Winston Churchill In Politics, 1900–1939
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This article documents the career of
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
in
Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
from its beginning in 1900 to the start of his term as
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister Advice (constitutional law), advises the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign on the exercise of much of the Royal prerogative ...
in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Churchill entered Parliament as member for Oldham in 1900 as a
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
. He changed parties in 1904 after increasing disagreement with the mainstream Conservative policy of protectionist tariffs preferentially favouring trade with the
British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
, joining the Liberals and winning the seat of Manchester North West. His political ascent was rapid; he became, successively,
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies The Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies was a junior Ministerial post in the United Kingdom government, subordinate to the Secretary of State for the Colonies and, from 1948, also to a Minister of State. Under-Secretaries of State for the Col ...
,
President of the Board of Trade The president of the Board of Trade is head of the Board of Trade. A committee of the His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, it was first established as a temporary committee of inquiry in the 17th centur ...
,
Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...
, and
First Lord of the Admiralty First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the title of the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible f ...
, all before he was 40 years old. His career suffered a severe check in 1915, after his support for the failed Dardanelles Campaign during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, and the subsequent formation of the first Coalition. Temporarily leaving politics, he served on the Western Front before rejoining the Government after
David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...
had replaced
H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928) was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last ...
as prime minister. He served as
Minister of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis o ...
,
Secretary of State for War The secretary of state for war, commonly called the war secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The secretary of state for war headed the War Offic ...
,
Secretary of State for Air The Secretary of State for Air was a secretary of state position in the British government that existed from 1919 to 1964. The person holding this position was in charge of the Air Ministry. The Secretary of State for Air was supported by ...
, and
Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's government minister, minister in charge of managing certain parts of the British Empire. The colonial secretary never had responsibility for t ...
before the downfall of the Coalition in 1922 when he also lost his seat in Parliament. After contesting two seats unsuccessfully as an independent, he was elected to Epping in 1924 with the backing of local Conservatives, officially rejoining the Conservative Party the following year. He immediately became
Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...
, retaining the post until the fall of the Conservative government in 1929, and presided over the return of the United Kingdom to the
Gold Standard A gold standard is a backed currency, monetary system in which the standard economics, economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the ...
exchange rate system. In opposition after 1929, Churchill became isolated, opposing Indian independence, advocating the unpopular policy of rearmament in the face of a resurgent Germany, and supporting King
Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January ...
in the
abdication crisis In early December 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was in the process of divorcing her second. T ...
. By 1939, he had been out of Cabinet for ten years, and his career seemed all but over.


Early years in Parliament


Entry into politics

Churchill discussed his political convictions in letters to his mother and made a number of unflattering comments about the Conservative government including: His beliefs were significantly influenced by those of his father, Lord Randolph, after whose early death he wrote: Randolph had been a fervent supporter of
Ulster Unionism Unionism in Ireland is a political tradition that professes loyalty to the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, crown of the United Kingdom and to the union it represents with England, Scotland and Wales. The overwhelming sentiment of Ireland's Pro ...
and had played a major part in formulating the policy of "Tory Democracy", though he had chosen a career in the army for Churchill. After a few years of army life Churchill came to realise that he could not hope to support himself on army pay, and writing remained his main source of income throughout his life. His military career would be valuable for giving him the fame needed to enter politics, however, as he wrote to his mother: His first political appearance was at a meeting of the Conservative
Primrose League The Primrose League was an organisation for spreading Conservative principles in Great Britain. It was founded in 1883. At a late point in its existence, its declared aims (published in the ''Primrose League Gazette'', vol. 83, no. 2, March/April ...
, in
Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...
in 1897, while at home on leave from the army in India. Having discovered that the Conservative Party needed speakers, as he later commented: "I surveyed the prospect with the eye of an urchin looking through a pastrycook's window". The speech concerned the benefits to the working man of "Tory Democracy" and was reported in the ''
Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning ...
''. His first attempt to enter Parliament was unsuccessful when in July 1899 he was defeated in a
by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...
for the seat of
Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...
in Lancashire. The constituency returned two members of parliament, both Conservatives at the previous election. One of them was ill and sought to retire, and Churchill was chosen as the new candidate. However, before the election the second member died so that two new candidates stood against two respected Liberal candidates, at a time when the popularity of the Conservative government was in decline. Churchill looked about for a way to improve his public standing after the defeat. He arranged to travel as a war correspondent to South Africa, fortified by a letter of recommendation to the high commissioner,
Alfred Milner Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, (23 March 1854 – 13 May 1925) was a British politician, statesman and colonial administrator who played a very important role in the formulation of British foreign and domestic policy between the mid-189 ...
, from the Colonial Secretary,
Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...
, who had been a friend of his father, and by a promise of a military attachment. His reputation was considerably improved by his war reports published in national newspapers, and by his own military exploits, particularly his capture by and escape from the Boers.


Member for Oldham

Churchill stood again for Oldham in the 1900 general election, known as the "
Khaki election In Westminster systems of government, a khaki election is any national election which is heavily influenced by wartime or postwar sentiment. In the British general election of 1900, the Conservative Party government of Lord Salisbury was return ...
" because the Conservative government greatly benefited from its success in the Boer war. This time he came second, pushing one of the Liberal candidates into third place, and was elected. In both of these elections, his campaign expenses were paid for by his cousin the 9th Duke of Marlborough. Originally an essay entitled "Churchill: The Aristocratic Adventurer" in ''Aspects of Aristocracy''. Penguin 1994. Churchill chose not to attend the opening of
Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
in December 1900 and instead embarked on a speaking tour throughout Britain and the United States. With the success of his tour and through his prolific writing in various journals and books, he earned £10,000 for himself in 1899 and 1900 (equivalent to around £500,000 in 2001). Members of Parliament were unpaid and Churchill had inherited almost no money; the income he did inherit from his father's estate, he assigned to his mother in 1903. He took his seat in Parliament in February 1901. In Parliament, Churchill became associated with a group of
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
dissidents led by Lord Hugh Cecil called the Hughligans, a play on words with "
hooligans Hooliganism is disruptive or unlawful behavior such as rioting, bullying and vandalism, often in connection with crowds at sporting events. A hooligan is a person that engages in illicit reckless behaviors and is a public nuisance. Etymology ...
". His first major speech in Parliament was an attack on the proposal of
Secretary of State for War The secretary of state for war, commonly called the war secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The secretary of state for war headed the War Offic ...
St John Broderick to expand the army to six corps, three of which would be free to form an expeditionary force overseas. Churchill had prepared his speech for over six weeks and spoke for an hour without notes. The speech showed his rhetorical powers and was compared by commentators at the time to that of his father's first success—also an attack on a cabinet minister of his own party., reprint of the 1970 edition by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London Churchill maintained the campaign in and out of Parliament for some time. In 1902, Churchill revealed some of his views in an interview at the
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only published six decades later. In the interview, he spoke candidly about his desire for "the ultimate partition of China", as "the Aryan stock is bound to triumph." He also expressed lack of concern for Russian expansion towards China and India, as "Russia has a justifiable ambition to possess a warm water port. It is really embarrassing to think that 100,000,000 people are without one"—an unusual view during the era of the
Great Game The Great Game was a rivalry between the 19th-century British Empire, British and Russian Empire, Russian empires over influence in Central Asia, primarily in Emirate of Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Qajar Iran, Persia, and Tibet. The two colonia ...
. By 1903, he was drawing away from Lord Hugh's views, although they remained friends – Lord Hugh was Churchill's best man in 1908. He also opposed the
Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...
leader
Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...
, whose party was in coalition with the Conservatives. Chamberlain proposed extensive tariffs intended to protect Britain's economic dominance. Churchill then and later supported free trade. In this he was supported by Lord Hugh and other Conservatives, including the then Chancellor of the Exchequer C. T. Ritchie. Chamberlain's
Tariff Reform Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...
movement gained strength splitting the Conservative-Unionist alliance. Churchill's attacks on the Conservatives continued on a number of topics, his dissatisfaction had many causes. His dissatisfaction grew, he made personal attacks on some of the leaders, including Chamberlain, and was reciprocated; Conservative backbenchers staged a walkout once while he was speaking. and many were personally hostile to him. His own constituency effectively deselected him, the Conservative Association passing a resolution that he "had forfeited their confidence in him." Oldham was an important cotton-spinning centre whose electorate favoured the Unionist policy of Protectionism, which advocated duties on cheap foreign textiles. He continued to sit for Oldham until the next general election.


Crossing the floor

Churchill's dissatisfaction continued to grow and, on 31 May 1904 as Parliament resumed following its
Whitsun Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian holy day of Pentecost. It falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and commemorates the descent of the H ...
recess, he
crossed the floor In some parliamentary systems (e.g., in Canada and the United Kingdom), politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a political party different from the one they were initially elected under. I ...
of the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
, defecting from the Conservatives to sit as a member of the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
. His cousin Ivor Guest followed him. Suggested reasons for Churchill's changing sides have included the prospect of a ministerial post and salary, a desire to eliminate poverty, and concerns for the working class, but the immediately preceding events were the rift with the Conservative Party over trade tariffs. He may simply have been more sympathetic to the Liberals, despite being personally conservative and traditionalist; in 1962 he reportedly told another MP "I'm a Liberal. ''Always have been''." As a Liberal, he continued to campaign for
free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold Economic liberalism, economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist politica ...
. Contemporaries noted that Churchill seemed very like his father, W. S. Blunt writing: :In mind and manner he is a strange replica of his father, with all his father's suddenness and awareness, and I should say, more than his father's ability. That resemblance went far; Churchill dressed like his father, and the Hughligans have been seen as the recreation of Lord Randolph's Fourth Party. From 1903 until 1905, Churchill was also engaged in writing ''
Lord Randolph Churchill Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill (13 February 1849 – 24 January 1895) was a British aristocrat and politician. Churchill was a Tory radical who coined the term "One-nation conservatism, Tory democracy". He participated in the creation ...
'', a two-volume biography of his father which was published in 1906 and received much critical acclaim. However, filial devotion caused him to soften some of his father's less attractive aspects.
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
, who had known Lord Randolph, reviewed the book as "a clever, tactful, and rather cheap and vulgar life of that clever, tactful, and rather cheap and vulgar egotist". Historians suggest Churchill used the book in part to vindicate his own career and in particular to justify crossing the floor. Churchill himself later wrote that studying his father's life was a major cause of his disenchantment with the Conservatives.


