History UsefulNotes / WinstonChurchill

* Appeared in "Victory of the Daleks", the third episode of the 2010 series of ''Series/DoctorWho''. [[spoiler: He and the Doctor are apparently old friends, and he keeps trying to swipe the TARDIS key from the Doctor.]] He also turns up in the season finale "The Wedding of River Song" in an corrupted version of the universe where every time is happening at once, where [[spoiler: he intrinsically trusts the Doctor due to feeling echoes of their friendship in the proper timeline.]] Interestingly, in the latter, he is not prime minister; he is [[AnachronismStew Holy Roman Emperor]].

* ''Churchill: The Hollywood Years'' is a satire of HollywoodHistory were Winston Churchill is actually an American commando attempting to stop Hitler from marring into UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily. The Churchill the world knows was just an actor called Ray Bubbles.

However, he also had a dark side frequently overlooked in British popular history. [[TheSocialDarwinist He supported eugenics (at one time suggesting 100,000 Britons should be sterilized)]], and was involved in a number of atrocities in nations ruled or invaded by the British Empire, including the Bengal famine of 1943 (where millions of Bengalis died)[[note]]He had [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist views]] on Indians and Bengali during Bengali famine, with this infamous speech "I hate Indians, they are a beastly people with a beastly religion who brought this plague upon themselves for breeding like rabbits"[[/note]], concentration camps in Kenya (with up to a million Kenyans detained), and massacres in Sudan and Afghanistan, and his bellicosity included ill-conceived plans to try to reconstitute the Wehrmacht and continue WWII to destroy the Soviet Union.[[note]]Although he wasn't really serious about that, which was why the plan was code-named "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable Operation Unthinkable]]"[[/note]] In former British colonies, particularly those of the Indian subcontinent (when informed that the Bengal famine of 1943 had led to two million deaths, his only response was to express regret that [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi]] wasn't one of them) Churchill is remembered in a negative light, in contrast to his positive reputation in Britain. Despite his genocidal reputation, he still topped a BBC poll of history's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons 100 Greatest Britons]], and is generally regarded as a great wartime leader - just [[WonTheWarLostThePeace not a particularly great Prime Minister]].

* A playable leader in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} IV'' (added in the ''Warlords'' expansion). His traits are Charismatic/Protective--which boost "happiness" (a rough stand-in for home-front morale during wartime) and defense respectively. This makes him pretty good for [[GradualGrinder turtling]].

* Makes a short appearance in ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'', during the planning of the Bastards' final attack.

* Played by Creator/GaryOldman in Creator/JoeWright's biopic of Churchill, ''Film/{{Darkest Hour|2017}}''.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (November 30, 1874 -- January 24, 1965). [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Knight of the Garter, Order of Merit, Companion of Honour, Territorial Decoration, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council,]] Fellow of the Royal Society, [[UsefulNotes/NobelPrizeInLiterature Nobel Laureate]], first Honorary Citizen in United States history, and almost the Duke of London. British Prime Minister from 1940-45 and again from 1951-55. Best known for helping win UsefulNotes/WorldWarII; he even won a Nobel Prize for writing about it in a six-volume {{doorstopper}}.

* ''The Young Winston'', a 1972 biopic of his younger days directed by Creator/RichardAttenborough and starring Simon Ward as Churchill.

One of the all-time great English-language prose stylists. Many of Churchill's quotes are legendary (with his insults even ''more'' legendary; Cracked.com once described him as [[GentlemanSnarker "handing out third-degree burns like some sort of reverse fireman"]]). He was so quotable that despite not being a fiction writer[[note]]well, he dabbled a little in fiction[[/note]], he managed to name two tropes: TheEndOfTheBeginning and ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma. A brief sampling:

* I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma, but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.
* [[ThisIsGonnaSuck I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.]]
* If the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'
* From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an UsefulNotes/IronCurtain has descended across the Continent.
* [[{{Determinator}} We shall fight them on the beaches...]]
* In time of war, when truth is so precious, it must be attended by a bodyguard of lies.
* One can always trust the United States to do the right thing, once every possible alternative has been exhausted.
* Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed, by so many, to so few.
* A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
* An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
* If Hitler invaded Hell, [[EnemyMine I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.]]
* [[WrittenByTheWinners History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.]]
* [[DemocracyIsBad Democracy is the worst form of Government]], [[DemocracyIsFlawed except for all the others that have been tried]].
* [[SelfDeprecation All babies look like me. But then, I look like all babies.]]

