Winston Churchill and America (1874 - 1965)

Churchill was many things to many people. In a BBC poll in 2002, the British people selected him as the Greatest Briton of All Time. Almost forty years before that the American people selected him to be the only one ever given an honorary US citizenship by act of Congress. Churchill embodied many of the traits of both the ideal Brit and the ideal Yank, and by looking at America through his eyes, we can better understand who we are.

What follows is a close-up just four aspects of Churchill's life - a sampling to hint at the incredible scope of a most remarkable life.

Warrior

"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result."

Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace in 1874. He was the son of a member of the British Parliament and a grandson to the sixth Duke of Marlborough, descended from one of England's greatest military leaders - the first Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill. But it was not a storied martial past that guided Winston Churchill into a life of combat in defense of the mighty British Empire; it was his father's conviction that his often dreamy son could never make it as a lawyer.

Though Churchill failed to win his first election to Parliament, he became a war correspondent, international celebrity, and popular speaker, paving the way to success in his second election bid in 1900. But though he entered Parliament as a Conservative, he recognized the rising influence of the Liberal Party - switched allegiances in 1904 and soon was rewarded with the first in a series of prestigious government postings that would see young Churchill hold every major political office but one in the British government.

While a schoolboy at Harrow, Churchill failed to earn any acknowledgement from his father other than disdain, including this line in a note: " ...your slovenly, happy-go-lucky harem scarum style of work ... you will become a mere social wastrel ... and you will degenerate into a shabby unhappy & futile existence." But while a soldier in India under Queen Victoria, Churchill began his process of self-education. He read and read and read the best texts he could find, and he internalized good writing.
In his forties, Churchill discovered painting. Starting with a child's watercolor set, within a week he had progressed to a full set of oils and canvases. His first efforts were limited, and he never fully mastered capturing the human form, but he passionately kept at it and eventually won competitions with his landscapes that he entered anonymously. For the rest of his life he was never far from his paints. "Happy are the painters for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end."

In fact, Churchill's grades were so poor that he could not even qualify for an army commission from Sandhurst and had to settle for a commission with the Fourth Hussars cavalry which only required a father who was wealthy enough to buy and equip a horse and the uniform for its rider. From that inauspicious start, however, Churchill rose to the challenge, successfully fighting for Queen and country in India and across Africa, escaping from a Boer prison-of-war camp, and writing a series of books about his life-and-death adventures that made him a celebrity and a wealthy man by the age of 26.

Churchill returned to active combat as a lieutenant colonel in the trenches of France in 1916 and was known to be a deadly marksman with a .45 Colt automatic pistol. Whether facing down anarchists in a London street, standing up to Egyptian mobs storming his railcar, evading IRA assassins on the prowl, or reviewing American troops at Fort Jackson in Columbia, Churchill remained an indomitable warrior his whole life.

Politician

"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

He proved himself to be an outstanding administrator with inexhaustible energy, relentless drive, and a singular, single-mindedness that made him just as contentious as he was popular. As First Lord of the Admiralty during WWI, he planned to cripple Germany by taking Turkey out of the war with an attack on the Dardanelles; the mission bogged down as subordinates chose caution and settled for a costly stalemate. Churchill was blamed for what became a military disaster and, though acquitted of any wrong in the matter, was forced out of the government only to take a leadership position in the front lines of France in 1916. Serving with distinction, Churchill was back in the government as Minister of Munitions by 1917 and pushed against great opposition for the development of British aircraft and tanks. After the war, Churchill returned to his roots in the Conservative party and railed against the growing threats of Hitler and Stalin.

As World War II swept across Europe and closer and closer to the British shores, Churchill (again First Lord of the Admiralty and later Prime Minister) saw his allies in France collapse and tens of thousands of British troops trapped under heavy fire on European beaches. He saw his beloved London ablaze from heavy Nazi bombing and missiles. Yet, Churchill vowed to fight on, he turned his cabinet from capitulation to patriotic defiance, and his turned the bleak despair of the British people into determined resolve. "We shall fight them on the beaches . . . we shall never surrender!"

With the home front mobilized but still in critical danger, Churchill reached across the Atlantic to America for support. Never were Churchill's political talents so tested as when he successfully rallied the support of an isolationist America to "give us the tools, and we will get the job done!" 

Churchill depended on a love of liberty by the people of what he called "the English speaking world" to stand together against the totalitarian menace that was rapidly darkening the free world. His oratory reminded Americans of those core beliefs inherent in their shared pasts.

Author

"I expect that history will treat me kindly, for I intend to write it."

In addition to his speeches, Churchill authored over a dozen successful books and scores of popular magazine articles. In 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature... not bad for a shabby wastrel.

Painter

"To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have two or three hobbies."

In art and oratory and action, Winston Churchill suffered adversity, persevered, and triumphed. In trying times it's good to remember that such can be the case for us as well.