(November 30, 1874–January 24, 1965), was the British statesman who led Great Britain through World War II. The son of Lord Randolph Churchill, he was a direct descendant of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. He served as a correspondent in the Boer War and joined Parliament in 1900. After holding several positions, he rejoined the army in World War I and served in France. After the war he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, First Lord of the Admiralty and finally the Prime Minister. Sir Winston Churchill, in addition to being a remarkable orator, was an acclaimed author, receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
On May 13, 1940, Sir Winston Churchill stated:
I would say to the House, as I have said to those who have joined this government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. You ask what is our policy? I will say it is to wage war—by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crimes. That is our policy.3233
On July 14, 1940, Sir Winston Churchill stated:
And now it has come to us to stand alone in the breach and face the worst that the tyrants’ might and enmity can do. Bearing ourselves humbly before God, but conscious that we serve an unfolding purpose, we are ready to defend our native land against the invasion by which it is threatened.
We are fighting by ourselves alone. But we are not fighting for ourselves alone. Here in this strong city of refuge, which enshrines the title deeds of human progress, and is of deep consequence to Christian civilization; here, girt about by the seas and oceans where the Navy reigns, shielded from above by the prowess and devotion of our airmen, we await undismayed the impending assault. Perhaps it will come tonight. Perhaps it will come next week. Perhaps it will never come.
We must show ourselves equally capable of meeting a sudden, violent shock, or, what is perhaps a harder test, a prolonged vigil. But be the ordeal sharp or long, or both, we shall seek no terms, we shall ask no parley. Should the invader come, there will be no placid lying down of the people in submission. We shall defend every village, every town and every city. The vast mass of London itself, fought street by street, could easily devour an entire hostile army, and we would rather see London laid in ruins and ashes than that it should be tamely and abjectly enslaved.3234
On June 16, 1941, in a radio broadcast to America, on receiving the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Rochester, New York, Sir Winston Churchill replied:
The destiny of mankind is not decided by material computation. When great causes are on the move in the world … we learn that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time, and beyond space and time.3235
Prime Minister Winston Churchill, recorded the Mid-Atlantic Conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 10, 1941:
On Sunday morning, August 10, Mr. Roosevelt came aboard H.M.S. Prince of Wales and, with his Staff officers and several hundred representatives of all ranks of the United States Navy and Marines, attended Divine Service on the quarterdeck.
This service was felt by us all to be a deeply moving expression of the unity of faith of our two peoples, and none who took part in it will forget the spectacle presented that sunlit morning on the crowded quarterdeck—the symbolism of the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes draped side by side on the pulpit;
the American and British chaplains sharing in the reading of the prayers; the highest navel, military, and air officers of Britain and the United States grouped in one body behind the President and me;
the close-packed ranks of British and American sailors, completely intermingled, sharing the same books and joining fervently together in the prayers and hymns familiar to both.
I chose the hymns myself—“For Those in Peril on the Sea” and “Onward Christian Soldiers.” We ended with “Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past,” which Macaulay reminds us the Ironsides had chanted as they bore John Hampden’s body to the grave.
It was a great hour to live. Nearly half of those who sang were soon to die.3236
On October 29, 1941, in an address at Harrow School, Churchill admonished:
Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. …
Do not let us speak of darker days; let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days: these are great days—the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.3237
On December 30, 1941, in a speech to the Canadian Senate and House of Commons in Ottawa, Sir Winston Churchill declared:
We have to win that world for our children. … We have to win it by our sacrifices. We have not won it yet. The crisis is upon us. … In this strange, terrible world war there is a place for everyone, man and woman, old and young, hale and halt; service in a thousand forms is open. … The mine, the factory, the dockyard, the salt sea waves, the fields to till, the home, the hospital, the chair of the scientist, the pulpit of the preacher—from the highest to the humblest tasks, all are equal honor; all have their part to play.3238
In 1953, at the occasion of his forty-fifth wedding anniversary, Sir Winston Churchill commented:
I married and lived happily ever after … with a being incapable of an ignoble thought.3239
On March 2, 1955, in an address to the Commons on the hydrogen bomb, Sir Winston Churchill stated:
It doesn’t matter so much to old people; they are going soon anyway, but I find it poignant to look at youth in all its activity and ardor and, most of all, to watch little children playing their merry games, and wonder what would lie before them if God wearied of mankind.3240
On April 4, 1955, in a toast to Queen Elizabeth II at a dinner held at No. 10 Downing Street on the eve of Sir Winston Churchill’s resignation, he stated:
I have the honor of proposing a toast which I used to enjoy drinking during the years when I was a cavalry subaltern in the reign of Your Majesty’s great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. Having served in office or in Parliament under the four sovereigns who have reigned since those days, I felt, with these credentials, that in asking our Majesty’s gracious permission to propose a toast. …
Never have the august duties which fall upon the monarchy been discharged with more devotion than in the brilliant opening of Your Majesty’s reign. We thank God for the gift He has bestowed upon us and vow ourselves anew to the sacred causes and wise and kindly way of life of which Your Majesty is the young, gleaming champion.3241