[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/churchill_portrait.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:315:[[Film/TheDarkKnight Not the Prime Minister we deserved, but the Prime Minister we needed]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII right then.]][[note]]Yousuf Karsh (the photographer) intentionally got Churchill to scowl by snatching the man's cigar right out of his mouth. Karsh also took [[http://acurator.com/blog/2015/01/winston-churchill-by-yousuf-karsh-the-smiling-portrait.html another (less famous) photo at the same occasion]], which showed Churchill smiling. Indeed, Lady Churchill detested the scowling photo, as she knew that it did not reflect her husband's actual mood at the time, having just delivered a very well-received speech.[[/note]]]]

[[quoteright:239:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/churchill.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:239:[[Film/TheDarkKnight Not the Prime Minister we deserved, but the Prime Minister we needed]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII right then.]][[note]]Yousuf Karsh (the photographer) intentionally got Churchill to scowl by snatching the man's cigar right out of his mouth. Karsh also took [[http://acurator.com/blog/2015/01/winston-churchill-by-yousuf-karsh-the-smiling-portrait.html another (less famous) photo at the same occasion]], which showed Churchill smiling. Indeed, Lady Churchill detested the scowling photo, as she knew that it did not reflect her husband's actual mood at the time, having just delivered a very well-received speech.[[/note]]]]

* Gets a HistoricalVillainUpgrade as [[Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia England's]] boss/dictator in ''FanFic/AllHeEverWanted'', in an alternate history in which the UK joined the Axis Powers.

However, he also had a dark side frequently overlooked in British popular history. [[TheSocialDarwinist He supported eugenics (at one time suggesting 100,000 Britons should be sterilized)]], and was involved in a number of atrocities in nations ruled or invaded by the British Empire, including the Bengal famine of 1943 (where millions of Bengalis died)[[note]]He had [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist views]] on Indians and Bengali during Bengali famine, with this infamous speech "I hate Indians, they are a beastly people with a beastly religion who brought this plague upon themselves for breeding like rabbits"[[/note]], concentration camps in Kenya (with up to a million Kenyans detained), and massacres in Sudan and Afghanistan, and his bellicosity included ill-conceived plans to try to reconstitute the Wehrmacht and continue WWII to destroy the Soviet Union.[[note]]Although he wsn't really serious about that, which was why the plan was code-named "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable Operation Unthinkable]]"[[/note]] In former British colonies, particularly those of the Indian subcontinent (when informed that the Bengal famine of 1943 had led to two million deaths, his only response was to express regret that [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi]] wasn't one of them) Churchill is remembered in a negative light, in contrast to his positive reputation in Britain. Despite his genocidal reputation, he still topped a BBC poll of history's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons 100 Greatest Britons]], and is generally regarded as a great wartime leader - just [[WonTheWarLostThePeace not a particularly great Prime Minister]].

Furthermore, in 1943, while PM, he was at least partly responsible for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943 famine in Bengal]], which eventually killed 4 million people. Though the direct causes of the famine could be said to lie with local British authorities in India rather than with him personally, his policies exacerbated the famine (such as draining too much resources from Bengal, and diverting emergency supplies away from Bengal), increasing the death toll by millions. He did not seem bothered by it, but responded by saying he hates Indians and expressed disappointment that UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi had not died, having previously expressed disdain for Gandhi, suggesting he should be brutally executed for being a "seditious [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fakir fakir]]". Critics of Churchill have argued that the Bengal famine was a "genocide" or "holocaust", and compared him to Hitler. Churchill was also responsible for atrocities in Kenya, where up to a million people were detained in concentration camps, many of whom were killed or tortured (including the grandfather of future US president, UsefulNotes/BarackObama), as well as massacres he was involved in as a soldier in his younger years, during British invasions in Sudan and Afghanistan.

