Child

Young Winston Churchill as a student at Harrow School, 1892
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.
Randolph and Jennie marry
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill is born
Lord Randolph moves the family to Ireland
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call
Edison announces his invention of the phonograph
Churchill’s brother Jack is born
Lord and Lady Randolph move to London
Young Winston enters St George’s School near Ascot, Berkshire
Earliest known match for Manchester United
Summer – Churchill enters the Misses Thompson’s school
First part of the 1st edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is published
Clementine Ogilvy Hozier is born
Lord Randolph made Secretary of State for India
Election returns Liberals to power
Lord Randolph’s rise and fall in the House
Karl Benz patents first successful gasoline-driven car in Germany
Lord Randolph opposes Irish Home Rule
First Coca-Cola sold in Atlanta, Georgia
Election returns a huge Conservative majority
Lord Randolph becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House
Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York City harbour
Lord Randolph resigns his posts
Sherlock Holmes makes his first appearance
Churchill enters Harrow School, founded in 1572 by John Lyon under a Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I
George Eastman introduces the Kodak camera
Eiffel Tower is officially opened in Paris
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
Vincent van Gogh dies
Churchill promises his mother he will give up smoking for six months
Churchill proclaims he will ‘…save the Empire’
In his lifetime, Churchill published more than 40 books in 60 volumes.
View his writingWorking to celebrate the life and achievements of a great leader.
Young ChurchilliansIn his lifetime, Churchill published more than 40 books in 60 volumes.
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