Caption: "Churchill stands next to a biplane after completing a 126 mile flight, Central Flying School at Upavon on Salisbury Plain, May 1914. An impetuous and extremely lucky pilot, he was once on a plane crack-up, but escaped unharmed." Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (November 30, 1874 - January 24, 1965) was a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, he was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British Prime Minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. During WWI he served as First Lord of the Admiralty. When a coalition government was formed in May 1915 he was removed from the Admiralty because he had proposed the disastrous Battle of Gallipoli. Churchill rejoined the British Army, attempting to obtain an appointment as brigade commander, but settling for command of a battalion. After spending some time as a Major with the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding the 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1916. As a commander he continued to exhibit the reckless daring which had been a hallmark of all his military actions, although he disapproved strongly of the mass slaughter involved in many Western Front actions.
