Winston Churchill – A Man Of Determination
HEROES | November 29, 2019
Winston Churchill and Bernard Baruch. Source: (Wikimedia)
Winston Churchill was a man of many talents. He was a man of witty sayings, of which we hear a lot of; but, more than that, he was an accomplished author as well as a painter, soldier, politician, war leader, and family man.
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born in November of 1874 in Oxfordshire at the Blenheim Palace, which was his grandfather’s place. His grandfather was the seventh Duke of Marlborough. His father, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill was a Conservative politician. His mother, Jennie Jerome, was born in America. Her father was a New York Stockbroker as well as the owner of a newspaper.
Winston and his younger brother, Jack, were brought up by their nanny and later sent off to boarding schools as was customary by the elite aristocracy. Winston became quite fond of his nanny so when he was 21, he was very distraught when she passed away.
Winston was strong-willed and rebellious during his youth. He did not like school – in fact, he stated in his own words that he hated school. It is quite surprising that he became such a great author and speaker. He eventually went to a military college because he was not qualified enough academically to go to a university.
There were many disappointments during his youth when his parents were busy traveling around – too busy to visit him or have him come home to be with them. He had to communicate with them a lot through letter writing. He did enjoy holidays though that he was able to spend with his grandparents at Blenheim Palace.
One of the houses that Winston and his family had moved to when he was eight years old was 2 Connaught Place in London. It was one of the first homes to have electric lights. About 40 years prior to that though, it was used as a place to execute criminals. How horrible when they found a massive grave in the cellars while renovating the place!
Winston became a cavalry officer in the Queen’s army but not before his father passed away at age 45. He did not get to prove to his father that he could be successful. His parents always had little hope of him accomplishing much because of his poor grades in school. Two subjects he was good at though were History and English. It was Winston’s goal after his father passed away to become a politician like his father. In order to make this happen, he signed up for as many dangerous places as he could and then wrote about them as he was a war correspondent as well. He would draw as much attention to himself as he could.
He succeeded in being elected to Parliament in 1900 at the age of 25.
In September of 1908, he married Clementine who he had proposed to at Blenheim Palace. Together they had five children although one of them died as an infant. His favorite place to be was at his home in Chartwell with his family and animals. He loved animals. They had dogs, cats, fish, swans, sheep, and pigs. Even though he had to spend a lot of time apart from his family, he made certain to make up for it when he was home. He and Clementine had a long marriage and his children loved and appreciated him. They also had ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Days after having a stroke, Winston Churchill passed away in January of 1965 at the age of 90. It was 70 years to the day after his father passed away. He was buried next to his parents. At his funeral, thousands of people were in attendance.
It was his dream for there to be world peace but that, of course, has not happened – at least not yet.
