Sir Winston Churchill: Published Articles by a Churchillian

By Fred Glueckstein

From the Preface by David Freeman, editor of the Finest Hour, the journal of The International Churchill Society. “Fred Glueckstein knows Winston Churchill. As can be seen in the essays that follow, Fred’s Churchillian interests are both catholic and eclectic. Fred can tell us in detail about members of the Churchill family, such as the seventh Duke of Marlborough; Churchill’s mentors, such as J.E.C. Welldon, the headmaster of Harrow; and political patrons such as Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who gave Churchill his first government office. But Fred can also tell us about the lighter side of Churchill’s life including the name of every racehorse that Churchill owned.”

“Churchill knew the great families of his time, and we read about his efforts to assist the son of Theodore Roosevelt. We also learn about the people whose lives orbited that of Churchill such as several of his bodyguards."

“As editor of Finest Hour, I was responsible for commissioning some of the essays that follow and having the pleasure of being the first person to read them. You will enjoy as much as I have delving into these studies in miniature of the many facets of Winston Churchill.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664184138

Fred Glueckstein

Fred Glueckstein is a columnist and the author of several nonfiction books including The ‘27 Yankees; Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes, and Mimi of Nový Bohumín, Czechoslovakia: A Young Woman’s Survival of the Holocaust (1938-1945). He was also a finalist for the Army Historical Foundation’s Distinguished Writing Award in 2006 for his article for ARMY magazine on the last mounted cavalry charge in U.S.military history. Raised in the Bronx, Fred lives with his wife, Eileen, in Kings Park, New York. They have two children, Brian and Debra.

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Winston Churchill opens the new headquarters of 615 (County of Surrey)

Squadron of the RAAF (Royal Auxiliary Air Force) at Croydon 1948.

(Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Rev. date: 09/14/2021

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CONTENTS

Preface

Part 1: NOTABLE EVENTS

1 Churchill’s First Authenticated Published Work Under Pseudonym Junius Junior 1891

2 Churchill’s British Lecture Tour October – November 1900

3 Churchill in First Ministerial Post Tours British East Africa in 1907

4 Churchill: The Dundee By-Election And the Suffragettes: 1908

5 Churchill Dives and Cruises On HMS D2 Submarine: 1911

6 Churchill’s Visit to Ireland’s Blarney Castle 1912

7 The Sopwith Churchill: Two-Seat Royal Naval Air Service Biplane 1914

8 Winston Churchill Saved World War I Stranded Military Horses 1919

9 Churchill and His Personal Bodyguards Provided by Scotland Yard 1921

10 The Crown’s Criminal Libel Action On Behalf of Churchill 1923

11 If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg Essay Written by Winston Churchill 1930

12 Churchill Struck By Automobile In Manhattan 1931

13 Winston S. Churchill and His Beloved Cats 1931

14 Churchill and His European Continent Tour 1932

15 Churchill, the Savoy Hotel And Kaspar the Cat 1940

16 Proposal to Churchill To Gift Magna Carta to U.S.A. 1941

17 The Fall of Singapore 1941

18 Churchill, the Royal Navy and The German Battleship Bismarck 1941

19 Churchill Addresses Joint Session of U.S. Congress 1941

20 Churchill Invokes the 1373 Anglo-Portuguese Alliance 1943

21 Winston Churchill and the Barbary Apes Of Gibraltar 1944

22 Churchill Tours Berlin’s Reich Chancellery 1945

23 Churchill Recuperated after World War II At Lake Como, Italy: Summer 1945

24 Winston Churchill and His Famous Race Horse Colonist II 1949

25 Churchill as Bricklayer 1952

26 Churchill Awarded Nobel Prize For Literature 1953

Part 2: FAMILY AND FRIENDS

27 The th Duke of Marlborough: Churchill’s Paternal Grandfather 1822-1883

28 Young Winston at Buffalo Bill’s Famous Western Show 1887

29 J. Welldon: Churchill’s Headmaster at Harrow 1888

30 Churchill: Advisor and Contributor to Lady Randolph’s Quarterly Miscellany: The Anglo-Saxon Review 1899

31 Lady Randolph Churchill And the Hospital Ship Maine 1899

32 Welcome Address at Churchill’s First U.S. Lecture Presented by Mark Twain: 1900

33 Churchill’s First Great Love: Pamela Plowden 1896

34 Churchill and Lady Violet Bonham Carter: Friends for Nearly Sixty Years 1906

35 Churchill and Sir Philip Sassoon Friends with Mutual Interests: Art, Aviation and Polo

36 Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin: A Friendship Born 1929

