This is Winston Churchill in 1899.

In 1899 Winston Spencer Churchill was 24 years old; he only turned 25 on 30^th November. During most of the year he was in England, working on his book on the campaign in the Sudan in 1898, The River War. The book was published in November 1899 and sold well – a two-volume opus of 1,000 pages – in spite of such criticism as “only this astonishing young man could have written these two ponderous and pretentious volumes”. An abridged version appeared in 1902, has been reprinted many times, and continues to sell well to this day.

In addition to writing a book Churchill was interested in a political career. As a small boy playing with toy soldiers he had said that he would be a soldier first and go into Parliament later. He made his maiden political speech at a fete near Bath. He was delighted when the audience “cheered a lot at all the right places when I paused on purpose. At the end they clapped loudly and for quite a long time.” Some of his friends persuaded him to stand for election in Oldham, a working class constituency in Lancashire. After a bruising campaign he lost and returned to London “with those feelings of deflation which a bottle of champagne represents when it has been half-emptied and left uncorked for a night”.

Churchill planned to publish his magnum opus in October 1899, “but when the middle of October came, we all had other things to think about”. He said “the Boer ultimatum had not ticked out on the tape machines for an hour” when Oliver Borthwick of the Morning Post, and the publisher of The River War, offered Churchill an appointment as principal War Correspondent of the Morning Post. He was to be paid £250 per month, all expenses paid and he retained the copyright on his articles. These were very generous terms and enabled him to engage a valet, Thomas Walden, who had travelled to Mashonaland with Winston’s father, Lord Randolph, in 1891. Churchill sailed on 14^th October on the Dunottar Castle – General Sir Redvers Buller was a fellow-passenger and it was an exceedingly rough passage. In those days before radio, they were completely cut off from the world while at sea. Approaching the Cape a passing ship held up a blackboard on which was written: BOERS DEFEATED   THREE BATTLES   PENN SYMONS KILLED. A staff officer ventured to address Buller. “It looks as if it will all be over, sir.” Buller only said “I dare say there will be enough left to give us a fight outside Pretoria.”

Churchill knew Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, quite well having met him first at Lady Jeune’s house party along the Thames in July. Before sailing for South Africa he went to Whitehall to talk with him. Churchill wrote that “Mr Chamberlain was most optimistic about the probable course of the war. ‘Buller’ said Chamberlain ‘may well be too late. He would have been wiser to have gone out earlier. Now, if the Boers invade Natal, Sir George White with his 16,000 men may easily settle the whole thing’”. Churchill added his opinion: “Always remember, however sure you are that you can easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance”. This contact came in useful when he requested a letter of introduction to Sir Alfred Milner, the British High Commissioner at the Cape. While Chamberlain would not give a letter of introduction to a newspaper correspondent, he would be “most happy to give one as a private friend”.

First thing in the morning Churchill called at Government House in Cape Town to see Sir Alfred Milner, the High Commissioner for South Africa and the Governor of the Cape. Milner told him that the Boers had come out in much larger numbers than expected and that the Cape Colony was ‘trembling on the verge of rebellion’.

Knowing that there was action in Natal around Ladysmith Churchill sought the quickest way to get there. Advice was that he should travel by train to East London and take a ship on to Durban. Word was that the Boers had crossed into Cape Colony and were advancing on Burghersdorp only 40 kms from Stormberg Junction. Nevertheless the authorities thought there would be a good chance of getting through. In company with J.B. Atkins of the Manchester Guardian, one of his companions on the voyage from England, they set out via De Aar, arriving at Stormberg as the staff and garrison were packing up to leave. Churchill, never a good sailor, “suffered the most appalling paroxysms of sea-sickness which it has ever been my lot to survive” in the small steamer which took them from East London to Durban. Unable to get into Ladysmith as the Boers had occupied Colenso, Churchill and Atkins were shown to an empty bell tent in the shunting area of Estcourt station for trains were not going further than this. For the moment they were stuck in the little town with its garrison of 2,000 British troops. Churchill desperately wanted to see what Ladysmith looked like from the inside. He made it known that he would pay £200 (an enormous sum!) to anyone who would guide him through the Boer lines into Ladysmith. Trooper William Park Gray of the Estcourt Squadron of the Natal Carbineers was keen to acquire this princely sum and went to see Churchill in his tent. Gray was surprised at his youthful looks and “although four years older than I, looked to be about 17 or 18”. Trooper Gray needed to obtain permission for three days leave but his commanding officer, Major Duncan Mackenzie, told him that “he could not spare a single man, let alone me, to lead a bloody war correspondent into Ladysmith. I think Churchill was more disappointed than I when I told him the news”. Churchill found another volunteer to lead him through the Boer lines. This was Richard Norgate who lived in Estcourt and it was said that he agreed to undertake this perilous task for a mere £5. His wife tried unavailingly to dissuade him and a rendezvous was agreed for the morning of 15^th November but Churchill had something else to do that morning.