Editing Winston Churchill (section)

==Lloyd George government: 1916–1922==
{{main|Winston Churchill's Liberal Party years, 1904–1924}}

===Minister of Munitions: 1917–1919===
In October 1916, Asquith resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Lloyd George who, in May 1917, sent Churchill to inspect the French war effort.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=373}} In July, Churchill was appointed [[Minister of Munitions]].{{sfnm|1a1=Rhodes James|1y=1970|1p=90|2a1=Gilbert|2y=1991|2p=374}} He negotiated an end to a strike in munitions factories along the [[River Clyde|Clyde]] and increased munitions production.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=376, 377}} In his October 1917 letter to his Cabinet colleagues, he penned the plan of attack for the next year, that would bring final victory to the Allies.{{sfn|Churchill|1927}} He ended a second strike, in June 1918, by threatening to conscript strikers into the army.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=392–393}} In the House of Commons, Churchill voted in support of the [[Representation of the People Act 1918]], which gave some women the right to vote.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=379–380}} In November 1918, four days after the [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|Armistice]], Churchill's fourth child, Marigold, was born.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=403}}

===Secretary of State for War and Air: 1919–1921===
[[File:War Industry in Britain during the First World War Q84077.jpg|thumb|Churchill meets female workers at Georgetown's filling works near [[Glasgow]] in October 1918.]]
Lloyd George called a [[1918 United Kingdom general election|general election]] for 14 December 1918.{{sfnm|1a1=Rhodes James|1y=1970|1p=91|2a1=Gilbert|2y=1991|2p=403}} During the campaign, Churchill called for nationalisation of the railways, a control on monopolies, tax reform, and the creation of a [[League of Nations]] to prevent wars.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=404}} He was returned as MP for Dundee and, though the Conservatives won a majority, Lloyd George was retained as prime minister.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=404}} In January 1919, Lloyd George moved Churchill to the [[War Office]] as both [[Secretary of State for War]] and [[Secretary of State for Air]].{{sfnm|1a1=Rhodes James|1y=1970|1p=100|2a1=Gilbert|2y=1991|2pp=404–405}}

Churchill was responsible for demobilising the army,{{sfnm|1a1=Rhodes James|1y=1970|1p=101|2a1=Gilbert|2y=1991|2p=406}} though he convinced Lloyd George to keep a million men conscripted for the [[British Army of the Rhine]].{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=406–407}} Churchill was one of the few government figures who opposed harsh measures against Germany,{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=403}} and he cautioned against demobilising the German Army, warning they might be needed as a bulwark against [[Soviet Russia]].{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=401}} He was outspoken against [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] government in Russia.{{sfnm|1a1=Rhodes James|1y=1970|1pp=105–106|2a1=Gilbert|2y=1991|2p=411}} He initially supported using British troops to assist the anti-Communist [[White forces]] in the [[Russian Civil War]],{{sfnm|1a1=Rhodes James|1y=1970|1pp=102, 104|2a1=Gilbert|2y=1991|2p=405}} but soon recognised the people's desire to bring them home.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=411–412}} After the Soviets won the civil war, Churchill proposed a ''[[Cordon sanitaire (politics)|cordon sanitaire]]'' around the country.{{sfnm|1a1=Rhodes James|1y=1970|1p=123|2a1=Gilbert|2y=1991|2p=420}}

In the [[Irish War of Independence]], he supported the use of the paramilitary [[Black and Tans]] to combat Irish revolutionaries.{{sfnm|1a1=Rhodes James|1y=1970|1pp=126–127|2a1=Gilbert|2y=1991|2pp=422, 425|3a1=Jordan|3y=1995|3pp=70–75}} After British troops in Iraq clashed with [[Kurds|Kurdish]] rebels, Churchill authorised two squadrons to the area, proposing they be equipped with "poison gas" to [[Gas in Mesopotamia|be used]] to "inflict punishment upon recalcitrant natives without inflicting grave injury upon them", although this was never implemented.{{sfnm|1a1=Gilbert|1y=1991|1pp=424–425|2a1=Douglas|2y=2009|2p=861}} He saw the [[Mandatory Iraq|occupation of Iraq]] as a drain on Britain and proposed, unsuccessfully, that the government should hand control back to Turkey.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=428}}

===Secretary of State for the Colonies: 1921–1922===
[[File:Winston Churchill in Tel Aviv, 1921.jpg|alt=Churchill as Secretary of State for the Colonies during his visit to Mandatory Palestine, Tel Aviv, 1921.|thumb|Churchill as Secretary of State for the Colonies during his visit to Mandatory Palestine, Tel Aviv, 1921]] [[File:Chartwell02.JPG|thumb|Churchill's main home was [[Chartwell]] in Kent.]]
Churchill became Secretary of State for the Colonies in February 1921.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=431}} The following month, the first exhibit of his paintings took place in Paris, with Churchill exhibiting under a pseudonym.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=431}} In May, his mother died, followed in August by his daughter Marigold, from [[sepsis]].{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|pp=438, 439}} Churchill was haunted by Marigold's death for the rest of his life.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/churchills-torment-over-death-of-two-year-old-daughter-laid-bare-llw8zns6lxs |last=Brooks |first=Richard |title=Churchill's torment over death of two year old daughter laid bare |work=[[The Times]] |date=28 February 2016 |access-date=27 January 2022 |archive-date=27 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127121556/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/churchills-torment-over-death-of-two-year-old-daughter-laid-bare-llw8zns6lxs |url-status=live}}</ref>

Churchill was involved in negotiations with [[Sinn Féin]] leaders and helped draft the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]].{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=441}} He was responsible for reducing the cost of occupying the Middle East,{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=431}} and was involved in the installations of [[Faisal I of Iraq]] and [[Abdullah I of Jordan]].{{sfnm|1a1=Rhodes James|1y=1970|1p=133|2a1=Gilbert|2y=1991|2pp=432–434}} Churchill travelled to [[Mandatory Palestine]] where, as a supporter of [[Zionism]], he refused an Arab Palestinian petition to prohibit Jewish migration.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=435}} He did allow temporary restrictions following the [[Jaffa riots]].{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=437}}

In September 1922, the [[Chanak Crisis]] erupted as Turkish forces threatened to occupy the Dardanelles neutral zone, which was policed by the British army based in [[Chanak]]. Churchill and Lloyd George favoured military resistance to any Turkish advance but the majority Conservatives in the coalition government opposed it. A political debacle ensued which resulted in the Conservative withdrawal from the government, precipitating the [[1922 United Kingdom general election|November 1922 general election]].<ref name="HGN"/>

Also in September, Churchill's fifth and last child, [[Mary Churchill|Mary]], was born, and in the same month he purchased [[Chartwell]], in Kent, which became his family home.{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=450}} In October 1922, he underwent an [[appendectomy]]. While he was in hospital, Lloyd George's coalition was dissolved. In the general election, Churchill [[Dundee in the 1922 general election|lost his Dundee seat]]{{sfn|Gilbert|1991|p=456}} to [[Edwin Scrymgeour]], a prohibitionist candidate. Later, he wrote that he was "without an office, without a seat, without a party, and without an appendix".{{sfn|Jenkins|2001|p=376}} He was elevated as one of 50 members of the [[Order of the Companions of Honour]], as named in Lloyd George's [[1922 Dissolution Honours]] list.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=32766 |supp=y |page=8017 |date=10 November 1922 |access-date=8 May 2021}}</ref>