37 Clementine Churchill and Janet Brewster Murrow: Close Friendship Formed 1941

38 Churchill Visits the Brooklyn Birthplace Of His Mother 1953

Part 3: GREAT CONTEMPORARIES

39 William Bourke Cockran, the Great Mentor 1895-1923

40 Arthur Conan Doyle and Winston S. Churchill First Encounter: 1900

41 Sir Ernest Cassel: Mentor and Esteemed Friend 1900

42 Churchill Greatly Admired the Writings of H. G. Wells 1902

43 Churchill and King Edward VII 1901

44 Lifetime Zionist: Churchill and David Ben-Gurion Recollections of First Meeting 1961

45 Churchill and Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman: PM 1905 to 1908

46 Louis Botha: Esteemed South African Statesman 1899

47 Winston Churchill and W. Somerset Maugham: Friends Over Fifty Years 1910

48 The Statesman John F. Kennedy Most Admired

49 Winston S. Churchill and Edward R. Murrow: An Anglo-American Friendship 1940

50 Churchill Praised Rudyard Kipling As ‘Unique and Irreplaceable’ 1941

51 Kermit Roosevelt: Requested Churchill’s Aid To Remain in British Army 1941

52 Churchill and Favored Sculptor: Oscar Nemon 1950

Part 4: BOOK REVIEWS AND OTHER WRITINGS

53 Jonathan Dudley, Winston, Churchill, & Me: A Memoir of Childhood 1940-1950

54 Brough Scott, Churchill at the Gallop

55 Lepine, Mike, Churchill and the Generals, Danann Publishing, 2019

56 Winston Churchill: The Story of the Great British States man (Real Lives Series) Harriet Castor

57 Churchill Wrote Foreword to All Clear Aft: Episodes At Sea Published in 1936

58 The 1965 Winston Churchill Commemorative Crown

59 Churchill: The Power of Words Morgan Library, New York City

60 Churchill At Bay New Play In Early Stage Of Theatrical Production 2012

PREFACE

Fred Glueckstein knows Winston Churchill. As can be seen in the essays that follow, Fred’s Churchillian interests are both catholic and eclectic. Fred can tell us in detail about members of the Churchill family, such as the seventh Duke of Marlborough; Churchill’s mentors, such as J. E. C. Welldon, the headmaster of Harrow; and political patrons such as Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who gave Churchill his first government office. But Fred can also tell us about the lighter side of Churchill’s life including the name of every racehorse that Churchill ever owned.

What emerges from this collection is a picture of the kaleidoscopic interests and pursuits that made up the life of the most extraordinary person of the twentieth century. Churchill was fascinated by new technology, and we read here about his early interest in aviation. Churchill knew the great families of his time, and we read about his efforts to assist the son of Theodore Roosevelt. We also learn about the people whose lives orbited that of Churchill’s, such as several of his bodyguards.

In an address to the Royal Academy made in 1953, Churchill said, Without tradition art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation it is a corpse. Through the historical potpourri collected in this book, we discover the many dimensions of a man who was at once a proud heir and guardian of old traditions while also looking to the future and welcoming the innovations that brought improved conditions to people’s lives. Part of Winston Churchill’s genius was his ability to hold these views in a fine and healthy balance.

As editor of Finest Hour, the journal of the International Churchill Society, I was responsible for commissioning some of the essays that follow and having the pleasure of being the first person to read them. You will enjoy as much as I have delving into these studies in miniature of the many facets of Winston Churchill.

David Freeman, Ph.

