Winston Churchill, British Bulldog. An image of a balding, diminutive-yet-tempestuous man with a cigar firmly entrenched between his lips probably jumped to mind while reading this just now, and his enduring cultural cachet is well-deserved, as the two Churchill biopics released in the last year can attest to. As the latter of the two amply covers, he assumed his place at the head of Britain’s government during its “Darkest Hour”, and his shrewd navigation of the country through WWII subsequently secured his place in history as arguably Britain’s most consequential Prime Minister., But is he more than that? It is sometimes hard to imagine Churchill as anything more than a bowler hat spewing movie-worthy oratory, because Churchill the myth often obscures who Churchill the man was; a a life beyond politics, not to mention the ebbs and flows of history, that was interesting to say the least.
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born November 30, 1874 at Blenheim Palace, to Lord Randolph Churchill, Earl of Marlborough, and to Jennie Jerome, daughter of a prominent New York financier and socialite. One side of his family had helped defeat Napoleon, while the other had beat the drum of revolution in America. But by the time Churchill was born this once-illustrious family had lost some of its sheen. Despite his aristocratic upbringing, money was tight; that’s not to say they were impoverished, but Churchill wasn’t afforded the same broad education others of his station received. Ultimately a moot point however, because from a very young age he took an avid interest in war. Growing up during the height of British military might, Churchill’s staunch belief in the Empire would take root early on in his life. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as a child he’d spend countless hours with his collection of 1,500 toy soldiers, reenacting some of Britain’s greatest glories on his bedroom floor.
Largely ignored by his parents, he would be raised by a nanny before eventually being sent to St. George’s, a boarding school in Berkshire. He was an unruly child, and at St. George’s he would quickly come to the attention of the school’s teachers, who were somewhat overzealous in enforcing discipline amongst the student body. Describing his experience there later in life, Churchill would say “Flogging with the birch in accordance with the Eton fashion was a great feature of the curriculum. But I am sure no Eton boy, and certainly no Harrow boy of my day ever received such a cruel flogging as this headmaster was accustomed to inflict upon the little boys who were in his care and power. They exceeded in severity anything that would be tolerated in any of the reformatories under the Home Office.”
Other students who attended St. George’s would recount similar stories of being whipped bloody while others fearfully listened to their screams. But while his teachers at St. Georges may have been undoubtedly cruel, Churchill was hardly a star academic. Those who taught him described an untidy, lazy, unpunctual and generally troublesome boy, with one instructor rather colourfully describing his eating habits as “greedy”. Frequently at the bottom of the class, Churchill would eventually develop some academic acumen, taking an interest in history and geography. His troublemaking mentality persisted however, illustrated by one particularly gruesome episode where his taunting of a classmate would lead the boy to stab him in anger with a letter knife. His trouble at school was exacerbated by his parents' seeming disinterest; many letters survive from Churchill to his mother, pleas that were generally ignored.
It was precisely his dismal school record that would drive Churchill’s father to send him to military school. It would take three tries for him to pass the entrance examination to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, but once there he would develop the prickly determination that would lead his parliamentary colleagues to dub him “stubborn”. An exclamation point on this seemingly remarkable turnaround, Churchill would graduate near the top of his class.
The military would be Churchill’s ticket to public life, as he would parlay contracts with various news outlets to serve as a war correspondent into temporary commissions, allowing him to actually fight in the conflicts he was there to ostensibly cover. He’d do this in Afghanistan, Sudan (participating in the last British cavalry charge) and to much acclaim in South Africa, where an armoured train he was on was ambushed by Boer guerrillas. Crashing after being derailed, it would be a 24 year old Winston Churchill, technically a civilian, barking commands even the commanding officer obeyed. As they managed to successfully mount a defence, Churchill would turn his attention to getting the train moving again. He’d write about these experiences in books like River War, and they would garner him significant popularly and the beginnings of the Churchill mythos we are so familiar with today.
WWII looms large over Churchill, but even beyond that the sheer scope of his career can be hard to comprehend. An exceptionally political creature, he would first enter Parliament during the reign of Queen Victoria, and would be Elizabeth II’s first Prime Minister. In between is a flurry of cabinet portfolios, wartime appointments and even party memberships. There’s something to be said for his place in the British psyche, including how it has obscured some of the more unsavoury aspects of the man; his vehement opposition to Indian independence was unusual even for the time, and while it's celebrated now his penchant (and immense talent) for political showmanship made him a divisive figure even within his own Tory party.
But it’s interesting how little attention is paid to the actual life of such a celebrated figure. Beyond his well-documented taste for whisky and conducting business while in the tub, he remains an enigma to many. It's much easier to understand Churchill’s foibles and virtues by turning to that troublesome schoolboy or the intrepid young adventurer. It's a trap most of us frequently fall victim to, the tendency to look at such figures only as far as their imprint on the world. It’s true that everyone is generally a product of their time, but to say so discounts that we’re also products of our own experiences. Churchill beyond the myth cuts a muddled, complex figure, one we’ve barely scratched the surface on; but he’s indelibly linked to early 20th century Britain, and his life is a treasure trove of insights into Britain’s tendencies during this period, both its best and its worst.
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