Growing prominence

When the Liberals took office, with
Henry Campbell-Bannerman Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman ( né Campbell; 7 September 183622 April 1908) was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1908. ...
as prime minister, in December 1905, Churchill became
Under-Secretary of State Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is a ...
for the Colonies. Serving under the
Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's government minister, minister in charge of managing certain parts of the British Empire. The colonial secretary never had responsibility for t ...
,
Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin Victor Alexander Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin, 13th Earl of Kincardine (16 May 184918 January 1917), known as Lord Bruce until 1863, was a right-wing British Liberal politician who served as Viceroy of India from 1894 to 1899. He was appointed by Pr ...
, Churchill dealt with the adoption of constitutions for the defeated Boer republics of the
Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name ''Transvaal''. * South African Republic (1856–1902; ...
and
Orange River Colony The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after Britain first occupied (1900) and then annexed (1902) the independent Orange Free State in the Second Boer War. The colony ceased to exist in 1910, when it was absorbed into the Unio ...
and with the issue of 'Chinese slavery' in South African mines. His first speech after taking office, in which he tried to defend
Lord Milner Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, (23 March 1854 – 13 May 1925) was a British statesman and colonial administrator who played a very important role in the formulation of British foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and ear ...
while opposing his policies was a failure. Churchill had prepared it in advance, he had rehearsed it before his private secretary. While the speech reads well, it was not suited to the mood of the House, and the Conservatives proclaimed that Churchill was finished. It was a failure of his technique of writing his speeches in advance. But he learned from his mistakes. His speech in which he vainly sought Conservative support for the Boer Constitutions was perhaps his strongest yet:
There is a higher authority which we should earnestly desire to obtain. I make no appeal, but I address myself particularly to the Hon. gentlemen opposite, who are long versed in public affairs, and who will not be able all their lives to escape from a heavy South African responsibility. They are the accepted guides of a Party which though a minority in this House, nevertheless embodies nearly half the nation. I will ask them seriously whether they will not pause before they commit themselves to violent or rash denunciation of this great arrangement...with all our majority we can only make it a gift of a Party, they can make it the gift of England.
In the
1906 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1906. Asia * 1906 Persian legislative election Europe * 1906 Belgian general election * 1906 Croatian parliamentary election * Denmark ** 1906 Danish Folketing election ** 1906 Danish Landsting e ...
, he won the seat of Manchester North West (carefully selected for him by the party). His electoral expenses were paid for by his uncle Lord Tweedmouth, a senior Liberal. Churchill had become one of the most prominent members of the Government outside the Cabinet. Indeed, Campbell-Bannerman had proposed his promotion to the Cabinet while Churchill was still Undersecretary, but the King vetoed his appointment. When Campbell-Bannerman was succeeded by
H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928) was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last ...
in 1908, he was promoted to the Cabinet as
President of the Board of Trade The president of the Board of Trade is head of the Board of Trade. A committee of the His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, it was first established as a temporary committee of inquiry in the 17th centur ...
. Under the law at the time, a newly appointed cabinet minister was obliged to seek re-election at a by-election. Churchill lost his Manchester seat to the Conservative
William Joynson-Hicks William Joynson-Hicks, 1st Viscount Brentford, (23 June 1865 – 8 June 1932), known as Sir William Joynson-Hicks, Bt, from 1919 to 1929 and popularly known as Jix, was an English solicitor and Conservative Party politician. He first att ...
. Almost one third of the seat were Jewish and many others were Roman Catholic. The Liberals' failure to repeal the Tories'
Aliens Act 1905 The Aliens Act 1905 (5 Edw. 7. c. 13) was an Act of Parliament (UK), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.Moving Here The act introduced immigration controls and registration fo ...
(which restricted Jewish immigration) and Churchill's slowness in committing to
Home Rule Home rule is the government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governan ...
, together with Churchill's concentration on national rather than local issues are given as the reason for his defeat. He was soon elected in another by-election at
Dundee constituency Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
. As President of the Board of Trade he supported
David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...
, the newly appointed
Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...
, in opposing the 1908–1909 naval estimates. The
First Lord of the Admiralty First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the title of the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible f ...
,
Reginald McKenna Reginald McKenna (6 July 1863 – 6 September 1943) was a British banker and Liberal politician. His first Cabinet post under Henry Campbell-Bannerman was as President of the Board of Education, after which he served as First Lord of the Admira ...
proposed six
dreadnoughts The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an effect when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", ...
. Lloyd George, with Churchill's support wanted only four. Eventually the government ordered eight. Churchill gave speeches on this issue, referring to his father's campaign for economy, and circulated open letters to his constituents (again following his father's practice). Also as President of the Board of Trade, Churchill took an active role in bringing about the radical social reforms which have become known as the
Liberal reforms The Liberal welfare reforms (1906–1914) were a series of acts of social legislation passed by the Liberal Party after the 1906 general election. They represent the Liberal Party's transition rejecting the old laissez faire policies and enacting ...
. The first of these, passed while Churchill was still Colonial Undersecretary, the
Trade Disputes Act 1906 The Trade Disputes Act 1906 (6 Edw. 7 c. 47) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed under the Liberal government of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. The Act declared that unions could not be sued for damages incurred during a ...
overturned the
Taff Vale Case ''Taff Vale Railway Co v Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants'' [1901UKHL 1 commonly known as the ''Taff Vale case'', is a formative case in UK labour law. It held that, at common law, Trade union, unions could be liable for loss of profits t ...
by providing that unions were not liable for damages caused by strike action. His direct achievements at the Board of Trade were considerable particularly in employment law. He was responsible for the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1908 (8 Edw. 7. c. 57), which provided for an 8-hour day in all mines; the Trade Boards Act 1909, which established the first minimum wage system in Britain, mandating rates for both time- and piece-work for 200,000 workers in several industries (Churchill was able to get Conservative support for this and the Bill "passed without a division.") and the
Labour Exchanges Act 1909 The Labour Exchanges Act 1909 ( 9 Edw. 7. c. 7) was an act of Parliament which saw the state-funded creation of labour exchanges, also known as employment exchanges. The stated purpose was to help the unemployed find employment. Prior to th ...
, setting up offices to help unemployed people find work. As Home Secretary he continued these reforms with the
National Insurance Act 1911 The National Insurance Act 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 55) created National Insurance, originally a system of health insurance for industrial workers in Great Britain based on contributions from employers, the government, and the workers themselves. ...
, providing sickness and unemployment benefits. As a Cabinet Minister he had three outstanding qualities: he worked hard, he carried his proposals through Cabinet and Parliament, and he carried his department with him. These qualities, the historian, parliamentary clerk, and politician
Robert Rhodes James Sir Robert Vidal Rhodes James (10 April 1933 – 20 May 1999) was a British historian and Conservative Member of Parliament. Born in India, he was educated in England and attended the University of Oxford. From 1955 to 1964, he was a clerk of ...
notes, are not as common as they should be. Churchill himself put his advancement to his submissions to Cabinet, not to his speeches. Churchill's most important indirect role in these reforms was his assistance in passing the
People's Budget The 1909/1910 People's Budget was a proposal of the Liberal government that introduced unprecedented taxes on the lands and incomes of Britain's wealthy to fund new social welfare programmes, such as non-contributary old age pensions under Ol ...
and the
Parliament Act 1911 The Parliament Act 1911 ( 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 13) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is constitutionally important and partly governs the relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two Houses of Parl ...
. The Budget included the introduction of new taxes on the wealthy to fund new social welfare programmes. Churchill biographer
William Manchester William Raymond Manchester (April 1, 1922 – June 1, 2004) was an American author, biographer, and historian. He was the author of 18 books which have been translated into over 20 languages. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the ...
called the People's Budget "a revolutionary concept" because it was the first budget in British history with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth to the British public. When the Budget was discussed in 1909 he did feel some ambiguity over it. But despite his doubts about its effectiveness, he launched himself into the fight for the budget and accepted the presidency of the
Budget League The Budget League was a British pressure group formed in 1909 by Winston Churchill to publicly campaign in favour of David Lloyd George's People's Budget in reaction to the activities of the Budget Protest League. The foundation of the League ha ...
, an organisation set up in response to the opposition's
Budget Protest League The Budget Protest League was a British pressure group formed in June 1909 and led by Walter Long to oppose David Lloyd George's "People's Budget" outside of Parliament. The League attacked the Budget's Finance (1909-10) Act 1910 as Socialist b ...
. After the budget was sent to the Commons in 1909 and passed, it went to the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
, where it was subsequently vetoed. The Liberals than fought and won two general elections in January and December 1910 to gain a mandate for their reforms. In these campaigns which resulted in the curbing of the Lords' veto by the Parliament Act, Churchill was again to the fore, adding humour in his speeches:
"All civilisation," said Lord Curzon quoting Renan, "is the work of aristocracies." They liked that in Oldham. There was not a duke, not an earl, not a marquis, not a viscount in Oldham who did not think that a compliment had been paid to him. "All civilisation is the work of aristocracies." It would be more true to say "The upkeep of aristocracies has been the hard work of all civilisations."
In 1909 Churchill published a collection of speeches with a foreword under the title ''Liberalism and the Social Problem''. In it he argued for maintaining much of the social order and for gradualism in reform. He wanted to make the existing society work better and more humanely so as to preserve it better. Churchill, it was said, wanted a society where the upper class remained in control, distributing benefits to a grateful and industrious working class. He was then compared with Lloyd George who was seen as Churchill's mentor and from whom Churchill learned much, but who, unlike Churchill, wanted to change some of the fundamental structures of society. Churchill was one of very few Liberals who pressed for the expansion of the House of Lords whether or not the Parliament Act was passed.


Home Secretary

In 1910, Churchill was promoted to
Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...
. His term was marked by three main controversies: a violent Rhondda coalminers' strike and industrial relations issues generally, his responses to the
Siege of Sidney Street The siege of Sidney Street of January 1911, also known as the Battle of Stepney, was a gunfight in the East End of London between a combined police and army force and two Latvian revolutionaries. The siege was the culmination of a series of ...
and the
suffragettes A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for women's suffrage, the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in part ...
agitation. In 1910, 30,000 Welsh coal miners in the
Rhondda Valley Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( ), is a former coal mining, coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley (, 'la ...
began a major strike. Violence against strike breakers threatened in an episode known as the
Tonypandy riots The Miners' Strike of 1910–11 was a violent attempt by coal miners to maintain wages and working conditions in parts of South Wales, where wages had been kept low by a cartel of mine owners. What became known as the Tonypandy riots of 1910 ...
. Initially, the chief constable of Glamorgan requested that troops be sent in to help police quell the rioting. Churchill, in collaboration with War minister Richard Haldane allowed them to go as far as
Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...
and
Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
and authorised
Nevil Macready General (United Kingdom), General Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, 1st Baronet, (7 May 1862 – 9 January 1946), known affectionately as Make-Ready (close to the correct pronunciation of his name), was a British Army officer. He served in ...
, the commanding general, to advance further if he should judge it necessary. Churchill, who had already forbidden the use of forces in another industrial dispute at
Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay * Newport (Vietnam), a United States Army and Army of t ...
, did not favour deployment of troops, fearing a repeat of the 1887 Bloody Sunday in
Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was established in the early-19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy, ...
. In particular, Churchill forbade the use of troops as strike breakers. There was no massacre—but one coal miner was killed. Churchill considered the military solution to have been effective, and increasingly made use of Army units in disturbances, but to his surprise they did not always show the same restraint and fairness as they had shown at Tonypandy. On 9 November, the ''
Times Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems. Time or times may also refer to: Temporal measurement * Time in physics, defined by its measurement * Time standard, civil time specificat ...
'' leader criticised this decision, saying that responsibility for the "renewed rioting late last night...will lie with the Home Secretary hurchill for countermanding the chief constable's request for troops. In spite of this, the rumour persisted that Churchill had ordered troops to attack. Britain's trade unions were outraged against Churchill and never looked at him with favor again. In early January 1911, Churchill arrived at the "Siege of Sidney Street" in London. He gave his own account of the incident in his book ''Thoughts and Adventures''. There is some uncertainty as to whether Churchill attempted to give operational commands. Biographer
Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician and writer who served as the sixth President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliamen ...
comments that the reason he went was because "he could not resist going to see the fun himself" and that he did not issue commands. A famous photograph from the time shows Churchill at the scene, peering around a corner to view the gun battle between cornered anarchists and
Scots Guards The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot guards#United Kingdom, Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642 in the Ki ...
. His role and presence attracted much criticism. The building under siege caught fire, and Churchill supported the decision to deny the
fire brigade A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and ...
access, forcing the criminals to choose surrender or death. After an inquest,
Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (; 25 July 184819 March 1930) was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As Foreign Secretary ...
remarked, "He hurchilland a photographer were both risking valuable lives. I understand what the photographer was doing but what was the Right Honourable gentleman doing?" The significance was that the whole highly publicised affair increased Churchill's already incipient reputation for being a frenetic and far-from-calm Home Secretary. While still at the Board of Trade in 1909, Churchill was accosted with a whip by suffragette
Theresa Garnett Theresa Garnett (17 May 1888 – 24 May 1966) was a British suffragette. She was a serial protester who sometimes went by the name 'Annie O'Sullivan', was jailed and then still refused to cooperate. She assaulted Winston Churchill while carryin ...
. Churchill's proposed solution was a referendum on the issue but this found no favour with Asquith and women's suffrage remained unresolved until after World War I.


Prison reformer

The British penal system underwent a transition from harsh punishment to reform, education, and training for post-prison livelihoods. The reforms were controversial and contested; they were championed by Winston Churchill as Home Secretary. He first achieved fame as a prisoner in the Boer war in 1899. He escaped after 28 days and the media, and his own book, made him a national hero overnight. He later wrote, "I certainly hated my captivity more than I have ever hated any other in my whole life....Looking back on those days I've always felt the keenest pity for prisoners and captives." As Home Secretary he was in charge of the nation's penal system. Biographer
Paul Addison Paul Addison, (3 May 1943 – 21 January 2020) was a British historian known for his research on the political history of Britain during the Second World War and the post-war period. Addison was part of the first generation of academic historia ...
says. "More than any other Home Secretary of the 20th century, Churchill was the prisoner's friend. He arrived at the Home Office with the firm conviction that the penal system was excessively harsh". He worked to reduce the number sent to prison in the first place, shorten their terms, and make life in prison more tolerable, and rehabilitation more likely. His reforms were not politically popular, but they had a major long-term impact on the British penal system.


