Resiliency: Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill was like caviar. You either loved him or you hated him. There never seemed to be too much in between. Of keen intellect, uncompromising confidence, a steel hardened will, a stubborn courage and resiliency in times of difficulty, he was truly a force with which to be reckoned. Even one of his friends had the audacity to describe him as a “pugnacious bulldog.”
Even though he possessed many strengths, Churchill carried with him the flaws of many great leaders. His biography reads like a roller coaster ride. In favor, then out of favor. In favor, then out of favor. Whether it be his military career, or his political career, both were marred by his impatience, his single-mindedness and often his overconfidence in being right despite the advice of others. He once admitted during his early years, “I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
Winston Churchill was born fighting. He was delivered 6 weeks prematurely on November 30th, 1874. His mother was an American socialite, Jenny Jerome, and his father was Lord Randolph Churchill, the youngest son of the seventh Duke of Marlborough. Likewise, his great grandfather was John Winston Spencer-Churchill, who was the first Duke of Marlborough and quite famous for his noted military victories.
Despite being born into such an aristocratic family, young Winston’s childhood was far from trouble-free, both in his circumstances, and in his behavior.
Winston’s father, Lord Randolph was an ambitious politician and his mother continued to be active in the social circles of England at the time. Unfortunately, both of their preoccupations distanced them from their children for long periods of time. Raised by a nanny, Elizabeth Everest, and educated through numerous boarding schools, young Winston developed into the type of character one might expect… aristocratic to a fault, a rebellious student, and financially irresponsible; though brilliantly intelligent. Always a voracious reader, with a near photographic memory, it has been claimed that at age 14, Winston was awarded a prize for reciting 1200 lines of Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome without error, and could quote whole scenes of Shakespeare’s plays, often correcting his schoolmaster if they misquoted.
Later, Churchill would reflect on these turbulent, although very formative years in his book Marlborough, in which, without bitterness, he describes a childhood of parental neglect and social challenges that called forth a personal resiliency in character that he would demonstrate the rest of his life. He wrote, “It is said that famous men are usually the product of unhappy childhood. The stern compression of circumstances, the twinges of adversity, the spur of slights and taunts in early years, are needed to evoke the ruthless fixity of purpose and tenacious mother-wit without which great actions are seldom accomplished.”
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Winston Churchill stood before the world at age twenty, having just graduated from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, confidently facing a world order that was essentially stable and prosperous. Britain was a dominant world force, with the largest navy in the world. London prospered in trade as a European financial center. The country was not mired in any significant foreign war, and the nation’s future appeared to be one of greatness.
Churchill now stood ready to claim his future destiny that he once exclaimed to a childhood friend several years earlier, stating that he would “one day save Britain from a foreign enemy.” His foresight proved to be true; although it would involve a long and arduous march, with many hinderances and adversities. Nonetheless, it proved to be these difficult lessons that fueled the fires required to forge the metal of his character, his resiliency. The type of resiliency that he would need to properly assume the Prime Minster position of Britain at age 65, during the perilous onset of World War II.
Churchill greatly loved the English language, both in its written and spoken forms. So, after graduating from military school with little money, and Britain in no active wars, Churchill accepted a position as a war correspondent to Cuba being fought between the Spanish and Cuban rebels. On his way there, stopping in New York City, he first became acquainted with Bourke Cockran, a family friend and congressman. Churchill became enamored with the eloquence of his speeches, studied Cochran’s compositions in great detail, and subsequently outlined his own thoughts on public speaking in 1897 with a book entitled The Scaffolding of Rhetoric. Much of his later eloquence in speaking before the House of Commons and subsequently as Prime Minister he attributed to his early experiences with Congressman Cochran, stating graphically, “He taught me to use every note of the human voice as if playing an organ. “
A good speech,” he once said, “should be like a woman’s skirt. Long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.”