Director of Publications

International Churchill Society

Department of History

California State University

NOTABLE EVENTS

1

Churchill’s First Authenticated

Published Work Under

Pseudonym Junius Junior 1891

image001.jpg

Harrow School Speech Room 1900

In the official biography, Winston S. Churchill Volume I, Youth 1874-1900, Randolph Churchill wrote that his father’s first authenticated published work was a letter written in December 1891 to the Harrow School’s weekly newspaper The Harrovian under the pseudonym Junius Junior. ¹

Winston Churchill’s first published work in The Harrovian at 17 years-of-age raises a number of curious questions concerning his letter to the school’s newspaper, as why did Churchill write the letter; what did the letter express; was there a reason he used the pseudonym Junius Junior, and was there a response by schoolmates or the Harrow School administration?

Churchill at Harrow

Winston Churchill entered the Harrow School, an independent boarding school for boys, in Harrow, London, England on 17 April 1888. While at Harrow, he took up fencing and spent a good deal of time in the gymnasium. Churchill became fencing champion of the school in December 1891.

image002.jpg

17-year-old Winston Churchill with classmate peering over the railings

Harrow School

1892.

image003.jpg

Churchill and George Philip Gurney Hoare.

1892

Letter to The Harrovian

On 8 October 1891, Churchill had his first letter published in The Harrovian. It was a two-sentence appeal for more convenient opening hours for the school library. Six weeks later, he wrote a lengthier letter. The subject was the school’s lack of encouragement to boys to take a greater interest in the gymnasium’s activities. In writing to The Harrovian, Churchill would have been cognizant of the school’s newspaper policy, which appeared regularly in The Harrovian. It read:

CORRESPONDENCE: The Editors will be glad to receive any correspondence from Harrovians, past and present; but in all cases the writer must send Ms name and address – not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. The editors do not always endorse the opinions of their correspondents. All communications should be legibly written on one side of the paper only, and addressed to the Editors of THE HARROVIAN, care of Mr. Overhead, Harrow.

Writing under the pseudonym Junius Junior, Churchill’s letter was published. Churchill’s letter, which represents his first authenticated published work, read as follows:

image004.jpg

The Harrovian

VOL. IV. No. 10. SATURDAY, DECEMBER

I9TH, 1891. [SIXPENCE].

Pp.129-130.

Dear Sirs, Great as the School undoubtedly is, it cannot afford to allow any of its mechanism to fall out of gear. When a public school possesses a– Gymnasium, and especially such a fine one as ours, it becomes the duty of every of us to see it should not go to rack and ruin.

I am far from asserting that the Gymnasium has gone completely down the hill, but it is no secret that it is going that way. This being so, it is for each and all to see that it goes no further in that direction.

We have lately been startled by an imposing announcement that the SCHOOL DISVIAY [sic] would take place in the Gymnasium on Saturday, 12th December. Whether those who went to see this Display were satisfied is more than I can say, but everyone will assent when I state that the notice would have been more correct, had it proclaimed that the Aldershot [Home of the British Army] Staff would give a Display in the Gymnasium on Saturday, 12th December.

A School Assault-of-Arms is intended to bring out our own talent. The Aldershot Staff can be seen elsewhere, but untold gold could not purchase the services of the School. Among the performers, the School was conspicuous by its absence. The endeavor to prove that four equaled eight failed signally.

Picture the Display without the assistance of the Aldcrshot [sic] Sergeants – it indeed would have been a show. Now, what I ask, and "what the School ought to ask, and will ask, is – Why did so few boys do anything? Why was the performance watched from the gallery by two members of the School Eight [Assault of Arms team members]?

Why is it that when, within a hundred yards of the Gymnasium, there is an athlete, whose sparring has ever been the guarantee of a full house, boxing was entirely omitted from the programme? It seems that to these questions certain answers might be made. The School, it might be said, were asked wouldn’t, the boxer has been approached and has refused, the members of the Eight have been exhorted, but they have declined with thanks. If that is so, there must surely be some reason for this spontaneous refusal, and to find this reason I turn to the Editors of The Harrovian.

There is another excuse that may be set forth. It may be urged that no one else was good enough to perform. In that case no further question is necessary. If, out of all who go to the Gymnasium, only five percent annum are fit to perform before the School of Assault, there is obviously a hitch somewhere. All these things that I have enumerated serve to suggest that there is something rotten in the State of Denmark.

I have merely stated facts-it is not for me to offer an explanation of them. To yon, sirs, as directors of public opinion, it belongs to lay bare the weakness. Could I not propose that some of your unemplo3’ed (sic) special correspondents might be sent to work to unravel the mystery, and to collect material wherewith these questions may be answered. 130 THE HARROVIAN.