He was also notably racist, like many people at the time. He held white-supremacist views, including the idea of an Aryan master race (an idea he shared with his enemy, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler). He was also known for supporting eugenics, at one time even suggesting that 100,000 "degenerate Britons" should be forcibly sterilized or put in labour camps. He was also especially known for supporting the British Empire. Both have to be taken in the context of the time, however, with eugenics being wildly popular until Nazism showed the dark side of it, and that most Brits of the time were pro-Empire.

In 1963, he became the first person to be granted an honorary citizenship of the United States, and one of only two given this honor while they were alive (the other being Mother Teresa). Including Churchill, there are only seven honorary American citizens. He is also one of the very few non-American citizens to have a U.S. naval vessel named in his honor. (Appropriately, the USS Winston S. Churchill has a Royal Navy guest officer assigned to her company and flies the White Ensign below the Stars and Stripes.)

* A young Churchill comes to Toronto in ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' to give a lecture on his time in the Sudan during the Mahdist War and becomes the chief suspect in his best friend's murder. [[spoiler: It's not him, but a fanatical follower of the Mahdi who saw the friend take part in the descration of the Mahdi's tomb.]]

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' gives him a HistoricalVillainUpgrade, in which he was a member of UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar and actually helped ''masterminded'' World War II along with FDR and Hitler. [[{{Retcon}} However]], he appears in the special side missions of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate'' as an ally of the assassin Lydia Frye.

* ''The Young Winston'', a 1972 biopic of his younger days directed by Creator/RichardAttenborough.

However, he also had a dark side frequently overlooked in British popular history. [[TheSocialDarwinist He supported eugenics (at one time suggesting 100,000 Britons should be sterilized)]], and was involved in a number of atrocities in nations ruled or invaded by the British Empire, including the Bengal famine of 1943 (where millions of Bengalis died)[[note]]He had [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist views]] on Indians and Bengali during Bengali famine, with this infamous speech "I hate Indians, they are a beastly people with a beastly religion who brought this plague upon themselves for breeding like rabbits"[[/note]], concentration camps in Kenya (with up to a million Kenyans detained), and massacres in Sudan and Afghanistan, and his bellicosity included ill-conceived plans to try to reconstitute the Wehrmacht and continue WWII to destroy the Soviet Union.[[note]]Although he wsn't really serious about that, which was why the plan was code-named "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable Operation Unthinkable]]"[[/note]] In former British colonies, particularly those of the Indian subcontinent (when informed that the Bengal famine of 1943 had led to two million deaths, his only response was to express regret that [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi]] wasn't one of them) Churchill is remembered in [[EvilBrit a negative light]], in contrast to his positive reputation in Britain. Despite his genocidal reputation, he still topped a BBC poll of history's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons 100 Greatest Britons]], and is generally regarded as a great wartime leader - just [[WonTheWarLostThePeace not a particularly great Prime Minister]].

These included the abortive eugenics initiative proposed above. Churchill managed to become First Lord of the Admiralty and masterminded the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne Gallipoli Campaign of 1915]], resigning upon its failure. He lost his seat in 1922, but returned in 1924 and rejoined the Conservatives. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) for the next five years, where he made a disastrous decision to reintroduce the gold standard. Churchill described this as the biggest mistake of his career; it contributed to high unemployment and mass strikes. He was isolated within the party in the 1930s, in no small part due to being the one of the few politicians who publicly opposed forcing Edward VIII to abdicate over his impending marriage to Wallis Simpson,[[note]](Ironically, Churchill didn't actually think much of Edward on a personal level, and repudiated any past support for him after his Nazi sympathies became publicly known; however, Churchill also didn't consider it to be the government's business to tell the king who he could or couldn't marry)[[/note]] but made a political comeback after his opposition to the appeasement of Germany was vindicated.

Compare/contrast UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, another racist genocidal tyrant who also pursued eugenics (although Churchill was viewed more sympathetically due to his efforts during World War II).

