Thursday, September 30, 2010

Awesome Dude Of The Week Vol 2, Winston Churchill

Ah where to begin? This won't be a full summary considering Winston Churchill had a very full interesting life. Their is even and 8 Volume biography written about his life.

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born in 1874 on November 30th at Benheim Palace in Oxfordshire. His father. "Lord Randolf Churchill" was a politician and his mother Janie Jerome was born American (Fuck yeah). Winston attended Royal Millitary Academy, Sandhurst Before he joined the army. During his time as a journalist during the Boer War he was made a Prisoner of War and eventually escaped. In 1900 he became a Conservative member of parliament but soon grew to dislike it and in 1904 joined the Liberal Party. When the Liberals won the 1905 election Churchill was made Undersecretary at the Colonial Office and in just 3 years he entered the cabinet as president of the board of trade. and in 1911 he became the "First Lord of Admiralty". He resigned after the Dardanelles expedition. He joined the millitary once more and served for a short time until 1917 when he became the "Minister of Munitions" . from 1919 to 1921 he was the secretary for war and air and from 1924 to 1929 he was the chancellor of "exchequer" (no idea what that is). Also during that time he left the Liberal party and became and independent and then became a member of the Conservative party again. Throughout the 1930's he made various speeches with subjects ranging from foreign intervention to Adolf Hitler (you'll probably be seeing him a later Volume). Churchill was no particularly fond of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler and during a speech to the House of Commons said "you were given a choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war." On September 3 1939 Churchill was made "First Lord of Admiralty" and a member of the war cabinet. Churchill in 1940 Churchill was made "Prime Minister". Churchill had known for many years the growing threat of Hitler although no one had listened to him. Churchill created and occupied the "Minister of Defence" to aid in the war effort. During one of Churchill's famous speeches he said. "we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender." Churchill held good friendships with both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman and through these friendships their countries had good friendships as well. When Hitler invaded The Soviet Union Churchill said the famous words. "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favorable mention to the devil in the House of Commons." In October 1944 he met with the Russian Leaders in Yalta. To discuss the war. Churchill was Critisized for the "Dresdin Bombings" despite his statements implying otherwise. At the end of WW2 Churchill was worried that the Soviets wouldn't go along with the agreements made in Europe. In 1946 during a trip to the United States he lost a good sum of money in a poker game with Truman. It was during this trip that he also made a speech about the USSR. In 1951 Churchill again became "Prime Minister" until he resigned in 1955. From 1949 to 1956 he suffered a series of strokes indicating his deteriorating health. Throughout the late 1950's and early 1960's he tried to lead as much of an active life as he could. In 1963 President John F Kennedy made him an honorary citizen of the United States. On Saint Georges Day he congratulated the survivors of the "Zeebrugge Raid". On January 15 1965 Churchill suffered a severe stroke which left him Gravely ill and died 9 days later at the age of 90 on Sunday January 24th 1965.


If there were ever a man to be in my "Awesome Dude of The Week" series it would be Winston Churchill. the man even has a cigar size named after him. he lead the Brits through WW2 and lived to be 90. Fuck yeah!




Various websites were used in compiling this information. I'm afraid I won't be able to list them all but I could not find any website that had a full history of him. the Wikipedia page has some good info and of course there is that 8 Volume biography on him. Stay tuned next week for my next "Awesome Dude of The Week"

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