Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill [ a ] 30 November โ 24 January was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from to during the Second World War and again from to For some 62 of the years between and , he was a member of parliament MP and represented a total of five constituencies over that time.
Ideologically an adherent to economic liberalism and imperialism , he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party , which he led from to He was a member of the Liberal Party from to Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire into the wealthy, aristocratic Spencer family.
He joined the British Army in and saw action in British India , the Mahdist War and the Second Boer War , gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns.
Elected a Conservative MP in , he defected to the Liberals in Asquith 's Liberal government , Churchill was president of the Board of Trade and later Home Secretary , championing prison reform and workers' social security. After two years out of Parliament, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin 's Conservative government , returning sterling in to the gold standard , depressing the UK economy.
Out of government during his so-called " wilderness years " in the s, Churchill took the lead in calling for rearmament to counter the threat of militarism in Nazi Germany.