First Lord of the Admiralty

In 1911, Churchill was transferred to the office of the
First Lord of the Admiralty First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the title of the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible f ...
, a post he held into World War I. This was the year of the
Agadir Crisis The Agadir Crisis, Agadir Incident, or Second Moroccan Crisis, was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of French troops in the interior of Morocco in July 1911 and the deployment of the German gunboat to Agadir, ...
, with which Churchill opens ''The World Crisis'', his account of World War One. His first major act was to replace all but one of the Sea Lords, the senior naval officers who administered the Admiralty. With the aid of the new First Sea Lord
Sir Francis Bridgeman Francis Bridgeman may refer to: * Francis Bridgeman (married 1673), son of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet, of Great Lever * Sir Francis Bridgeman, 3rd Baronet (1713–1740), British baronet *Francis Bridgeman (British Army officer) (1846–1917 ...
he created a war staff,''The World Crisis'' New Edition Odhams 1938 gave impetus to reform efforts, including development of
naval aviation Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of Military aviation, military air power by Navy, navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. It often involves ''navalised aircraft'', specifically designed for naval use. Seab ...
(he undertook flying lessons himself), the use of the 15" gun as the main armament of battleships, the development of the fast battleship (which found shape in the ''Queen Elizabeth'' class) and of the 6" gunned light cruiser (which found shape in the ''Arethusa'' class) concepts, and the switch from coal to oil in the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
, a massive engineering task, which depended on securing oil supplies in
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
. In 1912, in response to the German Naval Law of that year, Churchill brought forward Naval Estimates based on a principle of building two British battleships to every one German, which became known as 'two keels to one." Churchill was influenced in these reforms by the (then-retired) Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher, who had been for many years a driving force for innovation in the Royal Navy. The two men had become very close at Biarritz in April 1907. In 1909, Fisher had been
First Sea Lord First Sea Lord, officially known as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1SL/CNS), is the title of a statutory position in the British Armed Forces, held by an Admiral (Royal Navy), admiral or a General (United Kingdom), general of the ...
and on the opposite side to Churchill in the debates over the Naval Estimates. However this was a temporary tension, and the friendship persisted. Fisher remained in close touch with naval affairs after his retirement from the Admiralty in January 1910, and Churchill consulted him almost instantly upon taking up the office of First Lord.Mackay, Ruddock ''Fisher of Kilverstone'', Clarendon, Oxford, 1973 Many of the ideas Churchill took up, like oil propulsion and ever-bigger battleships with ever-bigger guns, were causes Fisher backed. In 1912 the Liberal Government, since the elections in 1910 dependent upon Irish National support, introduced what became the Home Rule Act 1914. The Unionists (the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists had united in 1911) bitterly opposed this, demanding that Ulster be excluded from the Home Rule Parliament. Privately Churchill sought a compromise. Publicly (and particularly after
Sir Edward Carson Edward Henry Carson, Baron Carson, PC, PC (Ire), KC (9 February 1854 – 22 October 1935), from 1900 to 1921 known as Sir Edward Carson, was an Irish unionist politician, barrister and judge, who was the Attorney General and Solicitor Gen ...
's
Ulster Covenant Ulster's Solemn League and Covenant, commonly known as the Ulster Covenant, was signed by nearly 500,000 people on and before 28 September 1912, in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill introduced by the British Government in the same year. ...
by which over half a million men pledged to oppose Home Rule by 'all means which shall be found necessary' and the formation of the
Ulster Volunteers The Ulster Volunteers was an Irish unionist, loyalist paramilitary organisation founded in 1912 to block domestic self-government ("Home Rule") for Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom. The Ulster Volunteers were based in the ...
), he campaigned for the Bill by speeches in Ulster and England and open letters. In a 1912 speech on the floor of the House of Commons, Winston spoke of Irish in favourable terms as an "ancient people, famous in history, influential all over the English speaking world, whose blood has been shed on our battlefields, whose martial qualities have adorned our ensign...". His support for the Home Rule Bill caused anger among the Unionists because Lord Randolph had been the champion of Ulster against Parnell's original Home Rule campaign. As the crisis deepened, with the Ulster Volunteers drilling openly, Churchill arranged for a Royal Naval battleship squadron to cruise off Belfast''The Gathering Storm'' Vol 1 without first raising the issue in Cabinet. Asquith cancelled the move two days later. The cancellation is not mentioned in ''The Gathering Storm''. It appeared to the Unionist leaders that Churchill and his friend War Secretary John Seely were seeking to provoke the Unionists into some outward act that would allow Ulster to be placed under some form of military rule. The attempts to move troops led to the
Curragh Incident The Curragh incident of 20 March 1914, sometimes known as the Curragh mutiny, occurred in the Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. The Curragh Camp was then the main base for the British Army in Ireland, which at the time still formed part of the ...
, Seely's resignation, a back down by the Government, and
negotiations Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more parties to resolve points of difference, gain an advantage for an individual or Collective bargaining, collective, or craft outcomes to satisfy various interests. The parties aspire to agree on m ...
brokered by King
George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...
. This incident revealed for the first time that Churchill was not prepared to negotiate under pressure, that while he would compromise behind the scenes and be magnanimous in victory, when confronted by a foe he stood his ground. This was an attitude he maintained through his career As he wrote in ''My Early Life'' p. 327
I have always urged fighting wars and other contentions with might and main till overwhelming victory and then extending the hand of friendship to the vanquished. Thus I have always been against the Pacifists during the quarrel and the Jingoist at its close...I thought we should have conquered the Irish then given them Home Rule...and that after smashing the General Strike we should have met the grievances of the miners.


World War I


The start of the war

On 31 July 1914, Churchill ordered the seizure of the two
Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...
battleships ( ''Reşadiye'' and ''Sultan Osman I'') then under construction in Britain. Although this decision was probably a wise one, the way the order was carried out was not. The ships were boarded without negotiations with Turkey or compensation, and the British placed guards on one of the battleships to prevent Turkish sailors from boarding. The order probably helped propel Turkey into alliance with Germany. (Two German warships arriving in Turkey, the ''Goeben'' and the ''Breslau'', were portrayed as replacements.) Churchill later defended himself referring to the negotiations that the Germans were starting with the
Young Turks The Young Turks (, also ''Genç Türkler'') formed as a constitutionalist broad opposition-movement in the late Ottoman Empire against the absolutist régime of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (). The most powerful organization of the movement, ...
. But Britain was also negotiating with Turkey at the same time and on 18 August Turkey declared neutrality.
Admiral Beatty Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, (17 January 1871 – 12 March 1936) was a Royal Navy officer. After serving in the Mahdist War and then the response to the Boxer Rebellion, he comm ...
wrote to his wife that Churchill should either give the Admiralty his full attention or leave it alone, but his "flying about and putting his finger to pies which do not concern him is bound to lead to disaster". Churchill believed that he had "special knowledge" and an ability to improvise solutions, but others saw it as megalomania.Charmley 1993, pp. 102–04


Antwerp

In September 1914, with the Allies advancing after their victory at the Marne,
Joffre Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre , (; 12 January 1852 – 3 January 1931) was a French general who served as Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front from the start of World War I until the end of 1916. He is best known for re ...
suggested that the British land a force at Dunkirk to threaten the German right flank; at Kitchener's suggestion Churchill took over the mixed force of marines and yeomanry.Rhodes James 1970, pp. 62–63 Churchill was soon making frequent trips to Dunkirk, where he had set up a
RNAS The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps ...
squadron and some units equipped with Rolls Royces which had been turned into ''ad hoc'' armoured cars. He arranged for 70 London buses to be used for extra mobility.Jenkins 2001, pp. 248–51 Churchill was on his way to Dunkirk on the night of 2 October when his train was halted and he was taken back to London for a meeting with Kitchener,
Sir Edward Grey Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933), better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who was the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the Fir ...
(Foreign Secretary),
Prince Louis of Battenberg Louis Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (24 May 185411 September 1921), formerly Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg, was a British naval officer and German prince related by marriage to the British royal family. Although ...
(
First Sea Lord First Sea Lord, officially known as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1SL/CNS), is the title of a statutory position in the British Armed Forces, held by an Admiral (Royal Navy), admiral or a General (United Kingdom), general of the ...
) and Sir William Tyrrell, Grey's secretary (Asquith was away making a recruiting speech in Cardiff). They warned that King Albert of the Belgians planned to evacuate
Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
. Churchill later claimed that it had been a collective decision that he should go to Antwerp but Sir Edward Grey later wrote, more plausibly in historian John Charmley's view, that it was very much Churchill's idea. Churchill arrived in Antwerp around 3pm on 3 October. He set up in the best hotel in Antwerp with Admiral
Oliver Oliver may refer to: Arts, entertainment and literature Books * ''Oliver the Western Engine'', volume 24 in ''The Railway Series'' by Rev. W. Awdry * ''Oliver Twist'', a novel by Charles Dickens Fictional characters * Ariadne Oliver ...
(Chief of Naval Intelligence) as his secretary, and spent the afternoon touring the defences under shellfire. He wore undress Trinity House uniform. Churchill soon came to an arrangement with the Belgians that they would hold out provided the British sent substantial reinforcements. He asked for the two naval brigades, "minus recruits". On 4 October Churchill offered to resign from the Cabinet and take personal command of the newly formed
Royal Naval Division The 63rd (Royal Naval) Division was a United Kingdom infantry division of the First World War. It was originally formed as the Royal Naval Division at the outbreak of the war, from Royal Navy and Royal Marine reservists and volunteers, who w ...
, which would incorporate the Marine and Naval Brigades. Kitchener wanted to commit an Anglo-French expeditionary force to secure Antwerp, and annotated the telegram to say that he was willing to appoint Churchill a temporary
lieutenant-general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...
, but Asquith thought it unwise and recorded that Churchill's suggestion was met with a "
Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
ic laugh" by the Cabinet. Instead Churchill was recalled to London. The
Royal Marine The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...
brigade arrived on 4 October. The 1st and 2nd Naval Brigades were then sent. They consisted largely of untrained reservists. General Rawlinson arrived on 7 October to take charge. Churchill returned to London on 7 October as something of a hero, but this changed when Antwerp fell on 10 October. Around 2500 of Churchill's largely untrained troops were killed, taken prisoner or interned in the neutral Netherlands. Churchill attracted ridicule. He was strongly criticised by ''
The Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning ...
'' ("a costly blunder for which Mr W. Churchill must be held responsible") while Admiral Beatty wrote to his wife that Churchill had been "a darned fool" and "mad". Asquith wrote to
Venetia Stanley Venetia Anastasia, Lady Digby ( Stanley; December 1600 – 1 May 1633) was a celebrated beauty of the Stuart period (England), Stuart period and the wife of a prominent courtier and scientist, Sir Kenelm Digby. She was a granddaughter of Tho ...
likening Churchill to a tiger which has "tasted blood" and who was hinting that he wanted other opportunities for a major field command, and that he preferred military glory to political success. By 13 October Asquith was writing of "the wicked folly of it all" and that Churchill had led "sheep to the shambles". He faced criticism for his poor judgment from his wife
Clementine A clementine (''Citrus × clementina'') is a tangor, a citrus fruit hybrid between a willowleaf mandarin orange ( ''C.'' × ''deliciosa'') and a sweet orange (''C. × sinensis''), named in honor of Clément Rodier, a French missionary who f ...
(he missed the birth of his daughter
Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch, prophet, and major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pious woma ...
), and in his later writing conceded that he might have done things differently. The Dunkirk force was also wound up after others, including Asquith, grew irritated about it. Modern historians tend to take a kinder view of Churchill's actions at Antwerp. He had asked for the brigades ''minus'' recruits, and it had been Kitchener who insisted on retaining territorials in the UK to defend the East Coast against possible German invasion. Only 57 men were actually killed. In ''
The World Crisis ''The World Crisis'' is Winston Churchill's account of the First World War, published in six volumes (technically five, as Volume III was published in two parts). Published between 1923 and 1931: in many respects it prefigures his better-kno ...
'' Churchill claimed he had prolonged Belgian surrender by a few days and occupied five German divisions. In fact it had been a week and enabled
Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...
and Dunkirk to be secured. Rhodes James believes that Antwerp was "substantially to Churchill’s credit". However, at the time he had thought that holding Antwerp would help the ''Allied'' advance north; the claim that it helped hold Calais and Dunkirk when the German advance resumed is hindsight. The more damaging attack, made inside and outside the Cabinet, was that Churchill was seeking publicity instead of running his department.


