1874 - 1892

HISTORICAL TIMELINE

Walk with us, through the life of a legend

Life of Churchill

Child

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire on St Andrew’s Day, 30 November 1874. This was the home of his grandfather, the seventh Duke of Marlborough. On his father’s side, he was a child of the aristocracy; his father was the Conservative politician, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill. His mother was the American-born beauty, Jennie Jerome, daughter of a New York stockbroker, financier and newspaper proprietor. They were a glamorous high society couple but distant parents.

Churchill was brought up by his nanny, Mrs Everest, with his younger brother, Jack, and was sent away to boarding schools in Ascot and Brighton before going to Harrow School. He was a willful and rebellious child, who clashed with school discipline, and who was not thought clever enough to go to university. He only passed the entrance exam for the officer training school at Sandhurst on his third attempt.

This section will tell you more about his early life and the people and places that shaped him.

1874 - 1892

15 Aug 1873: Lord Randolph Churchill and and Jennie Jerome meet

15 Apr 1874

Randolph and Jennie marry

30 Nov 1874

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill is born

1876

Lord Randolph moves the family to Ireland

10 Mar 1876

Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call

21 Nov 1877

Edison announces his invention of the phonograph

4 Feb 1880

Churchill’s brother Jack is born

10 Apr 1880

Lord and Lady Randolph move to London

3 Nov 1882

Young Winston enters St George’s School near Ascot, Berkshire

14 Oct 1882

Earliest known match for Manchester United

1884

Summer – Churchill enters the Misses Thompson’s school

1 Feb 1884

First part of the 1st edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is published

1884: Fountain pen patent received by L E Waterman

1 Apr 1885

Clementine Ogilvy Hozier is born

15 Jun 1885

Lord Randolph made Secretary of State for India

25 Nov 1885

Election returns Liberals to power

1886

Lord Randolph’s rise and fall in the House

29 Jan 1886

Karl Benz patents first successful gasoline-driven car in Germany

8 May 1886

Lord Randolph opposes Irish Home Rule

8 May 1886

First Coca-Cola sold in Atlanta, Georgia

1 Jul 1886

Election returns a huge Conservative majority

3 Aug 1886

Lord Randolph becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House

28 Oct 1886

Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York City harbour

22 Dec 1886

Lord Randolph resigns his posts

25 Dec 1887

Sherlock Holmes makes his first appearance

17 Apr 1887

Churchill enters Harrow School, founded in 1572 by John Lyon under a Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I

4 Sep 1888

George Eastman introduces the Kodak camera

6 May 1889

Eiffel Tower is officially opened in Paris

5 Mar 1890

Forth Rail Bridge was completed in Scotland. The bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland near Edinburgh and considered as a symbol of Scotland, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

29 Jul 1890

Vincent van Gogh dies

21 Sep 1890

Churchill promises his mother he will give up smoking for six months

1891

Churchill proclaims he will ‘…save the Empire’

Finest Hour

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Writing, Articles & Books

In his lifetime, Churchill published more than 40 books in 60 volumes.

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Young Churchillians

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Young Churchillians

Publications

In his lifetime, Churchill published more than 40 books in 60 volumes.

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