December 6, 1916

Churchill crossed the floor to switch parties (for the first time) from the Tory to the Liberal Party in 1904. He’d decided to ally himself with a friend, mentor and sometime rival David Lloyd George, who encouraged him to make the switch.

Lloyd George became Prime Minister of a wartime collation in 1916 and was instrumental in helping Churchill rehabilitate his political image after the disaster of the Gallipoli campaign the previous year. Having served for a time on the front lines in France after his resignation from government, Churchill was brought back into government (controversially) by Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions in 1917.

Though Churchill would again switch parties and would not always be politically aligned with Lloyd George, their lifelong friendship would endure.