Winston Churchill, UK (1874-1965)
British statesman, Prime Minister (1940-5, 1951-5), and author, born in Oxfordshire, England. Initially a Conservative MP (1900), he joined the Liberals in 1904. In 1915 he was made the scapegoat for the Dardanelles disaster, but in 1917 became minister of munitions. After World War I he was secretary of state for war and air (1919-21), and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1924-9). In 1929 he returned to the Conservative fold, but remained out of step with the leadership until World War II. Then, on Chamberlain's defeat (May 1940), he led Britain through the war against Germany and Italy with steely resolution.
When the war ended, he was prominent in organising armies of intervention to overthrow the Soviet government in Russia. He saw the futility of continued violence in Ireland and supported the establishment of the Irish free state. After the dissolution of the Turkish Empire, he was responsible for creating the new states of Jordan and Iraq. He achieved a world reputation not only as a great strategist and inspiring war leader, but as the last of the classic orators with a supreme command of English. He was knighted in 1953, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature the same year.