History
Sir Winston Churchill Key Moments
Winston Churchill History
John Churchill – 1st Duke of Marlborough
November 30, 1874 – Birth occurs at Blenheim Palace. Grandson of the Seventh Duke of Marlborough
WSC’s Mother, Lady Randolph ‘Jennie’ Churchill
Clementine Hozier is born
Enters Harrow School
Enters Royal Military College at Sandhurst
Father Lord Randolph Churchill Dies
Lord Randolph Churchill
Commissioned Second Lieutenant in 4th Queen’s Own Hussars
Fourth Hussars
First visit to United States
With the 21st Lancers. Sees action at Omdurman, Sudan.
Last great war time cavalry charge.
War correspondent in South Africa; captured by the Boers and escapes
WSC Far Right
Elected Conservative Minister of Parliament for Oldham – Age 26
Queen Victoria dies
Breaks with Conservative Party and joins the opposition Liberals
September 12, 1908 – Marries Clementine Hozier at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster
Clemmie & Churchill
Appointed Home Secretary
King Edward VII Dies
Appointed First Lord of the Admiralty on the eve of his 37th birthday
Great Britain declares war on Germany
Dismissed as First Lord over the failure of Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns
To the Western Front – Attached to Second Battalion, Grenadier Guards as a Major
Major Grenadier Guards
Appointed Minister of Munitions for the war effort
Meets Franklin Roosevelt for first time
Appointed Colonial Secretary
Mother, Lady Randolph Churchill dies in London
Purchases Chartwell
Would be Churchill’s home for the remainder of his life.
Appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin
Enters his self-proclaimed “Wilderness Years” – Age 54
Speaking tour to Canada and the United States
While on a speaking tour to the United States is hit by an automobile and severely injured
FDR elected President of the United States
King George V dies
Abdication of King Edward VIII
Returns as First Lord of the Admiralty – Signal telegraph sent to the British Fleet – “Winston is back” – September 3, 1939
Churchill: First Lord of the Admiralty
Great Britain and France declare war on Germany
Asked by King George VI to form National Coalition government. Becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain & Minister of Defence – May 10, 1940 at age 65
Churchill & King George VI
In speech to Parliament declares “We shall never surrender”
WSC meets FDR aboard HMS Prince of Wales August 14, 1941. Draft the Atlantic Charter
Churchill with a Tommy Gun
WSC & FDR meet with General De Gaulle at Casablanca – January, 1943
Portrait by Arthur Pan
FDR & Churchill in Quebec
Churchill & Eisenhower
Churchill & Eisenhower
WSC & General Montgomery
Defeated by Labour Party in General Election and resigns as Prime Minister
Delivers his “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College, Fulton, MO
At the Grave of FDR, Hyde Park
Suffers first stroke – Age 74
Returns as Prime Minister
King George VI dies
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
Suffers second stroke
June 14, 1954 – Invested as Knight of the Garter becoming Sir Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Churchill, son Randolph Churchill & grandson Winston Churchill
Resigns as Prime Minister after suffering two strokes
With Queen Elizabeth II at Final Dinner
Churchill & Queen Elizabeth II at Final Dinner
With Clemmie
Proclaimed Honorary Citizen of the United States by President Kennedy
Paraphrasing wartime correspondent Edward R. Murrow, JFK proclaimed, “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle”.
January 24, 1965 – Dies at age 90. By decree of the Queen receives a State Funeral the last to take place in Great Britain
On January 30, 1965 hundreds of millions of viewers around the globe watched the largest state funeral the world had ever seen at the time.
Lady Clementine Churchill dies. Both buried together at Bladon, Oxfordshire
Mary Soames, Baroness Soames, LG, DBE, FRSL – Youngest of WSC & Clementine’s children. Patron of The International Churchill Society (1983-2014).
(1922-2014), Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Randolph Spencer-Churchill, Great Grandson
President of The International Churchill Society
Selected timeline dates excerpted from
The Churchill Companion: A Concise Guide to the Life and Times of Winston S. Churchill