From that moment onwards, Churchill never doubted the victorious outcome of the Allied cause but – already three years before the hour of victory – he had become deeply anxious about what would be the shape of post-war Europe with the Soviet Red Army at its heart.

Despite his rejection by the British electorate in the hour of victory in the summer of 1945, he launched new campaigns at Fulton, Missouri (5 March 1946), to warn America and the world to the mortal danger posed to the nations of Europe by the Russian Army occupying central and eastern Europe in the guise of liberators, but in reality with the intent of enslaving; and also to crusade for the building of a United Europe out of the ashes and ruins of the Second World War as he proclaimed at Zurich (19 September 1946), when he boldly declared:

I am now going to say something that will astonish you. The first step in the recreation of the European family must be a partnership between France and Germany. In this way only can France recover the moral leadership of Europe. There can be no revival of Europe without a spiritually great France and a spiritually great Germany. The structure of the United States of Europe, if well and truly built, will be such as to make the material strength of a single state less important.

Amazingly, after six years as Leader of the Opposition, having rebuilt his political position and, through his labours as an author, rebuilt his financial fortunes, at the age of 76 he became Prime Minister for the second time. For four more years he laboured to try to secure a relaxation of tension between the heirs of Stalin and the Western Powers, in an attempt to avoid disaster in what became known as the ‘Cold War’.

I conclude this work with Winston Churchill’s speech, in which he accepted with pride the Honorary Citizenship conferred upon him by President John F. Kennedy and the Congress of the United States. My grandfather, already 88 years of age, and too frail to make the journey to Washington himself, asked his only son, Randolph, to deliver on his behalf what was to be his final speech. I accompanied my father on that memorable and proud occasion, as on 9 April 1963, President Kennedy, in a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House, proclaimed Winston Churchill an Honorary Citizen of the United States. Churchill’s message concluded:

In this century of storm and tragedy I contemplate with high satisfaction the constant factor of the interwoven and upward progress of our peoples. Our comradeship and our brotherhood in war were unexampled. We stood together, and because of that fact the free world now stands.

Winston S. Churchill

30 November 2002

Chapter 1

Young Statesman 1899–1915

When his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, died in 1895 at the early age of 46, Winston determined to quit the Army at the earliest opportunity in favour of a career in politics. He burned to vindicate the memory of his father, whom he hero-worshipped, despite the fact that he had treated him with so much coldness and disdain. Churchill’s capture by the Boers in South Africa in November 1899, during the Anglo-Boer War, and his dramatic escape from captivity, catapulted him into the headlines and provided him with the basis, impecunious as he was, to launch his career in politics. Thus in October 1900, at the age of 25, he was elected Member of Parliament for Oldham in Lancashire and – with one brief interruption – was to serve in Parliament, under six sovereigns, until October 1964.

It was not long before Churchill found himself out of sympathy with the Conservative Party, most especially on the issue of Protection, to which he was strongly opposed and, in May 1904, he ‘crossed the floor’ to join the Opposition Liberals. Fortuitously the move was well timed: within two years the Conservatives had gone down to a landslide defeat and, soon afterwards, he was offered ministerial office as Under-Secretary for the Colonies in the Liberal Government of Herbert Asquith. Thereafter he enjoyed a meteoric rise to the front ranks of politics, becoming in quick succession President of the Board of Trade in 1908, Home Secretary in 1910 and First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911, where it fell to him to prepare the British fleet for war with Germany.

‘FIRST POLITICAL SPEECH: ‘THE DRIED UP DRAIN-PIPE OF RADICALISM’

26 July 1897

Claverton Down, Bath

Twenty-two years old and still a serving officer, on leave from his regiment in India, the young Winston addressed his first public meeting, a summer fête of the Primrose League (founded in memory of Benjamin Disraeli), at the house which is today the American Museum in Britain, His speech – well prepared, rehearsed and memorised – already demonstrates his keen social conscience about the harsh conditions of life, and work, of the great mass of the people, which was to be a foremost feature of his early career. In My Early Life he sets the scene:

We repaired to our tent, and mounted the platform, which consisted of about four boards laid across some small barrels. There was neither table, nor chair; but as soon as about a hundred persons had rather reluctantly, as I thought, quitted their childish amusements in the park, the Chairman rose and in a brief speech introduced me to the audience.

Though Parliament is dull, it is by no means idle. (Hear, hear.) A measure is before them of the greatest importance to the working men of this country, (Cheers.) I venture to hope that, if you think it presumptuous in one so young to speak on such a subject, you will put it down to the headstrong enthusiasm of youth. (Hear, hear and laughter.) This measure is designed to protect workingmen in dangerous trades from poverty if they become injured in the service of their employers. (Hear, hear.) When the Radicals brought in their Bill and failed, they called it an Employers’ Liability Bill. Observe how much better the Tories do these things. (Hear, hear.) We call the Bill the Workmen’s Compensation Bill, and that is a much nicer name. (Laughter and hear, hear.) This Bill is a great measure of reform. It grapples with evils that are so great that only those who are intimately connected with them are able to form any idea of them. (Cheers.) Every year it is calculated that 6,000 people are killed and 250,000 injured in trades in this country. That is a terrible total, larger than the greatest battle ever fought can show, (Hear, hear.) I do not say that workmen have not been treated well in the past by the kindness and consideration of their employers, but this measure removes the question from the shifting sands of charity and places it on the firm bedrock of law. (Cheers.) So far it is only applied to dangerous trades.