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Kingdom paid a heavy price, but out of a class of 150. Almost as soon During the early part of the First
the RAF survived. The outcome as he became a cavalry officer in the World War, Churchill was held to be
was that the Germans didn't win British Army, the young Winston in part responsible for two major mi-
the Battle of Britain and the British earned extra income as a journalist litary fiascos: the Dardanelles Expe-
didn't lose it. reporting on the military engage- dition and the Gallipoli Campaign.
ments in which he was involved: He resigned from the Government
Throughout this period, Churchill in 1895 in Cuba; in 1897 in India; in and from November 1915 to June
cultivated a strong personal image, 1899 on the River Nile. However, 1916 served as a commanding officer
travelling everywhere with his he then resigned from the army in of troops in the trenches of the West-
Homburg hat, walking stick, white- order to enter politics. His first at- ern Front. When his battalion was
spotted blue bow tie and Havana tempt to gain a seat in Parliament merged with another, he returned to

cigar, giving the "V" sign for victory. was a failure, so he set off for South his seat in Parliament. In July 1917,
One day he visited RAF Headquar- Africa to report on the Boer War the British Prime Minister David
ters and saw with his own eyes how for a London newspaper. Within a Lloyd George appointed him Minis-
a few hundred British pilots in their year he had won fame for his invol- ter of Munitions, in which capacity
Spitfires and Hurricanes were com- vement in rescuing an ambushed he participated in the manufacture
bating the Luftwaffe. On the way armoured train, being taken pri- of a major new weapon - the tank.
back to his residence in the car with soner by the Boers, escaping and After the Armistice of 1918, Chur-
his Chief of Staff, he made the le- returning to England a hero. He chill did his best to support the
gendary remark: "Never in the field was now successfully elected to White Russians against the Bolshe-
of human conflict has so much been Parliament and began his long viks in the aftermath of the Russian
owed by so many to so few." Time political career. Revolution.
magazine acclaimed him Man of the
Year for 1940. From his entry into the House of In 1921 he moved to the Colonial Of-
Commons, Churchill stood out as fice, with special responsibility for
Winston Churchill's father was a an outspoken orator. At first, he the Middle East. It was at this same
British aristocrat and his mother excelled at delivering set speeches; time that the Irish Free State be-
the daughter of a self-made Amen- it would only be much later that he came independent from the United
became a master of Kingdom and Churchill played a
off-the-cuff wit in the significant role in the peaceful sepa-
unprincipled rough ration of the two countries. During
and tumble of political the General Election of 1922, he was
debate. In 1906 he was crippled by an attack of appendicitis
appointed as a junior and lost his seat in Parliament. He
minister in the Libe- found himself: "without an office,
ral Government. Two without a seat, without a party and
years later he married without an appendix".
Clementine Hozier -
a marriage that would It was at times like this that
provide a stable foun- Churchill would console himself by
dation to his other- earning his living as an author. He
wise tumultuous life. wrote a popular six-volume history
of the First World War and with
It was in 1910 that he the proceeds purchased his country
was appointed to his house at Chartwell. He also took up
first major political landscape painting.
post as Home Secreta-
ry and in the following The 1920s was not a successful de-
year he became First cade for Churchill. Following the
Lord of the Admiralty. General Election of 1924, he spent
An arms race was in five years as a rather insipid Chan-
progress with Ger- cellor of the Exchequer pursuing
can businessman -- if it had been many and Churchill saw his task as economic policies that were almost
the other way round, he claimed, bringing the British Navy to a state as unproductive as they were unpop-
he would have become an Ameri- of instant readiness, while securing ular. He was also a keen opponent
can politician. His very pedestrian the fuel supplies for the warships. of communism. It was no surprise,
performance at school led his father Thus, when the First World War therefore, that in 1931 he should find
to enrol him at the age of 19 at the broke out in August 1914 the Royal himself once more exiled from the
Royal Military College at Sandhurst Navy was ready for action. government and distrusted by poli-
where Winston graduated eighth tical parties on the left and on the

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