Replacement of Battenberg

Churchill was also unpopular within the Navy itself for the replacement of Sir
George Callaghan Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Astley Callaghan (21 December 1852 – 23 November 1920) was an officer in the Royal Navy. During the Boxer Rebellion he served as commander of a naval brigade sent ashore to form an element of a larger expeditio ...
by Sir
John Jellicoe Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, (5 December 1859 – 20 November 1935) was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland ...
as commander of the
Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from th ...
and for bowing to public pressure and dismissing
Prince Louis of Battenberg Louis Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (24 May 185411 September 1921), formerly Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg, was a British naval officer and German prince related by marriage to the British royal family. Although ...
as First Sea Lord, although he was one of the last members of the government to concede that Battenberg had to be replaced.


Early development of the tank

Churchill played an important role in Britain's development of the tank,The French developed tanks separately at roughly the same time. which he funded from the Navy budget without involving the War Office. In February 1915 he established the
Landship Committee The Landship Committee was a small British committee formed during the First World War to develop armoured fighting vehicles for use on the Western Front. The eventual outcome was the creation of what is now called the tank. Established in Febr ...
, which oversaw the design and construction of two prototypes, and during his period out of office he remained in close contact with the developers. By September 1916 the tank had been officially adopted by the Army and used in battle. On his appointment as
Minister of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis o ...
in July 1917, Churchill assumed responsibility for the further development and production of tanks, and encouraged joint projects with the US.


Dardanelles Campaign

In early 1915, Churchill campaigned for an amphibious assault on the Belgian coast in 1914, which was opposed by Lord Kitchener at the War Office and Sir John French commanding the British Expeditionary Force. Churchill then became one of the political and military engineers of the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign. In 1911, Churchill had written that "it is no longer possible to force the Dardanelles". Nonetheless, Churchill and others in the Admiralty, including Admiral Oliver, the Chief of the Naval Staff, were impressed by the German bombardment of Belgian fortresses in the
Battle of Liège The Battle of Liège (5–16 August 1914) was the opening engagement of the German invasion of Belgium and the first battle of the First World War. The city of Liège was protected by a ring of modern fortresses, one of several fortified cities ...
at the start of the war. As early as August 1914, he had ordered an appreciation of "a plan for the seizure of the Gallipoli peninsula, by a Greek army of adequate strength, with a view to admitting a British fleet to the Sea of Marmara." This was some three months before Turkey was at war and more than two years before Greece entered the war. Although later in August Greece did offer to attack Turkey, the offer was not accepted by Britain due to complaints from its ally Russia, and was withdrawn before Turkey entered the war in October.Hart, B. H. Liddell. ''History of the First World War'' Pan 1972 Churchill pressed the issue at successive meetings of the War Council in 1914. After an exchange of telegrams with Admiral Sackville Carden, the Commander in the Aegean, he tabled his plan for forcing the Straits by naval bombardment at a further meeting of the Council in January 1915. He had not sought the view of the Naval Staff, and those senior naval officers with whom he had discussed the plan were dubious or opposed to the scheme. The concept was flawed. The first attacks by the Navy in February 1915 were successful but were not pressed home (partly because of bad weather) and no troops were available to secure the gains made. Instead marines blew up the outer forts, which were reoccupied and rebuilt when the marines left. The War Council had discussed using the 29th Division (then in Britain) and the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was originally a First World War army corps of the British Empire under the command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the ...
(then in Egypt) but no decision had been made when the naval attacks began. At the time, Churchill claimed the navy could do the job alone and the troops would be needed—if at all—as an occupying force once the Straits were forced. Carden's attack was slowed because the inner forts were concealed from the ships and few aircraft were available for spotting purposes (the seaplane tender HMS ''Ark Royal'' which supported the fleet carried just five seaplanes of an older design lacking sufficient range). Carden asked to discontinue the attack until there were more available. Churchill refused, requiring the attack to continue, and Carden planned to continue but then collapsed from a rupturing ulcer. His second in command, Admiral
John de Robeck Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Michael de Robeck, 1st Baronet, (10 June 1862 – 20 January 1928) was an officer in the Royal Navy. In the early years of the 20th century he served as Admiral of Patrols, commanding four flotillas of destroyers. ...
took over and pressed a further attack on 18 March, but this failed when the trawler minesweepers crewed by Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves (i.e. civilian seamen) came under attack and then the battleships ran into a mine field (three were sunk). De Robeck did not repeat the attacks, later giving his reason as concerns over what would happen if his ships succeeded in clearing a way through the strait, but then became trapped in the Sea of Marmora without any troops to occupy captured territory. Churchill had anticipated the loss of ships: the battleships were mainly chosen because they were obsolete and unfit to face modern German ships, and he believed that the attack should have continued. Commodore
Roger Keyes Admiral of the Fleet Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes, (4 October 1872 – 26 December 1945) was a British naval officer. As a junior officer he served in a corvette operating from Zanzibar on slavery suppression missions. Earl ...
(Carden's chief of staff) believed that with destroyers fitted for minesweeping, and with naval personnel manning the trawlers, the mines could have been removed. These improvements were carried out, but never tried against the defences. It was also reported at the time that the defences were short of ammunition, and now seems likely that at least some of guns, particularly the largest, would have been forced to cease firing the following day. The landings by the ANZAC, the 29th and Royal Naval divisions, and a French division were delayed until 25 April because of lack of preparations, by which time the Turks had deployed six divisions and created barbed wire and trench defences on likely landing sites. The troops landed against heavy resistance, but never managed to advance far from the initial bridgeheads, nor to capture the forts on the European side of the Dardanelles. Churchill was widely blamed for the fiasco. Some historians have argued that he was right in saying that had the naval attacks been pressed the Turks, short of ammunition and low in morale would have had to abandon the forts and the Fleet could have occupied the Sea of Marmora and with it Constantinople. But it is even more likely that had the Fleet been properly equipped with spotter planes and destroyer minesweepers, the attack on 18 March would have been successful. It is almost certain that a Fleet so equipped and supported by the four divisions made available in April would have cleared the Strait with almost no loss. As the minister responsible, Churchill was the one who did not provide the resources needed.
Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...
, who served in the army at Gallipoli, described the campaign as "an immortal gamble that did not come off... Sir Winston had the one strategic idea in the war. He did not believe in throwing away masses of people to be massacred".


The Asquith Coalition, the Dardanelles Committee

The Liberal government was weakened by the failure of the naval attacks and the first landings in Gallipoli, by the failure of the offensive at
Neuve Chapelle Neuve-Chapelle () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France It was the site of a First World War battle in 1915 about northeast of Béthune and southwest of Lille. History In the Battle of Neuve Ch ...
, and by the
Shell Crisis The Shell Crisis of 1915 was a shortage of artillery shells on the front lines in the First World War that led to a political crisis in the United Kingdom. Previous military experience led to an over-reliance on shrapnel to attack infantry in th ...
. The Cabinet was bickering and some members plotted against others. Churchill himself aimed to replace
Sir Edward Grey Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933), better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who was the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the Fir ...
as Foreign Secretary with Balfour. The historian
Stephen Koss Stephen Edward Koss (25 May 1940 – 25 October 1984) was an American historian specialising in subjects relating to Britain. Koss received his BA, MA, and PhD from Columbia University, where he was a student of R.K. Webb. He began his academic ...
has argued that Churchill himself created the Shell Crisis. He states that during a visit to BEF Headquarters on 8 May he arranged with Colonel
Charles à Court Repington Charles à Court Repington, (29 January 1858 – 25 May 1925), known until 1903 as Charles à Court, was an English soldier, who went on to have a second career as an influential war correspondent during the First World War. He is also credited ...
, the Times correspondent there to publish the reports of the lack of shells. James discounts this argument. On 15 May Fisher resigned as First Sea Lord. He presented the Cabinet with a list of demands; if these were satisfied he would return to office. The first of these was that Churchill would be dismissed from Cabinet altogether. Fisher's demands were extreme, the King saying that Fisher should be hung from the yardarm, but his resignation precipitated a Cabinet crisis. Prime Minister Asquith formed an all-party coalition government. The Conservatives demanded Churchill's demotion as the price for entry. He had little support in Cabinet or in the Liberal Party as a whole. Many thought the same as Lloyd George: that Churchill's ambition had led him to override his professional advisers and his record was a succession of grisly failures. Others, including Mrs Asquith, blamed him for breaking the Cabinet and forcing the Coalition. However Sir
Max Aitken William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century ...
interceded unsuccessfully with his close friend the Conservative Leader
Bonar Law Andrew Bonar Law (; 16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) was a British statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923. Law was born in the British colony of New Brunswick (now a Canadi ...
and later wrote of Churchill:
His attitude from August 1914 was a noble one, too noble to be wise. He cared for the success of the British aims, especially insofar as they could be achieved by the Admiralty, and for nothing else. His passion for this aim was pure, self-devoted, and all-devouring. He failed to remember he was a politician.
Churchill was demoted to the
sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is a position with a salary or otherwise generating income that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, ...
of
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. Excluding the prime minister, the chancellor is the highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the prime minister ...
and became a member of the newly formed Dardanelles Committee. Churchill blamed Asquith for the demotion, but in fact Asquith and Lloyd George attempted to make Churchill Colonial Secretary. In June and again in July, with Kitchener's support he argued for increased forces to be sent to Gallipoli. This led to the despatch of the 2nd Australian Division and the
IX Corps 9 Corps, 9th Corps, Ninth Corps, or IX Corps may refer to: France * 9th Army Corps (France) * IX Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars Germany * IX Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German ...
to Gallipoli and to the landing at Suvla Bay. The attacks on Churchill redoubled when this landing failed. The Committee appointed General Sir Charles Monro as Commander. He advised evacuation. Churchill bitterly opposed this. The Committee despatched Kitchener to report. He too advised evacuation. Before this took place, the Dardanelles Committee was replaced by a War Committee on 11 November. Churchill was not appointed to this committee. On 15 November, Churchill resigned from his post, feeling his energies were not being used. During Churchill's time on the Dardanelles Committee he was the sole Liberal supporter of Lloyd George's campaign for conscription. This served to separate him further from the majority of the Liberal Party without healing his breach with the Conservatives, though many of them supported conscription. Upon resigning he rejoined the army, though remaining an MP, and served for several months on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the
Royal Scots Fusiliers The Royal Scots Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1678 until 1959 when it was amalgamated with the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Ma ...
, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. During this period, his second-in-command was a young
Archibald Sinclair Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso, (22 October 1890 – 15 June 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a British politician and leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Li ...
who later led the Liberal Party. Although Churchill did spend some time behind the front, visiting leaders such as Field Marshal Sir John French, Churchill led his battalion into the trenches on 27 January 1916. In March, Churchill returned to Britain after he had become restless in France and wished to speak again in the House of Commons.
Sir Edward Carson Edward Henry Carson, Baron Carson, PC, PC (Ire), KC (9 February 1854 – 22 October 1935), from 1900 to 1921 known as Sir Edward Carson, was an Irish unionist politician, barrister and judge, who was the Attorney General and Solicitor Gen ...
encouraged him to do so.


