Monday, Feb. 08, 2010
Sir Winston Churchill
Lionized for helping lead the Allies to victory in World War II, Winston Churchill was widely expected to run away with a win in Britain's first postwar elections in 1945. Instead, he proved unable to set a clear peacetime direction for his Conservative Party. Britons, taken with the Labour Party's promises of a welfare state, full employment and National Health Service, chose Clement Attlee in a landslide. It took six years — and another loss, in 1950 — before Churchill was returned to office in 1951. He served as Prime Minister until 1955, when he resigned at age 80 due to failing health.