It is too simple to juxtapose the 1940-45 and 1951-55 Winston Churchill premierships in terms of a straight contrast between war and peace, as his wartime government had to devote increasing consideration to domestic problems, notably reconstruction planning, after the Beveridge debate of 1943. Churchill’s last term can best be seen as conducted within the context of four overlapping shadows: he lived and operated in the long shadow cast by his World War II experience; he was acutely conscious of Britain’s decline as a Great Power; he was fully aware of the devastating potential of the hydrogen bomb; and he suffered from his own growing physical infirmity, especially after his stroke in July 1953. It is inconceivable now that a prime minister in his late seventies could run the country from his bed, which was what Churchill largely did in his last years at 10 Downing Street.
