Winston Churchill

VIII

Later Years

After the Labour victory, Churchill began rebuilding the shattered fabric of his party as leader of the opposition. He delivered a series of speeches that encouraged Anglo-American solidarity and the unity of Western Europe against the growing Communist threat. In 1946, in a speech at Fulton, Missouri, he defined the barrier thrown up by the USSR around the nations of eastern Europe as the 'iron curtain.' He began to write his six-volume work, The Second World War (1948-1954), a comprehensive first-person account of his wartime statesmanship.

In 1951 Churchill's efforts to revitalize the Conservative Party were rewarded, and he again became prime minister. He worked to reduce the danger of nuclear warfare, vainly seeking a summit conference between the Soviet Union and the Western powers. In 1953 Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him the Knighthood of the Garter, and he became Sir Winston Churchill. In the same year he won the Nobel Prize for literature for his historical and biographical works and for his oratory. In November 1954, on Churchill's 80th birthday, the House of Commons honored him on the eve of his retirement. In April 1955 he resigned as prime minister but remained a member of the House of Commons.

In his retirement, Churchill worked on completing A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956-1958), a four-volume work begun in the late 1930s but postponed during World War II. He devoted much of his leisure in his later years to his favorite pastime of painting, ultimately producing more than 500 canvases. The Royal Academy of Arts featured his works in 1959. In 1963 the U.S. Congress made Churchill an honorary citizen of the United States. Churchill died peacefully at his town house in London, two months after his 90th birthday. Following a state funeral service that was attended by dozens of world leaders at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, he was buried near Blenheim Palace.

IX

Conclusion

After Churchill died, Britons took stock of their situation in the post-war era. In the last decades of his life, Britain had virtually dismantled her empire. Many felt Churchill's passing represented the end of Britain's status as a world power and his funeral marked the end of British imperial glory.

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Today some Britons regard Churchill as a disturbing emblem of the old regime of class privilege and colonial empire. Others admire his efforts to adapt the British tradition of self-government, liberty, civility, and the rule of law to a new world made by democracy and science in the 20th century. Churchill once wrote that 'a man's life must be nailed to a cross either of thought or of action.' His own choice was clearly the active life of politics and, at its climax, he led his country in its 'finest hour.'

British memorials to Churchill include the establishment of Churchill College at Cambridge University, which houses Churchill’s papers, and a prominent statue across from the Houses of Parliament in London. His story is told in the official biography begun by his son Randolph and completed by Martin Gilbert—the longest biography ever written about anyone. Millions have toured his birthplace at Blenheim Palace, his house at Chartwell, or the Cabinet War Rooms in London—places that evoke his memory and give visitors a sense of the man.

But it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Churchill himself was bigger than Britain. People are still fascinated by this man who was “easily satisfied with the very best.” They marvel at his boundless energy and his tremendous power of concentration. They are also struck by his daily naps, his fondness for Harrow School songs, his witty remarks, his love of animals, and his taste for cigars and Pol Roger champagne. Even after his death, readers can consider his example as a statesman and his reflections in his books.

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