The School itself has ail (sic) ancient history; even the Gymnasium dates back to a Tudor. In those days they were not wont to Risk (Tudor Risk was the first Superintendent of Gymnasium (1874-1887) the success ‘of the School Assault-of-Arms in the manner in which it was done on Saturday last. For three years the Assaults have been getting worse and worse. First the Midgets, then the Board School, and finally the Aldershot Staff have been called in to supplement the scanty programme. It is time there should be a change, and I rely on your influential columns to work that change. Yours truly, JUNIUS JUNIOR.

Pseudonym Junius Junior

We can only speculate about Churchill’s use of the pseudonym Junius Junior; however, his interest in history argues for the following explanation. Letters of Junius was a collection of private and open letters critical of the government of King George III from an anonymous polemicist (Junius), as well as other letters in-reply from people to whom Junius had written between 1769 and 1772.

The collection was published in two volumes in 1772 by Henry Sampson Woodfall, the owner and editor of a London newspaper, the Public Advertiser. ² One can surmise that Churchill used Junius Junior in his critical letter of the School administration to The Harrovian as a pseudonym of the original anonymous polemicist Junius.

Response by School Mates

Churchill’s letter to The Harrovian resulted in responses from school mates, such as Octavus in his letter to the newspaper on Thursday, 18 February 1892:

As to the letter which appeared in your last issue by Junius Junior, there is no doubt that he is perfectly right in saying that the Gymnasium is going downhill. It is certainly not what it used to be. The competitions were more keenly competed for, the assaults were a greater success, and the standard of the Eight was much higher; and, I am sure, it is the unanimous desire of all well-wishers of the Gymnasium that this falling-off should not continue, but that every year should find Harrow better, keener, and more fitted for carrying off the Aldershot Shield than the preceding one …. I am, sirs, yours most sincerely, OCTAVUS.

Another school mate named Aequitas Junioh, while acknowledging Junius Junior’s fervor for the welfare of the gymnasium, wrote that his argument ‘seems to be just a trifle too severe on its present condition.’ Aequitas Junioh argued that during the last few years the proportion of the performances done at the School by outsiders had always been rather small and, in fact, the last time there were numerically far less outsiders than usual.

Aequitas Junioh also wrote that a combination of accidents resulted in the members of the Eight having reasons for their absence, which included such unforeseen accidents as a fractured wrist; illness, and unable to practice because of an approaching Scholarship. He ended:

It also strikes one as somewhat strange that your correspondent should say "the Eight have been exhorted, but they have declined with thanks." The absentees all had a very valid reason for their absence. Yours truly,

AEQUITAS JUNIOH.

Second Letter by Junius Junior

Exasperated with Aequitas Junioh, Churchill wrote a second letter to The Harrovian. It was published in Vol. V no.2, Thursday, 17 March, 1892, p. 24. In publishing Churchill’s letter, The Harrovian’s editor L. S. (Leo) Amery, later the future First Lord of the Admiralty, added a note: We have omitted a portion of our correspondent’s letter, which seemed to us to exceed the limits of fair criticism.³

To the Editors of The Harrovian. Dear Sirs, When fired by the lamentable failure of the Assault-at-Arms I wrote my last letter to you, I expected an answer. I had hoped to see an emphatic denial of the charges which I made. I had looked for an explanation, offered not only to one, but to all of my questions. It seems, however, that I was mistaken.

Your correspondent, Aequitas Junior, does not answer my letter: he avoids my main statement and seeks to champion his cause from a side issue; in fact, sirs, I had to read his letter several times before I could determine whether it was intended for an answer or a confirmation of what I wrote. But since it explains the one sentence of my letter which he is good enough to quote, I have decided to consider it as an answer.

I will not pause to criticise his style nor comment on his probable motives, though I am inclined to think that both are equally poor. Beginning with his opening sentences we find that he thinks I have been just a trifle too severe on the conditions of the Gymnasium. I may have been. I will not dispute the point. But if the statements detailed at length in my last letter were only incorrect in one particular, and if the inferences I drew were only just a trifle too severe, the state of things must indeed be bad.

