Battling against fearful odds
In this final part on Natal history as depicted in cinema, the turn of the 20th century saw the British Empire at its peak, offering many opportunities to some. and show how the young Winston Churchill seized these opportunities and blazed a trail across
THE relationship between the Boers and the British had never been a happy one, dating right back to the first occupation of the Cape. Desperate to rid themselves of their troublesome master, many Boers had moved to Natal where, in due course, they were chased away by their old colonial overlords and moved inland to settle down and do some quiet farming.
There are mixed blessings in life and the Boers had their share of them. Eager to get on without undue interference from anyone, it was unfortunate in many ways that they sat themselves down right on top of what became known as the Witwatersrand.
This pile of gold turned out to be without equal anywhere else in the world. It would not take long for the omnipresent British to turn up again like the proverbial bad penny and wrestle it from them.
The Anglo-Boer War broke out on October 11, 1899. Things did not go well for the British and in no time at all Ladysmith, Mafeking (now Mafikeng) and Kimberley lay besieged.
It was to do with the siege of Ladysmith that a relatively unknown war correspondent for the Morning Post persuaded British forces to let him accompany them on an armoured train during a reconnaissance mission between Estcourt and Colenso.
At Chieveley, the train ran into a Boer ambush.
In the chaos that followed, it was the war correspondent who played a major role in organising a counter-attack and in that chaos he became separated from the rest.
Dashing to rejoin his comrades, a Boer on horseback waving a rifle rode up. The correspondent reached for his pistol but it was not there. The horseman had him in his sights. The only option was to surrender.
The horseman was General Louis Botha and the correspondent was the young Winston Churchill.
But surrender did not guarantee survival. A civilian in half a uniform who has taken an active part in a military engagement is liable to be shot at once by drumhead court martial.
Churchill was brusquely picked out by the Boers and told to stand apart from the other 70 British prisoners. He could see the Boers talking and gesticulating and looking at him. Would he be shot?
At the tender age of 25, Churchill had already led an extremely eventful life. From the time he was born in Blenheim Palace as the son of Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill to the time he was captured by the Boers, one exciting event after another was faithfully recorded in his book, My Early Life. This book lent itself to being made into a film and finally, in 1972, it happened and Richard Attenborough’s biopic Young Winston was released.
Churchill was played by Simon Ward, who was relatively unknown at the time, but was supported by a distinguished cast including Robert Shaw as Churchill’s father and Anne Bancroft as his mother. The film was made in Morocco and the UK.
It moves back and forth in time, opening with Churchill in India in 1896 as a war correspondent that experiences a baptism of fire in battle. It then moves back to his arrival at school. Later, the film covers his experiences in the Sudan and then Natal during the Boer War.
At the age of seven, Churchill is sent to prep school in Ascot, a school run by a sadist who caned the 7-year-old boys “until they bled profusely”, as he recorded later.
The boy Winston adores his parents but from afar and neither seems to have much time for him or his brother Jack. Essentially, his parents are a fashionable and ambitious couple in British society with his mother campaigning for her husband’s political career.
As Churchill grows older, the film shows how he is increasingly a disappointment to his father, which he finds upsetting. He gains the reputation as a poor scholar whose only real opportunity lies in the army. He trains as a cavalry officer at Sandhurst. It is his father’s disappointment in him that goads him from here on. He declares that he wants to win “lots and lots of medals”. As it turns out, his father’s career does not flourish and ends with his resignation as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Soon after, he is diagnosed with syphilis, which is followed by dementia and then death.
Having realistically represented Churchill’s father, the film tends to whitewash his mother, Jennie. She comes across as angelic and a model of sexual propriety, so innocent in fact that she does not understand when her husband’s doctors explain that he has syphilis. In reality, she is said to have had more than 200 lovers.
Strikingly beautiful, with amber eyes, dark-brown hair, full breasts and an irrepressible lust for life, Jennie Jerome was irresistible to men.
After the death of his father, the film moves to the NorthWest Frontier Province (then India, now Pakistan) in 1897, with the British Indian Army fighting the Pashtuns.
