In that time he held most of the great offices of State, including the 7 great years as Prime Minister. He began a Conservative; then crossed the floor of the House and served for 16 years with the Liberals taking it is often forgotten a leading part in the introduction of major social reforms before the first world war. Back with the Conservatives again after he was one of their sharpest critics in the years before the second world war. He won his greatest fame as the Leader of the all-party war time coalition.
Then rebuffed by the electorate in he busied himself with the causes close to his heart, including the unification of Europe- and returned to No.
Yet he found the time to write more than 30 volumes for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, to compose thousands of speeches, some of which will endure forever in the anthologies of great oratory, to travel throughout the world, first as a war correspondent, then as a statesman.
The bill, which mandated only the remedy of confinement in institutions, eventually passed in both houses of Parliament. Churchill remained in his post as First Lord of the Admiralty through the start of World War I , but was forced out for his part in the disastrous Battle of Gallipoli. He resigned from the government toward the end of For a brief period, Churchill rejoined the British Army, commanding a battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front and seeing action in "no man's land.
In , he was appointed minister of munitions for the final year of the war, overseeing the production of tanks, airplanes and munitions. From to , Churchill served as minister of war and air and colonial secretary under Prime Minister David Lloyd George. As colonial secretary, Churchill was embroiled in another controversy when he ordered air power to be used on rebellious Kurdish tribesmen in Iraq, a British territory.
At one point, he suggested that poisonous gas be used to put down the rebellion, a proposal that was considered but never enacted. Fractures in the Liberal Party led to the defeat of Churchill as a member of Parliament in , and he rejoined the Conservative Party. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, returning Britain to the gold standard, and took a hard line against a general labor strike that threatened to cripple the British economy.
With the defeat of the Conservative government in , Churchill was out of government. He was perceived as a right-wing extremist, out of touch with the people. In the s, after his ouster from government, Churchill took up painting. Churchill went on to create over paintings, typically working en plein air , though also practicing with still lifes and portraits.
He claimed that painting helped him with his powers of observation and memory. Churchill himself was the subject of a famous - and famously controversial - portrait by renowned artist Graham Sutherland. Commissioned in by members of Parliament to mark Churchill's 80th birthday, the portrait was first unveiled in a public ceremony in Westminster Hall, where it met with considerable derision and laughter. The unflattering modernist painting was reportedly loathed by Churchill and members of his family.
Churchill's wife Clementine had the Sutherland portrait secretly destroyed in a bonfire several months after it was delivered to their country estate, Chartwell , in Kent. Through the s, known as his "wilderness years," Churchill concentrated on his writing, publishing a memoir and a biography of the First Duke of Marlborough.
During this time, he also began work on his celebrated A History of the English-Speaking Peoples , though it wouldn't be published for another two decades. As activists in s India clamored for independence from British rule, Churchill cast his lot with opponents of independence. He held particular scorn for Mahatma Gandhi , stating that "it is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer Although Churchill didn't initially see the threat posed by Adolf Hitler 's rise to power in the s, he gradually became a leading advocate for British rearmament.
By , as Germany began controlling its neighbors, Churchill had become a staunch critic of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain 's policy of appeasement toward the Nazis. On September 3, , the day Britain declared war on Germany, Churchill was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and a member of the war cabinet; by April , he became chairman of the Military Coordinating Committee.
Later that month, Germany invaded and occupied Norway, a setback for Chamberlain, who had resisted Churchill's proposal that Britain preempt German aggression by unilaterally occupying vital Norwegian iron mines and seaports. Two days later, German forces entered France.
As clouds of war darkened over Europe, Britain stood alone against the onslaught. However, Churchill did manage to interfere with the arrangements by sheer longevity. Bladon also gave him an opportunity. No doubt these were sincere sentiments, even if formulated by her private secretary. Apart from his wartime achievements he was a fervent monarchist — the last true believer, according to Clementine, in the divine right of kings. Arriving at Buckingham Palace in top hat and frock coat for his weekly audience with Elizabeth, Churchill glowed with romantic loyalty.
On the other hand, there was a vast gulf of years between monarch and minister. He regarded Elizabeth as a child an uneducated one at that and she could hardly avoid seeing him as the doughty champion of her uncle Edward VIII during the abdication crisis and the charismatic leader who had eclipsed her father during the war. George VI, indeed, had been a staunch opponent of Churchill over the appeasement of Nazi Germany and wanted Lord Halifax, another appeaser, to succeed Neville Chamberlain as prime minister in May There are strong suggestions, too, that the Queen found Churchill stubborn, anachronistic, unwilling to listen and apt to mistake monologue for conversation.
His political career began as a Conservative MP for Oldham in - but he became disaffected and joined the Liberals in He was First Lord of the Admiralty during World War I - but shortly afterwards switched sides again, to rejoin the Conservatives in Much to his own surprise, he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's government. He came into his own during World War II.
He became prime minister in May His ceaseless energy, unflinching determination to beat the enemy and an ability to make great speeches, inspired the entire nation and eventually helped win the war. He lost power in after a general election brought Labour to government - but returned for a final stint as prime minister at the age of 77 in Failing health forced him to step down in , but he continued as a backbencher until
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