As to the rest of the letter, it does not answer or concern me. He seems, however, to be under the impression that I compared the School Eight with the Aldershot staff. I deny it. Such a comparison, if indeed possible, would have been too odious. . .

I assert, then, that my questions remain unanswered and my charges unrefuted. If what I stated were false, surely it were easy to prove it so, and if true, who should object? And in the presence of this half-hearted reply, which says, I allow, all there is to be said, and in the presence of the confirmation afforded to me by Octavus, I appeal to the readers of The Harrovian to decide whether in my last letter I stated fact or falsehood. Yours sincerely, JUNIUS JUNIOR.

The Headmaster and Churchill

In 1941, Leo Amery recalled: "As schoolboy editor of The Harrovian it fell to me to be the Prime Minister’s first editor and press censor. He submitted a trilogy of articles on Ducker [The Harrow School Swimming Pool], Gym and the school workshop, breezy, entertaining and frankly critical of the existing administration of all these departments."

"I can still see the look of misery on his face as, in spite of his impassioned protests, I blue penciled out some of is best jibes. However, even my pedantic zeal for the Victorian respectability of The Harrovian did not altogether save the expurgated text from criticism by the authorities concerned."

"Mr. Welldon, the Headmaster, summoned the young author to his study and thus addressed him: ‘My boy, I have observed certain articles which have recently appeared in The Harrovian, of a character not calculated to increase the respect of the boys for the constituted authorities of the School. As The Harrovian is anonymous I shall not dream of inquiring who wrote those articles, but if any more of the same sort appear, it might become my painful duty to swish you!’ This, at least, is the story as Mr. Welldon more than once related it to me with great gusto." ⁴

Churchill’s letters to The Harrovian reflected his schooling in the Fourth Form of Mr. R. Somerville, whose teachings provided him with a complete knowledge of the elements of the English language. Churchill’s writing under the pseudonym Junius Junior foresaw his great gifts as a master of the spoken and written word, and it represented Churchill’s first authenticated published work.

The End

Note to reader: The author thanks Miss Tace Fox, Archivist and Record Manager at The Harrows School, London, England, for her invaluable assistance in researching the archives on my behalf.

Endnotes

1. Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, Youth 1874-1900, Volume 1 (Hillsdale, Michigan: Hillsdale College Press, 2005), 177.

2. Letters of Junius. Wikipedia.

3. William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill Visions of Glory 1874-1932 (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1983), 156.

4. Collected by E. Chaplin, Winston Churchill and Harrow: Memories of the Prime Minister’s Schooldays 1888-1892 (Published by the Harrow School Book Shop in Aid of the Hospital on the Hill, 1941), 22-23.

2

Churchill’s British Lecture Tour

October – November 1900

After Winston Churchill returned to England from South Africa in July 1900, he decided to embark on a tour of 30 lectures in Britain. The subject of Churchill’s lectures titled The War As I Saw It centered on his exploits during the Boer War. The lectures were only a temporary livelihood necessitated by his need to earn money. For Churchill, the income was crucial after winning his first Parliamentary election as MP for Oldham on 1 October 1900, as members were not paid salaries until 1911.

Offers for Churchill to give lectures began while he was in South Africa. A proposal from Major J. Pond, an American agent, in March 1900 was followed by proposals to lecture in England. Although requiring money for his personal needs and future political aspirations, Churchill had concerns about being a paid lecturer.

Churchill wrote Lady Randolph of his interest and uncertainty: But you must remember how much money means to me and how much I need it for political expense and other purposes, and if I can make three thousand pounds by giving a score of lectures in the big towns throughout England on the purely military aspect of the war, it is very hard for me to refuse, but I should like you to ask Mr Balfour and Mr Chamberlain what they may think of such a course and whether it would likely weaken my political position if I appeared as a paid lecturer on public platforms in this connection. ¹

Balfour’s and Chamberlain’s responses to Lady Randolph were supportive and upon Churchill’s return to England in July 1900, he arranged for a lecture tour through an agent, Gerald Christie, whom he continued to use for many decades. Christie’s The Lecture Agency, Ltd. in London arranged 30 lectures for Churchill throughout Britain from 26 October to 30 November 1900. Although now an elected MP, Churchill was able to schedule the tour during this time period, as he did not take his seat in the Commons until 14 February 1901.

