Ancestral Trails 2016 » Winston Leonard SPENCER-CHURCHILL (1874-1965)

Personal data Winston Leonard SPENCER-CHURCHILL 

• He was born on November 30, 1874 in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
• He died on January 24, 1965 in Hyde Park Gate, Mayfair, Middlesex, he was 90 years old.
• A child of Randolph Henry SPENCER-CHURCHILL and Jeanette JEROME

Household of Winston Leonard SPENCER-CHURCHILL

He is married to Clementine Ogilvy HOZIER.

They got married on September 12, 1908 at St Margaret, Westminster Abbey, Parliament Square, Westminster, Middlesex, he was 33 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Marigold SPENCER-CHURCHILL  1918-1921
2. Sarah Millicent Hermione SPENCER-CHURCHILL  1914-1982
3. Mary SPENCER-CHURCHILL  1922-2014 
4. Diana SPENCER-CHURCHILL  1909-1963 
5. Randolph Frederick Edward SPENCER-CHURCHILL  1911-1968 

Notes about Winston Leonard SPENCER-CHURCHILL

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA (30 November 1874 - 24 January 1965) was a British politician, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led Britain to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill represented five constituencies during his career as a Member of Parliament (MP). Ideologically an economic liberal and British imperialist, for most of his career he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, but from 1904 to 1924 was instead a member of the Liberal Party.

Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to a wealthy, aristocratic family. Joining the British Army, he saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns. Elected an MP in 1900, initially as a Conservative, he defected to the Liberals in 1904. In H. H. Asquith's Liberal government, Churchill served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, and First Lord of the Admiralty, championing prison reform and workers' social security. During the First World War, he oversaw the Gallipoli Campaign; after it proved a disaster, he resigned from government and served in the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front. In 1917, he returned to government under David Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, and was subsequently Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, then Secretary of State for the Colonies. After two years out of Parliament, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's Conservative government, returning the pound sterling in 1925 to the gold standard at its pre-war parity, a move widely seen as creating deflationary pressure on the UK economy.

Out of office during the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in calling for British rearmament to counter the growing threat from Nazi Germany. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was re-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty before replacing Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1940. Churchill oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against Germany and the Axis powers, resulting in victory in 1945. His wartime leadership was widely praised, although acts like the Bombing of Dresden and his wartime response to the Bengal famine generated controversy. After the Conservatives' defeat in the 1945 general election, he became Leader of the Opposition. Amid the developing Cold War with the Soviet Union, he publicly warned of an "iron curtain" of Soviet influence in Europe and promoted European unity. Re-elected Prime Minister in 1951, his second term was preoccupied with foreign affairs, including the Malayan Emergency, Mau Mau Uprising, Korean War, and a UK-backed Iranian coup. Domestically his government emphasised house-building and developed a nuclear weapon. In declining health, Churchill resigned as prime minister in 1955, although he remained an MP until 1964. Upon his death in 1965, he was given a state funeral.

Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the UK and Western world, where he is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending liberal democracy from the spread of fascism. Also praised as a social reformer and writer, among his many awards was the Nobel Prize in Literature. Conversely, his imperialist views and comments on race, as well as his sanctioning of human rights abuses in the suppression of anti-imperialist movements seeking independence from the British Empire, have generated considerable controversy.

Childhood and schooling: 1874-1895
Churchill was born at the family's ancestral home, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, on 30 November 1874, at which time the United Kingdom was the dominant world power. A direct descendant of the Dukes of Marlborough, his family were among the highest levels of the British aristocracy, and thus he was born into the country's governing elite. His paternal grandfather, John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, had been a Member of Parliament (MP) for ten years, a member of the Conservative Party who served in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. His own father, Lord Randolph Churchill, had been elected Conservative MP for Woodstock in 1873. His mother, Jennie Churchill (née Jerome), was from an American family whose substantial wealth derived from finance. The couple had met in August 1873, and were engaged three days later, marrying at the British Embassy in Paris in April 1874. The couple lived beyond their income and were frequently in debt; according to the biographer Sebastian Haffner, the family were "rich by normal standards but poor by those of the rich".

