One was born in a small town in Texas, in a family with little to its name; the other, sixteen years earlier, was the grandson of a Duke whose ancestral home was one of Britain’s greatest palaces.

When the Second World War began, Dwight David Eisenhower was a little-known Lt. Colonel in a United States Army which numbered under 200,000, just the 19th largest in the world. Winston Spencer Churchill was approaching his 65th birthday, with a mercurial political career that had already spanned four decades. Just a few months later, he and Britain would stand alone against a totalitarian power the likes of which the world had never seen.

The leadership of Winston Churchill in the critical days of 1940 ensured that the free world would survive its greatest challenge. Four years later, it fell to Dwight Eisenhower to command the largest amphibious invasion in history. Had either of them failed, the course of modern history would have been radically different.

Despite their disparate backgrounds, fate and destiny brought these men together. Sometimes they agreed and other times stood apart but together they helped determine the future of the world for much of the 20th century.

Join acclaimed Churchill speaker and popular Community Library presenter Lee Pollock as he tells the fascinating story of two of the greatest men of modern times and how their leadership in times of crisis changed history – and can provide lessons for the challenges of our world today. Lee Pollock is Director and Senior Advisor to the Board of The International Churchill Society.

Registration is recommended to save your seat.

Image: Winston Churchill shows off his famous ‘siren suit’ to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, during a tour of Allied invasion forces in Kent, 12 May 1944. Courtesy of PICRYL.