Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Churchill is widely seen as the ultimate politician. He stood up for what he believed in and was ready to switch party allegiance to do so. What’s more, while he suffered notable lows, he refused to be defeated. And, indeed, while some men might have considered giving up after being out of the political game for more than a decade, ‘Winnie’ persevered and would go on to lead his country through its ‘Darkest Hour’. More than a century after he declared “I am finished” and looked set to spend most of his life in the political wilderness, he is regarded as a true political titan and has been named one of the greatest Britons of all time.
Churchill was born into a rich, aristocratic family in 1874. After a spell in the Royal Cavalry and as a part-time journalist, he went into politics and first served as a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party in 1900. His rise was swift. He switched to the Liberal Party and, over the next 10 years, gained more and more power. When Britain got embroiled in the First World War, Churchill was appointed the First Lord of the Admiralty. So, when the Gallipoli Campaign failed in 1915, the buck stopped with him. Churchill endured widespread criticism and was forced to resign. He famously stated: “I am finished.” He was just 40 years old.
Though he may have publicly stated that he believed his political career to be over by that summer of 1915, privately, Churchill was quietly plotting his comeback. And what a comeback it was to be. He volunteered to fight on the Western Front. Though he only spent a couple of months at the front, he was able to return to London with his reputation somewhat restored, and so, by 1924, he was back in favour and serving as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, this time serving the Conservative Party. By 1929, however, he was back in the political wilderness. The Tories were out of power and Churchill was a minor MP, increasingly isolated and seen as a curmudgeonly drunkard. He was to remain ‘in the political graveyard’ as he called it for 11 long years. But then, in 1940, he was called on to serve his country again, and the rest is history.
Remarkably, after his leadership of Britain during the Second World War, Churchill would go on to enjoy one more comeback – a second ‘second act’ – winning the 1951 election and serving as Prime Minister for a second time. After almost four years in office, he resigned in April 1955 and would then spend his final decade at his home of Chartwell, largely filling his days writing history books and his memoirs.