Winston Spencer Churchill is born at Blenheim Palace.

1882

Winston enters St George’s School, Ascot.

Winston removed from St George’s to receive more relaxed tuition from Misses Thomson.

1888

Winston enters Harrow school, aged 13.

1893

Now aged 18, Winston is admitted to Sandhurst Military Academy (at the third attempt).

Lord Randolph Churchill dies, shattering Winston’s dreams of entering Parliament at his side.

Churchill’s nanny, Mrs Everest, dies. Winston is devastated.

1898

Churchill, now 23, takes part as soldier and journalist in the British campaign to conquer the Sudan, participating in the British Army's last cavalry charge at Omdurman.

1899

Churchill travels to South Africa as a correspondent for 'The Morning Post'. During a trip behind enemy lines, the armoured train he is travelling on is attacked. When the train’s commander is injured, Churchill takes command. He shows great courage, saves many men but is eventually caught and imprisoned. Churchill crawls through a latrine window to escape from prison, eventually slipping out of the country to discover that he has become famous at home.

1900

Fame generated by his war adventures translates into longed-for political triumph. Aged 26, Churchill is elected Conservative MP for Oldham.

Churchill suffers the embarrassment of memory failure during a speech in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament. The experience convinces the 29 year old Churchill that he is losing his mental powers in the same way his father did. This fuels his impatience for promotion, and his frustration with Conservative Party policy.

Churchill ‘crosses the chamber’ (meaning that he changed party allegiance in Parliament) to join the Liberals under Lloyd George.

1908

With Liberal Party in power, Churchill begins a programme of social reform, setting up labour exchanges and establishing minimum wage.

Churchill meets and falls in love with Clementine Hozier, who is from a prominent liberal family.

1910

Churchill sends troops to deal with a gang of thieves wanted by the police in Sidney Street, east London. Churchill visits the scene in person and is consequently perceived as “a trigger-happy boy scout”.

Churchill is now Home Secretary. The mishandling by police of Suffragette protests in Westminster leads to claims that, instinctively, Churchill is still a Tory rather than a Liberal.

1911

Churchill is made First Lord of the Admiralty. He throws himself into the job and, sensing imminent conflict with Germany, sets about modernisation of fleet.

Churchill establishes the Royal Naval Air Service (becoming pilot himself as part of process!)

First World War begins and stalemate quickly develops on all fronts. Various plans to break stalemate are considered, including one put forward by Churchill to seize control of the Dardanelles straits.

1915

Churchill’s plan to force the Dardanelles is adopted, but soon falters. Subsequent attempts by the army to land on the Gallipoli peninsula inflict massive Allied losses. Lloyd George removes Churchill from the Admiralty.

Out of political office, Churchill signs up to fight at the trenches in Flanders, commanding the 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers.

1916

Churchill returns home determined to return to politics, but is left out of office for a year by David Lloyd George before joining the government.

As war with Germany ends, Churchill demands war against the Bolsheviks in the wake of the Russian Revolution and the murder of Tsar. But Britain is war weary and there is no appetite for such a crusade.

1922

The collapse of David Lloyd George’s government occurs during Churchill’s recovery from acute appendicitis. During the ensuing General Election, Churchill is barely able to leave his bed, let alone campaign. The result is a large voter ‘swing’ and the loss of his Parliamentary seat.

Churchill buys Chartwell Manor, and spends the next two years (while out of office) making it his personal haven.

Churchill defects back to the Conservative Party, winning a seat in Epping. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin appoints Churchill Chancellor of the Exchequer (the office held by his father 40 years previously.)

1926

The General Strike. Churchill is broadly sympathetic to miners’ demands for better pay and conditions but thinks the strike smacks of Bolshevism and does not hesitate to show ruthlessness in breaking it.

1931

Churchill resigns from the government over Baldwin’s move to grant India limited autonomy.

Churchill is hit by a car during a lecture tour of the United States. He recuperates in New York, then in the West Indies.

1932

Churchill travels to Germany to research the battlefields of his ancestors. While there, he witnesses firsthand the “sturdy teutonic youths” marching through Germany’s streets. His warrior instincts are aroused by the threat of Adolf Hitler.

Randolph Churchill stands against the government as an Independent Conservative, with the support of his father, a move that costs the Conservatives a Parliamentary seat. Both father and son are denounced in The Times newspaper.