Winston Churchill loved the army and all things military; and especially enjoyed studying the exploits and strategies of Napoleon. However, he saw his military career only as a steppingstone to his real goal of entering politics. His early adult years were involved in participating in numerous revolts and wars in the imperialism of Britain, as they extended into South Africa and India. In each conflict, he demonstrated courage in action and received numerous battle medals of recognition along with many wounds. True to his literary passions, he also chronicled his experiences and published them into five books and 215 newspaper magazine articles. They were well received, further honing his literary and oratorical skills; and providing the acclaim and notoriety to propel him into the field of British politics. On February 14th, 1901, Churchill took a seat in the House of Commons.
The House of Commons, however, proved to be no less of a battlefield than he had experienced in the army. True to his aggressive nature, Churchill was soon to participate in the disagreements and political skirmishes of the chamber, sometimes even changing parties if it served his purposes. Not surprisingly, he gained a few political allies, but very few true friends. Lady Lytton is said to once have commented of Winston Churchill, ” The first time you meet Winston you see all his faults, and the rest of your life you spend in discovering his virtues.”
Churchill’s political views were basically conservative having once commented, “If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative by forty you have no brain.”
Furthermore, he strongly believed in the supremacy of the British representative monarchy over that of American democracy, as well as it’s antithesis, socialism. Of democracy he quipped, “Americans always do the right thing, after they’ve exhausted all other possibilities.” And of socialism he proclaimed: “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
Never one to miss an opportunity for rebuttal, Churchill had a knack for quick witticisms, especially if they were political opponents.
On one occasion he encountered Nancy Astor, a rather caustic political opponent as she was pouring coffee at a political social gathering:
It is said that, when Churchill came by, she glared and said, “Winston if I were your wife, I would put poison in your coffee.”
“Nancy,” Churchill replied to the acid tongued woman, “If I were your husband, I’d drink it.”
Shortly after his election into the House of Commons, Churchill met Clementine Hozier at a dinner party and became quite enamored with her. Their feelings were mutual and were subsequently married at St Margaret’s Westminster on September 12th, 1908.
Winston continued to climb up the ranks of the government, assuming the position of Home Secretary in 1910, and the very next year in October he assumed the position as First Lord of the Admiralty. This position’s responsibility was primarily to only advise the Board of Admiralty on the general state of the British Navy. But Churchill, in his typical manner, began by taking the initiative of actively reforming the Naval War Staff into the divisions of Operations, Intelligence, and Mobilization, and pushed his efforts to build more battleships in anticipation of the European war with Germany.
Furthermore, he changed the Navy’s fuel from coal to oil to make it easier to refuel, was the first to arrange the flight of an airplane off a battleship, perhaps the prototype of the modern-day aircraft carrier, advanced the development of destroyers and submarines, and promoted the development of a tracked mechanized armored vehicle with the ability to bridge over the deep trenches, which was perhaps the first prototype of the modern-day tank. As the war broke out in 1914, Britain was well positioned from the aspect of naval strength, largely due to the vision and foresight of Winston Churchill.
His aggressive actions, however, were not universally accepted by the War Counsel, though they were tolerated for some time. That is until his two major failures in strategy during World War I. The first involved his decision to use a small number of untrained Royal Navy troops in support of the Belgians fighting against the Germans; and the second being his insistence that the Dardanelles could be conquered solely based on a fleet of British worships without sufficient troop support. Both decisions were total disasters, and he was removed from the Admiralty in 1915 in complete humiliation and despair. Both Churchill’s military and political careers were in tatters, and he retired to a small rural area in Surrey to reevaluate and to recover from his ruined reputation.
During this time of recovery, Churchill first discovered his desire for painting on canvas which he found emotionally soothing and comforting. It is said that he became a fairly accomplished painter, eventually creating more than 540 paintings of various genres during the course of his lifetime. As such, painting became his solace sanctuary that he would continue to enjoy throughout his lifetime.
“Down but not beaten” as they would say, Churchill’s resiliency would simply not die. Despite being humiliated and rejected, he rejoined the army as a mere soldier to serve amongst the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards. Though he gradually rose through the leadership ranks of the army, he was no longer welcomed within the British government as such. Nonetheless, the painful lessons he learned during World War I would later prove to be of immense value in facing the challenges of directing the actions of Britain during the dark hours of World War II. And history would later show that he had learned these lessons well.