In 1876 John Spencer-Churchill was appointed Viceroy of Ireland, with Randolph as his private secretary, resulting in the Churchill family's relocation to Dublin, when the entirety of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. It was here that Jennie's second son, Jack, was born in 1880; there has been speculation that Randolph was not his biological father. Throughout much of the 1880s Randolph and Jennie were effectively estranged, during which she had many suitors. Churchill had virtually no relationship with his father; referring to his mother, Churchill later stated that "I loved her dearly-but at a distance." His relationship with Jack would be warm, and they were close at various points in their lives. In Dublin, he was educated in reading and mathematics by a governess, while he and his brother were cared for primarily by their nanny, Elizabeth Everest. Churchill was devoted to her and nicknamed her "Woomany"; he later wrote that "She had been my dearest and most intimate friend during the whole of the twenty years I had lived."

Aged seven, he began boarding at St. George's School in Ascot, Berkshire; he hated it, did poorly academically, and regularly misbehaved. Visits home were to Connaught Place in London, where his parents had settled, while they also took him on his first foreign holiday, to Gastein in Austria-Hungary. As a result of poor health, in September 1884 he moved to Brunswick School in Hove; there, his academic performance improved but he continued to misbehave. In March 1886 he was treated at school for pneumonia of the right lung by Robson Roose, the family doctor. He narrowly passed the entrance exam which allowed him to begin studies at the elite Harrow School in April 1888. There, his academics remained high-he excelled particularly in history-but teachers complained that he was unpunctual and careless. He wrote poetry and letters which were published in the school magazine, Harrovian, and won a fencing competition. His father insisted that he be prepared for a career in the military, and so Churchill's last three years at Harrow were spent in the army form. He performed poorly in most of his exams.

On a holiday to Bournemouth in January 1893, Churchill fell and was knocked unconscious for three days. In March he took a job at a cram school in Lexham Gardens, South Kensington, before holidaying in Switzerland and Italy that summer. After two unsuccessful attempts to gain admittance to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, he succeeded on his third attempt. There, he was accepted as a cadet in the cavalry, starting his education in September 1893. In August 1894 he and his brother holidayed in Belgium, and he spent free time in London, joining protests at the closing of the Empire Theatre, which he had frequented. His Sandhurst education lasted for 15 months; he graduated in December 1894. Shortly after Churchill finished at Sandhurst, in January 1895, his father died; this led Churchill to adopt the belief that members of his family inevitably died young,

Retirement and death: 1955-1965
Elizabeth II offered to create Churchill Duke of London, but this was declined as a result of the objections of his son Randolph, who would have inherited the title on his father's death. He did, however, accept a knighthood as Garter Knight. After leaving the premiership, Churchill spent less time in parliament until he stood down at the 1964 general election. Churchill spent most of his retirement at Chartwell and at his home in Hyde Park Gate, in London, and became a habitué of high society on the French Riviera.

Although publicly supportive, Churchill was privately scathing about Eden's Suez Invasion. His wife believed that he had made a number of visits to the US in the following years in an attempt to help repair Anglo-American relations.

By the time of the 1959 general election Churchill seldom attended the House of Commons. Despite the Conservative landslide, his own majority fell by more than a thousand. It is widely believed that as his mental and physical faculties decayed, he began to lose a battle he had supposedly long fought against depression. However, the nature, incidence and severity of Churchill's depression is uncertain. Anthony Montague Browne, Personal Secretary to Churchill during the latter's final ten years of life, wrote that he never heard Churchill refer to depression, and he disputed that the former prime minister suffered from depression.

There was speculation that Churchill may have had Alzheimer's disease in his last years, although others maintain that his reduced mental capacity was simply the cumulative result of the ten strokes and the increasing deafness he suffered from during the period 1949-1963. In 1963, US President John F. Kennedy, acting under authorisation granted by an Act of Congress, proclaimed him an Honorary Citizen of the United States, but he was unable to attend the White House ceremony.