Here, Churchill is trying to make a name for himself as a war correspondent and comes under fire from tribesmen. The film recreates the events as described by Churchill himself, including the part where he drags an injured Sikh sepoy to safety.
The film moves on to the Sudan in 1898, where Churchill is serving under General Kitchener. At Omdurman, he takes part in the last major British cavalry charge (21st Lancers) in history. It shows Churchill and his fellow cavalrymen trying to cut their way out of the ambush. In reality, they suffered 70 men killed or wounded with three Victoria Crosses being awarded for rescuing wounded comrades.
In the following year, the film shows Churchill in an armoured train during the Boer War.
In realistic fighting scenes, Churchill tries to co-ordinate a withdrawal but, in the process, he is captured by the Boers and taken to Pretoria, where he eventually escapes and embarks on a daring 500km journey to cross the border.
The story of his escape makes him a bit of a sensation in England. Finding himself a minor celebrity when he returns home, he uses his newfound fame to win a seat in Parliament. The film ends with his first major speech as a member of parliament and his meeting with his future wife, Clementine.
From Durban’s perspective, Churchill’s arrival as a war correspondent in early November 1899 on a small steamer would have passed unnoticed. He only spent a few hours in the town before catching a train to the front.
In Alas Poor Little Colony, Professor Kearney gives details on the state of Durban’s defences at the time.
“The initial defence plan for Durban before the outbreak of war in 1899 included the two coastal gun batteries together with a number of detailed measures.”
The defence plan was “an extraordinary one in that it was completely based on the possible attack on Durban by roving cruisers rather than by Boers on horseback”.
“Thus, when Captain Percy Scott was appointed to take over as military commandant of the town on November 7, 1899, he completely reversed the defence plan and placed guns from naval vessels in strategic positions to guard against attack from the hinterland, especially along the river valleys.”
The Anglo-Boer War had a serious effect on Durban’s shipping, with much of the Point docks being commandeered by the military; it affected the availability of rail trucks as well as the supply of labour.
It also brought thousands of refugees into the town along with hundreds of foreign prostitutes. Durban was never quite the same again.
In Pretoria, Churchill made a restless prisoner. After studying guard routes, he managed to escape over the latrine wall and stow aboard a freight train.
Later, after hiding in a mine and being shielded by the sympathetic English mine owner, he managed to board a freight train and travel in safety to Lourenço Marques.
On December 21, 1899, he boarded the steamer Induna and set sail for Durban where a huge, cheering crowd awaited him. Durban needed heroes.
The Boer War had been going badly for the British and now a real-life hero had arrived.
The harbour had been decorated with bunting and flags and bands were playing. The mob whirled him along on its shoulders, deposited him on the steps of the town hall (today’s post office) and demanded a speech.
Churchill did not stay in Durban long. With a war raging, he had things to do.
He was appointed as a lieutenant in the South African Light Horse and joined General Sir Redvers Buller’s fight to relieve Ladysmith. Full of energy, Churchill poured his efforts into a very new form of warfare in which if you didn’t dig trenches now, you could dig graves later.
Horrified at the carnage, Churchill’s indomitable leadership characteristics started to emerge and he was everywhere, rushing around the front in complete violation of regulations, climbing up and down Spion Kop and persuading commanders to try something new.
Military etiquette should have demanded that he be put in his place, but fortunately nothing was said.
The Churchill that was to one day save an empire was emerging.
In Durban, for the duration of the war, the mighty guns of the Bluff and Back Beach batteries never fired a shot in anger.
In Alas Poor Little Colony, Professor Kearney includes a newspaper cutting kept by Killie Campbell in which it says: “Durban’s one time hush-hush battery of guns, now lying rusty and dismantled along the Snell Parade – the playground of children and amateur photographers – once proudly protected the city.”
One of Churchill’s favourite poems was Horatius at the Bridge by Thomas Babington who wrote: “And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods.”
Churchill, a great admirer of heroes, now found himself one. But he would have had no idea how fearful those odds would one day become.
Catherine Greenham is a teacher and published author of the novel,
Michael Greenham is a chartered accountant and lecturer. Together they have a great interest in history, particularly Durban history. They have a large collection of books on history and English literature as well as old Durban postcards which they use to illustrate their articles.