Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England, on November 30, 1874. As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, he was a statesman, orator, and novelist. During World War II, he rallied the British people and guided his country from defeat to victory. Churchill was a Sandhurst-educated soldier, a Nobel Prize-winning writer and historian, a prolific painter, and one of the longest-serving politicians in British history.
In 1900, Winston Churchill was elected to the House of Commons for the first time. In February 1901, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative Member and gave his first speech four days later. He crossed the floor and joined the Liberals after only four years as a Conservative. Churchill climbed quickly up the Liberal ranks, eventually becoming President of the Board of Trade and a Cabinet Minister. In this position, as well as the Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Development position, he was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the post-World War II welfare state.
His parliamentary career was not without its setbacks, and he made a number of spectacular errors, so many that he was frequently accused of being a genius who made no judgments. Churchill later left the Liberal Party and rejoined the Conservatives after considerable hesitation. Nevertheless, Churchill’s forecasts were considered to be coming true during the Munich Crisis, and when the war broke out in September 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain nominated him First Lord of the Admiralty. Thus, The Navy sent out a signal to the Fleet about twenty-five years after he had left the post in agony and sorrow: “Winston is returned.”
Winston Churchill was forced to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom when his Conservative Party lost the general election in July 1945. He was the Leader of the Opposition for six years. During this time, he continued to have an impact on world events. For the second time, Winston Churchill was elected Prime Minister. He continued to rule the United Kingdom, but his health began to fail him. He resigned in April 1955, realizing that he was physically and emotionally deteriorating. He served as the Member of Parliament for Woodford until 1964 when he announced his retirement from politics. Churchill died on January 24, 1965, and he was given a state funeral. He was laid to rest in his family plot in St Martin’s Church, Bladon, not far from Blenheim Palace, where he was born.