Hall of Fame

30 November 1874

24 January 1965

Conservative and Liberal

US president John Fitzgerald Kennedy gave honorary US citizenship to Winston Churchill. He even has a United States Navy destroyer named after him, the USS Winston S. Churchill.

Churchill had a sharp and witty tongue, and when Lady Astor told him "Winston if you were my husband I would flavour your coffee with poison," Churchill answered, "Madam if I were your husband I should drink it."

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born to an American mother, and his father was a conservative politician. He was educated at Harrow and went to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. After leaving the Army, Churchill worked as a war correspondent for the Morning Post and reported on the Boer War in South Africa. He was elected as the Conservative MP for Oldham in 1900, and later, as Home Secretary was severely criticized for using troops to keep order during a Welsh miner's strike in Tonypandy.

When war began in 1914, Churchill joined the War Council but he wanted power to influence the Government's war policy, so decided to rejoin the Army and commanded a battalion on the Western Front.

In 1924 he was elected to represent Epping. After Hitler gained power in Germany, Churchill was in favour of re-armament. He was a critic of Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, and the government's policy of appeasement. On 10 May, 1940, Churchill was appointed as prime minister, lost to Clement Attlee five years later, only to return to power in 1951. His health continued to deteriorate and in 1955 he retired from politics. He died on 24 January, 1965.

• 1874 30 November - Born at Blenheim Palace.
• 1893 Attends the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
• 1899 Journalist during the Boer War. Is captured but escapes.
• 1900 Elected to parliament as a Conservative MP.
• 1910 Becomes Home Secretary.
• 1915 Resigns from the Cabinet and rejoins the army.
• 1924 Leaves the Liberals to rejoin the Conservative party. Made Chancellor of the Exchequer.
• 1939 Britain declares war on Germany. Churchill is back as First Lord of the Admiralty.
• 1940 Made Prime Minister.
• 1945 Victory in Europe. Churchill's government is defeated in the general election.
• 1946 Gives his 'Iron Curtain' speech in Missouri, USA.
• 1951 Becomes Prime Minister again but resigns in 1955.
• 1965 24 January - Churchill dies in London and receives a state funeral.