Sir Winston Churchill Resigns (1955) (News Reel)

News reel coverage of the retirement of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister in 1955.

After recovering the premiership in 1951 (the Conservatives had lost the general election of 1945 badly) Churchill served as the peacetime Prime Minister of the UK until April of 1955. During his 2nd tenure he promoted moderate reforms and surprised both the right and left by building over 300,000 homes for those in most desperate need (bearing in mind the massive level of destruction caused by the war that Britain was still recovering from). His term is perhaps best remembered for his managing the royal succession following the death of George VI, a close personal friend. Most of his biographers have asserted that he had little contact with the Princess Elizabeth and that he became somewhat smitten by her when she became Queen. He regarded it as his most important duty to guide and instruct her in the role of a constitutional monarch during her first years on the throne. Sadly his last two years were marked by a precipitous decline in health. Although largely successful in keeping it out of the press, by 1955 it had become apparent to his ministers and other grandees of the Conservative Party that he was failing and hints, both discrete and not, were dropped. The Queen's decision to dine with the Churchills at Downing Street on his last night in office was a singular honor never done before or since by any British monarch. The Queen offered Churchill a hereditary peerage with the proposed title being Duke of London, but he demurred, some saying he wished to die a commoner and others suggesting he only declined under pressure from his son Randolph who did not want to inherit a dukedom.

He had literally saved his country from annihilation, and yet the voters cast him aside in ‘45 to do Socialism.

This lesson must never be forgotten. Electorates have tendencies to want to try Socialism the moment they feel it’s safe to do so.

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