In a 2002 BBC poll, Winston Churchill was voted the greatest ever Briton, mainly for his efforts during World War II. We’ve all heard his famous speeches imploring the country to stand up to Nazi aggression, but there’s a lot more to Churchill than his soundbites. Over a long life, he moved from troubled schoolboy to prisoner of war, ridiculed backbench politician and elder statesman.
Click through this gallery to discover 19 facts about Winston Churchill – how many did you know?
Although Churchill is one of the most recognisable figures in his nation’s history, he wasn’t 100% British. His mother, Jennie Jerome, was a glamorous New York socialite from a wealthy American family.
Churchill often joked about his dual heritage, saying he felt equally at home in both nations. The American connection helped him forge a strong alliance with President Franklin D Roosevelt during World War II.
Churchill’s school years were far from impressive. He struggled with some subjects and was notorious for his lack of discipline. He particularly disliked maths and Latin, although he was stronger in the subjects he had an interest in – notably English and history.
After leaving school, Churchill twice failed the entrance exam for the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, before finally passing on his third try. After two years in training, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars.
Churchill had a slight lisp and stammer that made speech difficult, but he refused to be limited by it. He trained relentlessly for public speaking – memorising passages, practicing pronunciation and timing his pauses for dramatic effect.
Through sheer willpower, he transformed himself into one of the greatest orators of his time, best known for his rousing wartime speeches. Among his most famous quotes are “We shall fight on the beaches” and “This was their finest hour”, both delivered in 1940 when Britain faced the threat of Nazi invasion.
In 1899, while working as a war correspondent during the Boer War in South Africa, Churchill was captured and imprisoned by Boer forces. Determined to escape from behind bars, he attempted a daring nighttime breakout by jumping the fence.
Over the next few days, he travelled hundreds of miles through hostile territory, reaching the safety of British lines with only a few coins and a biscuit in his pocket. The dramatic adventure was front-page news in Britain, transforming Churchill into a hero and launching his political career.
In 1911, as Home Secretary, Churchill personally attended the Siege of Sidney Street. The Metropolitan Police surrounded a gang of armed anarchists responsible for the deaths of three police officers. As this picture shows, Churchill arrived on the scene in a top hat and overcoat, and he directed the operation while bullets flew around him.
Though he didn’t fire a weapon himself, his mere presence was controversial. Critics said that a cabinet minister had no business putting himself in the line of fire.
As First Lord of the Admiralty during World War I, Churchill championed a bold plan to capture the Dardanelles Strait and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war. The naval assault at Gallipoli was a bloody failure, costing 46,000 Allied lives.
As the scale of the disaster became clear, Churchill resigned in disgrace. Devastated, he temporarily left politics and joined the army, seeking redemption on the front lines as an officer in the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars. He’s pictured here wearing a shrapnel helmet.
Churchill had an almost superstitious dread of traffic – and for good reason. In 1931, while visiting New York, he looked the wrong way crossing Fifth Avenue and was struck by a car. The accident left him with a deep cut to his head that needed stitches. This photo shows him being discharged, still sporting a bandage.
Thankfully, Churchill recovered quickly and even invited the driver to his next public lecture. Still, the accident reinforced his wariness of cars – and of foreign drivers.
In the 1930s, Churchill warned Parliament that Nazi Germany was building its armed forces and becoming a major threat to Europe. Few believed him, even as Hitler ordered his troops into Austria and Czechoslovakia. Instead, Churchill was dismissed as an alarmist and a warmonger. He was left politically isolated, forced to spend time at his country home, Chartwell.
When Germany finally invaded Poland in September 1939, the doubters could no longer deny that his grim predictions were correct. His foresight, once ridiculed, suddenly made him the man the nation trusted to lead Britain through its darkest hour.
Churchill discovered painting in his 40s, a time when his views on Nazism left him in the political wilderness. As he once said, “Painting came to my rescue in a most trying time.” What began as a hobby quickly became a passion.
He completed over 500 canvases, mostly landscapes in bold, expressive colours. Painting helped Churchill combat depression – what he called his 'black dog' – and provided a rare source of peace in an otherwise turbulent life.
