Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965), Prime Minister.

As First Lord of the Admiralty during World War I, Churchill was held responsible for the naval campaign to capture the Dardanelles Straits from the Ottoman Empire that resulted in 46,000 allied deaths. He resigned in 1915, his reputation ruined until the Dardanelles Commission cleared his name in 1917. Orpen's portrait was painted during the Dardanelles enquiry and captures Churchill at the lowest point of his career. Orpen referred to him as a 'man of misery' at that time. Churchill remarked: 'It is not the picture of a man, it is the picture of a man's soul.'