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Winston Churchill was born on November 30, 1874 in Bhenheim, Oxfordshire, in the United Kingdom. He was born wealthy and royal having descended from Spencer and Churchill families. In his youth, he was generally independent and rebellious. He performed poorly in school until he joined the military and Harrow. Through out his life, he described himself as having a speech impediment, mostly a stuttering characterized by his speech with a lazy “S”. After Harrow, he applied to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Although it took him three attempts to pass the entrance exam, he eventually graduated eight out of a class of 150 in December 1894. He made every effort to join the various military campaigns during his early career. Along the way wrote books and articles for newspapers as a source of additional income. 

Churchill’s military trips and campaigns included the Spanish war in Cuba, India, Malakand (no Pakistan), Egypt and Sudan. He resigned from the British Army in 1899 and ran for parliament upon the invasion of Robert Ascroft as the Conservative Party’s candidate. He lost the election and immediately found a commission as a war correspondent in South Africa. However, he was captured and send to a POW camp in Pretoria. He escaped the prison camp and traveled nearly 480 km to Delagao Bay, and then help British troops fight the Second Boer War. He came home to England a hero, and in the next parliamentary election won two seats for the Conservative Party. At the Parliament, he served successively as Under Secretary of State, President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary. During his early political career, he was blamed for the loss of 2,500 men and was demoted in the newly formed coalition government. In this time, he was involved in the development of the army tank, but was criticized as misappropriate use of the country’s funds. Many years later, the tank would be seen a crucial for British victories in successive wars.

The Conservative Party was defeated in the 1929 elections and Churchill focused on his book writing for the next several years, a low point in his career known as “wilderness years.” In the 1930’s, Churchill strong opposed Indian self-rule. In 1932, Churchill openly warned the British people on the growing power and military build-up being done by Germany. He opposed armistice or peaceful arrangements with Germany, and this further isolated him politically. The public opinion and political views of the time were towards negotiation and peacemaking with Germany, despite Germany’s increasingly aggressive behavior. Churchill was fierce critic of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler.

Churchill’s continued his political career after the war and served as Prime Minister for a second time from 1951 to 1955. He struggled with various foreign policy crises as Britain faced up to its declining influence in the modern world. By this time, India had gained self-rule, and Malaysia and Singapore were on its way to independence from British Commonwealth. Towards the end of his Public life, he was awarded an Honorary Citizen of the United States, and Knighted for his service to the British Commonwealth. He spent his later years writing, while recuperating from the repeated strokes that severely affected his health. He died in 1965 at the age of 90.