Randolph S. Churchill - Winston S. Churchill. Vol. 1: Youth, 1874-1900

SECOND LIEUTENANT WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
4th Hussars 1895

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL

by R ANDOLPH S. C HURCHILL

W ITH AN I NTRODUCTION TO THE N EW E DITION
BY S IR M ARTIN G ILBERT

V OLUME I

Y OUTH

18741900

Hillsdale College Press

RosettaBooks

2015

Hillsdale College Press
33 East College Street
Hillsdale, Michigan 49242
www.hillsdale.edu

Winston S. Churchill: Youth, 18741900 (Volume I)
Copyright 1966 by C & T Publications Limited
Introduction 2005 by Martin Gilbert

Originally published in 1966 by William Heinemann Ltd. in Great Britain and by Houghton Mifflin in the United States.

All rights reserved. eBook edition published 2015 by Hillsdale College Press and RosettaBooks
Cover art by Jirka Vtinen (based on photograph from the Broadwater Collection, October 1900)
Cover design by Jay McNair
ISBN Mobipocket edition: 9780795344466

www.RosettaBooks.com

Theme of the Work

He shall be his own biographer

Lockhart

Theme of Volume I

How an under-esteemed boy of genius
of noble character and daring spirit
seized and created a hundred opportunities
to rise in the world
and add glory
by his own merit and audacity
to a name already famous

Contents

Martin Gilbert

BlenheimThe SpencersThe MarlboroughsThe JeromesA Dance at CowesThe marriage settlement.

Quarrel with the PrinceLady Aylesfords farewellPressure can be appliedDisraelis solutionViceroy of IrelandChildhood days in Dublin.

Winstons first letterEncounter with LatinTerribly slangy and loudMr. Sneyd-KynnersleyChallenge to Chamberlain.

Lord Randolph in IndiaWatching Lord RandolphThe election in BirminghamA battle for lifeLord Randolphs pinnacleAnother half-dozen autographsLord Randolph resignsFootball and theatricalsThe Golden JubileeHarrow is chosenChristmas with Mrs EverestMrs Everest gets diphtheriaWorking hard for HarrowI have passed.

Mr WelldonA prize for recitationPhenomenal slovenlinessA Remove at lastDo try to get Papa to comeThe Army ClassMr Somervells English lessonsThe preliminary examinationLord Randolph takes up racingThe den at BansteadWelldon swished usThe Lords exeat in jeopardyFireworks with Count KinskySlouchy and tiresomeWith Minssen at VersaillesVisit to the morgueI have won the fencingThe army examfirst failure.

Accident at BournemouthThe exam: third time luckyWalking tour in SwitzerlandA quarterly allowance?Neither late nor lazyShabby treatment of EverestWinston intercedesRecovery of the watchAdvantages of the cavalryChristmas at BlenheimPrudes on the prowlLord Randolphs deteriorationSolitary trees grow strong.

A vacancy in the RegimentA regimental steeplechaseA libel on ChurchillDeath of EverestSearch for first principles.

Mr Bourke CockranImpressions of New YorkUnder fire at twenty-oneHis first medalA party at TringReluctant departure.

The voyage outBungalow at BangaloreThe most beautiful girlThe life of a recluseThe delights of poloThe pony called LilyA political analysisHis early readingOn literary styleMilitary dutiesMoney troublesA dishonoured chequeHis own universityReading the Annual Register.

His first speechHoping for ordersFaith in my starI shall be Prime MinisterA hot engagementHopes of gloryHis first bookIn search of actionPolo to TirahCaptain HaldaneThe book is an eyesoreAiming at Egypt.

Appeal to SalisburyA success at BradfordChristmas tree orderA native villageAn army on the marchKitchenerPatrol at sunriseReport to the SirdarAccount to Hamilton.

Advice from the PrinceI love one above all othersThe great Polo TournamentTriumph for the RegimentBishop Welldon consultedDifficulties over the novelLord Cromers kindness.

The Scion and the SocialistThe Jameson RaidProvisions of WarPublication of The River WarShort cut to the frontThe armoured trainWorked like a niggerAlone and unarmedRounded up like cattleApplication for releaseA close prisoner.

Over the wallA knock at Howards doorHunt in PretoriaHaldanes grievanceTrain to Delagoa BayThank GodPamela

Jack, his mother and the MaineJack is woundedSavrola is publishedChamberlain writesCritique of a sermonToo many DukesRoarable and splendidDiamond Hill.

A very friendly receptionOldhamGeneral ElectionA triumphal progressLectures in EnglandLecturing difficulties in USADeath of the Queen.

Illustrations

MAPS BY JOAN EMERSON

Preface

Brought up to admire his grandfather, and daily growing throughout his youth and manhood in his love and veneration for his father the author has long aspired to write a filial and objective biography. This is evidenced by two telegrams that passed in 1932 between the author, who had not yet come of age, and his father, who was lecturing in America.

RSC to WSC
(Stour Papers)
TELEGRAM

[27 February 1932]

72 Glebe Place Chelsea

Have been offered 450 pounds advance on substantial royalties for biography of you have you any objection to my accepting if I do it will naturally be unauthorised unofficial and undocumented my aim would be present political history last thirty years in light unorthodox fashion believe could produce amusing work without embarrassing you mummie looking very well all counting days to your return love

R

WSC to RSC
(Stour Papers)
TELEGRAM

27 February 1932

Indianapolis

Strongly deprecate premature attempt hope some day you will make thousands instead of hundreds out of my archives most improvident anticipate now stop lecture pilgrimage drawing wearily final stage much love show mamma

F ATHER

This sensible advice was naturally heeded, resulting in advantages to the family even more abundant than Mr Churchill had predicted.

In planning what will be a colossal work, I have been guided very much by the lectures which that master of biography, Sir Harold Nicolson, gave in 1927 and which were first published in 1928 in the Hogarth Lectures on Literature. In The Development of English Biography, Sir Harold points out that Izaak Walton revived the admirable practice of introducing original letters into the text. He later says of Mason, who wrote the Life and Letters of Gray: He is said to have first conceived of this method on reading Middletons Cicero; but he expanded it, and allowed the letters to tell their own story, introducing them only with short explanatory captions, or explaining them by sensible and vivid notes. In a word, as he says, Mr Gray will become his own biographer. Sir Harold also observes in the same series of lectures:

For the Life of Johnson is a work of art, not merely in its actual excellence of outline, but in the careful adjustment of internal spaces. We have thus the absence of comment, or rather the very skilful interspacing of commentthe way in which Boswell first provides the evidence, and then, at a later period, confirms by comment the conclusion which the reader had already reached.

I have also been influenced by what Lockhart, the son-in-law and biographer of Sir Walter Scott, wrote:

I have endeavoured to lay before the reader those parts of Sir Walters character to which we have access, as they were indicated in his sayings and doings through the long series of his yearsmaking use, whenever it was possible, of his own letters and diaries rather than of any other materialsbut refrained from obtruding almost anything of comment. It was my wish to let the character develop itself.