Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill   (Politician, statesman, soldier, journalist, historian, author, painter)
Born	Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill 30 November 1874 Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England
Died	1965-01-24 (Age 90) London, England
Religion	Anglican
Parents	• Lord Randolph Churchill • (father) • Lady Randolph Churchill • (mother)
Children	Randolph Churchill
Spouse	Clementine Hozier
Founder of	The Other Club
Member of	Galton Institute, The Other Club
Perpetrator of	Zinoviev Letter
Interest of	John Cadman, Henry Strakosch
Party	Conservative, Liberal
Relatives	Winston Churchill II
Subpage	•Winston Churchill/Chemical warfare
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom In office 10 May 1940 - 26 July 1945 Employer UK Deputy Clement Attlee Preceded by Neville Chamberlain Succeeded by Clement Attlee  Prime Minister of the United Kingdom In office 26 October 1951 - 6 April 1955 Employer UK Deputy Anthony Eden Preceded by Clement Attlee  Leader of the Opposition  In office 26 July 1945 - 26 October 1951  Leader of the Conservative Party  In office 9 November 1940 - 6 April 1955 Succeeded by Anthony Eden  Minister of Defence In office 28 October 1951 - 1 March 1952  Minister of Defence In office 10 May 1940 - 26 July 1945  First Lord of the Admiralty  In office 3 September 1939 - 11 May 1940  First Lord of the Admiralty  In office 24 October 1911 - 25 May 1915 Succeeded by Arthur Balfour  Chancellor of the Exchequer  In office 6 November 1924 - 4 June 1929  Secretary of State for the Colonies  In office 13 February 1921 - 19 October 1922 Preceded by Alfred Milner  Secretary of State for Air In office 10 January 1919 - 13 February 1921  Secretary of State for War  In office 10 January 1919 - 13 February 1921 Preceded by Alfred Milner  Minister of Munitions In office 17 July 1917 - 10 January 1919  Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster  In office 25 May 1915 - 25 November 1915  Home Secretary  In office 19 February 1910 - 24 October 1911  President of the Board of Trade  In office 12 April 1908 - 14 February 1910 Preceded by David Lloyd George  MP for Woodford In office 5 July 1945 - 15 October 1964

The wikipedia article is missing some criticism but is probably fairly accurate. It says of him: "A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States."

Criticism

... Churchill was a man who met a moment, and the moment was much shorter than he's given credit for - about six months. He made four speeches, all of which were derivative of Shakespeare and Macaulay. Everything else about his wearyingly long public life was self-serving and disastrous: he was a terrible self-publicising hack; he was a loathed soldier; he was the worst First Sea Lord we ever had. A staggeringly inept Home Secretary, he was wrong about absolutely everything he set his sights on. He was responsible for the Dardanelles, the worst disaster of the First World War. He sent soldiers to shoot Welsh miners. He put field guns on to the streets of the East End of London. During the General Strike, he was so rabid that he had to be kept out of government, because he wanted to machine-gun bus drivers. Later, he was the worst sort of empire loyalist, desperate to hold on to India, and racist about Gandhi, that naked little fakir (frankly, if you had to choose the greater man between Gandhi and Churchill, there's no contest). He sent the Black and Tans into Ireland. He'd have bankrupted the country by returning us to the gold standard; he gave away large areas of eastern Europe to Stalin. And he was responsible for the disgraceful but forgotten war of intervention to support the White Russians at the end of the First World War. Altogether, he represents everything I find most dispiriting, snobbish, philistine, proudly anti-intellectual and stubbornly backward-looking about Britain.

The quote is from a New Statesman article by prominent British commentator, A A Gill.

In an article entitled Cromwell and Churchill for "Worst Briton" he says: As someone who championed Shakespeare for the greatest Briton, I would have to vote for Cromwell as my worst - a man who closed down theatres, banned dancing and cancelled Christmas.... My other nomination is Churchill.

Racism

Churchill’s doctor, Lord Moran, once said of Churchill that “Winston thinks only of the colour of their skin.” Churchill himself declared "I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.” When asked in 1944 to explain why he sent no food to aid relieve the 1943 Bengal famine, (in which up to 3 million people starved to death) he replied bluntly "Relief would do no good. Indians breed like rabbits and will outstrip any available food supply."

Imperialism

When Mahatma Gandhi launched his campaign of peaceful resistance against British rule in India, Churchill declared that Gandhi "ought to be lain bound hand and foot at the gates of Delhi, and then trampled on by an enormous elephant with the new Viceroy seated on its back. Gandhi-ism and everything it stands for will have to be grappled with and crushed.”

War crimes

Churchill ordered the saturation bombing of Dresden which resulted in the incineration of over 100,000 German civilians and refugees, mostly women and children, in a single day. The UK's Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force dropped over 700,000 phosphorus bombs on the city. He had earlier stated "I do not want suggestions as to how we can disable the economy and the machinery of war, what I want are suggestions as to how we can roast the German refugees on their escape from Breslau."

Chemical Weapon Use

Full article: Winston Churchill/Chemical Weapon Use

Churchill was in no doubt that gas should be employed against the Kurds and Iraqis (as well as against other peoples in the Empire), declaring "I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes. It would spread a lively terror."

 

An event carried out

Event	Description
Zinoviev Letter	MI5 fake letter published in the Daily Mail to destroy the 1924 Labour government

 

A Quote by Winston Churchill

Page	Quote
School	“schools have not necessarily much to do with education... they are mainly institutions of control, where basic habits must be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has little place in school.”

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
1948 Hague Congress	7 May 1948	11 May 1948	The Hague Netherlands	Landmark conference which had a profound influence on the shape of the European Movement. Many of the groups organizing the conference received covert funding from the CIA.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Nothing has Changed	Article	10 November 2017	John Warren	The ill-judged words of the present Prime Minister perhaps accidentally illuminate something important about the true character of the Conservative Party: “Nothing has Changed”.
Document:The Monstrous Winston Churchill	article	15 April 2010	Kevin MacDonald	A brief introduction to Judaic influence on the career of Winston Churchill

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