Winston Churchill

Soldier, writer, politician and finally prime minister, Winston Churchill was one of 20th-century Britain's greatest figures. He is particularly remembered for his indomitable spirit while leading Great Britain to victory in World War II. Winston Churchill fought with the British Army in India and Sudan in the late 1800s, and as a journalist was captured in South Africa (where his dispatches from the Boer War first brought him to public prominence). His escape from the Boers and across the border to freedom made his name, and he was welcomed home as a young hero. He became a member of Parliament in 1900 and remained an MP for over 64 years. His early topsy-turvy political career earned him many enemies, but his stirring speeches, bulldog tenacity and refusal to make peace with Adolf Hitler made him the popular choice to lead England through World War II. When Britain and its allies prevailed in 1945, Churchill's place in history was assured. (Ironically, he lost the prime ministership two months after Germany's surrender, when the opposition Labor Party took majority control of Parliament.) Witty and indefatigably productive, Winston Churchill wrote a plethora of histories, biographies and memoirs, including the landmark four-volume A History of the English-speaking Peoples (1956-58). In 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature; he was knighted the same year.