Milestones-9: November 30, 09

Winston Churchill

A colorful and interesting personality. I have heard (mostly from my father) and read a lot about him. I recall whatever I could remember now and record them, with a little brush-up from Wikipedia and other sources from the Net.

Two-term Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who lead his country to victory in World War II. He occupied several other important positions in the British Govt like Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Admiralty. He was born on November 30, 1874 and he died on January 25, 1964 at the ripe old age of 90. He was a scion of a noble family with anscestors like the Duke of Marlborough and their ancestral home was the Blenheim Palace.

He was an imperialist through and through. My dad was an admirer of him. I heard many interesting things about him. Only later I read about him and had some of his famous books in my possession and read a few of them like Great Contemporaries, The River War, A History of the English Speaking Peoples and a few volumes of his Second World War series.

He vehemently opposed the appeasement policy of Asquith and I remember his famous quote: "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, knowing that it will eat him last". That is what exactly Hitler would have done. You cannot compromise with evil. Your duty is to fight it.

Then his famous quotes about Dunkirk, where Britain escaped from near catastrophe. "Never in the history of mankind, so many owe to so few" and "You cannot win a war by evacuation."

When he assumed office of the Prime Minister during World War II, he promised his people: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat"

The surprise of surprise was immediately after leading his country to victory in WW II, his party lost the election and Clement Attlee succeeded him as Prime Minister, but for which India's Independence might have been delayed. For, Churchill was not for granting independence to India.

However, after India's independence, accepting political realities and realizing the importance of India in Asia, he wanted to have India on their side. He praised Jawaharlal Nehru as the Light of Asia.

Towards the end of his life, probably there was an offer for lordship and he toyed with the idea of the title, "Lord London" but his son, Randolph Churchill, successfully dissuaded him.

Also I remember his visit to USA during World War II and some well-known anecdotes:

Referring to Hitler's threat that he would wring Great Britain like a chicken, Churchill said using Americanism: "Some chicken, some neck".

Churchill was staying as a guest of President Roosevelt in USA. Roosevelt once entered his room and was embarrassed to find Churchill naked/semi-naked (probably after a bath). Churchill made it easy for Roosevelt by joking that "Britain has nothing hide from the USA".

He was a prolific writer and his books were read avidly. It was said that his publishers paid him on per word basis. His books fetched him Nobel Prize for Literature.

A stutter in early youth. He overcame this handicap and became a famous orator. He had a great command over the English language and could sway people by his speech. Once in Parliament the opposition members levelled many charges and allegations against him to which his simple reply was: "All of them were "terminological inexactitudes". Nobody could immediately follow what that meant. Had he openly said "they were all lies", there would have been a great uproar.

If you surf the Net, you will find a lot of interesting anecdotes about him, in addition to his famous quotes.

For a detailed article on Churchill from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill

His speeches and podcasts from Historical Podcasts:
http://historicalpodcasts.googlepages.com/winstonchurchill

The Churchill Centre and Museum's Website:
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/

Grateful thanks to Historical Podcasts, Churchill Centre and Museum and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.