Return to power

When he returned to Parliament in summer 1916 Churchill sat on the opposition benches. The opposition at this time was largely dissatisfied Conservatives who were not in the Coalition and was headed by Carson. This changed in December 1916, when Asquith resigned as prime minister being replaced by Lloyd George. From then on the opposition was largely the Liberal supporters of Asquith. Churchill was a member of neither group.Taylor, A. J. P. ''Beaverbrook'' Hamish Hamilton 1972 He was mainly occupied in giving evidence before the Dardanelles Commission, though at Balfour's request he wrote a semi-official statement on the
Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland () was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, durin ...
. In July 1917, Churchill was appointed
Minister of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis o ...
. For some months Lloyd George had feared that Churchill might challenge his leadership, and after a masterly speech by Churchill in a secret session of the Commons on 10 May, Lloyd George approached him seeking his assistance. The Conservatives and ''The Times'' objected to Lloyd George's first proposal—that Churchill be appointed to head the Air Board. Lloyd George then asked Beaverbrook to obtain Bonar Law's agreement to Churchill's appointment (which Lloyd George had already determined upon) to the Ministry of Munitions. Bonar Law said correctly "Lloyd George's throne will shake." Churchill's own account mentions the important part
Freddie Guest Frederick Edward Guest, (14 June 1875 – 28 April 1937) was a British politician best known for being Chief Whip of Prime Minister David Lloyd George's Coalition Liberal Party, 1917–1921. He was also Secretary of State for Air between 1921 a ...
(then chief Coalition Liberal whip) played in this but does not disclose that Guest was Churchill's cousin. This episode, with its behind-the-scenes negotiations, shows how unpopular Churchill remained at this stage. As Minister, Churchill reorganised the department, arbitrated between the various services' demands for weapons, and repeated his advocacy for tanks, but most of his work was administering an already functioning department. He was a "competent, energetic, and efficient" minister.


Post-war coalition


War and Air Secretary

In January 1919, after the 1918 Coupon election, Churchill became
Secretary of State for War The secretary of state for war, commonly called the war secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The secretary of state for war headed the War Offic ...
and
Secretary of State for Air The Secretary of State for Air was a secretary of state position in the British government that existed from 1919 to 1964. The person holding this position was in charge of the Air Ministry. The Secretary of State for Air was supported by ...
. He was not a member of the War Cabinet, which continued until November 1919. Churchill had pressed for appointment as Minister of Defence, combining all three service departments and the Ministry of Munitions (now renamed the Ministry of Supply and with a seat in Cabinet). He was unsuccessful. His first challenge was demobilisation. He inherited a scheme whereby those men required most for industry would be demobilised first. In practice this meant that those who had served in the forces the shortest were being released from the forces first. Ex-servicemen rioted, at one time burning
Luton Town Hall Luton Town Hall is a building at the junction between Manchester Street, Upper George Street and George Street, Luton, England; the current building was completed in 1936 on the site of the older Town Hall, which was burnt down on 19 July 1919, ...
. Churchill scrapped the system, instead releasing those who had served longest first. The soldiers' unrest was but one domestic problem: there were strikes and riots in Glasgow, and a proposed national miners strike. Churchill suggested using four divisions of the Rhine Army as strikebreakers. He was the main architect of the
Ten Year Rule The Ten Year Rule was a British government guideline, first adopted in August 1919, that the armed forces should draft their estimates "on the assumption that the British Empire would not be engaged in any great war during the next ten years". The ...
, a principle that allowed the Treasury to dominate and control strategic, foreign, and financial policies under the assumption that "there would be no great European war for the next five or ten years". He substantially reduced the RAF—so that it would have four Home and eighteen Imperial squadrons, and he rejected proposals for government support of civil aviation.
Liddell Hart Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart (31 October 1895 – 29 January 1970), commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was a British soldier, military historian, and military theorist. He wrote a series of military his ...
commented: "He was anxious to make a fresh start in current political affairs, and the best chance lay in the post-war retrenchment of expenditure." A major preoccupation of his tenure in the
War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...
was the
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War The Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War consisted of a series of multi-national military expeditions that began in 1918. The initial impetus behind the interventions was to secure munitions and supply depots from falling into the German ...
. British forces were already in Russia, at
Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...
, in Siberia, and guarding the
Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
railway before Churchill took charge at the War Office. The Cabinet was divided, without a clear policy. While Lloyd George proposed negotiations between all the Russian groups, which led to US President
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
's abortive Prinkipo Plan, Red Army attacks on the British positions led the Cabinet to approve 'forward defence". Churchill was a staunch advocate of foreign intervention, declaring that
Bolshevism Bolshevism (derived from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined p ...
must be "strangled in its cradle". He secured, from a divided and loosely organised Cabinet, intensification and prolongation of the British involvement beyond the wishes of any major group in Parliament or the nation—and in the face of the bitter hostility of the Labour Party. On 14 January 1919 Churchill circulated a ''Most urgent and secret memorandum'' to all commanders of British forces asking whether their forces would serve overseas and particularly in Russia, whether they would serve as strikebreakers and the soldiers' attitude to trade unions. A copy was leaked to and published in the '' Daily Herald''. In February he attempted to get American and then general Allied support for protracted large-scale intervention. In April he pushed for an offensive, rather than a defensive role for the North Russia force. Claiming the scheme was that of General Ironside and that it was essential for a subsequent evacuation, he wanted the force to link up with Admiral
Aleksandr Kolchak List of Russian admirals, Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (; – 7 February 1920) was a Russian navy officer and Arctic exploration, polar explorer who led the White movement in the Russian Civil War. As he assumed the title of Supreme Ru ...
's forces to the east. In May after failing to get Cabinet approval to expand the British-Slavo Legion, he decided this was a purely War Office decision, expanded the Legion, and reported this to the Cabinet, which merely 'noted' the matter. In July, when Kolchak's force was retreating rapidly, he told the cabinet that a White defeat would allow the Bolsheviks to threaten Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. From then until the final evacuation, Churchill continued to argue for support for the White forces. In 1920, after the last British forces had been withdrawn, Churchill was instrumental in having arms sent to the Poles when they invaded
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
. Churchill's actions in supporting the White forces led to a break with Lloyd George which was never completely healed, criticism by the Press and further distrust from Labour. Churchill was responsible for establishing both the
Auxiliary Division The Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (ADRIC), generally known as the Auxiliaries or Auxies, was a paramilitary unit of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) during the Irish War of Independence. It was founded in July 1920 by Majo ...
and the
Black and Tans The Black and Tans () were constables recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) as reinforcements during the Irish War of Independence. Recruitment began in Great Britain in January 1920, and about 10,000 men enlisted during the conflic ...
during the
Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...
. He defended their activities, saying they enjoyed the same freedom as police in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
or
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
in dealing with armed gangs. He initially advocated the military defeat of the IRA and its supporters. By summer 1921, however, as the Colonial Secretary he was pressing for negotiations. His desired negotiating position was to offer a measure of Irish self-government from a position of strength: he "wished to couple a tremendous onslaught with the fairest offer." In 1920, as Secretary of State for War and Air, Churchill was responsible for quelling rebellions in British Somaliland and the uprising of Kurds and Arabs in British-occupied
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
. In each case the rebellions were crushed by co-ordinated air force and army operations. Churchill told the Commons that whereas an army campaign in Somalia would have cost £6,000,000 the air force expedition had cost £70,000. It had involved 6
Airco DH9 The Airco DH.9 (from Geoffrey de Havilland, de Havilland 9) – also known after 1920 as the de Havilland DH.9 – is a British single-engined biplane bomber that was developed and deployed during the World War I, First World War. The DH.9 was ...
bombers and a total of less than 250 aircrew.Wilson, A. N. ''After the Victorians'' Hutchinson 2005


Colonial Secretary

Churchill became
Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's government minister, minister in charge of managing certain parts of the British Empire. The colonial secretary never had responsibility for t ...
on 13 February 1921 (until 19 October 1922) and was a signatory of the
Anglo-Irish Treaty The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty (), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain an ...
of 1921, which established the
Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...
, having been involved in the lengthy negotiations of the treaty. To protect British maritime interests, he caused the agreement to include three
Treaty Ports Treaty ports (; ) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Qing dynasty of China (before th ...
(Queenstown (
Cobh Cobh ( ,), known from 1849 until 1920 as Queenstown, is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. With a population of 14,148 inhabitants at the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, Cobh is on the south si ...
),
Berehaven Castletownbere (), or Castletown Berehaven, is a port town in County Cork, Ireland. It is on the Beara Peninsula by Berehaven Harbour. A regionally important fishing port, the town also serves as a commercial and retail hub for the local hinterl ...
, and
Lough Swilly Lough Swilly () in Ireland is a glacial fjord or sea inlet lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal. Along with Carlingford Lough and Killary Harbour it is one of three glacial fjords ...
), which could be used as Atlantic bases by the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
. (The bases were ceded to Ireland in 1938, under the terms of the
Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement The Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement was signed on 25 April 1938 by Ireland and the United Kingdom. It aimed to resolve the Anglo-Irish Trade War which had been on-going from 1933. Scope The prime minister Neville Chamberlain summarised the 4 possibl ...
.) The
Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War (; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Emp ...
broke out after the signing of the Treaty, Churchill supported the government of the Free State with arms and ordered the British forces still in Ireland to assist the
Irish National Army The National Army, sometimes unofficially referred to as the Free State Army or the Regulars, was the army of the Irish Free State from January 1922 until October 1924. Its role in this period was defined by its service in the Irish Civil War, ...
against the Republican Army. Churchill's other main concern while Colonial Secretary was the Middle East. He wanted Egypt (then administered by the Foreign Office) to be brought under his department's control. He was faced with continuing riots and communal violence in those parts of the former Ottoman Empire that British forces occupied after World War I. Most of these riots were against the British occupation. Churchill did not want to give the complete independence that some of the Arabs had been promised. Rather, his aims were to reduce the British forces in the region and to ensure that British interests, particularly in the air route to India and the oil fields, were protected. The local population was a less important issue. After setting up a Middle Eastern Department within the Colonial Office, Churchill convened a conference in Cairo in March 1921, attended by
T. E. Lawrence Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British Army officer, archaeologist, diplomat and writer known for his role during the Arab Revolt and Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the First W ...
,
Gertrude Bell Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist. She spent much of her life exploring and mapping the Middle East, and became highly inf ...
, Sir
Hugh Trenchard Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, (3 February 1873 – 10 February 1956) was a British military officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the "Fat ...
, Sir
John Salmond Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Maitland Salmond, (17 July 1881 – 16 April 1968) was a British military officer who rose to high rank in the Royal Flying Corps and then the Royal Air Force. During the First World War he served as a sq ...
, and Sir
Percy Cox Major-general (United Kingdom), Major-General Sir Percy Zachariah Cox, (20 November 1864 – 20 February 1937) was a British Indian Army officer and Colonial Office administrator in the Middle East. He was one of the major figures in the creati ...
. No Arabs were invited to the conference. The method recommended by the Conference and chosen by Churchill, summarised by
Sir Henry Wilson Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 1st Baronet, (5 May 1864 – 22 June 1922) was one of the most senior British Army staff officers of the First World War and was briefly an Unionism in Ireland, Irish unio ...
as 'hot air, aeroplanes and Arabs', was the creation of the
Kingdom of Iraq The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq was the Iraqi state located in the Middle East from 1932 to 1958. It was founded on 23 August 1921 as the Kingdom of Iraq, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Mesopotamian campaign of the First World W ...
with Lawrence's friend
Faisal Faisal, Faisel, Fayçal or Faysal () is an Arabic given name. Faisal, Fayçal or Faysal may also refer to: People * King Faisal (disambiguation) ** Faisal I of Iraq and Syria (1885–1933), leader during the Arab Revolt ** Faisal II of Iraq (19 ...
as King, and the
Emirate of Transjordan The Emirate of Transjordan (), officially the Amirate of Trans-Jordan, was a British protectorate established on 11 April 1921,Abdullah Abdullah may refer to: * Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village * ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan * '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...
as Emir. The boundaries of the two countries were joined in what is sometimes known as Winston's Hiccup. This was intentionally designed to ensure that the air route to India passed over the areas controlled by or friendly to Britain. Churchill's creation of Iraq from three the Ottoman
Vilayets A vilayet (, "province"), also known by #Names, various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867, part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated b ...
of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul has been criticised as making an artificial state which inevitably would break down. He has also been criticised for advocating the use of
gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...
as a weapon against Arab and Kurdish 'insurgents'. His defenders say that what he intended was the use of generally non-lethal (tear) gas, but those gases were known to kill children and the ill. His policy was to control Iraq with the minimum expenses, so he refused to authorise projects such as a hospital in Iraq. With regard to
Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
, Churchill implemented a pro-
Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...
policy, with the goal of creating a Jewish Homeland at the expense of the indigenous
Palestinians Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...
. The in 1921, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), General
Walter Congreve General (United Kingdom), General Sir Walter Norris Congreve, (20 November 1862 – 28 February 1927), was a British Army officer in the Second Boer War and the First World War, and Governor of Malta from 1924 to 1927. He received the Victoria ...
issued a circular which stated that, while the
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
remained apolitical, it opposed the Zionist agenda, which it called "the grasping policy of the Zionist extremists," and noted that the Palestinians "hitherto appeared to the disinterested observer to have been the victims of an unjust policy forced upon them by the British Government." Churchill's response was to remove control of Palestine's defence from the military, placing it under the Colonial Office, and forming a "Palestine Gendarmerie", recruited from the notorious
Black and Tans The Black and Tans () were constables recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) as reinforcements during the Irish War of Independence. Recruitment began in Great Britain in January 1920, and about 10,000 men enlisted during the conflic ...
to police the territory.


