Winston Churchill

Boris Johnson's Abuse of Churchill

In using Churchill to justify his Brexit campaign, Boris Johnson 'paints a barbarically simplified and ill-informed picture of what Churchill stood for'.

Churchill and the Taxman

The great statesman had a cavalier approach to his tax affairs.

Winston Churchill: Online Resources

Apps and websites for learning more about the politician and wartime prime minister.

Aneurin Bevan (right) with the future prime minister Harold Wilson at the Labour party conference, September 1953.

Churchill and the Reality of Politics in Wartime Britain

Mihir Bose challenges the perception of Winston Churchill as a demi-god who was essential to Britain's war effort.

Churchill arrives with his family in the Queen Elizabeth, March 23rd, 1949.

Churchill and the Cunarders

From luxury liners to troopships: Roland Quinault examines the close relationship between the Cunard line and Winston Churchill.

Churchill: Of Words and Deeds

Fifty years on from Winston Churchill’s death, Chris Wrigley surveys the literature available, highlighting key works and lesser-known titles.

Winston Churchill’s farewell from the Commons

The former prime minister made his final appearance at Parliament on 28 July 1964.

Winston Churchill: the Liberal Phase, Part I

Drawing on letters and diaries written when her husband was a close associate of Sir Winston's, Lucy Masterman offers a portrait of him in his early Parliamentary years.

Winston Churchill: The Liberal Phase, Part II

A continuation of Lucy Masterman’s recollections of Sir Winston Churchill as a member of the Liberal Governments before the First World War.

Churchill and Hitler: At Arms, At Easels

Churchill and Hitler painted scenes of the Western Front while in remarkably close proximity to one another.

In office May 1940 - July 1945, October 1951 – April 1955

In an initially turbulent career, Churchill, while home secretary (1910-11), used troops against striking miners, and he resigned as first lord of the admiralty after the failed Gallipoli landings. As chancellor of the exchequer (1924-29) he returned Britain to the gold standard. Becoming a staunch opponent of appeasement in the 1930s, Churchill entered the war cabinet in September 1939 and became prime minister in May 1940. He was an energetic, inspiring and imaginative leader, and both his oratory and cultivation of Anglo-American relations were vital to the war effort. Defeated in the general election of 1945 Churchill became prime minister again from 1951 to 1955, when he retired because of ill health. He was knighted in 1953.