January 1, 1970

By the early 1930s, Churchill no longer had a Government position. He opposed plans to give greater independence to India and seemed out of touch. Based at his beloved house at Chartwell in Kent, he continued to write books and newspaper articles, but many thought his political career was over. It was his vocal opposition to Hitler’s new Nazi dictatorship in Germany, and his calls for British rearmament, that gradually brought him back to public notice. Initially it was a message that few wanted to hear, but after the Munich Crisis of 1938 and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia there was a growing consensus that he was right. When war finally broke out in September 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had no choice but to make him First Lord of the Admiralty, the same position that he had held at the outbreak of the First World War. In this section you’ll learn more about Churchill’s years in ‘the wilderness’ and how he finally returned to power.