ABSTRACT
Sir Winston Churchills parliamentary career was one of the longest in British parliamentary history, extending continuously from 1900 to 1964, with the exception of one break between 1922 and 1924. During all this period he was very much in the public eye. Nonetheless, until 1940 his career was unfulfilled, despite his having headed eight separate government departments between 1908 and 1929, and regardless of the fact that he seemed to have overcome having started life as a Conservative and transferred to the Liberals before returning to the Conservative fold. There was always a suspicion about Churchills political reliability and he was cast into the political wilderness during the 1930s. Nevertheless, his position and reputation were restored in 1940 when he replaced Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister. It is as a wartime leader that he is best known, leading Britain to victory in the Second World War in 1945. Although he was Prime Minister again between 1951 and 1955, nothing surpassed his wartime leadership, the crowning glory of his political career.
