Kohli Navtej Assortment of Biographies
Biography of Winston Churchill - Kohli Navtej
An author, journalist, soldier, painter, legislator and a politician, better known as Prime Minister of United Kingdom during second World-war, Winston Churchill was a persona of many distinguished qualities.
Owing to his great personality and strength of character, he is very well respected as an important leader in the world history.
Born in Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire (near Woodstock) to Lord Randolph Churchill and Lady Jennie Churchill (from New York), Winston Churchill was a descendant of legendary John Churchill.
Winston Churchill spent much of his childhood at boarding schools, far from his family. He had deep love for his family, especially mother, whom he worshipped. At age eight he was sent to St. George's, a boarding school at Ascot, which he didn’t really like. He wrote several letters to his mother asking her to come, but she hardly ever replied or visited him. On one of the rare occasions when she happened to visit Winston was once when he was terminally ill with pneumonia.
The son, on the other hand, immensely loved his mother. In one of his book, Winston gives a picturesque description of his mother, mentioning her as a beautiful fairy princess. He said “She shone for me like the Evening Star. I loved her dearly - but at a distance" She was always too busy with her social life to be bothered with her child.
He was very attached to his nursemaid, whom he called ‘wooms’. All these years she stood by him through thick and thin. She was his only pillar of strength.
Winston took admission in a school at harrow, where his grades began to improve. He began to do well in literature and history.
Then, one day when Winston’s father (Randolph Churchill) asked him about his interest in joining army, he exulted with joy, thinking his father saw him as a military genius. However, in reality have him join military was just another alternative for his father, because he found him too incompetent to be a lawyer.
Meanwhile, Winston began smoking. He quit it later, when his mother promised to buy him a gun and a pony, but only to start again.
Later in his age he developed taste for Cuban cigars. Today, world remembers of him smoking his favorite Cuban cigar along with a V hand sign signifying victory.
When Winston turned 21, his father died. Same year, his beloved nursemaid abandoned him too. Winston was deeply saddened.
In 1893, he enrolled in the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Later, on joining army he sojourned in Cuba, India and Egypt.
In a process of educating himself through reading, Wilson developed an interest in writing as well. At age twenty-four he left the army to pursue his career in writing. He started off as a war correspondent and soon became world famous.
It was then his innings in politics, in a way, commenced. In 1900, he hewed his way to parliament. In between World War I and World War II he found a new interest in painting. Even today his paintings are revered worldwide.
At 34 Winston Churchill married Clementine Hozier, which he personally considers was one of his most brilliant achievements. They had four children - three daughters and one son.
Churchill played an instrumental role during World War I. He recognized the threat Nazi Germany posed to the world. However, it became apparent to all when the Germans invaded Poland.
On 10 May, 1940 he became the Prime Minister of Britain. In 1953 Queen Elizabeth knighted him and he became "Sir Winston Churchill", a member of the highest order of British knighthood. In the same year he was awarded with Nobel peace prize for literature.
During World War II he with Franklin Delano Roosevelt mapped out a strategy to win the war against the Axis Powers. Joseph Stalin joined them at Yalta, and they became known as "The Big Three".
In 1963 The United States Congress voted Winston Churchill to be an honorary citizen of the United States. In 1965, he died at the age of ninety after suffering a stroke.
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