The Right Honorable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

by

Drake Winn
March 8, 2011

Thesis: The life and world impact of Winston Churchill was very influential to us all.

OUTLINE I. Introduction II. Early life A. Born 30th of November in 1874
Followed military-guided lifestyle
Education
A. Education was through military-based schools
Took final exam three times to pass
Mid-life
A. Family consisted of wife and four children B. Alcohol consumption * V. Later years A. Writing consisted of excellent works B. Painting as a side artist C. Strong speeches D. Died 24th of January in 1965 * VI. Conclusion * VII. Works Cited *

The Right Honorable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (b. 1874 - d. 1965), had an American mother, Clementine Hozier, the daughter of American millionaire Leonard Jerome. His father, was Lord Randolph Churchill. He came from a very famous and affluent aristocratic family and was born two months premature, eight months after his parents’ marriage. Churchill once proposed to actress Ethel Barrymore, but eventually married Clementine Hozier with whom he had five children, one son and four daughters. One of his daughters, an actress, starred with Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding. His son and three grandsons all followed his footsteps into Parliament. There are quite a lot of books and articles written about Sir Winston Churchill, the statesman, and even more about his famous speeches and literary genius. John Petrie has dedicated an entire web site titled Collection of Winston Churchill Quotes. (Petrie 1) My personal opinion, Churchill's words touch the soul, and I can only imagine how this man moved mountains with his words alone. Sir Churchill is said to have had a "bulldog" spirit, and his quotes belie that. But he was also a painter and a father, and these sides of this hero are a lot less well known. One thing rings true - the life of The Right Honorable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill impacted the world. (Welcome to WinstonChurchill.org 1) He was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst. Churchill went to South Africa in 1899 as a war correspondent. He was captured and held in a POW camp in Pretoria after war broke out between Britain and the Boer Republic. He bravely escaped but instead of returning home, he rejoined General Redvers Buller’s army to assist the British at the Siege of Ladysmith. This impressive feat, made him a sort of national hero. When he returned to England eight months later, it was on the very ship on which he sailed to South Africa. Later he published his books “London to Ladysmith Via Pretoria” and “Ian Hamilton's March." After a brief but eventful career in the army, he became a Conservative Member of Parliament in 1900. He held many high posts in Liberal and Conservative governments during the first three decades of the century. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty - a post which he had earlier held from 1911 to 1915. (Ward & Burns 107) In May 1940, he became Prime Minister and Minister of Defense and remained in office until 1945. He took over the premiership again in the Conservative victory of 1951 and resigned in 1955. In June of 1953, Churchill’s health was dealt a severe blow, (he had earlier suffered a mild heart attack in 1941 at the White House and had contracted pneumonia in 1943. This never seemed to affect his work much as he traveled over 100,000 miles as Colonel Warden throughout the war to meet other leaders) he suffered a stroke. This news was kept from the public and he went to his country home to recuperate. However, he remained a Member of Parliament until the general election of 1964, when he did not seek re-election. Queen Elizabeth II conferred on Churchill the dignity of Knighthood and invested him with the insignia of the Order of the Garter in 1953. Among the other countless honors and decorations he received, special mention should be made of the honorary citizenship of the United States which President Kennedy conferred on him in 1963. Churchill's literary career began with campaign reports: The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898) and The River War (1899), an account of the campaign in the Sudan and the Battle of Omdurman. In 1900, he published his only novel, Savrola, and, six years later, his first major work, the biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill. His other famous biography, the life of his great ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough, was published in four volumes between 1933 and 1938. (Churchill 19) Churchill's history of the First World War appeared in four volumes under the title of The World Crisis (1923-29); his memoirs of the Second World War ran to six volumes (1948-1953/54). (Gilbert 72) After his retirement from office, Churchill wrote a History of the English-speaking Peoples (4 vols., 1956-58). His magnificent oratory survives in a dozen volumes of speeches, among them Never Give In, Never, Never, Never (1941), The Dawn of Liberation (1945), and Victory (1946). (Welcome to WinstonChurchill.org 1) Churchill, a gifted amateur painter, wrote Painting as a Pastime (1948). Churchill painted more than 570 paintings, but only a few major shows were held in his own lifetime. His first public exhibition was under a different name. His work has now been displayed all over the world, and have been sold at major auction houses. In July of this year, a painting of his Chartwell estate in Kent sold at Sotheby's in London for a world record auction price for a work of Britain’s wartime Prime Minister for one million pounds. An autobiographical account of his youth, My Early Life, appeared in 1930. Winston Churchill died on January 24, 1965. In January of 1965 Churchill suffered a stroke and died 9 days later at the ripe old age of 90, 70 years to the day after his father died. His body lay in State for 3 days. His was the first state funeral to be held for a non-royal family member since 1914, and no other has been held since. Representatives from more than 100 nations attended, including many heads of states. It was the largest assembly of statesmen in the world until the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. While it’s clear that Churchill had a speech impediment, he constantly worked to overcome it and has been recorded as saying “My impediment is no hindrance”. The Stuttering Foundation has said that he had a stutter, while the Churchill Center has claimed that he lisped or cluttered. (Cluttering is a disorder in language and the way in which it is conveyed to the listener. Stutterers can think something through but have problems saying it, while a clutterer can clearly put their thoughts into words, but during speech they lose interest and the words become disorganized. For example a stutterer may say, “M—mmmmay I hhhhhave ssssome water?” while a clutterer would say, “May I have some er… tap, drink, clear thing, water.” Churchill was also said to have been very fond of alcoholic beverages and added small amounts of whiskey to his water on a daily basis for long periods of his life. Nonetheless, Churchill, had a very sharp and witty tongue. His quotes measure up to his tongue. (Quotations by Sir Winston Churchill, British Politician) Here are some of my favorite ones: * Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you are drunk.”
Churchill: “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.” * Lady Astor: “Winston if you were my husband I would flavor your coffee with poison.”
Churchill: “Madam if I were your husband I should drink it.” * A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. * Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened. * The price of greatness is responsibility.

Works Cited

Churchill, Winston. Memoirs. Boston, MA: Haughton Miflin Co., 1959.
Gilbert, Martin. The Second World War. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1989.
Petrie, John. John Petrie’s Collection of Winston Churchill Quotes. 7 October 2010 <http://jpetrie.myweb.uga.edu/>.
Quotations by Sir Winston Churchill, British Politician. 7 October 2010 <http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Sir_Winston_Churchill/>.
The Churchill Centre and Museum at the Churchill War Rooms, London. Welcome to WinstonChurchill.org. 8 October 2010 <http://www.winstonchurchill.org/>.
—. Welcome to WinstonChurchill.org. 7 October 2010 <http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill>.
Ward, Geoffrey and Ken Burns. The War. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knope, 2007.