A few brief remarks on Winston Churchill

One of my earliest memories as a young boy in the West Midlands of England was the state funeral of Winston Churchill (1874-1965), which was a decision made by our late Queen because of his remarkable leadership during one of the darkest periods of British history. Few non-royals are ever granted such. One of the few in the previous century had been Arthur Wellesley in 1852, again because of the remarkable service he had done for his nation in defeating the dictator Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 and then serving his country as Prime Minister.

I grew up in a home that treasured what Chuchill had done for Great Britain. In recent years, reading John Lukacs’ fine bevy of books on Churchill has confirmed those early impressions and only deepened my appreciation for his remarkable prescience about Adolf Hitler and his determination to fight to the bitter end for liberty and freedom. See here two of his best:

As Miles Smith rightly observes regarding the political greatness of this remarkable leader: “Churchill, argues [Niall] Ferguson, ultimately sacrificed his empire to keep the Nazis from destroying the principle of conservative nationality.”

I was thus understandably shocked when I was shown a remark on social media by an American that raised this question—and surely Churchill was in view: “Since when did foulmouthed corpulent drunkards become Baptists’ most favorite politician?” Coming from someone who is seeking an advanced degree in history, it reveals an appalling lack of historical consciousness (not to mention its crudity) about the 1930s and 1940s and a total failure to appreciate the gift of liberty that Churchill gave to the British people and indeed to the world. There is little doubt that Winston Churchill was the man for that dark hour.