2. Winston Churchill was only forced to quit politics at the age of 89 and even served as Prime Minister in his ninth decade
Having led his country to victory in the Second World War, Sir Winston Churchill would surely have been entitled to take it easy and enjoy a comfortable retirement. However, ever the statesman and missing the action of front line politics, he decided to make a comeback in old age. Just one month shy of his 77th birthday, Churchill became Prime Minister for a second time. He had beaten his political rival, the Labour leader Clement Atlee, in a fiercely contested election and was eager to get back at him for his defeat in 1945.
Though he enjoyed the backing of the public, Churchill’s own wife, as well as his personal doctor, expressed their reservations about his comeback. Churchill was not only a 77-year-old Prime Minister, he also named himself Minister of Defense. The stress was simply too much. He suffered a mild stroke at the start of 1952. The following summer, he was hit by another, more serious stroke. Churchill soon accepted his time was up. At the age of 80, he finally resigned. Even then, however, he remained a Member of Parliament up until the age of 89, only stepping down one year before his death in 1965.