Winston Churchill is arguably one of the most famous British political figures in history. Even over years after his death, he is still revered by the public. This got me thinking, what are some interesting facts about Winston Churchill?
Most famously, Winston Churchill served as Britain’s prime minister from 1940 until 1945, mere months before then end of WWII. Churchill would also serve as the prime minister again, between 1951 to 1955.
Even today, we can still see Churchill’s legacy. Primarily, this is through the Conservative Party’s use of one nation conservatism, which Churchill’s father helped to create, and something Churchill would popularize!
15. Descended From Nobility
If you’re familiar with British nobility, you’ve probably heard of the Spencer Family. Since the 1500’s, they’ve been some of the richest nobles in the UK, not to mention, being trusted advisors to numerous monarchs.
Due to this, several branches have been given numerous noble titles, including one dukedom, numerous earldoms and baronies. One such branch, the Churchills, were given the title of Duke of Marlborough in 1702.
Fast forward 170 years later, the title was held by the 7th Duke of Marlborough. The Duke had numerous children, many of whom were sons, his third son, Randolph, was given the courtesy title of Lord Randolph Churchill.
Lord Randolph would eventually grow up, get married, and have children of his own.
The eldest of whom was Winston Churchill. Whilst technically descended from nobility, Winston Churchill was a commoner, and hence, sat in the House of Commons, rather than the House of Lords.
14. The Other Winston Churchill?
A common theme among rich and aristocratic families, is to name your sons after their most famous ancestors. For the Churchill branch of the Spencer Family, their most famous ancestor was John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough.
However, several members of the family had this name by the time Winston was born. As a minor branch of the family, it would’ve also been seen as an affront to the main line of the Churchill Family.
Instead, Winston’s father chose to name his eldest son after the first Duke’s father, Winston. This Winston Churchill was a famed Cavalier during the English Civil War, being one of King Charles’ most trusted allies.
Around the same time, an unrelated American Churchill family, chose to name their son Winston too. He would go on to become a famous writer in his own right, but has since been forgotten due to his famous namesake.
13. Political Family
As with most aristocratic families, the Churchill Family is an extremely political one. This was true long before Winston Churchill was born, just as it is true today!
Churchill’s own father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a famed Conservative Party politician and statesman. Lord Randolph was particularly famous for helping to invent one nation conservatism, that his son would later help to popularize.
In 1940, Winston’s own son, also named Randolph, would enter Parliament, as a Conservative MP for Preston. He would hold this position until the 1945 General Election, where he would lose it.
A number of Winston’s grandchildren have also entered politics too.
Randolph’s eldest son, who was named after his grandfather, entered Parliament in 1970, where he would stay until 1997. Another grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, would enter Parliament in 1983, before retiring in 2019.
12. School
When you picture a great statesman, you’d expect that they tried extremely hard in school. Their hard work allowed them to get into the best schools, which allowed them to get the best education possible.
In turn, this education is what helped to make them into such a great statesman. However, this was not the case with Churchill. Instead, Churchill hated the exclusive boarding school his parents sent him to.
Due to this, his behavior was poor, with his academic achievement not being that far behind. At 13, Churchill was sent to a different boarding school, one he actually liked and excelled at.
However, the damage had been done. Churchill had neglected subjects like French and Latin, which made his applications to RMC Sandhurst difficult. Regardless, Churchill eventually passed the entrance exam in 1893, joining the cavalry.
11. The Great Escape
Churchill left the Army in 1899, after six years of frontline service. Here, he was determined to become a wartime correspondent, covering the Second Boer War. To do this, Churchill was sent to South Africa.
Soon after arriving in South Africa, Churchill found himself on a train, heading from Ladysmith to Colenso. However, the Boers began shelling the train track, which caused the train to derail.
The Boers then surrounded the derailed train and took the survivors prisoner, taking them to a POW Camp just outside of Pretoria. This included a young Winston Churchill.
Soon after arriving, Churchill decided to try and escape. After months of meticulous planning, Churchill and other prisoners stowed away on trains leaving teh camp.
They would then jump off the train and hide in a mine, before making their way to Portuguese Mozambique, before heading back to London onvoard a British ship.
