Churchill assumed the position of prime minister in 1940, a few days
after the German army pushed into Belgium and Holland. Though he was only
appointed after the resignation of Neville Chamberlain, Churchill was by no
means a newcomer to warfare or public service. As a young boy, Churchill
already showed a great interest soldiers and warfare, and his early
education at the Harrow school was geared towards preparing him for the
Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Churchill graduated with honors from
Sandhurst and was commissioned into the British army when he was 20 years
While on leave from the army, Churchill worked as a correspondent for
a London newspaper, covering war stories in Cuba, Egypt, the Sudan and
later, the Boer War. Buoyed by his military record and the popularity of
his books and dispatches, Churchill was easily elected into the House of
Commons. By 1911, Churchill was charged with preparing the country's navy
fleet as the first lord of the admiralty. By 1914, Britain had entered the
war, and Churchill took his fleet to Belgium, helping the country repel
German invasion. However, an ill-fated land campaign at the Gallipoli
Peninsula caused great Allied losses, leading to Churchill's demotion from
the Admiralty in 1915 (Charmley 1993: 82).
Churchill was re-elected into the House of Commons in 1924, for the
next five years, held the post of national finance minister. During the
1930s, he also wrote several volumes, including an autobiography and the
four volumes of Marlborough. Despite the general good reception of his
books, the 1930s saw a decline in Churchill's popularity (Charmley 1993:
96). Largely because held no cabinet posts, his prescient warnings
against Adolf Hitler's military expansion went unheeded.
These experiences as a war analyst, participant and as a pub
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