However, he also had a dark side frequently overlooked in British popular history. [[TheSocialDarwinist He supported eugenics (at one time suggesting 100,000 Britons should be sterilized)]], [[OmnicidalManiac and was involved in a number of atrocities in nations ruled or invaded by the British Empire]], including the Bengal famine of 1943 (where millions of Bengalis died)[[note]]He had [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist views]] on Indians and Bengali during Bengali famine, with this infamous speech "I hate Indians, they are a beastly people with a beastly religion who brought this plague upon themselves for breeding like rabbits"[[/note]], concentration camps in Kenya (with up to a million Kenyans detained), and massacres in Sudan and Afghanistan, and his bellicosity included ill-conceived plans to try to reconstitute the Wehrmacht and continue WWII to destroy the Soviet Union.[[note]]Although he wsn't really serious about that, which was why the plan was code-named "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable Operation Unthinkable]]"[[/note]] In former British colonies, particularly those of the Indian subcontinent (when informed that the Bengal famine of 1943 had led to two million deaths, his only response was to express regret that [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi]] wasn't one of them) Churchill is remembered in [[EvilBrit a negative light]], in contrast to his positive reputation in Britain. Despite his genocidal reputation, he still topped a BBC poll of history's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons 100 Greatest Britons]], and is generally regarded as a great wartime leader - just [[WonTheWarLostThePeace not a particularly great Prime Minister]].

However, he also had a dark side frequently overlooked in British popular history. [[TheSocialDarwinist He supported eugenics (at one time suggesting 100,000 Britons should be sterilized)]], [[OmnicidalManiac and was involved in a number of atrocities in nations ruled or invaded by the British Empire]], including the Bengal famine of 1943 (where millions of Bengalis died), concentration camps in Kenya (with up to a million Kenyans detained), and massacres in Sudan and Afghanistan, and his bellicosity included ill-conceived plans to try to reconstitute the Wehrmacht and continue WWII to destroy the Soviet Union.[[note]]Although he wsn't really serious about that, which was why the plan was code-named "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable Operation Unthinkable]]"[[/note]] In former British colonies, particularly those of the Indian subcontinent (when informed that the Bengal famine of 1943 had led to two million deaths, his only response was to express regret that [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi]] wasn't one of them) Churchill is remembered in [[EvilBrit a negative light]], in contrast to his positive reputation in Britain. Despite his genocidal reputation, he still topped a BBC poll of history's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons 100 Greatest Britons]], and is generally regarded as a great wartime leader - just [[WonTheWarLostThePeace not a particularly great Prime Minister]].

He was also a notorious [[TheAlcoholic drunkard]], [[CigarChomper smoker]], and[[CloudCuckoolander eccentric]], having once ostensibly met [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]] whilst [[NakedPeopleAreFunny buck-naked in the bathtub]], declaring [[https://richardlangworth.com/churchills-naked-encounter "You see, Mr. President, I have nothing to hide."]]

However, he also had a dark side frequently overlooked in British popular history. He supported eugenics (at one time suggesting 100,000 Britons should be sterilized), and was involved in a number of atrocities in nations ruled or invaded by the British Empire, including the Bengal famine of 1943 (where millions of Bengalis died), concentration camps in Kenya (with up to a million Kenyans detained), and massacres in Sudan and Afghanistan, and his bellicosity included ill-conceived plans to try to reconstitute the Wehrmacht and continue WWII to destroy the Soviet Union.[[note]]Although he wsn't really serious about that, which was why the plan was code-named "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable Operation Unthinkable]]"[[/note]] In former British colonies, particularly those of the Indian subcontinent (when informed that the Bengal famine of 1943 had led to two million deaths, his only response was to express regret that [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi]] wasn't one of them) Churchill is remembered in [[EvilBrit a negative light]], in contrast to his positive reputation in Britain. Despite his controversial reputation, he still topped a BBC poll of history's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons 100 Greatest Britons]], and is generally regarded as a great wartime leader - just [[WonTheWarLostThePeace not a particularly great Prime Minister]].

He was also a notorious [[TheAlcoholic drunkard]], [[CigarChomper smoker]], and [[CloudCuckoolander eccentric]], having once ostensibly met [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]] whilst [[NakedPeopleAreFunny buck-naked in the bathtub]], declaring [[https://richardlangworth.com/churchills-naked-encounter "You see, Mr. President, I have nothing to hide."]]

