Winston Churchill: Wanted Dead or Alive

When Winston Churchill escaped from a prison camp in South Africa, after surrendering to Boer soldiers in 1899, he was sough after by his captors, but ultimately escaped.  It's a fascinating story about Winston Churchill, war journalist during the Boer War (1899-1902), in fact the highest paid war correspondent of his time.  Churchill had served in the British military prior to the Boer War, but went to the frontlines in 1899 as a civilian (although he still wore a military style uniform and carried a pistol) war correspondent.  Churchill ended up getting more action than he could have imagined!

His war assignment took him to the front lines, where he was working with Captain Haldane, an aspiring military man.  Churchill convinced him to take him on a dangerous patrol of an armoured train.  The Boers got wind of the train, and ambushed them, derailing the train with a boulder put on the tracks.  Many men were killed in the ensuing battle.  Churchill tried to move the damaged train, and finally got the engine going.  With the help of other British soldiers, they got the engine going.  Captain Haldane ended up surrendering to the Boers, but Churchill jumped into a ditch and continued fighting.  Fortunately or unfortunately he had forgotten his pistol, and was forced to surrender.  He and the other captive British were shipped to Pretoria, and put in a prison.  Churchill tried to get out of his predicament because he was a journalist, but the Boers would not let him go.  He and Captain Haldane plotted their escape, finally able to leap the walk at dusk when they were changing guards.  Churchill was separated from Haldane and another man who escaped with him, and spent several days riding trains, jumping from one to another, trying to head east.  He landed in a small mining town, where he knocked on the door of the house.  He got lucky.  The house was owned by the only Englishman within miles.  The Englishman fed him, and got him on another train (with a disguise, as he was now being tracked by the Boers), finally ending up in Portuguese East Africa.

The British authorities got him to Durban.  Churchill became one of the most famous men in the world because of his daring escapades and heroism.  In 1900 Churchill rejoined the army and continued fighting in the Boer War.  Ironically, at the end of the war, he liberated the prison camp from which he had escaped, just a few years before. 

Whenever I think of Winston Churchill I think of a portly old man with a cigar in hand, and the leadership he provided Great Britain during WW11 and beyond.  I never knew about what he did as a young man, long before he became involved in politics.  I will never hear his name and think of him the same.

FYI.  I learned all this from a Road Scholar lecture that I listened to on Zoom.  There is so much interesting content out there, but you've got to look for it!