Winston Churchill

 

The "British Bulldog" was Winston Churchill's nickname. Churchill resembled a bulldog with his jowly face and stocky frame, but he was also known for refusing to give up the battle against the Nazis. He was known as the "British Bulldog" by the Soviets.

Winston Churchill was a British leader who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, and again from 1951 to 1955, during World War II. Churchill was a Sandhurst-educated soldier, a Nobel Prize-winning writer and historian, a prolific painter, and one of the longest-serving politicians in British history. He was best known for his wartime leadership as Prime Minister, but he was also a Sandhurst-educated soldier, a Nobel Prize-winning writer and historian, a prolific painter, and one of the longest-serving politicians in British history. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964, save for two years between 1922 and 1924, when he represented five seats. He was a member of the Conservative Party for the majority of his career, however he was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924. He was an economic liberal and imperialist.

Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to a rich, aristocratic family of mixed English and American ancestry. In 1895, he enlisted in the British Army and served in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, garnering notoriety as a war journalist and author of books on his experiences. In 1900, he was elected as a Conservative MP, but in 1904, he switched to the Liberals.

During his "wilderness years" in the 1930s, while he was out of office, Churchill spearheaded the charge for British rearmament to fight the increasing menace of militarism in Nazi Germany. He was re-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty at the onset of World War II. He succeeded Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister in May 1940.

Churchill, widely regarded as one of the most important people of the twentieth century, remains popular in the United Kingdom and the Western world, where he is viewed as a victorious wartime commander who played a key part in protecting Europe's liberal democracy against the development of fascism. He's also known for being a social reformer. He has, however, been chastised for various wartime events, most notably the aerial bombing of German towns and his government's reaction to the Bengal famine, as well as his imperialist ideas, including racial remarks.