Second crossing of the floor

In October 1922, Churchill underwent an operation to remove his
appendix Appendix (: appendices or appendixes) may refer to: __NOTOC__ In documents * Addendum, an addition made to a document by its author after its initial printing or publication * Bibliography, a systematic list of books and other works * Index (publis ...
. While he was still in hospital, Lloyd George resigned as prime minister with a general election to be held on 15 November. Churchill was not sufficiently well to travel to his constituency in Dundee until 11 November, causing him great difficulties campaigning. Once there he was still not sufficiently well to stand to address an audience, but had to address meetings where he was heckled and unable to finish speaking. Clementine travelled to the constituency earlier with other friends, but generally the campaign was poorly managed in Churchill's absence. The constituency had a significantly working-class composition, so that his principal opponents were a candidate for the steadily rising Labour Party,
E. D. Morel Edmund Dene Morel (born Georges Edmond Pierre Achille Morel Deville; 10 July 1873 – 12 November 1924) was a French-born British journalist, author, pacifist and politician. As a young official at the shipping company Elder Dempster, Morel ob ...
, and a local
prohibitionist Prohibitionism is a legal philosophy and political theory often used in lobbying which holds that citizens will abstain from actions if the actions are typed as unlawful (i.e. prohibited) and the prohibitions are enforced by law enforcement.C Canty ...
,
Edwin Scrymgeour Edwin Scrymgeour (28 July 1866 – 1 February 1947) was a British politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee in Scotland. He is the only person ever elected to the House of Commons on a prohibitionist ticket, as the ca ...
, who had stood unsuccessfully in the constituency many times, but steadily increasing his vote each time. The
Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
constituency returned two members, so Scrymgeour and Morel worked in partnership, each lending his factional support to the other. Churchill was partnered by another National Liberal, but they were opposed by an Asquithian Liberal candidate following the split in the party. The result was that Scrymgeour and Morel won, with Churchill relegated to fourth place behind his running mate. Churchill quipped later that he left Dundee "without an office, without a seat, without a party, and without an appendix". The result of the general election was the first non-coalition Conservative government since 1900. The Liberal Party never recovered the position in politics which it had once enjoyed. Churchill stood for the Liberals again in the 1923 general election, losing in
Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
, but over the next few months he moved towards the Conservative Party in all but name. His first electoral contest as an independent candidate, fought under the label of "Independent Anti-Socialist", was a narrow loss in a by-election in the Westminster Abbey constituency—his third electoral defeat in fewer than two years. However, he stood for election yet again several months later in the general election of 1924, again as an independent candidate, this time under the label of "Constitutionalist" although with Conservative backing, and was finally elected to represent Epping. The following year, he formally rejoined the Conservative Party, commenting wryly that "Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat."


Chancellor of the Exchequer

Churchill was appointed
Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...
in 1924 under
Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (3 August 186714 December 1947), was a British statesman and Conservative politician who was prominent in the political leadership of the United Kingdom between the world wars. He was prime ministe ...
during which Britain returned to the
gold standard A gold standard is a backed currency, monetary system in which the standard economics, economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the ...
, this resulted in deflation, unemployment, and was a catalyst to the miners' strike that led to the
General Strike of 1926 The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government ...
. His party's decision, announced in the 1924 budget, came after long discussions and further consultation with treasury officials, various economists, and the board of the
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...
. Churchill was very sceptical about the benefits of returning to the gold standard, and widely questioned the almost unanimous advice he was receiving that it was necessary. The governor of the Bank of England,
Montagu Norman Montagu Collet Norman, 1st Baron Norman DSO PC (6 September 1871 – 4 February 1950) was an English banker, best known for his role as the Governor of the Bank of England from 1920 to 1944. Norman led the bank during the toughest period in ...
, said that 'there was no alternative to a return to gold'. The permanent secretary to the treasury, Sir
Otto Niemeyer Sir Otto Ernst Niemeyer (23 November 1883 – 6 February 1971) was a British banker and civil servant. He served as a director of the Bank of England from 1938 to 1952 and a director of the Bank for International Settlements from 1931 to 1965. ...
said that not to do so would show Britain had never 'meant business' about the gold standard, and that 'our nerve had failed'. The parliamentary joint select committee on Currency and Banking under its chairman Lord Bradbury (former permanent secretary to the treasury) supported a return, as did the Labour shadow chancellor,
Snowden Snowden may refer to: People * Snowden (surname), a given name and a family name * Edward Snowden, former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 Fictional charac ...
. Churchill held a dinner at which the principal opponents of a return, economist
John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist and philosopher whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originall ...
and former chancellor and chairman of the Midland Bank
Reginald McKenna Reginald McKenna (6 July 1863 – 6 September 1943) was a British banker and Liberal politician. His first Cabinet post under Henry Campbell-Bannerman was as President of the Board of Education, after which he served as First Lord of the Admira ...
, were encouraged to argue out their case with Niemeyer and Bradbury. The dinner continued into the early hours of the morning but, in the end, Keynes's academic arguments proved unconvincing, and McKenna conceded that Churchill had little political choice except to return to gold. This decision later prompted Keynes to write ''The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill'', arguing that the return to the gold standard at the pre-war parity in 1925 (£1=$4.86) would lead to a world depression. The pamphlet did not criticise the decision to return to the gold standard ''per se''. The decision was generally popular and seen as 'sound economics' although it was opposed by
Lord Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century ...
and the Federation of British Industries. Churchill later regarded this as the greatest mistake of his life; in discussions with McKenna, he acknowledged that the return to the gold standard and the resulting 'dear money' policy was economically bad. In those discussions, he maintained the policy as fundamentally political – a return to the pre-war conditions in which he believed. Writing about the events in his biography of Churchill, Roy Jenkins argued that, although Churchill had challenged the proposal to return to the gold standard in the face of almost unanimous political and institutional demand, he had possibly been the only person who could have prevented the enactment of the return to the gold standard legislation at this late stage and its consequences, so ultimate responsibility remained with him for the decision. The return to the pre-war exchange rate and to the gold standard depressed industries, the most affected being coal mining. Already suffering from declining output as shipping switched to oil, and basic British industries like cotton came under more competition in export markets, the return to the pre-war exchange was estimated to add up to ten per cent in costs to the industry. In July 1925 a commission of inquiry reported generally favouring the miners', rather than the mine owners' position. Attached to the report was a memorandum from Sir Josiah Stamp stating that the increased difficulties in the coal industry could be entirely explained by the "immediate and necessary effects of the return to gold". Baldwin, with Churchill's support, proposed a subsidy to the industry while a royal commission prepared a further report. During the
General Strike of 1926 The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government ...
, Churchill edited the ''
British Gazette The ''British Gazette'' was a short-lived British state newspaper published by the government during the General Strike of 1926. One of the first groups of workers called out by the Trades Union Congress when the general strike began on 3 May ...
'', the government's anti-strike propaganda newspaper. After the strike ended, he acted as an intermediary between striking miners and their employers. He later called for the introduction of a legally binding
minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...
. When Churchill visited Rome in January 1927, he controversially claimed that the fascism of
Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his overthrow in 194 ...
had "rendered a service to the whole world", showing, as it had, "a way to combat subversive forces" – that is, he considered Mussolini's regime to be a bulwark against the perceived threat of
Communist revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, the term socialism can be used to indicate an intermediate stage between ...
. At one point, Churchill went as far as to call Mussolini the "Roman genius... the greatest lawgiver among men". It was not only the return to the gold standard that later economists, as well as those at the time, criticised in Churchill's time at the
treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...
. Rather it was his
budget A budget is a calculation plan, usually but not always financial plan, financial, for a defined accounting period, period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including tim ...
measures which, even given the consensus at the time that the budgets should be balanced, were attacked as assisting the generally prosperous rentier banking and salaried classes (to which Churchill and his associates generally belonged) at the expense of manufacturers and exporters which were known then to be suffering from imports and from competition in traditional export markets. However, his 1925 budget was well received by the public and enhanced Churchill's prestige. Churchill had served in two of the four
Great Offices of State The Great Offices of State are senior offices in the Government of the United Kingdom, UK government. They are the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom), For ...
and several other positions. No one had more experience in government, and he could expect another high office in the next Conservative ministry.


Political isolation

The Conservative government was defeated in the 1929 General Election. Churchill did not seek election to the Conservative Business Committee, the official leadership of the Conservative MPs. Over the next two years, Churchill became estranged from the Conservative leadership over the issues of protective tariffs and the
Indian Home Rule movement The Indian Home Rule movement was a movement in British India on the lines of the Irish Home Rule movement and other home rule movements. The movement lasted around two years between 1916–1918 and is believed to have set the stage for the In ...
, which he bitterly opposed. He further distanced himself from the party as a whole by his political views and by his friendships with press barons, financiers, and people whose characters were seen as dubious. When
Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...
formed the National Government in 1931, Churchill was not invited to join the Cabinet. He was at the low point in his career, in a period known as "the wilderness years". He spent much of the next few years concentrating on his writing, including '' Marlborough: His Life and Times''—a biography of his ancestor
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough General (United Kingdom), General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was a Briti ...
—and ''
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples ''A History of the English-Speaking Peoples'' is a four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies and possessions throughout the world, written by Winston Churchill, covering the period from Caesar's invasions of Britain (55 BC) to the e ...
'' (though the latter was not published until well after World War II). Churchill's depiction of Marlborough in '' Marlborough: His Life and Times'' had shown close parallels to his own stand against appeasement. Both were war leaders advocating firm policies, but surrounded by an attacking public and hostile politicians. In doing so they echo public comments at the time. The ''Daily Express'' referred to Churchill's speech in October 1938 against the Munich agreement as "an alarmist oration by a man whose mind is soaked in the conquests of Marlborough". Though badly hurt when he was struck by a car in New York City on a North American speaking tour, he wrote a profitable article about the experience. He wrote many other articles, collections of speeches, and several books—some such as his ''
Great Contemporaries ''Great Contemporaries'' is a collection of 25 short biographical essays about famous people, written by Winston Churchill. The original collection was published in 1937 and included 21 essays mainly written between 1928 and 1931. Four were a ...
'' of lasting worth. He supported himself largely by his writing and was one of the best paid writers of his time. Nevertheless, he was still in financial difficulties, having lost most of his American investments in the Wall Street crash. He was criticised for holidaying in the Riviera and America as the guest of such people as Beaverbrook and
William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...
, and for drinking and gambling with people such as
Brendan Bracken Brendan Rendall Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken (15 February 1901 – 8 August 1958), was an Irish-born businessman, politician and a Minister of Information and First Lord of the Admiralty in Winston Churchill's War Cabinet. He is best remembe ...
and, until his early death,
Lord Birkenhead Earl of Birkenhead was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1922 for the noted lawyer and Conservative politician F. E. Smith, 1st Viscount Birkenhead. He was Solicitor-General in 1915, Attorney-General from 1915 to 1 ...
. These attacks were not new; in 1923 Churchill had brought a successful libel action against
Lord Alfred Douglas Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. At Oxford University he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'', that carr ...
who had accused Churchill of giving a deliberately false account of the
Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland () was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, durin ...
at the request of Sir
Ernest Cassel Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel, (3 March 1852 – 21 September 1921) was a British merchant banker and businessman. Born and raised in Prussia, he moved to England at the age of 17. Life and career Cassel was born in Cologne, in the Rhine Provinc ...
. Douglas was sentenced to imprisonment for six months. His political views, set forth in his 1930 Romanes Election and published as ''Parliamentary Government and the Economic Problem'' (republished in 1932 in his collection of essays "Thoughts and Adventures") involved abandoning
universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...
, a return to a property franchise,
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...
for the major cities, and an economic 'sub-parliament'.