Despite poor health, Churchill still tried to remain active in public life, and on St George's Day 1964, sent a message of congratulations to the surviving veterans of the 1918 Zeebrugge Raid who were attending a service of commemoration in Deal, Kent, where two casualties of the raid were buried in the Hamilton Road Cemetery. On 15 January 1965, Churchill suffered a severe stroke and died at his London home nine days later, aged 90, on the morning of Sunday, 24 January 1965, 70 years to the day after his own father's death.

Funeral
Churchill's funeral plan had been initiated in 1953, after he suffered a major stroke, under the name Operation Hope Not. The purpose was to commemorate Churchill "on a scale befitting his position in history", as Queen Elizabeth II declared.

The funeral was the largest state funeral in world history up to that time, with representatives from 112 nations; only China did not send an emissary. In Europe, 350 million people, including 25 million in Britain, watched the funeral on television, and only the Republic of Ireland did not broadcast it live.

By decree of the Queen, his body lay in state in Westminster Hall for three days and a state funeral service was held at St Paul's Cathedral on 30 January 1965. One of the largest assemblages of statesmen in the world was gathered for the service. Unusually, the Queen attended the funeral because Churchill was the first commoner since William Gladstone to lie-in-State. As Churchill's lead-lined coffin passed up the River Thames from Tower Pier to Festival Pier on the MV Havengore, dockers lowered their crane jibs in a salute.

The Royal Artillery fired the 19-gun salute due a head of government, and the RAF staged a fly-by of 16 English Electric Lightning fighters. The coffin was then taken the short distance to Waterloo station where it was loaded onto a specially prepared and painted carriage as part of the funeral train for its rail journey to Hanborough, seven miles northwest of Oxford.

The funeral train of Pullman coaches carrying his family mourners was hauled by Battle of Britain class steam locomotive No. 34051 Winston Churchill. In the fields along the route, and at the stations through which the train passed, thousands stood in silence to pay their last respects. At Churchill's request, he was buried in the family plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, not far from his birthplace at Blenheim Palace. Churchill's funeral van-former Southern Railway van S2464S-is now part of a preservation project with the Swanage Railway, having been repatriated to the UK in 2007 from the US, to where it had been exported in 1965.

Later in 1965 a memorial to Churchill, cut by the engraver Reynolds Stone, was placed in Westminster Abbey.

Personal life
Churchill firmly believed himself a man of destiny. His biographers have described him as egocentric, brash, self-confident, and self-centred. He lacked self-restraint, and could be reckless. Describing Churchill's "ebullient personality", Jenkins noted that in his youth, Churchill displayed "impetuous self-centredness" and "rash courage". Jenkins added that Churchill displayed a "self-confidence and determination always to go straight to the top" when dealing with a situation, approaching the highest-ranking official he could, while Rhodes James described him as "a career politician, profoundly ambitious and eager for prominence". He had a good memory, and according to Addison had "the capacity to combine a highly personal vision with command of the smallest detail".

Jenkins stated that in his early parliamentary years, Churchill was "often deliberately provocative", and "argumentatively dexterous to an unusual degree"; Rhodes James called it "deliberately aggressive". Rhodes James was of the view that, when speaking in the House of Commons, Churchill gave the impression of having a chip on his shoulder His barbed rhetorical style earned him many enemies in parliament, and many Conservatives disliked him for his open criticism of Balfour and subsequent defection to the Liberals. Gilbert stated that in his early parliamentary career, Churchill reflected "zeal, intelligence, and eagerness to learn". Churchill developed a reputation for being a heavy drinker of alcoholic beverages, although this was often over-exaggerated. In India, he enjoyed playing polo. Gilbert noted that Churchill's literary style was "outspoken, vigorous, with the written equivalent of a mischievous grin". Jenkins thought that Churchill was excited and exhilarated by war, but that he was never indifferent to the suffering that it caused.

