WINSTON CHURCHILL
One of Teresa's heroes

Some of his history, remarks and stories

Born on November 30, 1874, to an American heiress; the eldest son of Lord Randolph Churchill.
Winston graduated from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.
He served in India and the Sudan, but he resigned his calvary commission in 1899.
He became a correspondent during the Boer War, but was captured. He escaped, and the wanted poster said: "Englishman 25 years old, about 5 ft 8 inches tall, average build, walks with a slight stoop, pale appearance, red brown hair, almost invisible small moustache, speaks through the nose, cannot pronounce the letter 's', cannot speak Dutch, was last seen in a brown suit of clothes." His escape made him a national hero.
Became involved in politics, occasionally being forced to resign or denied cabinet office during the World War I period.
Spoke out against Hitler long before his wicked ways were known.
Became Prime Minister during World War II, and from 1951-1955.
Collaborated with US President FDR and Stalin to ensure Hitler's defeat.
By 1945 he was admired throughout the world.
Termed the phrase "Iron Curtain".
Resigned as PM in 1955 due to poor health, and devoted his last years to writing and painting; some reproductions of his watercolors are in the Carlsbad Library Annex.
He was a top-notch historian, and his best writings are of history. In fact, he received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953.
He died January 24, 1965, at the age of 90.

ASSESSMENT PER THE ENCARTA ENCYCLOPEDIA:
Churchill's death in 1965 marked the end of an era in British history. Born into a Victorian aristocratic family, he witnessed and participated in Britain's transformation from empire to welfare state, and its decline as a world power.
His true importance, however, rests on the fact that by sheer stubborn courage he led the British people, and with them, the democratic Western World, from the brink of defeat to a final victory in the greatest conflict the world has ever seen.

WSC's REMARKS

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

Mr. Churchill regarded Health Minister Aneurin Bevan scathingly as Britain's "Minister of Disease."

Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe.
No one pretends that Democracy is perfect or all-wise.
Indeed, it has been said that Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Lady Astor once told Churchill: "If you were my husband, I'd poison your coffee."
Churchill replied: "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."

"Why do you paint only landscapes?" a friend once asked Churchill.
His reply: "Because a tree doesn't complain that I haven't done it justice."

Short words are best and the old words, when short, are best of all.

An iron curtain is drawn down upon their front. (He coined the phrase "iron curtain".)

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

The intervention which I make is without precedent,
and the reason for that intervention is also without precedent,
and the fact that the reason for my intervention is without precedent
is the reason why I must ask for a precedent for my intervention.

War is a game with a good deal of chance in it, and, from the little I have seen of it, I should say that nothing in war ever goes right except by accident.

When Sir Winston was asked on his seventy-fifth birthday if he had any fear of death, he replied,
"I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."

"I'm bored with it all." said before slipping into a coma. He died nine days later on January 24, 1965, at 90 years of age.

STORIES

Although Mr. Churchill is known as one of the greatest orators of our time, he was plagued early in life with a bad lisp. He consulted with a specialist about his lisp and said to the doctor:
"Cure the impediment in my speech, please. I'm going into the army first. But as a minister later, I can't be haunted by the idea that I must avoid every word beginning with an s."

Speaking in the House of Commons about a new tank that the British had just developed, Mr. Churchill quipped:
"This tank, the A22, was ordered off the drawing board and large numbers went into production very quickly. As might be expected, it had many defects and teething troubles, and when these became apparent, the tank was appropriately christened, 'The Churchill'."

Question: Would you tell our readers, sir, what are the desirable qualifications for any young man who wishes to become a politician?
Mr. Churchill: It is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.

When MacDonald became Prime Minister, Churchill observed:
We know that he has, more than any other man, the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thought.

Replying to a political opponent in the House of Commons, a young Winston Churchill quipped:
If I valued the honorable gentleman's opinion, I might get angry.

During a particularly long session in the House of Commons, one of Mr. Churchill's opponents was delivering a long-winded speech. After about a half-hour, Churchill slumped into his seat and closed his eyes. The speaker noticed Mr. Churchill and said in a loud voice, "Must you fall asleep when I am speaking?" And without opening his eyes, Churchill replied: "No, it's purely voluntary."

Jan Christian Smuts, the former South African Premier, was honored at a dinner at the White House by President Truman in November, 1946. At the dinner Premier Smuts told this story about Winston Churchill:
During the Boer War, Churchill had come to South Africa as a newspaper Correspondent and made the mistake of being captured with a detachment of British soldiers and thrown into prison. Churchill was incensed at the failure of the Boers to discriminate between a journalist and a soldier and kept shouting that he was a reporter and therefore immune to capture. But Churchill was British and seemed to be with the British Army, so the Boers couldn't tell the difference. Churchill appealed to me in a few of his well-chosen words from prison camp.
I immediately set the machinery into motion for his release, but before I could accomplish this legally, Churchill had escaped from prison.
Long after, I met Churchill on some state occasion and recalled the incident.
"If you hadn't been so slow," Churchill told me, "it would have cost me nine thousand pounds."
"Nine thousand pounds?" I said.
"I wrote the story of my escape and sold it for that."

At the Yalta Conference in 1945, a very tired Franklin Delano Roosevelt suggested to Winston Churchill that the conference last five or six days at most.
To which Churchill replied: I do not see any way of realizing our hope about a world organization in five or six days. Even the Almighty took seven.

Asked for his reaction to New York City, a young Mr. Churchill is said to have responded with just seven words:
Newspaper too thick, lavatory paper too thin.

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