February 4, 2015

The defeat of the Home Rule Bill also brought down the Gladstone Government. In the ensuing General Election, the Tories and the Liberal-Unionists gained a clear majority over the Liberals and Irish Nationalists, and The Queen called on the 3rd Marquis of Salisbury to form a government. Lord Randolph Churchill’s contribution to the Tory victory had been significant and, since he was the most popular Tory in the land, he was offered a major post in the new government. However, in the words of one of Randolph’s friends, “you know what a creature of impulse he is and how he fancies neglect without cause, ” and it was necessary for Lord Salisbury to court him assiduously.

Winston observed his father’s ascent from school in Brighton; his fascination and admiration for his parents were undiminished. Later he was to write of his father: “With a swiftness which in modern Parliamentary history had been excelled only by the younger Pitt, he had risen by no man’s leave or monarch’s favour from a private gentleman to almost the first position under the Crown.”