10. Downing Street
As most other Prime Ministers, after being elected as the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill would move in to 10 Downing Street. He would use the building as both his personal residence, and as his office.
However, Downing Street had been in serious need of work for the last 50 years. Due to low government budgets, this was never done, much to the annoyance of ever Prime Minister who lived there, including Winston Churchill.
During the war, the Germans bombed large parts of London, flattening huge swaths of the city. One of these bombing runs destroyed a large part of Downing Street, although Churchill would still work there until 1945.
As a precaution, however, Churchill would sleep in a reinforced bunker in the basement of Downing Street.
During Churchill’s second time as Prime Minister, he would oversee the beginning of Downing Street’s reconstruction. This would last into the tenure of his successor, Anthony Eden.
9. WWII Travel Essentials
During WWII, Churchill was forced to travel abroad multiple times, in order to meet with the leaders of Britain’s allies. Most famously, this happened at the Moscow (1942) and Yalta (1945) Conferences.
To do this, Churchill had to travel by both air and sea, in order to avoid German attacks. In order to suit this purpose, both ships and aircraft were heavily modified.
For Churchill’s Commando aircraft (a modified B-24 Liberator), the interior was modified extensively. Instead of a bomb bay, the Commando had a pressurized chamber, which allowed Winston Churchill to fly due to his failing health.
This was nicknamed the Life Pod by the press, and contained a phone, ashtray and desk. This allowed him to smoke and/or work whilst on the flight to Moscow.
Although seldom used due to the threat of German U-Boats, Churchill also had a ship. Hilariously, all of the ship’s lifeboats were equipped with machine guns, this was supposed to prevent his capture by German forces if the ship was sunk.
8. American Relations
Today, Winston Churchill is known for being arguably one of the most famous British figures from throughout history. Ironically, he wasn’t actually 100% British. He was half American.
In 1874, Lord Randolph Churchill married American socialite, Jennie Jerome, daughter of prominent New York financier, Leonard Jerome. The pair would subsequently have two boys, these boys would be Winston, and his younger brother Jack.
This fact, combined with Churchill’s military and political leaderships in both WWI and WWII, allowed JFK to proclaim Churchill an Honorary Citizen of the United States, in 1963.
On top of this, Winston’s first cousin and close friend, the ninth Duke of Marlborough, married Consuelo Vanderbilt. Consuelo was one of the great-granddaughters of famed Gilded Age businessman, Cornelius Vanderbilt.
7. First Duke of London
In 1955, Churchill resigned as Prime Minister for health reasons. Still a public hero, the Queen offered to create Churchill the hereditary title of “Duke of London” for his services during both world wars.
After much debate, Churchill turned down the title. When doing so, Churchill claimed that he did so for two reasons.
Primarily, this was to ensure his family’s political legacy. As a Duke, Churchill would’ve sat in the House of Lords, as would his son upon his death. This would essentially rob his descendants of a meaningful political career.
Secondly, this was done in order to prevent a rift between the Marlborough and London dukedoms. This is because it is seen as bad practice for two branches of the same branch to hold two separate dukedoms.
Instead, the Queen offered to make him a Knight of the Garter, which would see him be styled as “Sir Winston Churchill” until his death in 1964. Upon his death in 1964, he would also receive a state funeral, as all former Prime Ministers do.
6. The Arts
Today, Churchill is remembered for his works as a politician. However, few actually know that Churchill was both a talented writer, and a talented artist.
During his life, Churchill painted almost 100 paintings, all of which survive to this day, both in private and museum collections .
Several of these paintings were given to Churchill’s closest friends and allies during his time as a politician, ending up in their private collections. Many more were kept by Churchill to decorate hsi personal home, and were inherited by his children.
Over the past 60 years or so, a number have gone up for auction. Some of these have fetched as low as a couple of hundred thousand dollars, whilst others have gone for as much as $3 million!
Churchill was also a gifted writer. Prior to his time as a politician, Churchill was a war correspondent.
Following his time in politics, Churchill would also write almost 40 books, including a biography of several of his ancestors, as well as his own autobiography. Many of these books became best-sellers, both in the UK and abroad.
