Churchill’s African Journey
On 9 December 1905, Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman sent Winston Churchill, MP for Manchester North West, a telegram at his house, 29 Belgrave Square: “Greatly obliged if you would come and see me here at six o’clock.” During their meeting, Campbell-Bannerman invited Churchill to join his Government as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. The offer was accepted.
On Churchill’s first evening as a junior member of the Government, he attended a party in London where he was introduced to Edward Marsh, a clerk in the West African Department of the Colonial Office:
“How do you do?” asked Marsh. “Which I must now say with great respect.”
“Why with great respect”? Churchill responded.
“Because you’re coming to rule over me at the Colonial Office,” Marsh replied.
Churchill made enquiries about the Colonial Office clerk, and subsequently asked him to be his Private Secretary. Marsh accepted and would work for Churchill off and on in this capacity for almost three decades.
Lord Elgin and Churchill
As Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office, Churchill, then thirty-one, became deputy to the Secretary