The intervening years, between the Great War and World War II, consisted of a great deal of political posturing amongst the government of Britain. Though he was no longer in a position of authority, Churchill continued to anticipate the pre-war movements of Germany as that nation became more threatening and aggressive. Despite his warnings of that danger, he was continually ignored by both the passivity of the British populace, as well as the inactivity of the British government. Neither were in any mood for war.
As Britain’s complacency and passivity languored, even as the shadow of Hitler’s ambitions expanded over Europe, Churchill, like a bloodhound with a scent, pursued his convictions of concern and warning with a dogged tenacity. Despite not being in a position of high-ranking authority at that time, he continued to be connected with friends well positioned in the government. Those friends included those in the intelligence divisions and the departments of economic warfare, as well as officers from the RAF. These experts, at some risk, conveyed to Churchill the increasing military strength of Germany, far overshadowing the weakness of British military. Continuing his efforts, Churchill informed the House of Commons that Germany was spending 1.5 billion pounds annually in preparations either directly or indirectly related to war. In his mind, there was no doubt what Germany intended. But his predictions and admonitions were continually disregarded. He found himself as an outside prophet shouting in the dark to little avail. Nonetheless, in tune with his resilience, Churchill shouted all the louder.
On March 24th, 1938, Churchill delivered one of the most powerful and moving speeches of forewarning to the British House of Commons:
I have watched this famous Island descending, incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends. A little further on there are only flagstones. And a little further on still, these break beneath your feet… Now is the time at last to rouse the nation. Perhaps it is the last time it can be roused with a chance of preventing war, or with a chance of coming through to victory should our efforts to prevent war fail. We should lay aside every hindrance and endeavour by uniting the whole force and spirit of our people to raise again a great British nation standing up before all the world; for such a nation, rising in its ancient vigour, can even at this hour save Civilization.
On September 30th, 1938, Chamberlain returned from his meeting with Hitler waving a piece of paper that had culminated in an agreement that neither country would go to war between one another again. The newspapers proclaimed PEACE, suggesting that the impending war with Germany had been averted. But Churchill knew better and persisted in his appeals for action. The rest is history.
On November 9-10, 1938, Hitler unleashed the Nazis upon the Jewish population in what has become known as Kristallnacht, which resulted in 8,000 Jewish shops and over 1,600 synagogues robbed and destroyed. 30,000 Jews were then sent to concentration camps.
In mid-March 1939, Hitler finished his conquest of Czechoslovakia with but a murmur from Britain and her allies.
On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland, with whom, as well as Romania, Chamberlain had signed an agreement in March guaranteeing their freedom. Finally, Chamberlain and the British government were forced to honor their agreements and enter the war against Germany. Chamberlain had backed Britain into a corner. War was now unavoidable.
Upon the Declaration of War on September 3, 1939, Chamberlain constituted a War Cabinet, and surprisingly offered Churchill the position of First Lord of the Admiralty, the same position he had held in World War I. Churchill accepted it with relish. Because of his close contacts within the government, Churchill was never very far out of the loop of information and was “ready and waiting,” as he was again suddenly propelled into a major position of authority for the oncoming battle ahead; and wasted no time in implementing his plans for the war by upfitting the destroyers to protect convoys, reorganizing the types and tonnage of ships to be built, and modifying previous regulations that impeded rapid development of the future Navy’s resources.
With typical assertiveness, Churchill entered the War Cabinet room each time with his own agenda to be advanced. Roberts shares a quote of Leslie Hore-Belisha: “He knows when he enters a cabinet or committee meeting what he wants done. He has a scheme, a plan, a solution. Not for him the patient hearing while others sort out their views. He takes the initiative with a proposal of his own for others to support or, if they are so inclined, attack.”
