London, Aug 11 (ANI): He might have led Britain to victory in the Second World War, but the new history seems to have forgotten Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
A team of scholars working for TV's History Channel compiled the list for a five-part television series called 50 Things You Need To Know About British History, but omitted the likes of Churchill, Queen Victoria, Florence Nightingale, Captain Cook and Sir Walter Raleigh from their list.
Though the list included Shakespeare, Charles Darwin, and explorer David Livingstone.
It also included events like the building of the Red House in 1859 that was key to the development of British arts and crafts, the gin drinking craze of 1729, and the completion of the Channel Tunnel.
Television presenter and historian David Starkey has dubbed the list "just silly".
"World politics would be very different today were it not for Winston Churchill," British tabloid The Sun quoted him as saying.
"Victoria is a more interesting one. She was not the most important figure of the Victorian era but she was its greatest symbol," he added.
Professor Bernard Capp, a leading historian from the University of Warwick was also stunned to discover the omission of Churchill from the list of Britain's most important people.
"I think it is most astonishing that Winston Churchill has been omitted," said Capp.
The team failed to include a single Welsh person or event on their "British" list.
Laurence Westgaph, one of the historians who helped in compiling the list admitted: "I did lobby for Wales. I don't think you can talk about Britishness without including Wales."
He also said that he had argued they needed more traditional elements in the list, people contended it saying that was a "dead white males" view of history.
Capp said: "And as for the Welsh being left out, I would argue that David Lloyd George was a fairly important part of British history." (ANI)
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