A Guide to the Winston Churchill Letter, 1945

Biographical Note

Born at the Duke of Malborough’s palace in Blenheim, England, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874-1965) was the son of Lord Randolph Churchill and Jennie Jerome. After receiving his education at Harrow and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, Churchill accompanied a cavalry commission as a second lieutenant to India in 1895. He also worked as a newspaper correspondent during the Boer War in South Africa, where Churchill escaped from a prison camp in 1899. The following year, he was elected to Parliament as a Conservative representing Oldham. In 1904, Churchill switched political parties and became a Liberal until the collapse of the party in 1922, after which he was reelected to Parliament as an Independent and became a Conservative again upon being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1928.

In 1911, Churchill became the First Lord of the Admiralty, serving in World War I as the head of the Royal Navy. Following the failure of the Dardanelles/Gallipoli campaign in 1915, he resigned his post and briefly joined the British Army in France. Toward the end of the war, Churchill became Minister of Munitions as well as Secretary for War and Air and Colonial Secretary. From 1929 through 1939, he was alienated from politics due to his stance on several issues, though Churchill was eventually reinstated as First Lord of the Admiralty at the beginning of World War II by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. The following year, he was elected Prime Minister, a position he occupied until 1946. Churchill also served as Prime Minister from 1951 through 1955, retiring from politics in 1964.

Sources:

"The Life of Churchill." WinstonChurchill.Org. Accessed May 11, 2011. http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography.

"A Timeline of Winston Churchill." Winston Churchill Leadership. Accessed May 11, 2011. http://www.winston-churchill-leadership.com/timeline.html.

Scope and Contents

The Winston Churchill Letter, 1945, consists of a thank-you note signed by Churchill to Mr. Arthur Thaman in Baytown, Texas. The letter expresses gratitude in response to an earlier letter from Thaman.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Winston Churchill Letter, 1945, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s "History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light" project, 2009-2011.

Detailed Description of the Papers