[Photographic Portrait].

Photograph taken by Elliot & Fry of Winston Churchill in uniform signed and dated.

Winston Churchill had a varied career during the First World War. At the outbreak of war in 1914, he was serving as First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1915 he helped orchestrate the disastrous Dardanelles naval campaign and was also involved in the planning of the military landings on Gallipoli, both of which saw large losses. Following the failure of these campaigns, Churchill was demoted and resigned from government. He became an officer in the Army and served on the Western Front until early 1916.

In 1917, under Prime Minister David Lloyd George's coalition government, Churchill was appointed Minister of Munitions, a position he held until January 1919.

The firm of Elliott & Fry was founded in 1863 by Joseph John Elliott (1835-1903) and Clarence Edmund Fry (1840-1897), who opened their first premises at 55 Baker Street where they until 1886. The firm employed a variety of operators who took the photographs, including Francis Henry Hart and Alfred James Philpott in the Edwardian era, Herbert Lambert and Walter Benington in the 1920s and 1930s and subsequently William Flowers. In the early 1940s the studio was bombed and most of the early negatives were destroyed. Shortly after the firm's Centenary in 1963 it was taken over by and amalgamated with Bassano & Vandyk. The National Portrait Gallery owns all the surviving negatives.