The 30 planned lectures in 1900 were at widely distanced venues. They occurred on 26 Oct. at Harrow; 30 Oct. at St. James’s Hall; 1 Nov. at Oxford; 2 Nov. at Cambridge; 3 Nov. at Turnbridge Wells; 5 Nov. at St. James’s Hall (2nd lecture); 5 Nov. at Westbourne Park; 6 Nov. at Edinburgh; 7 Nov. at Dundee; 8 Nov. at Glasgow; 9 Nov. at Newcastle; 10 Nov. at Middlesboro; 12 Nov. at Southport; 13 Nov. at Bradford; 14 Nov. at Birmingham; 15 Nov. at Leeds.

The lecture tour continued on 16 Nov. at Sheffield; 19 Nov. at Eastbourne; 19 Nov. at Brighton; 20 Nov. at Windsor; 20 Nov. at Leighton [Buzzard]; 21 Nov. at Bristol; 21 Nov. at Liverpool; 23 Nov. at Manchester; 24 Nov. at Harrogate; 26 Nov. at Belfast; 27 Nov. at Dublin; 29 Nov. at Oldham (scheduled but cancelled); 29 Nov. at Bath; 29 Nov. at Cardiff ending on 30 Nov. at Cheltenham. ²

The Lecture at Harrow

Prior to the first lecture at his old school Harrow on Friday, 26 October 1900, Churchill had reservations about it. This is my first attempt to lecture, and I fear it will not be a great success, he wrote to his former schoolmaster Henry Davidson." ³ Notwithstanding his qualms, Churchill worked hard for a successful outcome.

Although there is no copy of the original lecture in the Harrow School archives, or in the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, the lecture was reported in the Harrow School newspaper, The Harrovian.

Under the heading MR. CHURCHILL’S LECTURE, The Harrovian reported that Mr. Winston Churchill gave a most interesting lecture in the Speech room on his experiences in the South Africa War. ⁴ Received with loud applause, Churchill gave his detailed and exciting account of the armoured train at Chievely, and his imprisonment and escape from the State Model Schools in Pretoria.

Of particular interest in Churchill’s lecture was the name of the person who aided him after his escape from imprisonment. Churchill explained that he sought assistance at a small settlement at the head of a coal-mine. Selecting one house at random, Churchill was fortunate to learn that the owner of the house, a ‘Mr. Harrison’, was the only Englishman in the place, who had stayed to look after the mine.

Churchill’s use of the name Harrison in the lecture was an attempt to shelter the actual Englishman who helped him from Boer reprisal. In My Early Life published in 1930, Churchill identified the person as Mr. John Howard, manager of the Transvall Collieries. In his book, Churchill also wrote of two miners who visited him in the mine where Howard hid him. The miners were not referred to in Churchill’s lecture thirty years earlier, again to undoubtedly protect them.

Following his Harrow lecture, Dr. Joseph Wood, the headmaster, thanked Churchill and ‘the School gave three hearty cheers for their old schoolfellow.’ The Harrovian ended its account of Churchill’s lecture: In conclusion, we can only say that Mr. Churchill accomplished a difficult task with great taste, for he gave a most interesting account of his adventures without magnifying their importance in proportion to the rest of the war. ⁵

Churchill was paid £27, the equivalent today of £1,350, for the lecture. ⁶ The lecture provided extremely valuable knowledge for Churchill as he wrote his mother: The lecture requires condensation. I only got a quarter through my notes in an hour and a half. ⁷ Churchill made revisions to the lecture prior to the true inauguration of the lecture at St. James’s Hall in London on 30 October 1900.

During his lectures, Churchill used lantern slides to display photographs. Among them were the armoured train at Chievely showing it was defended by thin bullet-proof plates that could not withstand shells, the States Model Schools where he and other prisoners were held, and the guns at Ladysmith.