His masterful control and manipulation of the political dynamics within the government were reinforced with his supreme skill and eloquence in both private and public speaking. Admiral Godfrey is quoted as saying of his conversations within the privacy of the war councils:
In Churchill, it led to a ruthlessness in his opposition to the ideas of others that he felt stood in the way. To get his own way he used every device, and brought the whole battery of his ingenious, tireless, and highly political mind to the point at issue.
Churchill’s philosophy of persuasion can be expressed in one of his quotes saying,
“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.”
But Churchill’s mastery of persuasion and eloquence of speech was not left only to the council or cabinet rooms of the government. They’re also evidenced in the many radio broadcasts and speeches that he gave. On one occasion, addressing the public, Churchill pleads for public support of the war effort in this manner:
Come then, let us to the task, to the battle, to the toil – each to our part, each to our station. Fill the armies, rule the air, pour out the munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plough the land, build the ships, guard the streets, succour the wounded, uplift the downcast, and honor the brave. Let us go forward together in all parts of the Empire, in all parts of the Island. There is not a week, nor a day, nor an hour to lose.
Focused, stubborn, manipulative, bullying, aggressive… all can rightfully describe Winston Churchill. However, he was also brilliantly intelligent, a visionary, a principled and resilient character who exemplified courage throughout his entire life. He was not one to hesitate from a battle or conflict, nor was he one not willing to get back up and fight again after a temporary setback.
All of these personal characteristics, many learned from his painful lessons in World War I, came together in the form of the person who would be one of the greatest prime ministers in the history of Britain.
As the Continental War heated up, and Britain geared for the conflict, Neville Chamberlain experienced a loss of confidence from his status as Prime Minister. After much discussion and with much political maneuvering, Winston Churchill was supported as the new Prime Minister, certainly not because of his popularity, but rather because of his extensive military experience, uncanny vision, courage, and his resiliency to challenge. In early May of 1940, Winston Churchill assumed his lifelong goal and became the Prime Minister of Britain.
Churchill later writes, “I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial… I thought I knew a good deal about it all, and I was sure I should not fail.”
Further sharing his optimism, he proclaims, “The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”
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The well-seasoned Churchill was truly a man of action, not willing to sit and deliberate more than absolutely necessary; and he reveals this attitude in a quote representing his own personal impatience:
“One man with conviction will overwhelm a hundred who have only opinions.”
Winston’s convictions translated directly into his actions.
- He began to develop a close working relationship with the United States President, Franklin Delanor Roosevelt.
- His fascination with armaments caused him to promote the early inventions of advanced airplanes, submarines, and tanks. He even had some foresight to consider missiles of armaments.
- His experience in World War I with the code breaking unit of Room 40 taught him the value of intelligence gathering and how to effectively convey this to the various departments in the military.
- From his experience in World War I, he began to mobilize the production and storage of munitions, through the shifting of resources from the public industries.
Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny writes,
By May 1940, Churchill’s personality had been shaped by his experiences so completely that it was not to change perceptibly for the rest of his life. The singleness of purpose was there, of course, which merged into an undeniable ruthlessness when the occasion demanded – which it was now often to do. Yet allied to that was a calmness under pressure and a sense of humour that allowed him to crack jokes however bad the situation got. He had made many catastrophic errors in his long career, but, as we shall see, he had learned from them.
After positioning directors of the various war departments, Churchill, consolidating his authority, named himself as Minister of Defense to oversee the full scope of the war. He formed the Defense Committee of the Cabinet, which he would chair and receive the input from the Chiefs of Staff and also from the War Cabinet; before sending out directives for actions.
On Monday, May 13th, 1940, Churchill gave a 7-minute speech to the House of Commons which would become one of his most famous:
I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalog of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; For without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realized; No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that Mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.
In a word. Resiliency.
The details of Churchill’s leadership during World War II are well documented. But suffice it to say that the free world greatly benefited from his pre-war experiences, his resiliency in times of setbacks, his unwavering confidence, and his full commitment towards victory. He truly was a man for his times. His destiny was secured.
Sources:
Andrew Roberts, Churchill: Walking with Destiny, (Penguin Books, 2018)
James C. Humes, The Wit and Wisdom of Winston Churchill, (New York, Harper, 1995)