Young Winston (1972)
Director: Richard Attenborough.
Cast: Simon Ward, Anne Bancroft, Robert Shaw, John Mills, Jack Hawkins, Patrick Magee, Ian Holm, Robert Flemyng, Jane Seymour, Edward Woodward, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Naismith.
Follows the early career of Winston Churchill. He was a journalist in Africa.
Historical Background:
1874 -- birth of Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill. His father was Lord Randolph Churchill and his mother was Lady Randolph Churchill (née Jennie Jerome, daughter of American millionaire, Leonard Jerome; Jerome Avenue in the Bronx was named for her father).
Churchill was primarily educated in boarding schools, such as Headmaster's House at Harrow School. He was very attached to his mother and would write her letters begging to come home. His mother rarely visited him and he had a distant relationship with his father. He had, in fact, a lonely childhood. About his only consolation, was his nurse, Elizabeth Anne Everest, who he nicknamed "Woomy" (for woman).
He was rebellious and therefore did not perform well academically at Harrow, with the exception of his favorite classes (mathematics and history). He refused to study the classics.
Churchill attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
1894 -- at age 20, he graduated from Sandhurst. He joined the army as a Subaltern of the IV (Queen's Own) Hussars Cavalry regiment stationed in Bangalore, India. He dislocated his shoulder at the dock, an injury which plagued him in later years. His main preoccupation in India was playing polo for his regiment.
1895 (July 3) -- Churchill was deeply saddened at the death of nurse.
1895 -- he and Reggie Barnes were granted leave to observe the Spanish attempt to put down the Cuban revolt. On his way, Churchill visited the United States where Bourke Cockran, one of his mother's lovers, introduced him to New York society.
In Cuba, Churchill wrote about what he observed for the the Daily Graphic newspaper.
1897 -- he visited England, but rushed back to India when he heard of the outbreak of the Pathan revolt on the North West Frontier. Churchill participated in the six week campaign under Sir Bindon Blood. He also wrote articles for home newspapers.
1897 (October) -- Churchill back in Britain. He published his first book The Story of the Malakand Field Force, dealing with the on the Indian campaign on the Indian North West Frontier.
By pulling political strings, Churchill was able to join the expedition of Lord Kitchener in the reconquest of the Sudan. He was made part of the 21st Lancers. And once again he performed the role of war correspondent. He participated in the Battle of Omdurman, the last British cavalry charge in battle.
1898 (October) -- Churchill returned to Britain.
1899 -- he published the 2 volume The River War.
1899 -- Churchill left the army for a parliamentary career. As a Conservative candidate, he came in third in the election in Oldham constituency.
1899 (October 12) -- outbreak of the second Anglo-Boer War between Britain and the Afrikaners in South Africa. The Afrikaners were the Dutch settlers of an earlier South Africa that held extremely racist views (something like the American South). Churchill went as a war correspondent.
Churchill was captured by the Boers (i.e., Afrikaners) after they ambushed and exploded the train on which he was riding. He was captured and placed in a POW camp in Pretoria. Churchill escaped, traveling almost 300 miles to Portuguese Lourenco Marques in Delgagoa Bay. The escapade made Churchill a minor hero in Great Britain.
The war correspondent took a ship to Durban where he rejoined General Redvers Buller's army on its march to relieve Ladysmith and take Pretoria. Churchill was given a commission in the South African Light Horse. He fought at Spion Kop. He was also one of the first British troops into Ladysmith. In Pretoria, he and his cousin, the Duke of Marlborough, got ahead of the rest of the troops into Pretoria and forced the surrender of 52 Boer guards of a prison camp.
1900 (May) -- he published London to Ladysmith via Pretoria.
1900 (October) -- he published Ian Hamilton's March.
1990 -- Churchill won a set in Parliament in the 1900 general election. He then went on a speaking tour throughout the UK and USA to raise money. In the United States Mark Twain introduced one of his speeches and he dined with New York Governor/Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt.
1901 (February) -- Churchill arrived back in Britain to enter Parliament
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