Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965)

was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman, orator and strategist, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army. He has been studied to a unique extent as part of modern British and world history. A prolific author, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his own historical writings.
During his army career Churchill saw combat with the Malakand Field Force on the Northwest Frontier, at the Battle of Omdurman in the Sudan and during the Second Boer War in South Africa. During this period he also gained fame, and not a small amount of notoriety, as a correspondent. At the forefront of the political scene for almost sixty years, Churchill held numerous political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary during the Liberal governments. In the First World War Churchill served in numerous positions, as First Lord of the Admiralty, Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air. He also served in the British Army on the Western Front and commanded the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. During the interwar years, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain in May 1940, he became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and led the British war effort against the Axis powers. His speeches were a great inspiration to the embattled Allied forces. After losing the 1945 election, Churchill became the leader of the opposition. In 1951, Churchill again became Prime Minister before finally retiring in 1955. Upon his death, he was granted the honour of a state funeral which saw one of the largest assemblies of politicians in the world.

A descendant of a famous aristocratic family, Churchill's birth name was Winston Leonard Churchill. His family was the senior branch of the Spencer family, which changed thier surname to Churchill in the late 18th century. They did this to highlight their descent from John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough who won the Battle of Blenheim (a battle that seemed world decisive for the next couple of centuries); fought to deny Philippe, Duc d'Anjou his inheritance of the Spanish Succession which ultimately failed. Sir Winston descended from the first member of the Churchill family to achieve public prominence.

Winston's father, Lord Randolph Churchill, the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough was also a politician; Winston's mother, Lady Randolph Churchill (née Jennie Jerome), the daughter of American millionaire Leonard Jerome, was of mostly Colonial American, ultimately English, descent. Churchill was born two months premature in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire on 30 November 1874. He arrived eight months after his parents' hasty marriage. He had one brother, John Strange Spencer-Churchill.

Churchill had an independent and rebellious nature and generally did poorly in school, for which he was punished. He entered Harrow School on 17 April 1888, where his military career began - within weeks of his arrival, he had joined the Harrow Rifle Corps. Churchill earned high marks in English and history; he was also the school's fencing champion. He was rarely visited by his mother (then known as Lady Randolph), but wrote letters begging her to either come to the school or to allow him to come home. Churchill also had a very distant relationship with his father and Churchill once remarked how they barely talked to each other. Due to his lack of parental contact Churchill became very close to his nanny, Elizabeth Anne Everest, whom he used to call "Woomany".

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