Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill (56 page)

“We are very sorry”
: Quoted in the
Morning Post
, Nov. 18, 1899.

“Everyone naturally discussed”
: “The Capture of Mr. Winston Churchill,”
York Herald
, Nov. 20, 1899.

“I came down in the armoured”
: Walden to Lady Randolph Churchill, Nov. 17, 1899, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 1:466.

“the gallantry of WSC”
:
Daily News Weekly
editor to Lady Randolph Churchill, Nov. 21, 1899, CAC.

“I am so grieved”
: Quoted in Sebba,
American Jennie
, 241.

“Of course, the glamour”
: Quoted in ibid., 230.

“a bit short on brain”
: Ibid.

“I hate the idea”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, April 25, 1898, in Churchill and Gilbert,
Churchill Documents
, 2:923.

“Don’t tell him I said so”
: George to Lady Randolph Churchill, Oct. 6, 1899, CAC.

“I cannot tell you what he said”
: George to Lady Randolph Churchill, Sept. 16, 1899, CAC.

That summer, the prince
: Sebba,
American Jennie
, 237–38.

“It has been my privilege”
: Ridley,
Bertie
, 315.

“my darling little missie”
: George to Lady Randolph Churchill, Aug. 24, 1899, CAC.

“After all I don’t believe”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Sept. 3, 1899, CAC.

“Had it not been for the absorbing occupation”
: Mrs. George Cornwallis-West,
The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill
, 409.

She also realized, however
:
Gloucestershire Echo
, Nov. 20, 1899.

The ship, which had been donated
: Sebba,
American Jennie
, 241.

In the end, her room
: Celia Lee, “90th Anniversary Talk on Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill,” June 29, 2011,
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support?catid=0&id=1205
.

“decorated in a manner”
: Quoted in Sebba,
American Jennie
, 243.

“had every scrap of religious literature”
: Quoted in ibid.

Lady Churchill would soon be on her way
: Lee, “90th Anniversary Talk on Jennie.”

“more than I have ever hated”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 259.

CHAPTER 15: A CITY OF THE DEAD

“The simple, valiant burghers”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 53.

“Ugly women with bright parasols”
: Ibid.

Worried that the man would accidentally
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 22; Haldane,
Soldier’s Saga
, 148–49.

“broken down constabulary”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 53.

“serious men who cared”
: Ibid.

“burly, evil-looking police official”
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 22.

“a trophy for the inhabitants”
: Ibid., 23.

“a pretty place”
: Randolph Churchill to Lady Randolph Churchill, July 2, 1891, CAC.

“an attractive, if baking hot, townlet”
: Amery,
My Political Life
, 105.

“deserted, a city of the dead”
: Ibid., 112.

“Soldiers of fortune”
: Hillegas,
With the Boer Forces
, 27.

“When cannon were roaring”
: Ibid., 26.

“The town is regularly laid out”
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 21.

While they walked
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 53.

“still more ill-favoured-looking person”
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 23.

“looked a miserable creature”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 53.

“odious Malan”
: Ibid., 56.

“life on the racecourse”
: Buttery,
Why Kruger Made War
, 30; Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 264.

In jarring contrast to the beauty
: Haldane,
Soldier’s Saga
, 150; Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 268. In
My Early Life
, Churchill writes that the fence was ten feet tall, but two other sources, including Haldane, say that it was six and a half.

Nine stony-faced ZARPs patrolled
: Hofmyer,
Story of My Captivity
, 116; Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 26.

As the men took in the Staats Model School
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 54.

“All are mobbed”
: Burnett diary,
http://www.angloboerwar.com/books/27-burnett-18th-hussars-in-south-africa/696-burnett-appendix-1
.

“the sort of reception”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 54.

On each side of the corridor
:
Sir Winston Churchill and Pretoria: Sixty Years Ago
.
http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/13262/007_p083-096.pdf?sequence=4
.

“We thought of nothing else but freedom”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 261.

Although during battle they did not
: Pakenham,
Boer War
, 172.

After the death of Penn Symons
: Rayne Kruger,
Goodbye Dolly Gray
, 87–88; Griffith,
Thank God We Kept the Flag Flying
, 98.

“the water out of their own bottles”
: Steevens,
From Capetown to Ladysmith
, 27.

“lean, fair-haired young man”
: Amery,
My Political Life
, 106.

Even Albert Einstein had been impressed
: Smuts,
Memoirs of the Boer War
, 19. By then, Smuts would have already been elected as prime minister of South Africa and served on the British War Cabinet during World War I, helping to form the Royal Air Force.

A resident artist
: Frankland would also draw two smaller cartoons on the walls of the Staats Model School. These, because they depicted Kruger fleeing from a ZARP, whip in hand, were later destroyed, but pictures of them still exist.

“dark neutral colour”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 54–55.

“You are in the power of your enemy”
: Churchill,
My Early Life
, 259.

“I am 25 today”
: Cockran to WSC, Nov. 30, 1899, CAC.

“Looking back on those days”
: Churchill,
My Early Life
, 259.

“Captured unarmed”
: De Souza archive, Witwatersrand University.

“Dearest Mama”
: WSC to Lady Randolph Churchill, Nov. 18, 1899, CAC.

“Not a vy satisfactory address”
: WSC to Plowden, Nov. 18, 1899, CAC.

De Souza, a quiet, thoughtful man
: Marie de Souza, diary, Jonathan de Souza notes, Oct. 23, 1899.

“The burghers took an armoured train”
: Marie de Souza, diary, Nov. 15, 1899.

“I have consistently adhered”
: Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 480.

“My case while under detention”
: Ibid.

“I understand that the son”
: Ibid., 479.

“The Government will act accordingly”
: Ibid.

CHAPTER 16: BLACK WEEK

“War! What a terrible thing it is”
: Marie de Souza, diary, Oct. 30, 1899.

The day after the new prisoners arrived
: Ibid., Nov. 19, 1899.

He gave Churchill news of the war
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 54.

R. W. L. Opperman
: Hofmeyr,
The Story of My Captivity
, 117; Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 55.

“a terrible hater of the English”
: Hofmeyr,
The Story of My Captivity
, 117.

Before the war, Cecil Rhodes
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 55; Hofmeyr,
Story of My Captivity
, 117.

“a far-seeing little man”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 55.

Although de Souza had gone to Europe
: Francis de Souza,
A Question of Treason
, 49.

“Louis is worried to death!”
: Marie de Souza, diary, Sept. 27, 1899.

Although Marie de Souza had been born
: Ibid., April 2, 1900.

Finally, on September 27
: Ibid., Sept. 30, 1899.

“He has been so dreadfully worried”
: Ibid., Oct. 13, 1899.

“very careful”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 55.

Despite his precarious position
: Ibid.

“as if they would be glad”
: Haldane,
How We Escaped from Pretoria
, 28.

“That night the air”
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 56.

“What about Methuen?”
: Ibid.

Just a few days before de Souza
: Amery,
Times History of the War in South Africa
, 2:119.

Joubert’s death devastated de Souza
: Meintjes,
General Louis Botha
, 41.