Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill (51 page)

“about trying to attract attention”
: WSC to Jack, Dec. 2, 1897, CAC.

“The boy seemed to look”
:
Harper’s
, July 1900.

“I have faith in my star”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Sept. 5, 1897, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:784.

In fact, soon after arriving
: Coughlin,
Churchill’s First War
, 150.

“I rode on my grey pony”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Sept. 19, 1897, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:792.

“Mud villages and castles”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 138.

“This kind of war”
: Ibid., 180.

As Churchill stared intently
: Ibid., 139.

“Now suddenly”
: Winston Churchill,
Story of the Malakand Field Force
, 103.

“From high up on the crag”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 140.

Turning, Churchill watched in outrage
: Winston Churchill,
Story of the Malakand Field Force
, 103.

“I forgot everything else”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 141.

“It was a horrible business”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Sept. 19, 1897, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:792.

“Bullets—to a philosopher”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Dec. 22, 1897, CAC.

CHAPTER 2: THE GRAVEN PALM

He published his first book
: Newspaper clipping of review from “Our Library Table,” Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust, CHAR 28/24.

“I am somewhat impatient”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Jan. 26, 1898, quoted in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 64.

“horses spouting blood”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 193.

“You cannot gild it”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Sept. 4, 1898, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:973.

“Nothing touched me”
: Ibid., quoted in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 415.

“set fair” and “On what do these things depend”
: WSC to Charles Spencer-Churchill, Sept. 29, 1898, LOC.

“I have sent my papers”
: WSC to Charles Spencer-Churchill, Jan. 24, 1899, LOC.

the Clock Tower
: Parliament’s famous Clock Tower is now called Elizabeth Tower, in honor of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

“To me”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 46.

“Everything he said”
: Ibid., 32.

When at Harrow
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, June 24 and July 8 [?], 1887.

“The darling of democracy”
: Scott,
Winston Spencer Churchill
, 10.

“Mr. Moore, who was devoted”
: Quoted in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 86.

“write four plays”
:
Isle of Wight Observer
, March 5, 1898.

Wilde wrote
: Wilde wrote a letter,
De Profundis
, from prison, and, after his release, a final poem,
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
.

“expecting four guineas”
: Ibid.

“strange skill in Palmistry”
: WSC to Mrs. Robinson, May 3, 1899, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1023.

“would rather not have”
: WSC to Mrs. Robinson, May 6, 1899, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1024.

“very little hope”
: “Court Circular,”
Times
, June 15, 1899.

“There is no doubt”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, June 25, 1899, CAC.

CHAPTER 3: THE SCION

“If ever the Industrial Revolution”
: N. J. Frangopulo,
Tradition in Action: The Historical Evolution of the Greater Manchester County
(Wakefield: EP, 1977), 154.

Inside, three horseshoe-shaped galleries
:
Morning Post
, June 28, 1899.

Churchill’s life on the public stage
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 206.

Unable to pronounce the letter
s
: Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 293.

“Where is the London twain?”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 69.

Although he would become famous
: Just four years later, Churchill would have a disastrous experience while pretending to make an impromptu speech in the House of Commons. After just a few lines, he forgot what he had planned to say next and was forced to sit down without finishing the speech. The situation had been shocking to the other members of the House, who already saw him as a great speaker, and devastating to Churchill. He never attempted to make another speech without his notes.

“Winston has spent the best years”
: Nicholas Soames, “Sweat and Tears Made Winston Churchill’s Name,”
Telegraph
, May 4, 2011.

“Personally I am very popular”
: WSC to Charles Spencer-Churchill, June 29, 1899, CAC.

“I improve every time”
: WSC to Pamela Plowden, July 2, 1899, CAC.

“was proud to stand”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 223.

“We shall see”
:
Manchester Evening News
, June 26, 1899, quoted in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1029.

his hands either placed confidently
: John Hulme, “Mr. Churchill: A Portrait from 1901,”
Finest Hour
, no. 49 (Autumn 1985).

“Throughout he was listened to”
:
Morning Post
, June 28, 1899.

“a touch of mysticism”
:
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine
, 1900, clipping without further information, CAC.

“recognize in Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill”
:
Morning Post
, June 28, 1899.

“Mrs. Runciman goes everywhere”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, July 2, 1899, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1035.

“more of the panther”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 4–5.

Major Caryl Ramsden
: Sebba,
American Jennie
, 223.

“You had better have stuck”
: Prince of Wales to Lady Randolph Churchill, Feb. 25, 1898, quoted in Ridley,
Bertie
, 315.

Patsy Cornwallis-West
: Ibid.

“You are evidently up to your old game”
: Prince of Wales to Lady Randolph Churchill, March 30, 1898, quoted in Sebba,
American Jennie
, 814.

“I suppose you think”
: Quoted in Manchester,
Visions of Glory
, 320.

“She shone for me”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 5.

At his insistence, she had charmed
: Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 340.

“This is a pushing age”
: Ibid., 426.

Jennie arrived in Oldham
: Sebba,
American Jennie
, 882.

“Lady Randolph Churchill was”
:
Sheffield Evening Telegraph
, July 7, 1899.

“as big as was known”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 225.

“a bottle of champagne”
: Ibid., 226.

“I thought he was a young man”
: Ibid.

“What an awful thing”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Jan. 11, 1899, CAC.

CHAPTER 4: BLOWING THE TRUMPET

“Looking at the lake”
: Mrs. George Cornwallis-West,
The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill
, 236–47.

“Winston is going back to school”
: Duchess of Marlborough to Lord Randolph, Jan. 23, 1888, in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 104.

“We shape our buildings”
: Forster and Bapasola,
Winston and Blenheim
, 2.

Now, however, as he wandered
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Aug. 13, 1899, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:1040.

“Amid all the chances”
: Winston Churchill,
Marlborough
, 15.

“You are young”
: WSC to Charles Spencer-Churchill, Jan. 24, 1899, LOC.

“It is a fine game to play”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Aug. 16, 1895, CAC.

In late July, Churchill received
: In 1908, while attending another of Lady Jeune’s gatherings, Churchill would become reacquainted with the woman who would become his wife, Clementine Hozier.

“An introduction to her”
:
www.kosmoid.net/lives/jeune
.

“His conversation was a practical”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 227.

When Lady Jeune pointed out
: Ibid.

About two decades after the Eureka Diamond
: The Witwatersrand is now known as the Rand, which is also the term for South Africa’s currency.

“The discovery of an El Dorado”
: Winston Churchill, “Our Account with the Boers,” 8, CAC.

“I longed for the day”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 99.

“It is not yet too late”
: Winston Churchill, “Our Account with the Boers,” CAC.

“A war in South Africa would be”
: Chamberlain to the House of Commons, May 1896, quoted in Pakenham,
Boer War
, 27.