These included the abortive eugenics initiative proposed above. Churchill managed to become First Lord of the Admiralty and masterminded the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne Gallipoli Campaign of 1915]], resigning upon its failure. He lost his seat in 1922, but returned in 1924 and rejoined the Conservatives. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) for the next five years, where he made a disastrous decision to reintroduce the gold standard. Churchill described this as the biggest mistake of his career; it contributed to high unemployment and mass strikes. He was isolated within the party in the 1930s, but made a political comeback after his opposition to the appeasement of Germany was vindicated.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' that shows the Warner siblings past exploits, he appears in a scene where the three protagonists show up at his meeting with FDR and Stalin, ltting them playfully jump on his stomach. [[BeenThereShapedHistory (And cinching the meeting.)]]

However, he also had a dark side frequently overlooked in British popular history. He supported eugenics (at one time suggesting 100,000 Britons should be sterilized), and was involved in a number of atrocities in nations ruled or invaded by the British Empire, including the Bengal famine of 1943 (where millions of Bengalis died), concentration camps in Kenya (with up to a million Kenyans detained), and massacres in Sudan and Afghanistan, and his bellicosity included ill-conceived plans to try to reconstitute the Wehrmacht and continue WWII to destroy the Soviet Union. In former British colonies, particularly those of the Indian subcontinent (when informed that the Bengal famine of 1943 had led to two million deaths, his only response was to express regret that [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi]] wasn't one of them) Churchill is remembered in [[EvilBrit a negative light]], in contrast to his positive reputation in Britain. Despite his controversial reputation, he still topped a BBC poll of history's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons 100 Greatest Britons]], and is generally regarded as a great wartime leader - just [[WonTheWarLostThePeace not a particularly great Prime Minister]].

Many of Churchill's quotes are legendary (with his insults even ''more'' legendary; Cracked.com once described him as [[GentlemanSnarker "handing out third-degree burns like some sort of reverse fireman"]]), including (as well as our page quote):

A Prime Minister very much beloved in Britain, he is famous for his constant wit (e.g. Bessie Braddock MP: "You, sir, are drunk!" Churchill: "And you are ugly. Tomorrow morning, madam, I shall be sober."), his [[CigarChomper cigar-smoking]] (his scowl in the famous portrait, shown above, is because the photographer took his cigar away) and the Victory salute ("the bird" inverted, although ''he'' didn't invert it).

[[caption-width-right:239:[[Film/TheDarkKnight Not the Prime Minister we deserved, but the Prime Minister we needed]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII right then.]][[note]]Yousuf Karsh (the photographer) intentionally got Churchill to scowl by snatching the man's cigar right out of his mouth. Karsh also took [[http://acurator.com/blog/2015/01/winston-churchill-by-yousuf-karsh-the-smiling-portrait.html another (less famous) photo at the same occasion]], which showed Churchill smiling. Indeed, Lady Churchill detested the scowling photo, as she knew that it did not reflect her husband's actual mood at the time, having just delivered a very well-received talk.[[/note]]]]

However, he also had a dark side frequently overlooked in British popular history. He supported eugenics (at one time suggesting 100,000 Britons should be sterilized), and was involved in a number of atrocities in nations ruled or invaded by the British Empire, including the Bengal famine of 1943 (where millions of Bengalis died), concentration camps in Kenya (with up to a million Kenyans detained), and massacres in Sudan and Afghanistan. He was one of the few in the Government [[BloodKnight who were eager for war]] during the Sudetenland Crisis, when Britain was ill-prepared for a war that would have had very little public support, and he hatched ill-conceived plans to try to reconstitute the Wehrmacht and continue WWII to destroy the Soviet Union. In former British colonies, particularly those of the Indian subcontinent (when informed that the Bengal famine of 1943 had led to two million deaths, his only response was to express regret that [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi]] wasn't one of them) Churchill is remembered in [[EvilBrit a negative light]], in contrast to his positive reputation in Britain. Despite his controversial reputation, he still topped a BBC poll of history's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons 100 Greatest Britons]], and is generally regarded as a great wartime leader - just [[WonTheWarLostThePeace not a particularly great Prime Minister]].