The Churchill Series – Nov. 14, 2006

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Lord Randolph Churchill died on January 20, 1895 convinced that his son Winston would be a failure and bring no honor to the family name.

Four weeks later, on February 20, 1895 Winston began his life of service to his country. As his biographer, Martin Gilbert, tells it:

”Churchill entered the cavalry. … His commission was made out, according to custom, from Queen Victoria to ‘Our Trusty and well beloved Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, Gentleman,’ and was signed by the Secretary of State for War, Campbell-Bannerman, who less than eleven years later was to give Churchill his first Ministerial office, as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies.

During the next half-century, Churchill would serve four Kings - Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII and George VI - and another Queen - Elizabeth II - in a number of Ministerial offices.

Churchill’s last day of Ministerial service was April 5, 1955, on which day he resigned as the Queen’s Prime Minister.

In his later years, Churchill often expressed regret that his father, whom he loved and admired, had not lived long enough to see the course his life was taking. He died on January 20, 1965, seventy years to the day of his father’s death.
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For this post, I drew from Martin Gilbert’s Churchill: A Life. The passage quoted is found on pg. 51 of the Henry Holt & Co’s 1991 American Edition.