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Churchill’s Youth

Revisiting “Induna”: The Ship that Carried Winston Churchill into Fame
26
Mar
2020
By RUPERT SOAMES
A delightful happenstance came my way in Australia recently. My company builds and runs prisons under contract to various governments. I was visiting a new prison we are building in New South Wales, near a town called Grafton on the Clarence River. Whilst touring this new and rather wonderful facility, I was stopped by the project manager. He asked if I were aware of the connection between Grafton and my grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill.
I confessed I was not aware of any, so he took me down to the River Clarence, and showed me the broken hulk of a ship called Induna. She was the coaster that transported young Winston Churchill from Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa (now Maputo, Mozambique) to Durban, South Africa after his dramatic escape from the Boers in December 1899.
The Boer War Armoured Train Incident and Churchill’s Escape, 1899
30
Sep
2019
By JOHN HUSSEY
In late 1899, Winston Churchill was catapulted to prominence following the famous armoured train attack and his subsequent escape from a Boer prison camp. His adventures fostered long-lasting controversy. A very hostile account was written as late as 1994. This essay was first published by John Hussey in 1999. So far as he and we know, no further discoveries have been made to dispute his conclusions.
Setting the Stage: Young Winston’s First Lecture Tours, 1900-01
05
Jul
2019
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
Lecture offers started arriving while Churchill was still in South Africa. The first was from Major J. B. Pond, an American agent, in March 1900. English offers followed. His South Africa exploits gave a ready subject: “The War as I Saw It.” Of course, speaking was only a temporary activity, to earn money for his political career, for Members of Parliament were not salaried until 1911. This became crucial after Churchill, as predicted, was elected MP for Oldham on 1 October 1900.
Churchill as Escaped Desperado: Chieveley to Durban, South Africa, 1899
20
Apr
2018
Dundee Election 1910
13
Jan
2017
The Other Club: Founded by Churchill and F.E. Smith
12
Sep
2016
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
In 1911, a time of great political division, Churchill and F.E. Smith founded The Other Club, a collegial dining group for members of both parties. It's still going strong.
Great Contemporaries: William Bourke Cockran, the Great Mentor
24
Feb
2016
By FRED GLUECKSTEIN
Churchill’s capacious memory was well stocked with phrases he first heard from Bourke Cockran. “The earth is a generous mother” was the best known, but Churchill also recited his most basic beliefs in Cockran’s words.
Anarchism and Fire: What We Can Learn from Sidney Street
05
Jun
2015
Omdurman: The Fallen Foe – An Illustration of Churchill’s Lifelong Magnanimity
22
May
2015
Churchill Clairvoyant: Seeing 1940 in 1891
23
Mar
2015
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Winston Churchill was famed for his prescience, though of course he liked to emphasize the predictions which turned out to be right. “I always avoid prophesying beforehand,” he said in a Cairo press conference on 1 February 1943, “because it is much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.”