Today is the 132nd anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest war leaders in the history of our people, the Right Honorable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill Knight of the Garter, Order of Merit, Companion of Honor, Fellow of the Royal Society, Privy Counselor, Privy Counselor for Canada, twice Prime Minister, Leader of the House of Commons, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the first ever Minister of Defense, twice First Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, Minister of Munitions, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Home Secretary, President of the Board of Trade, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Elder Brother of Trinity House, Chancellor of the University of Bristol, Father of the House of Commons, Nobel Laureate for Literature, first Honorary Citizen of the United States, etc.
He was born 30 November, 1874 at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, the home of his fathers, the first son of Lord Randolph Churchill and Jennie Jerome. He was a graduate of Harrow and the Royal Military College Sandhurst. He served in India with the 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars and fought on the Northwest Frontier. He charged with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, the last real cavalry charge of the British Army. He served with the South African Light House during the Second Boer War. He was elected to parliament for the first time in 1899 and sat almost without interruption through the reign of six monarchs. He joined the cabinet for the first time in 1908. During the First World War he served with the Royal Scots Fusiliers commanding the 6th battalion (territorial army) on the Western Front. He was a journalist, inventor (the patent for the tank), author, painter, soldier, statesman, and quite possibly the savior of western civilization. He was, in short, a very great man.
He died 24 January, 1965 and after a state funeral was laid to rest in the graveyard of St. Martin Church, Bladon a short drive from where he was born. May his memory endure as long as our people.
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4 comments:
He is not remembered in the best of minds in New Zealand, after all he was the course of ANZAC and the landings at Gallipoli that followed.
Yes, but Churchill wasn't responsible for that tragedy; and, as a gentleman and man of honour, he took responsibility anyway, quit his post, and went to fight in the trenches.
Of all the men who deserve to have something held against them, Churchill is not rightly one of them.
I have a lot of respect for Churchill for what he did.
But to say Churchill wasn't responsible for Gallipoli is a complete misinterpretation of history.
A lot of the completely arbitrary borders for the Middle East he drew during his time as colonial secretary are still giving us a lot of problems today, as well.
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