Retell Lecture

The Right Honorable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a British statesman, best known as prime minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. At various times a soldier, journalist, author, and politician, Churchill is generally regarded as one of the most important leaders in British and world history. Considered reactionary on some issues, such as granting independence to Britain's colonies and at times regarded as a self-promoter who changed political parties to further his career, it was his wartime leadership that earned him iconic status. Some of his peace-time decisions, such as restoring the Gold Standard in 1924, were disastrous as was his World War I decision to land troops on the Dardanelles. However, during 1940, when Britain alone opposed Hitler's Nazi Germany in the free world, his stirring speeches inspired, motivated, and uplifted a whole people during their darkest hour. Churchill saw himself as a champion of democracy against tyranny, and was profoundly aware of his own role and destiny. Indeed, he believed that God had placed him on earth to carry out heroic deeds for the protection of Christian civilization and human progress. A providential understanding of history would concur with Churchill's self-understanding. Considered old-fashioned, even reactionary by some people today, he was actually a visionary whose dream was of a united world, beginning with a union of the English-speaking peoples, then embracing all cultures. In his youth, he cut a dashing figure as a cavalry officer as seen in the 1972 film Young Winston (directed by Richard Attenborough), but the images of him that are the most widely remembered are as a rather overweight, determined, even pugnacious looking senior statesman as he is depicted to the right.