Britain grants India limited local self-government. Churchill withdraws to Chartwell. Clementine takes a four-month cruise in the Far East.

1936

The abdication crisis is prompted by Edward VIII’s decision to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Churchill again shows his natural conservatism through his support of the King in Parliament. His actions further isolate him politically.

1938

Germany annexes Austria and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain travels to Munich to negotiate with Hitler, attempting to appease him by agreeing to German occupation of German-speaking Czechoslovakia.

1939

Hitler occupies remainder of Czechoslovakia.

Germany invades Poland. Chamberlain immediately informs Churchill that he’ll be in the War Cabinet, before hesitating.

Having sent Hitler two ultimatums in an attempt to avert war, Chamberlain announces that Britain is at war with Germany.

Churchill is appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, for the second time in his career. He spends first nine months rebuilding the strength and morale of the Royal Navy.

1940

Churchill launches a daring offensive against Nazi-occupied Norway. The operation quickly becomes as shambolic as the Dardanelles campaign was, leaving Churchill exposed to criticism. But his popularity remains in the ascendant.

Decisive clashes in the House of Commons confirm the downfall of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, now widely perceived as ‘weak-kneed appeaser’, in contrast with Churchill’s ‘British Bulldog’.

Churchill takes the helm as Prime Minister aged 65 and sets the clear objective of winning the war.

Churchill orders Allied evacuation from Calais and Dunkirk. More than 300,000 men are safely rescued.

Churchill learns of France’s imminent defeat and, in one of his most famous addresses, announces that the Battle of Britain is about to begin: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall never surrender.”

Churchill orders the sinking of the French fleet at Oran after French military refuse to hand over control of its vessels to British.

1941

The first formal meeting between Churchill and President Franklin D Roosevelt.

The Japanese bomb US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, forcing America’s hand. Having ignored Britain’s pleas to enter the war since 1940, the US finally joins the Allies.

1942

The Allies suffer major setbacks when Singapore falls and British troops surrender in Tobruk, North Africa. German U-boats are devastating Atlantic shipping convoys and the German army have conquered vast territories on the Eastern Front.

Support wavers for Churchill in Britain and a motion of Censure is brought against him in the House of Commons. Though defeated, it was a political warning shot – Churchill needed to start winning.

The Eighth Army wins the battle at El Alamein.

Churchill and Roosevelt meet Stalin for first ‘Big Three’ meeting in Tehran.

1943

Churchill travels to Carthage where he develops pneumonia and suffers two heart attacks.

D-Day landings begin in Normandy.

The Germans begin raids using flying bombs on south-east England. Almost 3,000 killed.

Churchill orders retaliation. Allied military strategists reject the use of gas against German civilians, but it is agreed that the strategic bombing of Germany will be intensified. In the remaining ten months of the war Allied bombing raids kill some 200,000 German civilians.

As the war draws to an end, Churchill fears a Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe, and attempts to influence Stalin personally.

1945

The Yalta Conference. While Stalin’s army advances across Europe, Stalin promises democracy for the nations he is liberating, but Churchill leaves the conference with deep sense of foreboding.

‘Victory in Europe Day’. But amid widespread jubilation, Churchill is heavy of heart, fearing Soviet domination of Europe.

The Labour Party forces a UK General Election, which Churchill loses.

1950

Churchill loses the next General Election, but cuts the Labour majority to just six Parliamentary seats.

1951

Churchill fights – and wins – his fourteenth General Election.

1953

During dinner for the Italian Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, Churchill suffers a stroke. He is spirited away to Chartwell. His Private Secretary organises a meeting with the press barons, Lords Camrose, Beaverbrook and Bracken, to keep the story out of the press.

In a speech that decides his political fate, Churchill asserts his authority as a leader at the Conservative Party Conference.

Churchill travels to Bermuda to meet President Eisenhower, who still will not countenance talks with the Soviets.

Churchill and Clementine host farewell dinner at Number 10, Downing Street. The following day he offers his resignation to Her Majesty The Queen.

1958

Churchill completes ‘A History of the English Speaking Peoples’.

Churchill resigns from Parliament.

1965

After suffering a final stroke and deteriorating rapidly thereafter, Churchill dies. Thousands line the route of the train that takes his coffin from his state funeral in London, to his final resting place, within sight of his birthplace, Blenheim Palace.