Churchill was also one of the few politicians who wrote the vast majority of his own speeches, rather than giving them to someone to write.
5. Religious Views
In much of the rest of the world, it’s fairly common for politicians to talk about their political views. The UK, however, religion hasn’t played a role in politics for hundreds of years, and likely never will.
During Churchill’s day, it was pretty much a given that anyone looking to lead the British Empire, would be religious. This was especially so for a Conservative Party candidate who came from a strong, noble family.
However, this wasn’t the case for Winston Churchill. As a part of a noble family, Churchill had been christened soon after birth, and was quite religious in his youth, just as other boys his age and social standing were.
Upon joining the Army, he was sent to India. Here, he went through an Anti-Christian phase, denouncing God in a letter to his mother in 1898. As he got older, however, his views shifted, becoming more agnostic.
4. “The Iron Curtain”
In 1946, after losing the 1945 General Election to Labour’s Clement Attlee, Churchill went on a tour around the US with President Truman. On this tour, the pair would visit numerous places and give speeches.
The aim of the tour was to promote Anglo-American relations, through using the American President, and Britain’s half-American former Prime Minister (and then-Leader of the Opposition)!
On one of these visits, Churchill and Truman would visit Fulton, Missouri. Here, the pair would travel to the city’s Westminster College, where Churchill would deliver arguably his most famous speech ever.
Here, Churchill would talk in part about the Soviet Union’s occupation of Eastern Europe. Churchill would then use the metaphor of “The Iron Curtain” to describe the deterioration of East-West relations.
Although initially mocked, within a few months, the term “Iron Curtain” would be used to describe the relations between the US’s allies in Western Europe and the Soviet-controlled Eastern Bloc.
3. “OMG”
Over time, a number of politicians have coined short phrases that we still use in everyday life today. One of the most common is Martin Van Buren’s “OK”. But few actually realize that Churchill helped to coin the phrase “OMG!”
Throughout 1917, Churchill had a correspondence with Lord Fisher, who was the British Admiral in charge of the Gallipoli campaign, that Churchill was leading as the First Lord of the Admiralty, based in London.
In one of these letters, Lord Fisher was updating Churchill about the status of the campaign. In part, the Admiral also complained about the bad press the campaign was receiving in the UK, and asked Churchill to issue a statement.
Here, Lord Fisher chose to abbreviate the common term “Oh My God!” into “OMG!” This is the first known use of the term, with “OMG!” soon becoming a very famous phrase, seemingly used by people of all ages!
2. Churchill’s Money
Due to being arguably Britain’s greatest Prime Minister ever, Churchill has been featured on dozens of coins since his death in 1965. On top this, Churhcill has simialrly been featured on paper money too!
He was first featured on a commemorative coin in 1965. The British public was devastated after losing their most famous war hero, and the Royal Mint chose to mint a commemorative one Crown (25p) coin with Churchill’s head on.
Since then, Churchill has also appeared on numerous commemorative 50p and £2 coins. He has similarly appeared on proof (collectable) £5 and £20 coins since the 1990’s. Canada have similarly honored Churchill on a $100 dollar coin.
In September 2016, the Royal Mint phased out the paper £5 notes in favor of new polymer ones. The Royal Mint chose to replace famed British prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry, with Sir Winston Churchill.
1. Loved by Both Sides
Lord Randolph Churchill was famous for being a prominent member of the Conservative Party. By the 1880’s, Lord Randolph had become the leader of the House of Commons, and sat in the cabinet of Prime Minister, Robert Cecil.
At the time, Lord Randolph had more public support than the seemingly inept Robert Cecil. Using this, Lord Randolph tried to strongarm the Prime Minister into adopting his foreign and domestic policies, rather than the PM’s.
Due to this, Lord Randolph was cast out of the party. His son, Winston, instead joined the Conservative’s main rivals, the Liberals, in 1904. Winston would last here until 1924, before joining the Conservatives.
Despite moving across the aisle, Winston still had a number of friends (and allies) across the aisle. This would help him to be such a successful Prime Minister, as he could get both Conservative and Liberal votes at the same time!
Which are your favorite facts about Winston Churchill? Tell me in the comments!