From childhood, Churchill had been unable to pronounce the letter s, verbalising it with a slur. This lateral lisp continued throughout his career, reported consistently by journalists of the time and later. Authors writing in the 1920s and 1930s, before sound recording became common, also mentioned Churchill having a stutter, describing it in terms such as "severe" or "agonising". The Churchill Centre and Museum says the majority of records show his impediment was a lateral lisp, while Churchill's stutter is a myth. After many years of public speeches carefully prepared not only to inspire, but also to avoid hesitations, he could finally state, "My impediment is no hindrance". Rhodes James thought that, in part because of his speech impediment, Churchill was "not a natural impromptu speaker". Churchill therefore memorised speeches before he gave them. Gilbert believed that during the early 1900s, when Churchill worked as a professional speech giver, he mastered "every aspect of the art of speech-making". Jenkins noted that "Churchill lived by phrase-making. He thought rhetorically, and was constantly in danger of his policy being made by his phrases rather than vice versa." For Rhodes James, Churchill was "particularly effective" at "invective and raillery" and that he was "at his most effective when he made deliberate use of humour and sarcasm".

For Jenkins, Churchill was "singularly lacking in inhibition or concealment", and for Rhodes James he "lacked any capacity for intrigue and was refreshingly innocent and straightforward". Jenkins stated that Churchill "naturally had a lively sympathy for the underdog, particularly against the middle-dog, provided, and it was quite a big proviso, that his own position as a top-dog was unchallenged". He was a particular fan of polo, a sport that he played while stationed in India.

Churchill displayed particular loyalty to his family and close friends. For instance, when Lloyd George was going through the Marconi scandal, one of the lowest points of his career, Churchill supported him. One of his closest friends, even when he was a Liberal, was the Conservative MP F. E. Smith. In 1911, he became close with Grey, and another longstanding friend was Violet Asquith. Like his father, Churchill faced jibes that all of his friends were Jewish. Churchill was an animal lover and owned a wide range of animals, including dogs, cats, horses, pigs, fish, and black swans, many of which were kept at Chartwell.

Haffner believed that Churchill had an "affinity with war", exhibiting "a profound and innate understanding of it." He believed himself a military genius and his failure at Gallipoli was "the greatest blow Churchill's self-image was ever to sustain", according to Addison. In his later career, Churchill gained a reputation as being the last Victorian in British politics; Jenkins thought that this was not a fair assessment, stating that he remained "essentially an Edwardian rather than a Victorian" in his attitudes.

Churchill was christened in the Church of England, however he related going through a virulently anti-Christian phase in his youth, and as an adult was an agnostic. In a 1898 letter to his mother, Churchill related: "I do not accept the Christian or any other form of religious belief". In a letter to his cousin he referred to religion as "a delicious narcotic" and expressed a preference for Protestantism over Roman Catholicism because he felt it "a step nearer Reason". According to the scholars David Reagles and Timothy Larsen, Churchill was nevertheless "sympathetic to religious belief" and retained "an emotional and spiritual connection with the Church of England-albeit one that stood at arms' length to its teachings." He viewed Christianity as being linked to civilisation, thought Christian ethics provided a good grounding for children, and encouraged the religion's promotion through the British Empire. On 24 May 1901 he was initiated into Freemasonry at Studholme Lodge No.1591, which at the time met in the Regent Masonic Hall at the Cafe Royal, London, passed to the Second Degree on 19 July, and raised to the Third Degree on 25 March 1902.

Marriage and children
Churchill married Clementine Hozier in September 1908. They remained married for 57 years. Churchill was aware of the strain that his political career placed on his marriage, and according to his private secretary Jock Colville, in the 1930s he had a brief affair with Doris Castlerosse. The Churchills' first child, Diana, was born in July 1909; the second, Randolph, in May 1911. Their third, Sarah, was born in October 1914, and their fourth, Marigold, in November 1918. The latter died of septicaemia in August 1921, and buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. On 15 September 1922, the Churchills' last child, Mary, was born. Later that month, the Churchills bought Chartwell, which would be their home until Winston's death in 1965. According to Jenkins, Churchill was an "enthusiastic and loving father" but one who expected too much of his children.
SOURCE: Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill

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