Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Churchill,
a former army officer, war reporter and British Prime Minister (1940-45 and
1951-55), was one of the first to call for the creation of a 'United States
of Europe'.Following the experience of the Second World War, he was convinced
that only a united Europe could guarantee peace. His aim was to eliminate
the European ills of nationalism and war-mongering once and for all.
He formulated his conclusions drawn from the lessons of history in his famous
'Speech to the academic youth' held at the University of Zurich in 1946: "There
is a remedy which ... would in a few years make all Europe ... free and ...
happy. It is to re-create the European family, or as much of it as we can,
and to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety
and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe."
Thus the driving force behind the anti-Hitler coalition became an active
fighter in Europe's cause.
Sir Winston Churchill also made a name for himself as a painter and writer;
in 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