Another photograph was of the Dog Man that Churchill obtained in October 1900 from the brother, George W. Paterson of Newcastle. ⁸ Lieutenant H. Franklin of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, also a prisoner in Pretoria with Churchill, explained: When we first came here an Englishman named Patterson, employed in the Government telegraph office, used to pass by the railings and whisper the news. He only used to come when there was good news to tell, and generally ended with the words, Hurrah, hurrah! Since he was always accompanied on these occasions by a large St. Bernard, we called him the Dogman. ⁹

Notables invited

Churchill believed a notable person presiding at a lecture was vital for success. Certainly an eminent person would add to his stature and enhance attendance. Many invitations were sent to be chairmen.

For the lecture at St. James’s Hall, Churchill invited Lord Wolseley, the Commander-in-Chief. Churchill was extremely pleased with Wolseley’s reply:

[Commander in Chief Emblem]

October 5th

1900

My dear Winston Churchill

I should be very glad to

preside at your lecture at

St. James’s Hall on the 30th.

Yours sincerely

Wolseley ¹⁰

Churchill also invited Joseph Chamberlain, the Secretary State for the Colonies, to be chairman at the lecture at Birmingham. On 16 October 1900, Chamberlain informed Churchill that he would be unable to accept the chairmanship because he had planned a post-election Mediterranean holiday. ¹¹ Lord Dudley presided in Birmingham in lieu of Chamberlain.

For the lecture in Dublin, Churchill invited Lord Ashbourne, the Irish Lord Chancellor, who responded:

19 November 1900                                    12 Merrion Square, Dublin

Dear Mr Churchill,

I received your letter and assure you that it will be a great pleasure to me to preside at your Dublin lecture, which I expect will be a great success. All your father’s old friends are going with a resolute of being pleased and to cheer you throughout. Your own name stands high here.

Lady Ashbourne and I will be very pleased if you stay with us during your visit to Dublin. Of course, if you are ordered to the Vice Regal Lodge [the official residence of the President of Ireland] I will quite understand you going there.

Sincerely yours,

Ashbourne ¹²

Other eminent chairmen included Rosebery in Edinburgh, Derby in Liverpool, and Marquess of Dufferin and Ava in Belfast.

Lecture at St. James’s Hall

Following the address at Harrow, The Times reported on Churchill’s lecture on 30 October 1900 at St. James’s Hall. Those on the platform supporting Churchill were Lord Wolseley, who occupied the chair, and the Duke of Marlborough, Mr. and Mrs. George Cornwallis-West [Churchill’s mother and father-in-law], Lord Annaly, Mr. and Mrs. Leopold Rothschild and Sir Howard Vincent, M.

As a lecturer, The Times reported: The large and appreciative audience who filled St. James’s Hall last night to hear Mr. Winston Churchill’s first lecture in England augurs well for the success of his latest enterprise and it says not a little for his qualities as lecturer that for an hour and a half he was able to hold fast the attention of everyone in that very spacious auditorium. ¹³

Churchill netted £265 from the lecture at St. James’s Hall on 30 October, 1900; an amount considerably more that at Harrow. Churchill again netted £265 at his second lecture at St. James’s Hall on 5 November 1900. During the other 27 lectures, Churchill only once exceeded the netted amount of each of the St. James’s Hall presentations. It was at the lecture at Liverpool on 22 November 1900, where Churchill netted £273.

On 29 November 1900, The Lecture Agency, Ltd. sent Churchill a final account statement for the lecture tour. The amount grossed by Churchill on the 30 lectures was calculated down to shillings and pence. It amounted to £4064 15s 3d. Following the Agency’s commissions of £241 12s 8d, Churchill netted £3773 2 s 7d. The amount today is the equivalent of £190,000 ¹⁴, or $244,902.00 U.S. Dollars.

The account statement of The Lecture Agency, Ltd. also presented Churchill with a balance due of £53 6s 4d. The charges included a myriad of different costs such as lantern slides; telegrams; a hotel bill; cash advances; invitation cards and a fountain pen. ¹⁵

American Lecture Tours

For Churchill, the British lecture tour was a great success, and he left on 1 December 1900 for the United States to embark on his American lecture tour arranged by his agent, Major J. Pond.

Churchill’s expectation of duplicating his triumphs in Great Britain, however, were not to materialize. Of note, newspaper articles published in the United States from reports in London presented widely different assessments of Churchill and the British lectures.

