to Britain's greatest wartime leader.
Sir Winston had spent the past few days lying in the downstairs room he converted to a bedroom after a fall four years ago in which he injured his back. Members of the family were summoned to his bedside at 7am. Lady Churchill and the couple's eldest surviving daughter, Mary Soames, had been with him throughout his illness. Their son, Randolph Churchill was seen arriving with his son, Winston. Soon after, Sir Winston's actress daughter, Lady Sarah Audley, looking pale and drawn, arrived with her daughter, Celia Sandys.
Following his death Sir Winston's body lay in state in Westminster, an honour not accorded any English statesman since Gladstone in 1898.
In the middle of the Hall was garnet-coloured carpet. Raising from it was the platform on which stood the catafalque, 7ft. high. The bier was covered in black velvet with edging of silver braid and on it, the coffin, draped with the Union Flag. Sir Winston’s insignia as a Knight of the Garter – collar, star and garter were placed on a black velvet cushion on the coffin. A golden cross stood at the head, four large candles glowed at the corners of the bier
The lying-in-state commenced 9:00am, Wednesday, January 27th.For three days, twenty-three hours a day, the public filed past the body of Sir Winston Churchill lying-in-state in Westminster Hall. People queued, most for three or four hours, to pay homage to their statesman. A total of 321,360 people filed past the catafalque during the three days of lying-in-state.
Churchill’s Funeral
The funeral took place on the 30th of January 1965. It was the first state funeral for a non royal family member since that of Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar in 1914, and was the largest gathering of dignitaries in Britain as representatives from over 100 countries attended it, including de Gaulle, other heads of state and government, and members of royalty.
Millions around the world watched the funeral procession at home and abroad as television pictures were beamed from 40 BBC cameras placed along the route.
The 11 o’clock service in St. Paul’s Cathedral was attended by Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, accompanied by The Prince of Wales, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Members of the Royal Family, Heads of State and Royal Representatives of Heads of State. This distinguished group included, four Kings, three Queens, eight Princes, four Princesses, three Dukes, three Duchesses and five Presidents.
While the Procession moved from St. Paul’s Cathedral to Tower Hill, minute guns were fired from the Saluting Battery H. M. Tower of London, 1st Regiment, Honourable Artillery Company, Royal Horse Artillery. In total 90 guns were fired, one for each year of Sir Winston’s life.
At
Tower Hill, the coffin was piped aboard the launch Havengore for the
voyage up the Thames. As his
coffin passed down the Thames on a boat, the cranes of London's docklands
bowed in salute. The Royal Artillery fired a 19-gun salute, and the RAF
staged a fly-past of sixteen English Electric Lightning fighters.
From Waterloo, it was placed onto a train drawn by a Battle of Britain locomotive named Winston Churchill. Thousands gathered to pay tribute at wayside stations. It departed from Waterloo at 11:38am, the train travelled slowly to Reading, it then joined the Western region line and arrived at Handborough at 3:23pm.
At Churchill's request, he was buried in the family plot at Saint Martin's Churchyard, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, close to Blenheim Palace where he was born 90 years before, with only family members present.
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Here are a few photo's of Sir Winston Churchill's Funeral.
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