The life of Winston Churchill covers the period from his birth on 30 November 1874 to 31 May 1904 when he formally crossed the floor of the House of Commons, defecting from the Conservative Party to sit as a member of the Liberal Party.
Churchill had mixed English and American parentage. He was born at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, as the elder son of Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill. He attended Harrow School and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. After joining the British Army in 1895, he saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, gaining fame as a war correspondent and by writing books about his campaigns.
Churchill began his political career as a member of the Conservative Party and was first elected as a Member of Parliament (MP), representing the Oldham constituency, on 24 October 1900. Dissatisfaction with Conservative government policy caused him to resign his party membership and join the Liberals in 1904.
Childhood and schooling: 1874–1895
Family background
On his father's side, Winston Churchill was a direct descendant of the Dukes of Marlborough, nominally among the higher members of the British aristocracy. The family's ancestral home is Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, where Churchill was born on Monday, 30 November 1874. His father was Lord Randolph Churchill (1849–1895), the third son of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough (1822–1883). Randolph had attended Eton College and Merton College, Oxford, gaining a second-class degree in legal theory and modern history in 1870. On 12 August 1873, he attended a shipboard party at Cowes Regatta and met Jennie Jerome (1854–1921). The couple were engaged three days later. Jennie was the second daughter of Leonard Jerome (1817–1891), an American financier, and his wife Clarissa (1825–1895). Born in Brooklyn, she had lived in Paris with her mother during her teenage years. She worked as a magazine editor at one time but became a socialite who had numerous affairs.
Having been engaged in just three days, it seems that Randolph and Jennie also intended to marry quickly but were delayed by a wrangle over marriage settlement terms between their fathers. Marlborough was justifiably worried that Jerome, a speculator, had twice been bankrupted and there was a current recession in America. Jerome wanted the settlement to be controlled by Jennie and objected to then British law which granted property rights to husbands only. Marlborough wanted his son to have exclusive control. In the end, they reached a compromise and Jerome provided an income of £2,000 per year split 50/50 between Jennie and Randolph. Marlborough settled £1,100 per year on Randolph. This was a considerable amount in total and Roy Jenkins reckoned it would have been worth £150,000 per year in 2001, but it was never enough for a profligate, irresponsible pair who lived beyond their income and were frequently in debt. According to biographer Sebastian Haffner, Randolph and Jennie were "rich by normal standards but poor by those of the rich". Randolph and Jennie were married at the British Embassy in Paris on Wednesday, 15 April 1874.
John Spencer-Churchill had twice been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the former constituency of Woodstock in Oxfordshire between 1844 and 1857, when he succeeded to the dukedom. At the time of his engagement to Jennie, Randolph was interested in a political career and about to follow in his father's footsteps as the Conservative candidate for Woodstock (this constituency was abolished in 1918 and divided between Banbury and Henley). The 1874 British general election was held between 31 January and 17 February. The Conservatives, led by Benjamin Disraeli, won with an overall majority of 48 seats. Among the new intake was Randolph, aged 25.