In 1958, a trust was established with Sir Winston Churchill as its chairman of trustees, to build and endow a college for 60 fellows and 540 students as a national and Commonwealth memorial to Winston Churchill; its Royal Charter and Statutes were approved by the Queen Elizabeth II, in August 1960.

[6] In 1955, on holiday in Sicily soon after his resignation as prime minister, Winston Churchill discussed with Sir John Colville and Lord Cherwell the possibility of founding a new institution.

Churchill had been impressed by the United States' Massachusetts Institute of Technology and wanted a British version, but the plans evolved into the more modest proposal of creating a science and technology-based college within the University of Cambridge.

[7] Churchill wanted a mix of non-scientists to ensure a well-rounded education and environment for scholars and fellows.

On 27 October 2020, the college launched Churchill, Empire and Race, intended as a year-long programme looking critically at its founder.

Only a few years later, being opened in 1974, an extension to the library building was added to house the Churchill Archives Centre.

Its original purpose was to provide a home to Sir Winston's papers, however since then it has been endowed with papers from other political figures including former Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, as well as former Leader of the Opposition Neil Kinnock, and those of eminent scientists and engineers including Reginald Victor Jones, Rosalind Franklin and Sir Frank Whittle.

[14] In 1992, the Møller Centre for Continuing Education was built on the Churchill site, designed by Henning Larsen.

[18] The idea of having a religious building within a modern, scientifically-oriented academic institution deeply annoyed some of the original fellows, leading to the resignation of Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick in protest.

The chimney of the heating system at the front of the college substitutes visually for the missing chapel tower.

A donation was later made by Lord Beaumont of Whitley to Churchill College for the establishment of one, and the majority of fellows voted in favour of it.

Crick, in short order, replied with a letter dated 12 October 1961 accompanied by a cheque for 10 guineas saying that, if that were the case, the enclosed money should be used for the establishment of a brothel.

[27] Two sculptures by Nigel Hall stand in front of the main gate of the college: The Now (1999) and Southern Shade I (2010).

Sir Anthony Caro's Forum used to stand near the front gate of the college but it was removed in 2004 and replaced in 2007 by Lynn Chadwick's Beast Alerted 1.

[34] The Conference on Everything gives students an opportunity to present their own research as well as featuring talks from distinguished speakers including Salah Al-Shaikhly, the Iraqi ambassador to the United Kingdom; Michael Green, Lucasian Professor and pioneer of string theory; Julian Huppert, scientist and Member of Parliament (MP) for Cambridge; David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk, and Nicholas Bingham, Senior Investigator at Imperial College London and Visiting Professor of Mathematics at the London School of Economics.

In special formal meals such as Matriculation Dinner or Scholars' Feast the Master usually raises a toast, first to "The King" and then to "Sir Winston".

This latter tradition started in the early 2000s with the students customarily toasting in the reverse order: "Sir Winston", followed by "The Queen".