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Winston was back in the Government by 1917 and held
various ministries between the two world wars, including
Chancellor of The Exchequer. From the early 1930’s he
was warning of the danger of Nazi Germany, who were
re-arming very fast, and the need for Britain to re-arm. On
10 May 1940 Germany invaded Belgium, France,
Luxembourg and the Netherlands and Winnie became
PM, heading up a war time coalition of all parties.

Churchill’s war years are legendary and it would be fair to
say that WWII would have been a very different war
without him (his main rival for the PM position wanted to
make peace with Hitler). His oratory in the House of
Commons stirred and emboldened the nation. This
included his first Commons speech as PM, known as the
“blood, toil, tears and sweat speech.” The two other best
known orations are “we shall fight on the beaches
speech” and the "this was their finest hour speech." All
three are worth reading in full.

Despite being a hero to almost everyone in Britain Winston lost the 1945 election in a
landslide to the Labour Party who were promising many things, including a National Health
Service. Although crushed by his defeat Winston remained in parliament as Leader of the
Opposition until 1951 when the Conservatives again became the government. He served as
PM until 1955. Something I did not know before researching this article is that Winston was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953. And I should add that he enjoyed bricklaying
and painting, both of which he was good at.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA died in 1965 and was only
the third commoner to be given a State Funeral in Britain.

David Smith

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