‘Magnificent’ antics of Churchill

ON NOVEMBER 16, 1899, The Mercury reported on the ambushing by the Boers of an armoured train at Chievely, outside Estcourt. On the train as a war correspondent (he had resigned his British army commission to take on the position) was a young Winston Churchill.

The Mercury described how Churchill had the engine move back and forth along the line to draw the Boer fire while he “with a bravery, and a coolness described by those who saw it as “magnificent”, got a small party of men together to get an overturned wagon clear of the line.

“All worked like heroes, encouraged by the intrepid young lieutenant, and with the occasional aid of the engine, the truck was eventually moved clear. Lieut Churchill, whose bravery is the theme of all who have come back, remained with the retiring party. He was later captured.”

This was not the last The Mercury’s readers were to hear of Churchill (who, of course, eventually went on to become Britain’s great wartime prime minister). He escaped from the Boers and hid in a coal truck that took him to Lourenco Marques, in neutral Mozambique. From there he sailed in a small steamer, the Induna, to Durban, arriving about 4pm. A crowd had gathered at the Point.

“As she came nearer the object of quest was described on the captain’s bridge, his round boyish face shaded by a large brimmed hat. The instant he was recognised a rousing cheer went up from the assembled people and Mr Churchill bowed his acknowledgement. As soon as it was possible a group of men dashed on board and brought him ashore, shoulder high. Reaching terra firma Britannica, he was seated in a ricksha, but the crowd would not allow his departure in peace. They would not be content until he favoured them with a speech.

Churchill said: “We are in the midst of a fierce struggle with a vast military power which has grown up in the heart of this country which is resolved at all costs to satisfy its reckless ambition by beating the British out of South Africa.

“It is for the people of South Africa, for those of the Cape Colony and those in Natal, to say whether or not the British flag is going to be hauled down in this country. When I see around such a crowd as this, such determination and such enthusiasm, I am satisfied that, no matter what the difficulties, no matter what the dangers and what the force they may bring against us, we shall be successful in the end.”

At which the crowd comandeered the ricksha and drew Churchill along Point Road. Spotting The Mercury editor, Cawthra Woodhead, in the crowd, they stopped, put Woodhead into the ricksha beside Churchill then continued to the town hall (today’s post office) where another crowd also demanded a speech.

Woodhead wrote of him: “Mr Churchill is a ready speaker and he has an acute appreciation of the fitness of things as was shown by his words of thanks for the heartiness of his welcome. He has all the splendid dash and fire that would be expected of a man who has made himself so brilliantly conspicuous in the Chievely fight and so full of resource at Pretoria. He has a pleasing suspicion of a lisp in his speech and there is just a touch of Americanism – not about his accent, for that is perfect, but about the forcible rounding of his sentences; yet there was too sterling a ring about all he said to leave any doubt that he is a Marlborough and a Britisher to the backbone.”

Prescient words indeed.