Winston Churchill was the towering British statesman who led his nation to victory in the Second World War and is remembered as one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century. Born at Blenheim Palace into the aristocratic Marlborough family, he served as a soldier and war correspondent in his youth before entering Parliament in 1900, beginning a political career that would span more than half a century.
Over the following decades Churchill held many of the great offices of state, restless, brilliant, and often controversial. He championed bold causes and suffered conspicuous failures, including the disastrous Gallipoli campaign of the First World War, and through much of the 1930s he was out of office, a lonely voice warning of the rising danger of Nazi Germany.
His hour came in 1940. Appointed prime minister as Britain stood almost alone against Hitler, Churchill rallied his people with defiant, magnificent oratory — promising "blood, toil, tears and sweat" and vowing to fight on the beaches and never surrender. His leadership and partnership with the United States and the Soviet Union helped steer the Allies to victory in 1945.
Defeated in the election that came at the war's end, he returned as prime minister in the 1950s and remained a revered elder statesman, coining the phrase "Iron Curtain" to describe the Cold War division of Europe. A gifted historian and writer, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 1965 and was honored with a state funeral.