The Children of Adam and Eve

He was Great Britain's greatest 20th-century statesman, best known for his courageous leadership as prime minister during World War II.

He graduated from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, but having served in India and the Sudan he resigned his cavalry commission in 1899 to become a correspondent during the Boer War. A daring escape after he had been captured made him anational hero, and in 1900 he was elected to Parliament as a Conservative. Despite his aristocratic background, he switched in 1904 to the Liberal party. In 1908 he became president of the Board of Trade in Herbert Henry Asquith's Liberalcabinet. Then, and later as home secretary (1910-11), he Worked for special reform in tandem with David Lloyd George. As first Lord of the admiralty (1911-15), Churchillwas a vigorous modernizer of the navy.

World War I and the Interwar Period.

Churchill's role in World War I was controversial and almost destroyed his career. Naval problems and his support of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign forced his resignation from the admiralty. Following service as a batalion commander inFrance, he joined Lloyd George's coalition cabinet, and from 1917 to 1922 he filled several important positions, including
minister of munitions and secretary for war. The collapse of Lloyd George and the Liberal party in 1922 left Churchillout of Parliament between 1922 and 1924. Returning in 1924, he became chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin'sConservative government (1924-29). As such he displayed his new conservatism by returning Britain to the gold standard and vigorously condemning the trade unions during the general strike of 1926.

During the depression years (1929-39) Churchillwas denied cabinet office. Baldwin, and later Neville Chamberlain, who dominated the national government from 1931 to 1940, disliked his opposition to self-government for India and his support ofEdward VIII during the abdication crisis of 1936. His insistence on the need for rearmament and his censure of Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler at Munich in 1938 also aroused suspicion. When Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939,However, Churchill's views were finally appreciated, and public opinion demanded his return to the admiralty.

Churchillas Prime Minister.

Churchillsucceeded Chamberlain as prime minister on May 10, 1940. During the dark days of World War II that followed -- Dunkirk, the fall of France, and the blitz -- Churchill's pugnacity and rousing speeches rallied the British to continue thefight. He urged his compatriots to conduct themselves so that, "if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour." By successful collaboration with President Franklin D.Roosevelt he was able to secure military aid and moral support from the United States. After the Soviet Union and the U.S. entered the war in 1941, Churchillestablished close ties with leaders of what he called the "Grand Alliance." Travelingceaselessly throughout the war, he did much to coordinate military strategy and to ensure Hitler's defeat. His conferences with Roosevelt and Stalin, most notably at Yalta in 1945, also shaped the map of postwar Europe. By 1945 he was admiredthroughout the world, his reputation disguising the fact that Britain's military role had become secondary. Unappreciative of the popular demands for postwar social change, However, Churchillwas defeated by the Labour party in the election of1945.

Churchillcriticized the "welfare state" reforms of Labour under his successor Clement Attlee. He also warned in his "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Missouri, USA, in 1946, of the dangers of Soviet expansion. He was prime minister again from1951 to 1955, but this time age and poor health prevented him from providing dynamic leadership. Resigning in 1955, Churchilldevoted his last years to painting and writing.

Churchillwas also an able historian. His most famous Works are The World Crisis (4 vol., 1923-29), My Early Life (1930), Marlborough (4 vol., 1933-38), The Second World War (6 vol., 1948-53), and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (4vol., 1956-58). He received the Nobel Prize for literature and a Knighthood in 1953.

Assessment
Churchill's Death in 1965, like that of Queen Victoria in 1901, Marked the end of an era in British history. Born into a Victorian aristocratic family, he witnessed and participated in Britain's transformation from empire to welfare state, andits decline as a world power. His True importance, However, rests on the fact that by sheer stubborn courage he led the British people, and with them, the democratic Western world, from the brink of defeat to a final victory in the greatestconflict the world has ever seen.