This telegram of “hearty congratulations” on his engagement to Clementine (in 1908) from an anonymous Manchester suffragette (sometimes attributed to Emmeline Pankhurst) plays on his words copyright: Churchill Archives...

Thus we arrive, by our ancient constitutional methods, at practical working arrangements which show that Parliamentary democracy can adapt itself to all situations and can go out in all weathers.

Hitler’s success, and, indeed, his survival as a political force, would not have been possible but for the lethargy and folly of the French and British Governments since the War.

In 1909, when the House of Lords rejected Lloyd George’s ‘People’s Budget’, Churchill responded by attacking the peers for their pursuit of class interests He became president of the Budget League...

In October 1911, Churchill – still an ambitious relatively young minister – was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty with full charge of the Navy. Deteriorating relations between France and Germany and the rapid expansion of the German Navy had prompted great anxiety in Britain and Churchill was determined to ensure Britain’s maintenance of its naval supremacy over Germany. He felt that Britain should be in ‘constant and instant readiness for war’. Thanks to Churchill’s energy and persistence, the fleet was indeed ready when war came. In a peculiar twist of fate, when Churchill the anti-appeaser returned to office following his famous ‘wilderness years’ in September 1939, it was to be as First Lord of the Admiralty again (and he would be Prime Minister within eight months, fighting another war).

copyright: Churchill Archives...

On the whole I feel that we Changed Guard at Buckingham Palace at the right time and in the right way.

Our moral and military support of the United States and our possession of nuclear weapons of the highest quality and on an appreciable scale, together with their means of delivery, will greatly reinforce the deterrent power of the free world, and will strengthen our influence in the free world.

Churchill wrote to Eisenhower in the final days of office (the letter is dated ‘April’; he resigned on 5 April) saying that he hoped he might still be able to ‘serve’...