What were Winston Churchill's qualifications like?

Answer 1

In the modern sense, Churchill did not have many formal qualifications: he didn't go to university, so never took the matriculation exams required for entrance, & had no degree; except, of course, many honorary ones awarded later in life!

He was not, however, quite the school failure he later pretended to have been: eg won a major prize at Harrow School for Classical Recitation, & he passed the entrance exam (comprising papers in English, Maths, Physical Sciences, French, History & Geography, and Political Economy) for the Royal Military College (as it then was), Sandhurst. He completed successfully the commissioning course at Sandhurst, which in those days required quite a high level of competence in such things as geography, military mapping/ topography, military history, French, essential mathematics & "military science" (eg basic field engineering & gunnery, logistics, formal military writing, military law, basic accounting) as well as drill, Fencing, boxing, gymnastics & general physical training, equitation, infantry tactics, weapon training, & principles of leadership.

What Churchill did have was a lot of "real world" experience. As a soldier, he served in India, and saw active service in Afghanistan (1897), & the Sudan - where he participated in the last full cavalry charge of the British Army (Battle of Omdurman, Sept 2nd 1898) - and also as an infantry battalion commander (Lt Col) on the Western Front, France (1915-16) during WW1. He enjoyed soldiering, was a personally courageous and determined officer, and killed many enemies in close quarter combat; his customised Mauser automatic pistol (used on active service) is displayed in the National Army Museum, London. He was a war correspondent during the 2nd Boer War, 1899-1902, where he was captured, & later escaped from a POW camp: the minor "celebrity" status resulting from this feat was a great help to his campaign to enter Parliament in 1901.

He was an accomplished author: during his long life he wrote many articles & several books on military, political & historical subjects, culminating in the 4 volume "History of the English Speaking Peoples" (1956-8), & he won the Nobel Prize for Literature! He was also quite a good amateur painter, & a skilled bricklayer - he regularly built or rebuilt/ repaired walls on his Chartwell estate; it was a form of relaxation for him.

Churchill was elected a Member of Parliament (Conservative) in 1901, but defected to the Liberals in 1904 over issues of free trade/ tariffs. He later rejoined the Conservatives, having re-entered Parliament in 1924 (after a brief period, 1922-24, when he lost his seat) as a "Constitutionalist". Apart from this brief interlude, he was a Member of Parliament from 1901 until 1964.

Offices of State held prior to 1940 included:

President of the Board of Trade (1908-10);

Home Secretary (1910-11);

First Lord of the Admiralty (1911-15);

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1915 - very briefly, having resigned the Admiralty because of the Gallipoli fiasco);

Minister of Munitions (1917-19);

Secretary for Air & War (1919-21);

Colonial Secretary (1921-22);

Chancellor of the Exchequer (1924-29);

First Lord of the Admiralty (1939-40).

During the 1930s he worked closely with scientists (notably Prof F Lindemann) & other "interested parties" (journalists, intelligence experts, business people etc) to develop a "private" intelligence centre (based in his home at Chartwell) aimed at keeping the threat of Nazi Germany in the political & public consciousness.

When the "call" came in 1940 to lead a wartime coalition government of all parties, Churchill's life & career had - arguably - prepared him very well for the unique challenge of being national leader in a time of extreme crisis. As Clement Attlee (Labour Leader, Churchill's wartime deputy, & Labour Prime Minister 1945-51) later famously noted, if Churchill's pre 1940 career had largely been a "study in failure", his wartime leadership (and de facto role as "Warlord") made him "the greatest Englishman of our time".

Post 1945, & following the Conservative landslide defeat by Labour in the July 1945 General Election, Churchill continued as leader of the Conservative Party (a role he had never, technically, performed before!), & in 1951 when the Conservatives won the GE, he became Prime Minister again (this time leading a Conservative Govt), resigning due to failing health in 1955.