Winston Churchill

Of the 14 prime ministers to have served the Queen, Winston Churchill was her first and favourite. Gales of laughter would often be heard coming from their weekly audiences. Although more than 50 years his junior, the young Queen captivated Churchill. ‘He fell under her spell,’ said his daughter Mary. The

Queen wrote that no one would ‘ever, for me, be able to hold the place of my first prime minister’. In 1955, on the PM’s last night in power, the Queen and Prince Philip attended a farewell dinner at 10 Downing Street – a rare honour. (For more on her relationships with successive UK prime ministers, see page 56.)