Summary of winston churchills life

Churchill was famous for his stubborn resistance to Hitler during the darkest hours of the Second World War. He was brought up by servants and friends of the family. He rarely spoke to his father, and he spent most of his childhood at boarding school — Harrow. On leaving school, he went to Sandhurst to train as an officer. After gaining his commission, Churchill sought to gain as much active military experience as possible.

He also combined his military duties with working as a war correspondent — earning substantial money for his reports on the fighting. Inhe resigned from the military and pursued his career as a war correspondent.

Summary of winston churchills life

He was in South Africa for the Boer War, and he became a minor celebrity for his role in taking part in a scouting patrol, getting captured and later escaping. He might have gained the Victoria Cross for his efforts, though officially he was a civilian at the time. Churchill returned to the UK in and successfully stood as a Conservative candidate for Oldham.

After becoming an MP, Churchill began a lucrative speaking tour, where he could command a high price for his speeches. Inhe made a dramatic shift, leaving the Conservative Party and joining the Liberal Party. Churchill disagreed with an increasing amount of Conservative policies, including tariff protection. Churchill also had some empathy for improving the welfare of the working class and helping the poor.

In the Liberal Party, Churchill made a meteoric political rise. The budget made a significant improvement to the life of the poor and helped to address the inequality of British society. Winston Churchill came from a long line of English aristocrat-politicians. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was descended from the First Duke of Marlborough and was himself a well-known figure in Tory politics in the s and s.

Did you know? He was educated at the Harrow prep school, where he performed so poorly that he did not even bother to apply to Oxford or Cambridge. After he left Sandhurst, Churchill traveled all around the British Empire as a soldier and as a journalist. Inthe London Morning Post sent him to cover the Boer War in South Africa, but he was captured by enemy soldiers almost as soon as he arrived.

His work on behalf of progressive social reforms such as an eight-hour workday, a government-mandated minimum wage, a state-run labor exchange for unemployed workers and a system of public health insurance infuriated his Conservative colleagues, who complained that this new Churchill was a traitor to his class. InChurchill turned his attention away from domestic politics when he became the First Lord of the Admiralty akin to the Secretary of the Navy in the U.

Noting that Germany was growing more and more bellicose, Churchill began to prepare Great Britain for war: He established the Royal Naval Air Service, modernized the British fleet and helped invent one of the earliest tanks. In an attempt to shake things up, Churchill proposed a military campaign that soon dissolved into disaster: the invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.

Churchill hoped that this offensive would drive Turkey out of the war and encourage the Balkan states to join the Allies, but Turkish resistance was much stiffer than he had anticipated. Some experts say he believed that some countries and races were naturally superior to others. In he said "I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia.

I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place. Others say that it's unfair to judge him by summary of winstons churchills life and beliefs we hold today and that many of his views were held by many other people at the time.

He had very strong views about the British summary of winston churchills life with India and was opposed to self-rule. He also considered Ghandi a threat to the British Empire. He is accused of not doing enough to prevent during a famine in the region of Bengal, in south east Asia in which millions of people are thought to have died. This happened induring World War Two, and some experts say his focus was on fighting the war in Europe and that when he became aware of the true seriousness what was happening, he ordered grain to be sent there.

He also has a negative reputation for the way he dealt with Unions and workers rights, mainly after sending the army in to stop riots following strikes in Tonypandy in South Wales. Churchill died on 24 January and was given a state funeral, an honour saved only for kings and queens, and sometimes other people of the highest national importance.

Quickly, Churchill formed a coalition cabinet of leaders from the Labor, Liberal and Conservative parties. He placed intelligent and talented men in key positions. On June 18,Churchill made one of his iconic speeches to the House of Commons, warning that "the Battle of Britain " was about to begin. Churchill kept resistance to Nazi dominance alive and created the foundation for an alliance with the United States and the Soviet Union.

Churchill had previously cultivated a relationship with U. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the s, and by Marchhe was able to secure vital U. In the months that followed, Churchill worked closely with Roosevelt and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to forge an Allied war strategy and postwar world. In a meeting in Tehranat the Yalta Conference and the Potsdam ConferenceChurchill collaborated with the two leaders to develop a united strategy against the Axis Powers and helped craft the postwar world with the United Nations as its centerpiece.

As the war wound down, Churchill proposed plans for social reforms in Britain but was unable to convince the public. Despite Germany's surrender on May 7,Churchill was defeated in the general election in July He also advocated that Britain remain independent from European coalitions. With the general election ofChurchill returned to government.

He became prime minister for the second time in October and served as minister of defense between October and March Churchill went on to introduce reforms such as the Mines and Quarries Act ofwhich improved working conditions in mines, and the Housing Repairs and Rent Act ofwhich established standards for housing. These domestic reforms were overshadowed by a series of foreign policy crises in the colonies of Kenya and Malaya, where Churchill ordered direct military action.

While successful in putting down the rebellions, it became clear that Britain was no longer able to sustain its colonial rule. The same year, he was named the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature for "his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values," according to the Nobel Prize committee.

Churchill died on January 24,at age 90, in his London home nine days after suffering a severe stroke. Britain mourned for more than a week. Churchill had shown signs of fragile health as early as when he suffered a heart attack while visiting the White House. Two years later, he had a similar attack while battling a bout of pneumonia. In Juneat age 78, he endured a series of strokes at his office.

That particular news was kept from the public and Parliament, with the official announcement stating that he had suffered from exhaustion. Churchill recuperated at home and returned to his work as prime minister in October. However, it was apparent even to the great statesman that he was physically and mentally slowing down, and he retired as prime minister in Churchill remained a member of Parliament until the general election of when he did not seek reelection.

There was speculation that Churchill suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his final years, though medical experts pointed to his earlier strokes as the likely cause of reduced mental capacity.