Winston Churchill (HM6)

Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (* 30th November 1874 in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire) has been PM of the since May 10th in 1940, having to lead his country through . Not exactly a task he deserves to be envied for - although he might end up as the greatest British statesman of the 20th century in case he should succeed. At the very least, he's had the opportunity to collect experience in various offices like Home Secretary, First Lord of the Admiralty (modernizing the ), Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, and Secretary of State for the Colonies.
On his father's side, he was a member of the British aristocracy as a direct descendant of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, had been elected Member of Parliament (Conservatives) for Woodstock in 1873. His mother, Jennie, was a daughter of Leonard Jerome, a wealthy American businessman. His father died on January 24th in 1895, aged 45, leaving him with the conviction that he too would die young and so should be quick about making his mark on the world. In that same year, he was initiated into at Studholme Lodge #1591 in London, and raised to the Third Degree on March 25th in 1902. While having been christened in the Church of England, as an adult he's an agnostic. He married Clementine Hozier on September 12th in 1908 at St Margaret's, Westminster; they have four daughters and a son.
He started a career as an officer in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars in (where he educated himself on Platon, Darwin, and the historians Gibbon and Macaulay) and a war correspondent, until being elected to the House of Commons.
Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he's been a Member of Parliament since 1900 - for the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924, otherwise for the Conservatives. Out of government during his so-called "wilderness years" in the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in calling for British rearmament to counter the growing threat of militarism in ("You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war."), but wasn't listened to.
== In World War II ==
At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was re-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. After the Allied had suffered defeats in , he became Prime Minister, replacing . On May 13th, he stated in the House of Commons: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." - a quote that'd become famous.
The successes of the Wehrmacht in Belgium and France, culminating in the and the loss of the BEF, constituted a hard blow for Churchill; despite of this, he managed to survive his first government crisis (May 25th - 28th), when Lord Halifax challenged his leadership. Nazi Propaganda claims that he had gotten senselessly drunk after the capitulation of Ypres, to be out of consciousness for the next 24 hours; even if Churchill wasn't seen in public during this time, only a few days later, on the 4th of June, he made a speech while being as unyieldy as usual, which quotes "we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be" and "we shall never surrender" rebuilt the floundered British Morale again. Only at one single point, before the Word "scythe", he hesitated for a short moment...
On June 9th, he met for the first time with , the only one as decisively for resistance as he was; on June 11th, he visited the conference in , during which all the participants except the two of them were in panic already because of the approaching . The conference in Tours on June 13th tayed without success as well. Hence, the Idea of a British-French Union (a brainchild by ) was dead. However, on June 25th he acknowledged de Gaulle's .
The defeat didn't stop his Plan to raise the Special Unit of the British Commandos either, even if people currently worry that they'll be barely able to raise a full Commando (450 Men).
 uses to attack him as a hopeless drunkard, as does .
See also: 
Category:Winston Churchill
Category:Rulers (HM6)
Category:British Prime Ministers (HM6)
Category:British Empire (HM6)
de:Winston Churchill (W6)
Category:Alternate UK Prime Ministers