Indian independence

During the first half of the 1930s, outspoken opposition towards the granting of
Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...
status to India became one of Churchill's major political focuses. Churchill was one of the founders of the India Defence League, a group dedicated to the preservation of British power in India. In speeches and press articles in this period, he forecast widespread British unemployment and civil strife in India should independence be granted. The Viceroy,
Lord Irwin Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as the Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and the Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a British Conservative politician of the 1930s. He h ...
, who had been appointed by the prior Conservative Government, engaged in the First
Round Table Conference The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences, organized by the British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in India. These started in November 1930 and ended in De ...
in early 1931 and then announced the Government's policy that India should be granted Dominion status. In this the Government was supported by the Liberal Party and, officially at least, by the Conservative Party. Churchill denounced the Round Table Conference. He spoke at public meetings in
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
and
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
in January and February 1931, respectively. At both he forecast widespread unemployment into the millions and other social and economic problems in the United Kingdom if India became self-governing. Though he would come to respect
Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...
, especially after Gandhi "stood up for the untouchables", at a meeting of the West Essex Conservative Association specially convened so Churchill could explain his position he said, "It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle-Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well-known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace... to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor." He called the
Indian Congress The Indian Congress occurred from August 4 to October 31, 1898 in Omaha, Nebraska, in conjunction with the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition. Occurring within a decade of the end of the Indian Wars, the Indian Congress was the largest ...
leaders "Brahmins who mouth and patter principles of Western Liberalism." In Parliament on 26 January 1931, he attacked the Government's policy, saying that the Round Table Conference "was a frightful prospect" and that he would support "effective and real organisms of provisional and local government in the provinces."247 House of Commons Debates 5s col 755 He returned to the Parliamentary attack on 13 March. Baldwin answered him by quoting Churchill's own speech in winding up the debate for the Lloyd George Coalition government on the
Amritsar massacre The Jallianwala Bagh massacre (), also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919. A large crowd had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, British India, during the annual Baisakhi fair to protest against the ...
, in which Churchill defended the dismissal of General
Reginald Dyer Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, (9 October 186423 July 1927) was a British military officer in the Bengal Army and later the newly constituted British Indian Army. His military career began in the regular British Army, but he soon transf ...
. Baldwin continued by challenging Churchill and his other critics to depose him as leader of the Conservative Party. There were two incidents which damaged Churchill's reputation greatly within the Conservative Party in the period. Both were seen at the time as attacks on the Conservative leadership and as an attempt to undermine those Conservatives—and Baldwin in particular – who supported granting Dominion status to India. The first was his speech on the eve of the St George by-election in April 1931. In a secure Conservative seat, official Conservative candidate
Duff Cooper Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, (22 February 1890 – 1 January 1954), known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician and diplomat who was also a military and political historian and writer. First elected to Parl ...
was opposed by an independent Conservative. The independent was supported by
Lord Rothermere Viscount Rothermere, of Hemsted in the county of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for the press lord Harold Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth. He had already been created a baronet, of Horsey in ...
, Lord Beaverbrook, and their respective newspapers. Both
press baron A media proprietor, also called a media executive, media mogul, media tycoon, or press baron is an entrepreneur who controls any means of public or commercial mass media, through the personal ownership or holding of a dominant position within a ...
s had tried to urge specific policies on the Conservative Party: Rothermere opposed Indian home rule, and Beaverbrook pressed for
tariff reform Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...
under the slogan Empire Free Trade. Churchill's speech at the
Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genre ...
had been arranged before the date of the by-election had been set but he made no attempt to change the date and his speech was seen as a part of the press barons' campaign against Baldwin. This was reinforced by Churchill's personal friendship with both, but especially with Beaverbrook, who wrote "The primary issue of the by-election will be the leadership of the Conservative Party. If... (the independent candidate wins) Baldwin must go." Baldwin's position was strengthened when Duff Cooper won and when the civil disobedience campaign in India ceased with the
Gandhi–Irwin Pact The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was a political agreement signed by Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, on 5 March 1931 before the Second Round Table Conference in London. The Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, had announced in October 1929 ...
. The second issue also affected Churchill's reputation. On 16 April 1934 Churchill claimed in Parliament that Sir Samuel Hoare and
Lord Derby Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869), known as Lord Stanley from 1834 to 1851, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served three times as Prime Minister of the United K ...
had pressured the Manchester Chamber of Commerce to change evidence it had given to the Joint Select Committee considering the Government of India Bill in June 1933. On 18 April he successfully moved that the matter be referred to the House of Commons Privilege Committee. He tried to cross-examine witnesses before the committee, contrary to normal procedure. Churchill himself gave evidence and
Austen Chamberlain Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain (16 October 1863 – 16 March 1937) was a British statesman, son of Joseph Chamberlain and older half-brother of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of ...
criticised the manner in which he gave it. Churchill's evidence was little and the inquiry reported to the House that there had been no breach. The report was debated on 13 June. Churchill was unable to find a single supporter in the House and the debate ended without a division.
Leo Amery Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery (22 November 1873 – 16 September 1955), also known as L. S. Amery, was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician and journalist. During his career, he was known for his interest in ...
accused him of pressing the matter to bring the government down stating "at all costs he had to be faithful to his chosen motto: ;''Fiat justicia, ruat caelum''." Churchill responded "Translate it!" Amery then remarked "I will translate it into the vernacular: 'If I can trip up Sam oarethe government's bust'." Churchill permanently broke with
Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (3 August 186714 December 1947), was a British statesman and Conservative politician who was prominent in the political leadership of the United Kingdom between the world wars. He was prime ministe ...
over Indian independence and did not again hold any office while Baldwin was prime minister. In the index to ''The Gathering Storm'', Churchill's first volume of his history of World War II, he records Baldwin "admitting to putting party before country" for his alleged admission that he would not have won the 1935 election if he had pursued a more aggressive policy of rearmament. Churchill selectively quotes a speech in the Commons by Baldwin and gives the false impression that Baldwin is speaking of the general election when he was speaking of a by-election in 1933, and omits altogether Baldwin's actual comments about the 1935 election: "we got from the country, a mandate for doing a thing substantial rearmament programmethat no one, twelve months before, would have believed possible." This canard had been first put forward in the first edition of ''
Guilty Men ''Guilty Men'' is a British polemical book written under the pseudonym "Cato" that was published in July 1940, after the failure of British forces to prevent the defeat and occupation of Norway and France by Nazi Germany. It attacked fifteen publ ...
'' but in subsequent editions (including those before Churchill wrote ''The Gathering Storm'') had been corrected. Churchill continued his campaign against any further transfer of power to Indian natives. He continued to predict conflict in India and mass unemployment at home. His speeches often quoted 19th-century politicians and his own policy was to maintain the existing Raj. In pursuing this campaign Churchill cut himself off from the mainstream of Conservative politics as much as from the rest of the political world. Younger Conservatives such as Duff Cooper, who later described Churchill's campaign as ''the most unfortunate event that occurred between the two wars'', and
Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...
saw Churchill as a reactionary, someone who was completely out of touch and at base, undemocratic—leaning towards the totalitarian regimes. Churchill's public comments often seemed that way.
Elections, even in the most educated democracies are regarded as a misfortune and as a disturbance, of social, moral, and economic progress, even as a danger to international peace. Why at this moment should we force upon the untutored races of India that very system the inconveniences of which are now felt even in the most highly developed nations: the United States, Germany, France, and England herself
Some historians see his basic attitude to India as being set out in his book ''My Early Life'' (1930) and as being unchanged since his military service before he entered parliament. In so saying they note his references in his speeches on India to late Victorian politicians such as
John Morley John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, (24 December 1838 – 23 September 1923), was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor. Initially a journalist in the North of England and then editor of the newly Liberal-leani ...
. Historians also dispute his motives in maintaining his opposition. Some see him as trying to destabilise the National Government. In this they follow Amery (see above) and Lloyd George, who believed that with MacDonald ill and Churchill leading the Conservative right-wing, Baldwin would have to form a new Coalition in which both he and Churchill would have had key ministries. Some historians also draw a parallel between Churchill's attitudes to India and those towards the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
. For example, Manfred Weidhorn in the introduction to the American edition of ''India'' (a collection of Churchill's speeches on the topic) writes.
"... Machiavelli sheds light on Churchill. The Italian notes that virtues and vices are often symbiotic rather than antithetical. Thus people say, '
Hannibal Hannibal (; ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Punic people, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Ancient Carthage, Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's fat ...
was a great general—too bad he was cruel', when the likelihood is that Hannibal was great in part because he was cruel. So here we have to consider the probability that Churchill was great in 1940 in part because he was too pugnacious, stubborn, deluded, and conservative (in the deepest sense) to be able to adjust to the New Order in Europe—traits he had shown in the matter of India."


German rearmament

Churchill was wary of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
's potential danger as early as 1930. More than two years before Hitler took power in January 1933, Churchill warned at a dinner at the German Embassy that Hitler and his followers would start a war as soon as possible. Beginning in 1932, when he opposed those who advocated giving Germany the right to military parity with France, Churchill spoke often of the dangers of German rearmament. Later, particularly in ''The Gathering Storm'', he portrays himself as being for a time, a lone voice in Government calling on Britain to strengthen itself against Germany.,
Lord Lloyd Anthony John Leslie Lloyd, Baron Lloyd of Berwick, (9 May 1929 – 8 December 2024) was a British judge and a member of the House of Lords. Early life and education Lloyd was born on 9 May 1929, the son of Edward John Boydell Lloyd and Lesli ...
was the first to so agitate and he continued to lobby post 1930 for improvement to the Armed force and the Air Force in particular. Churchill also tried to portray himself as warning against German rearmament as early as 1930 and as opposing what he saw as British disarmament at and before that time. He omits the fact that as Chancellor of the Exchequer he had imposed the heavy defence cuts referred to above. In 1931 Churchill warned against the
League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
opposing Japan in
Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...
: "I hope we shall try in England to understand the position of Japan an ancient state.... On the one side they have the dark menace of Soviet Russia. On the other the chaos of China four or five provinces of which are being tortured under Communist rule". In contemporary newspaper articles he referred to the Spanish Republican government as a Communist front, and Franco's army as the "Anti red movement" and writing "revivified Fascist Spain in closest sympathy with Italy and Germany is one kind of disaster. A Communist Spain reaching its snaky tentacles through Portugal and France is another, and many will think the worse." He supported the Hoare-Laval Pact and continued up until 1937 to praise
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
. In his 1937 book ''Great Contemporaries'', Churchill expressed a hope that despite Hitler's apparent dictatorial tendencies, he would use his power to rebuild Germany into a worthy member of the world community writing
Although no subsequent political action can condone wrong deeds, history is replete with examples of men who have risen to power by employing stern, grim, and even frightful methods, but who, nevertheless when their life is revealed as a whole, have been regarded as great figures whose lives have enriched the story of mankind. So may it be with Hitler.
Churchill's first major speech on defence on 7 February 1934 stressed the need to rebuild the Royal Air Force and to create a Ministry of Defence; his second, on 13 July, urged a renewed role for the League of Nations. These three topics remained his themes until early 1936. In 1935 he was one of the founding members of " Focus in Defence of Freedom and Peace", a group which also included Sir Archibald Sinclair, Lady
Violet Bonham Carter Helen Violet Bonham Carter, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury, (15 April 1887 – 19 February 1969), known until her marriage as Violet Asquith, was a British politician and diarist. She was the daughter of H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister from 1908 ...
,
Wickham Steed Henry Wickham Steed (10 October 1871 – 13 January 1956) was an English journalist and historian. He was editor of ''The Times'' from 1919 to 1922. Early life Born in Long Melford, England, Steed was educated at Sudbury Grammar School ...
, and Professor
Gilbert Murray George Gilbert Aimé Murray (2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian-born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greec ...
. Focus brought together people of differing political backgrounds and occupations. It led to the formation of a much wider Arms and the Covenant Movement in 1936. When the Germany reoccupied the Rhineland in February 1936, Churchill was holidaying in Spain, and returned to a divided Britain. Labour opposition was adamant in opposing sanctions and the National Government was divided between advocates of economic sanctions and those who said that even these would lead to a humiliating backdown by Britain, as France would not support any intervention. Churchill's speech on 9 March was measured and praised by
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from ...
as constructive but within weeks Churchill was passed over for the post of
Minister for Co-ordination of Defence The Minister for Co-ordination of Defence was a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British Cabinet-level position established in 1936 to oversee and co-ordinate the rearmament of United Kingdom, Britain's defences. It was abolished in 1940. History T ...
in favour of the Attorney General, Sir
Thomas Inskip Thomas Walker Hobart Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote, (5 March 1876 – 11 October 1947) was a British Conservative politician who served in many legal posts, culminating in serving as Lord Chancellor from 1939 until 1940. Despite legal posts d ...
. This surprising appointment—it surprised Inskip as much as anyone, and
A. J. P. Taylor Alan John Percivale Taylor (25 March 1906 – 7 September 1990) was an English historian who specialised in 19th- and 20th-century European diplomacy. Both a journalist and a broadcaster, he became well known to millions through his telev ...
later wrote of "an appointment rightly described as the most extraordinary since
Caligula Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), also called Gaius and Caligula (), was Roman emperor from AD 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Ag ...
made his horse a consul"—came despite advice to Baldwin to broaden his cabinet. Historians have variously seen it as Baldwin's caution in not wanting to appoint someone as controversial as Churchill, as avoiding giving Germany any sign that the United Kingdom was preparing for war, and as avoiding someone who had few allies in the Conservative Party and was opposed as a war monger by some people in the United Kingdom. Whatever the reason, it was a severe blow to Churchill. In June 1936 Churchill organised a deputation of senior Conservatives who shared his concern to see Baldwin, Chamberlain, and Halifax. He had tried to include delegates from the other two parties, and later wrote "If the leaders of the Labour and Liberal oppositions had come with us there might have been a political situation so intense as to enforce remedial action." As it was the meeting achieved little, Baldwin arguing that the Government was doing all it could given the anti-war feeling of the electorate but it showed that more Conservatives shared Churchill's views—he was less isolated then he had been earlier.
John Gunther John Gunther (August 30, 1901 – May 29, 1970) was an Americans, American journalist and writer. His success came primarily by a series of popular sociopolitical works, known as the "Inside" books (1936–1972), including the best-sell ...
wrote that year that he "may still become prime minister ... Churchill's judgment is faulty, people say; he is too impetuous and 'unstable'; but most people agree that in a great upheaval he would emerge as Britain's national leader."