The Philadelphia Record published a story under the headline: Churchill A Disappointment. Horace Townsend wrote: Winston Churchill is greatly disappointing those who thought that, despite his youthful failings and his egotistic cock-sureness, he would yet evince enough vigor and originality to turn his South African experience to advantage by revealing the weak points of the British Military System… However, his only ambition seems to abuse his rival correspondents, in which diversion he was assisted last night in Birmingham by Lord Dudley. ¹⁶

The Boston Herald wrote favorably of Churchill: When the lecturer arose, there was absolute silence in the great hall. He spoke well and forcibly, as you will admit when you hear him deliver the same lecture ere long in the United States. ¹⁷

On 8 December 1900, Churchill reached New York where he began his lectures immediately. Mark Twain introduced him at the first lecture. Over-all, Churchill was disappointed with the American tour. Lectures were spoiled by the pro-Boer sentiment of the audience and Churchill was extremely displeased with his agent Pond.

Writing to his mother of the lecture tour, Churchill said: But sometimes it is very unpleasant work. For instance last week, I arrived to lecture in an American town & found Pond had not arranged any public lecture, but that I was hired out for £40 to perform at an evening party in a private house-like a conjuror. Churchill also told his mother that several times he had spoken in local theatres to almost empty benches. ¹⁸

The failure of the American Tour was realized in the disappointing amount of money made by the lectures. Churchill cleared just over £1,600 (£80 today) for two months work. It totaled about 40 per cent of what he had made in half the time in Britain. On 9 January 1901, Churchill wrote his mother. I have got to hate the tour very much indeed, and if it were much longer I do not think I would be able to go through with it. ¹⁹

Yet, despite his feelings of the tour, Churchill took pride in his overall achievements writing his mother: I am vy proud of the fact there is not one person in a million who at my age could have earned £10,000 without any capital in less than two years. ²⁰ Churchill handed over his earnings to be invested by the family friend and financier, Sir Ernest Cassel.

Churchill’s financial accomplishments at age 26 were due primarily to his diligence and hard work in preparing and delivering the 30 lectures tours across Britain in October and November 1900.

The End

Note to reader: The author thanks the following for their invaluable assistance in researching Churchill documents on my behalf: Miss Tace Fox, Archivist and Record Manager, The Harrows School, London, and Miss Julia Schmidt, Archives Assistant, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge.

Endnotes

1. Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, Volume 1, Youth 1874 1900, Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College Press, 2006, p. 541. Note: Churchill told his mother that he would only have considered Pond’s earlier lecture offer if he guaranteed a fee of least a thousand pounds a month for three months or three thousand pounds total. In 2019, three thousand British Pound equals $3,844.68 U.S. Dollars.

2. Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, CHAR 1/27/13-15, image 2.

3. Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life (London: Pimlico, 2000), 136-137.

4. Mr. Churchill’s Lecture, The Harrovian, Volume XIII, No. 8, Saturday, 17 November 1900, 104-105.

5. Ibid.

6. Roy Jenkins, Churchill A Biography (New York: Plume, 2002), p. 68.

7. Churchill, Randolph S., 541.

8. Churchill Archives Centre, CHAR 1/25/48.

9. Journal of Lieutenant H. Franklin of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Extract. 17 February, 1900. Anglo-Boer Warom. https://wwwngloboerwarom/books/137-churchill-ian-hamiltons-march/2879-churchill-chapter-xvi-held-by-the-enemy

10. Churchill Archives Centre, CHAR 1/25/44.

11. Churchill Archives Centre, CHAR 1/25/50, items 1, 2, 3.

12. Churchill Archives Centre, CHAR 1/25/57.

13. Mr. Winston Churchill on The War, The Times, 31 October 1900, 8.

14. Jenkins, 69.

15. Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, CHAR 1/27/13-image 2.

16. Horace Townsend, Philadelphia Record, 16 November 1900.

17. Max Eliot, Boston Herald, 11 November 1900.

18. Gilbert, 138.

19. Jenkins, 70-71.

20. Ibid. 71.

3

Churchill in First Ministerial Post

Tours British East Africa in 1907

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British East Africa

1911

Public Domain

On 9 December 1905, Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman sent Winston Churchill, the PM of Manchester North West, a telegram to his home at 29 Belgrave Square. It read: "Greatly obliged if you