Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill (60 page)

“Smokes were taboo”
: “Man Who Befriended Churchill.”

While at the Staats Model School
: Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 112; Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 18.

He could remember entire lectures
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 293.

“a Christmas box”
: “Winston Churchill’s Escape.”

“superior and very satisfactory”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 293.

“bright pictures of the pleasures”
: Ibid., 294.

Sometime between 6
:00 and 7:00: “Winston Churchill’s Escape.”

“So long as it was believed”
: Ibid.

“met the train at Pretoria Station”
: “Mr. Churchill’s Escape,”
Star
, March 9, 1907.

Although Burnham had managed
: “Winston Churchill’s Escape”; Burnham to WSC, March 8, 1908, quoted in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 503–4.

It was late in the afternoon
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 294.

Quickly alighting from the train
: Burnham to WSC, March 8, 1908, quoted in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 503–4.

Unlike the other station officials
: “Winston Churchill’s Escape.”

“I gave a very plausible excuse”
: Burnham to WSC, March 8, 1908, quoted in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 503–4.

“It was tantalizing”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 295.

“Perhaps they were searching”
: Ibid.

“Perhaps there was still another station”
: Ibid.

“I…sang and shouted”
: Ibid.

“The station master there”
: Burnham to WSC, March 8, 1908, quoted in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 503–4.

“If I allowed you”
: “Winston Churchill’s Escape.”

When Burnham’s train pulled in
: Ibid.

Soon after Burnham settled in
: Burnham to WSC, March 8, 1908, quoted in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 503–4.; “Winston Churchill’s Escape.”

“place of refuge and of punishment”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 72.

He had somehow already managed
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 296.

Walking up to Churchill
: “Winston Churchill’s Escape.”

“As an outlet to the sea”
: Hillegas,
With the Boer Forces
, 20.

“Without shelter, badly fed”
: Quoted in Cammack,
Rand at War
, 119.

“Be off”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 296.

“the Consul personally at once”
: Ibid.

EPILOGUE

News of his arrival
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 297.

“It was not until I stepped”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 74.

“I was nearly torn to pieces”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 297.

“a becoming reluctance”
: Ibid.

“in a blaze of triumph”
: Ibid.

“with many friends”
: Ibid.

“I am doubtful”
: Ibid., 303.

“Winston Churchill turned up here”
: Buller to Lady Londonderry, Dec. 26, 1899, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1093.

“The victory at Omdurman”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Jan. 26, 1899, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1004.

“Here then was the new rule”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 305.

“The scenes on Spion Kop”
: WSC to Plowden, Jan. 28, 1900, CAC.

“Thank God—Pamela”
: Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1093.

Now, having endured his capture
: WSC to Plowden, Jan. 28, 1900, CAC.

“I read with particular attention”
: Ibid.

“one of the most happy memories”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 318.

Inside the prison, Charles Burnett
: Burnett,
18th Hussars in South Africa
, 263.

“Then, and then only”
: Ibid.

“Hats were flying in the air”
: Ibid.

“Some in flannels”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 352.

While the chaotic celebration
: Burnett,
18th Hussars in South Africa
, 263.

“Time
: 8:47, June 5”: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 352.

After learning that the Boers
: Haldane,
Soldier’s Saga
, 168.

“doomed to occupy”
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 38.

Although he would later say
: Brockie to his father, May 15, 1900, CAC.

By the time Haldane and Le Mesurier
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 125.

“My heartiest congratulations”
: WSC to Haldane, April 9, 1900, CAC.

Le Mesurier was immediately invalided
: Haldane,
Soldier’s Saga
, 185.

“Our operations were at an end”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 353.

The idea behind concentration camps
: South African History Online,
http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/523-people-die-black-concentration-camps-second-anglo-boer-war
.

The camps quickly multiplied
: There were an additional sixty concentration camps for Africans.

“At our meeting at Middleburg”
: Botha to Kitchener, April 11, 1901, National Archives, Kew.

“As I informed Your Honour”
: Kitchener to Botha, April 16, 1901, National Archives, Kew.

“When is a war not a war?”
: “The Tempest in the Liberal Teacup,”
Review of Reviews
26 (July–Dec. 1901): 151.

“Fight to the bitter end?”
: Quoted in Pakenham,
Boer War
, 707.

“The saint has left our shores”
: Gandhi was someone else’s problem now. In fact, he would one day be Churchill’s. In 1942, when told that Gandhi, who was then imprisoned for protesting India’s involvement in World War II, was on a hunger strike and might starve to death, Churchill would shrug and say that if it was up to him, he would “keep him there and let him do as he likes.” England would finally grant India its independence five years later, the year before Gandhi was shot to death by a Hindu nationalist while walking to a prayer meeting.

“10,000 people turned out”
: WSC to Jack, July 31, 1900,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1188–89.

The procession ended
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 356.

By that time, the British had occupied Witbank
: Ibid., 356–57.

“It is clear to me from the figures”
: WSC to Salisbury, Oct. 2, 1900,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1204.

“I write again to impress upon you”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Sept. 21, 1900, CAC.

Some three thousand people
: “Lady Randolph Churchill’s Marriage,”
York Herald
, July 30, 1900.

“The wedding was very pretty”
: WSC to Jack, July 31, 1900, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1188.

“the only woman I could ever”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Jan. 1, 1900, CAC.

“She ought to be a rich man’s wife”
: Colonel J. P. Brabazon to Mrs. John Leslie, Oct. 1900, quoted in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1209.

“Miss Plowden frequently”
: “Miss Plowden Engaged,”
Daily Chronicle
, Feb. 2, 1902.

“The first time you meet Winston”
: Quoted in Gilbert,
Churchill
, 174.

“I hope you will all”
: WSC to Howard, Feb. 26, 1901, quoted in Sandys,
Churchill: Wanted Dead or Alive
, 140.

On the back of the watches
: Many years later, Celia Sandys, Churchill’s granddaughter and the author of a number of illuminating books on him, would travel to South Africa and, while there, track down several of these gold watches. She tells the story in
Churchill: Wanted Dead or Alive
.

After the train car in which Churchill
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 106; “Winston Churchill’s Escape.”

Not long after he had helped Haldane
: “Man Who Befriended Churchill”; L. C. B. Howard to Randolph Churchill, May 31, 1963, quoted in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1132.

Although during the war he had defended
: WSC to Jack, June 28, 1900, CAC.

“We embarked on the stormy ocean”
:
Johannesburg Star
, Dec. 1900.

“the wise and right course”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 329–30.

The two men met for the first time
: Churchill would write in his memoir
My Early Life
that Botha insisted that not only had he led the attack on the armored train, but he had personally taken Churchill prisoner. Years later, while writing his biography of his father, Churchill’s son, Randolph, would find that it would have been impossible for Botha to have captured Churchill. All evidence instead points to a field cornet by the name of Sarel Oosthuizen, who was killed later in the war.