Abdication crisis

In June 1936,
Walter Monckton Walter Turner Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, (17 January 1891 – 9 January 1965) was a British lawyer and politician. Early years Monckton was born in the village of Plaxtol in north Kent. He was the eldest child of paper manu ...
told Churchill that the rumours that King
Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January ...
intended to marry Mrs
Wallis Simpson Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (born Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Spencer and then Simpson; June 19, 1896 – April 24, 1986) was an American socialite and the wife of Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (former King Edward VIII). Their intentio ...
were true. Churchill then advised against the marriage and said he regarded Mrs Simpson's existing marriage as a 'safeguard'. In November he declined
Lord Salisbury Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903), known as Lord Salisbury, was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United ...
's invitation to be part of a delegation of senior Conservative backbenchers which met with Baldwin to discuss the matter. On 25 November he,
Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...
, and Sinclair met with Baldwin and were told officially of the King's intention and asked whether they would form an administration if Baldwin and the National Government resigned should the King not take the Ministry's advice. Both Attlee and Sinclair said they would not take office if invited to do so. Churchill's reply was that his attitude was a little different but he would support the government. One reason why Churchill was invited to a meeting otherwise attended only by the leaders of the three political parties was that at the time of the Crisis Churchill was seen as an alternative leader. As Lord Beaverbrook wrote "he has emerged as a leader of a big armaments anti-German movement in politics, hostile to the Government". The abdication crisis became public in the first fortnight of December 1936. At this time Churchill publicly gave his support to the King. The first public meeting of the Arms and the Covenant Movement was on 3 December. Churchill was a major speaker and later wrote that in replying to the Vote of Thanks, he made a declaration 'on the spur of the moment' asking for delay before any decision was made by either the King or his Cabinet. Others including Citrine, who chaired the meeting, wrote that Churchill did not make such a speech. Later that night, Churchill saw the draft of the King's proposed wireless broadcast, and spoke with Beaverbrook and the King's solicitor about it. On 4 December, he met with the King and again urged delay in any decision about abdication. On 5 December, he issued a lengthy statement implying that the Ministry was applying unconstitutional pressure on the King to force him to make a hasty decision. On 7 December, he tried to address the Commons to plead for delay. He was shouted down. Seemingly staggered by the unanimous hostility of all Members, he left. Churchill's reputation in Parliament and the United Kingdom as a whole was badly damaged. Some such as
Alistair Cooke Alistair Cooke, Order of the British Empire, KBE (né Alfred Cooke; 20 November 1908 – 30 March 2004) was a British-American writer whose work as a journalist, television personality and radio broadcaster was done primarily in the Unite ...
saw him as trying to build a King's Party. Others like Harold Macmillan were dismayed by the damage Churchill's support for the King had done to the Arms and the Covenant Movement. Churchill himself later wrote "I was myself smitten in public opinion that it was the almost universal view that my political life was ended." One unresolved issue is the amount of Churchill's involvement with the King's address, the first draft of which the Cabinet refused to let the King air—it was rightly said to be the King seeking to appeal to the people against the Ministry. The King (by then Duke of Windsor) acknowledged Churchill's help in writing the speech, but some historians say that Churchill wrote it all. Historians are divided about Churchill's motives in his support for Edward VIII. Some, such as A. J. P. Taylor, see it as being an attempt to 'overthrow the government of feeble men'. Others, such as James, see Churchill's motives as entirely honourable and disinterested, indicating that he felt deeply for the King.


Return from exile

Churchill later sought to portray himself as an isolated voice warning of the need to rearm against Germany. While it is true that he had little following in the House of Commons during much of the 1930s, he was given considerable privileges by the government. The "Churchill group" in the latter half of the decade consisted only of him,
Duncan Sandys Duncan Edwin Duncan-Sandys, Baron Duncan-Sandys (; 24 January 1908 – 26 November 1987), was a British politician and minister in successive Conservative governments in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a son-in-law of Winston Churchill and played a ...
, and
Brendan Bracken Brendan Rendall Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken (15 February 1901 – 8 August 1958), was an Irish-born businessman, politician and a Minister of Information and First Lord of the Admiralty in Winston Churchill's War Cabinet. He is best remembe ...
. It was isolated from the other main factions within the Conservative Party pressing for faster rearmament and a stronger foreign policy. In some senses the 'exile' was more apparent then real. Churchill continued to be consulted on many matters by the government or seen as an alternative leader. Even while Churchill was campaigning against Indian independence, he received official and otherwise secret information. From 1932, Churchill's neighbour, Major Desmond Morton, with
Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...
's approval, gave Churchill information on German air power. From 1930 onwards Morton headed a department of the
Committee of Imperial Defence The Committee of Imperial Defence was an important ''ad hoc'' part of the Government of the United Kingdom and the British Empire from just after the Second Boer War until the start of the Second World War. It was responsible for research, and so ...
charged with researching the defence preparedness of other nations.
Lord Swinton Earl of Swinton is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1955 for the prominent Conservative politician Philip Cunliffe-Lister, 1st Viscount Swinton. He had already been created Viscount Swinton, of Masham in the Cou ...
, the Secretary of State for Air, with Baldwin's approval in 1934 gave Churchill access to official and otherwise secret information. Swinton did so, knowing Churchill would remain a critic of the government but believing that an informed critic was better than one relying on rumour and hearsay. When Chamberlain replaced Baldwin as prime minister in May 1937 he did not bring Churchill into the government; besides the appeasement issue, Chamberlain told Churchill supporter
Leslie Hore-Belisha Isaac Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha, PC (; 7 September 1893 – 16 February 1957) was a British Liberal, then National Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Minister. He later joined the Conservative Party. He proved h ...
that " I take him into the Cabinet he will dominate it. He won't give others the chance of even talking". Churchill was a fierce critic of
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from ...
's
appeasement Appeasement, in an International relations, international context, is a diplomacy, diplomatic negotiation policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power (international relations), power with intention t ...
of Hitler and in private letters to Lloyd George (13 August) and
Lord Moyne Walter Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, DSO & Bar, TD, PC (29 March 1880 – 6 November 1944), was a British Conservative politician, soldier and businessman. He served as the British minister of state in the Middle East until November 19 ...
(11 September) just before the
Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...
, he wrote that the government was faced with a choice between "war and shame" and that, having chosen shame, would later get war on less favourable terms.Langworth 2008, pp. 256–57 Churchill's reputation was probably at its lowest point in 1937–1938, but by 1939, after Germany had absorbed Austria and conquered Czechoslovakia, he was seen as having been proven right. When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Chamberlain appointed Churchill to the Cabinet as the
First Lord of the Admiralty First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the title of the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible f ...
; Gunther wrote that "the nation demanded" that he rejoin the government, and predicted that "the ineluctable force of events may eventually push Churchill into Chamberlain's seat".


Notes


References


Primary sources

Aitken, Max (Lord Beaverbrook). ''Politicians and the War'' Vol 1 1928, Vol 2 1932, Butterworth. (A single-volume edition was published in 1960.) Churchill, Winston. * ''The World Crisis'' (six volumes, 1923–1931), 1-vol edition (2005); on World War I (the references in this article are to the 4-volume 'new edition' Odhams 1938) * ''Great Contemporaries'' * ''
My Early Life ''My Early Life'', also known in the US as ''A Roving Commission: My Early Life'', is a 1930 book by Winston Churchill. It is an autobiography from his birth in 1874 to around 1902. The book closes with mention of his marriage in 1908, stating t ...
'' Speeches by Winston Churchill Churchill published several volumes of his speeches, usually with an introduction. Most are out of print though some have been reissued. The volumes relevant to this period are as follows: * ''Mr. Brodrick's Army'' (1903) * ''For Free Trade'' (1906) * ''Liberalism and the Social Problem'' (1910) * ''The People's Rights'' (1910) * ''India'' (1931) * ''Arms and the Covenant / While England Slept'' (1938) (introduction by Randolph S. Churchill) * James, Robert Rhodes, ed. ''Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897–1963''. 8 vols. London: Chelsea, 1974. 8,917 pp.


Secondary sources

The list below refers only to sources relevant to this period in Churchill's life. * Addison, Paul. ''Churchill on the home front, 1900–1955'' (Faber & Faber, 2013). * Cannadine, David. ''The Aristocratic Adventurer'', Penguin (2005). Originally an essay entitled "Churchill: The Aristocratic Adventurer" in ''Aspects of Aristocracy''. * Carter, Violet Bonham, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury. ''Winston Churchill as I knew him''. Eyre & Spottiswoode London (1965) * Catherwood, Christopher. ''Churchill's Folly: How Winston Churchill Created Iraq''. Carroll and Graf, US (2004) * * Churchill, Randolph. ''Winston S. Churchill: Young Statesman''. This is the second volume of the authorised biography which was continued by Martin Gilbert after Randolph Churchill's death. C & T Publications (1967) * Eade, Charles. ''Churchill by his Contemporaries''. Hutchinson (1953) * Gilbert, Sir Martin. ''Churchill''. Authorised biography, as above. The volumes relevant here are ''The Challenge of War 1914-16'', ''The Stricken World 1917-22'' and ''Prophet of Truth 1922–1939''. * * James, Sir Robert Rhodes. ''Churchill: a Study in Failure 1900–1939''. Pelican 1973. A sympathetic yet critical study. * Jenkins, Roy. ''Churchill: A Biography''. 2001 * Langworth, Richard, ed. ''Churchill in his own Words''. Ebury Press, 2008. * * * Pearson, John. ''Citadel of the Heart, Winston and the Churchill Dynasty''. Pan (1993) * Prior, Robin. ''Churchill's "World Crisis" as History'' Croom Helm (1983); * * Roberts, Andrew. ''Churchill: Walking with Destiny'' (2018) pp 77–465. * Rowland, P. ''Lloyd George''. Barrie & Jenkins (1975) * Taylor, A. J. P. ''Beaverbrook''. Hamish Hamilton (1972) * Toye, Richard, ed. ''Winston Churchill: Politics, Strategy and Statecraft'' (Bloomsbury, 2017).


External links


Churchill's maiden speech
from Hansard, 18 February 1901. {{DEFAULTSORT:Churchill, Winston, in politics Winston Churchill Political history of the United Kingdom 20th century in the United Kingdom Early lives of the prime ministers of the United Kingdom