Liking this? Click the Like button above. And click the Follow button above for more great stories from loveEXPLORING
Churchill’s daily routine was as unorthodox as his personality. He conducted business almost anywhere – including the bathtub. He frequently read reports and dictated letters while soaking in hot water, cigar in hand. Downing Street staff grew accustomed to standing just outside the bathroom door, taking notes as the Prime Minister issued orders through the steam.
Churchill also napped daily, insisting that it doubled his productivity. He worked at a standing desk late into the night, sometimes staying awake until 3am. His schedule baffled aides, but there’s no doubt it worked for him.
Churchill’s imagination was boundless. To combat German U-boats, he suggested levelling icebergs to make landing strips for planes. He also backed Project Habakkuk – a bizarre plan to build an aircraft carrier from a mix of ice and sawdust. The frozen material, known as pykrete, was supposedly able to withstand bullets and bombs.
Scientists even built a small prototype ice battleship on a Canadian lake. Although it never went into full production, the project reflected Churchill’s willingness to embrace creative and sometimes madcap solutions to wartime problems.
Churchill’s wardrobe was as colourful as his personality. He often worked in his siren suit, a custom one-piece jumpsuit designed to be quickly slipped on during air raids. Churchill found this precursor to the onesie so comfortable that he often wore it throughout the day, including to meetings with his generals, and he had a black velvet version made for dinner.
Aside from siren suits, Churchill loved silk dressing gowns, velvet slippers and pink underwear – an individual style that no other Prime Minister has since matched.
During World War II, Churchill made the two-fingered V-shaped hand gesture a symbol of British defiance. Most of the time, he held his palm outwards, as pictured here. But occasionally, he had his palm facing in, oblivious that it had an alternative meaning.
Only when his secretary confided that the palm-in method could be perceived as an insult did Churchill change his ways. Still, the palm-out V for Victory symbol caught on everywhere, as did its message – that the Allies would win, no matter how dark the hour.
Despite his gruff reputation, Churchill was tender toward animals. While living in Downing Street, he had two pet cats named after British icons: Nelson and Whisky.
At Chartwell, his feline companion Jock was so well loved that Churchill insisted a marmalade-coloured cat of the same name must always live at Chartwell. The tradition is maintained to this day. He also adored butterflies, often spending quiet afternoons watching nature in the garden when he needed to clear his mind.
Churchill’s ancestors were the Dukes of Marlborough, and he also had the opportunity to join Britain’s lofty peerage. After World War II, King George VI wanted to reward Churchill by creating a new title specially for him: the Duke of Dover.
It would have placed him among the country’s highest-ranking nobles, but Churchill declined the honour. Despite losing the 1945 General Election, Churchill didn’t consider his political career to be over, and the hereditary title would have forced him to leave the House of Commons. He later refused the title of Duke of London too, fearing that it would hamper his son’s political ambitions.
Most people would assume that the Nobel committee honoured Churchill for defeating Hitler and restoring peace to Europe, but he actually won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The 1953 award recognised the immense body of work built up during Churchill’s lifetime, including The Second World War and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
Churchill personally thought he deserved the Peace prize too, and snubbed the ceremony. He refused to cut short a holiday in Bermuda and sent his wife to collect the award on his behalf.
Churchill’s political career was astonishingly long. He first entered Parliament in 1900 and swore an oath to serve the reigning monarch of the time, Queen Victoria. He was still in office when Elizabeth II became queen more than 50 years later.
Churchill’s lifetime spanned the age of cavalry charges to the nuclear era – an astonishing period of change that included the first powered flight, the birth of television and the discovery of radioactivity.
British officials began preparing for Churchill’s death more than a decade before he died. Operation Hope Not was the official plan for one of the most elaborate state funerals in British history. Every detail – from the route of the coffin to the music – was checked by Churchill himself.
When Churchill eventually passed away in 1965 at the age of 90, 300,000 people queued to pay their respects as he lay in state. On the day of the funeral, millions watched on television as the nation bid him farewell.
Churchill shared many attitudes common among British elites of his era, but by modern standards his views were overtly racist. He supported aspects of the eugenics movement, defended the British Empire as a civilising force and was a fierce critic of Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian independence movement. These beliefs have sparked debate about how to reconcile Churchill’s worldview with his wartime heroism.
Liked this? Click the Like button above. And click the Follow button above for more great stories from loveEXPLORING