Gentleman-Cadet Spencer-Churchill around 1893, wearing a cap with the initials of the Royal Military College Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo

Lieutenant Churchill in the elaborate uniform of a Hussar officer. Keystone Pictures USA/Alamy Stock Photo

Churchill as a war correspondent at Bloemfontein, South Africa, circa 1900. Library of Congress

Churchill (second from right) with Fisher on the way to a ship launch in 1911. World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo

The public view of the 1913 manoeuvres, showing ships of the Red Fleet raiding the Humber estuary. © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

This cartoon of Asquith and Churchill on the yacht Enchantress is grossly unfair – far from relaxing, he was even more active than ever during the voyage. Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo

The top half of this popular illustration shows the cruiser, battlecruiser and super-Dreadnought merging into the new Queen Elizabeth class of battleships. Below, new types of destroyer and cruiser types © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Churchill dressed for a flight with army officers, presumably at the Central Flying School. © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

The Royal Naval Air Service raid the Friedrichshafen Zeppelin Sheds. © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

An early anti-submarine boom at Scapa Flow, with floats slung between fishing boats. © IWM (SP 1053)

The experimental tank Little Willie.

The monitors Severn, Humber and Mersey attacking German positions on the Belgian coast. © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

The Track of Lusitania. W. L. Wyllie’s painting does not fail to exploit the propaganda value of drowning civilians, women and children. Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo

Also by Wyllie, this drawing shows the Canopus opening fire at Port Stanley to begin the Battle of the Falkland Islands. © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection

Churchill in his office at the Admiralty, in consultation with Fisher during happier days.© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

At ‘V’ beach on 25 April 1915, the steamer River Clyde lands British troops across pontoons under heavy fire. Many men were killed or wounded. Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo

Churchill visiting General Fayolle at a French Army headquarters. He was presented with a French steel helmet which he continued to wear in the trenches even after British helmets had been issued. © Mary Evans/Marx Memorial Library

Minister of Munitions Winston Churchill inspects a production line for heavy guns during a visit to Beardmore’s Munitions Works in Glasgow on 8 October 1918. © IWM (Q 84086)

Churchill presents the £10,000 Daily Mail prize to Alcock and Brown after their pioneering flight across the Atlantic. © The Royal Aeronautical Society (National Aerospace Library)/Mary Evans Picture Library

A representation of the night action in the Battle of Jutland. The German dreadnought Nassau rams the British destroyer Spitfire. Both ships survived. Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo

The Battle of Blenheim, the climax of Marlborough’s career, one of many well-produced maps in Churchill’s biography of his ancestor.

A Vickers Vernon transport aircraft, based on a bomber and fitted with a bulbous fuselage, is used to evacuate wounded in Iraq. © IWM (H(AM) 343)

A German air delegation including Feldmarschall Ehrhard Milch is shown Handley Page Heyfords, the most up to date bomber in service, at RAF Mildenhall, in October 1937.

A Light Tank Mk.VIA of the 3rd King’s Own Hussars. © IWM (ARMY TRAINING 6/6)

Churchill as Prime Minister, at his desk in the Map Room. © IWM (COL 30)

Troops boarding the destroyer Vanquisher at the Mole at Dunkirk, during the evacuation.

The destroyer Cossack with her crew ready to board the prison ship Altmark in a neutral Norwegian fjord, February 1940.
Norman Wilkinson Estate/photo © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Churchill at work in his special train, his usual means of making long journeys within Britain. © IWM (H 10874)

Winston Churchill inspecting a Cromwell tank of the Welsh Guards in Yorkshire, March 1944. © IWM (H 37169)

Churchill with the Chiefs of Staff in the garden of 10 Downing Street. Front row from left to right: Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Churchill, and Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham. Back row, Major General L. C. Hollis, General Sir Hastings Ismay. © IWM (H 41834)

Churchill, full-length on the quarterdeck of HMS Prince of Wales, in which he travelled to the Atlantic Conference with Roosevelt in 1941. Library of Congress

Churchill comes ashore from a landing craft onto the east bank of the River Rhine in March 1945. © IWM (BU 2249)

Crimean Conference: Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Marshal Joseph Stalin at the palace in Yalta, where the Big Three met. Library of Congress/U.S. Signal Corps

Churchill on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with Princess Elizabeth (now Elizabeth II), King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret on VE Day. May 1945. © IWM (MH 21835)