Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill

November 30, 1874 — January 24, 1965

As a boy, Winston Churchill had a dream that he would one day save London. Though his teachers believed him an unpromising student, he never lost this conviction and actively courted danger to become the hero of his own adventure, first as an officer in the British Army, then as a war correspondent during the Boer War, where he was taken prisoner. He escaped at the first opportunity. The story of his daring escape made him a national hero, and it was on the wave of this popularity that he scored a close victory to become a Member of Parliament at age twenty-five. In 1908, he married Clementine Hozier, the love of his life, with whom he would have four daughters (one of whom died at age two), and a son. Churchill’s early years in government were not without controversy—he began as a Conservative, switched to the Liberal Party, and then “re-ratted,” as he joked, to the Conservatives. As First Lord of the Admiralty, he was blamed for the World War I disaster at Gallipoli, after which he rejoined the British Army in Belgium. By 1929, many believed his once bright political career was over, and though he remained an MP, for the next decade he remained outside the upper echelons of government. In those “wilderness years,” he found solace in prolific writing, painting, and even bricklaying (a favorite pastime) at his beloved country home, Chartwell. In the mid-1930s, he began to warn against the danger he saw in Germany, and though at first dismissed as an alarmist, he was soon proven right. On May 10, 1940, his political comeback was complete when he became Prime Minister. As a writer and historian, Churchill was keenly aware of his own place in history. Early in the war, he and his wife Clementine decided a member of the family should always travel with him to serve as his aide and as a family chronicler of sorts. Clementine was afraid of flying, so this duty often fell to his children. Though it was then rare to include women in the highest levels of diplomacy, it was his middle daughter Sarah, to whom he turned at Tehran. With her quick wit, eloquence, and natural charm, Roosevelt soon realized what an asset she was to her father. When it came time for Yalta, Roosevelt, too, decided to bring his daughter as his aide, as did Ambassador Averell Harriman.

Photograph: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, public domain