Winston Churchill

"As you're aware, a vote can be far more lethal than a bullet or a blade."

―Churchill to Lydia, 1916.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874 – 1965) was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 – 1945 and again from 1951 – 1955. Along with being an officer in the British Army, a historian, writer, and artist, Churchill is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential war-time political leaders.

Biography

Early life

Churchill was born in 1874, to the influential Spencer-Churchill family. From a young age, he was determined to surpass his forbearers: his father Randolph had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and their ancestor John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough had won a series of battles against the French in the War of the Spanish Succession.

In 1895, Churchill joined the British army, serving first in the British Raj's northwest frontier and then in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan for the Mahdist War. Four years later, he left to work as a war correspondent, but was taken prisoner by the Boers while reporting on the Second Boer War in South Africa. He managed to escape by travelling almost 300 miles into Portuguese-occupied Mozambique.

After his return to Britain, Churchill entered politics and quickly became known for self-aggrandizement, especially following his highly publicized presence in London at a police siege in which he allegedly gave direction on the ground. In 1911, he was named First Lord of the Admiralty and oversaw the modernization of the Royal Navy; one of his experimental projects consisted of boats armed with anti-aircraft guns.

World War I

"We may have struck a blow against the enemy, but London is still riddled with German agents. Currently, there's a new group, unlike anything I've seen before. Theirs is a fanatical, almost religious, fervor."

―Churchill on the spies in London, 1916.

When World War I began, Churchill was primarily preoccupied with how England could counter German U-boats from the Imperial German Navy. However, the failed Gallipoli campaign led him to temporarily withdraw from politics and lead the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front, before returning to Britain.

Churchill with Lydia

In 1916, Churchill enlisted the aid of the British Assassin Lydia Frye to root out a German spy radio calling dirigibles near Tower Bridge in London. Despite her success in finding the radio, one dirigible, accompanied by multiple fighter planes, entered London’s airspace. Churchill then arranged for a ship with a mounted anti-aircraft gun for Lydia's use, in order to shoot down the enemy aircraft.

After she successfully destroyed the enemy planes, Churchill requested Lydia's aid once more, this time to stop a fanatical German group in London; in return, he promised to raise the issue of women's suffrage once he was back in Parliament. Churchill delivered information on the spies to Frye, and arranged for a raid on the leader's hideout, ensuring the spy cell's dissolution.

Despite his promise to Lydia, as the Liberal Party's then-Home Secretary, Churchill would only back a bill granting the women's vote if it received majority support from voting men, something that was unlikely to happen. With Parliament's inability to pass three proposed Conciliation Bills from 1910–1912 that would have given wealthy women the vote, coupled with then-Prime Minister Herbert Asquith's staunch anti-suffagist views since 1882 in spite of his own minority government members' support, the issue was ultimately delayed until 1918 with the passing of the Fourth Reform Act.

In 1917, Churchill became Minister of Munitions, putting him in charge of the production and delivery of tanks, planes, and ammunition to the front; his efforts were regarded as a significant contributor to Germany's defeat.

World War II and later life

Churchill later fell under the influence of the Templars, unwittingly helping to facilitate World War II alongside Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt by the Templars to create a New World Order. At least one Templar worked in the background of his war office. He was celebrated for his tactical genius, leadership, and steadfast refusal to allow the Nazis to succeed. Following the war, he pushed for social reform in Britain and won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Churchill eventually died of a stroke in 1965.

Gallery

• 
  Churchill at the Yalta Conference

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed II (Glyphs only)
• Assassin's Creed: Initiates (mentioned in Database entry only)
• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Heresy (mentioned only)