Berks County Bar Association The Berks Barrister Spring 2019 - 29

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War, and his many government positions. "Yes, it almost
confirmed the old Presbyterian idea of Predestination, or
Preordination; of his having been the man selected for this
task," was King's response. Lord Hailsham, who had served
in a junior position in Churchill's government during World
War II, later observed "the one case in which I think I can
see the finger of God in contemporary history is Churchill's
arrival at the premiership at that precise moment in 1940."
In his postwar memoirs, in speaking of the night he
became Prime Minister in May of 1940, he recalled "I felt as
if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had
been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial...
I could not be reproached either for making the war or with
want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal
about it and I was sure I should not fail." Most remarkable,
astonishingly so, Churchill told a classmate at Harrow that
he believed the world was going to experience violent wars,
and all manner of struggles and unrest. "...I tell you London
will be in danger - London will be attacked and I shall be
very prominent in the defense of London...This country will
be subjected, somehow, to a tremendous invasion, by what
means I do not know, but I tell you I shall be in command
of the defenses of London and I shall save London and
England from disaster...London will be in danger and in
the high position I shall occupy it will fall to me to save the
Capital and save the Empire." Churchill made this statement
in 1891, when he was 16 years old!
Churchill was the son of wealthy and famous parents.
His father Randolph Churchill was a prominent member
of the Conservative Party, and held various governmental
positions over the years, the highest being Chancellor of
the Exchequer. His mother was Jennie Jerome, daughter
of a wealthy American businessman. Churchill's childhood
appears to have been largely unhappy, and it appears that
his parents had little time for him, as he was always sent to
boarding schools. Despite his many requests, they rarely, if
ever, visited him at the schools, and went on with their own
lives. Churchill's father failed in an attempt to become the
head of government and was to some degree shunned by
others of his ilk thereafter. He died at a relatively young age.
Churchill's mother, after his father's death, and perhaps
even before, became a courtesan who was much in demand
by prominent men of the era. Despite the fact that she spent
profligately, she was able to maintain her lifestyle by virtue of
the generosity of her patrons and Churchill.
Fortunately, Roberts avoids the temptation of playing
armchair "headshrinker" and leaves the reader to conclude

what effect Churchill's early life may have had on him. Suffice it
to say, that he loved and remained devoted to both his mother
and father throughout his entire life.
After graduating from school, Churchill entered the army.
Over the course of his relatively brief military career, he served
with a number of different regiments, which was not common at
the time. While in the military, but principally serving as a war
correspondent, Churchill participated in the last great Calvary
charge undertaken by the British Army. On September 2, 1898,
he was with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, near Khartoum,
in Egypt. Only after the charge began was it realized that the
enemy troops, known as "Dervishes," outnumbered the British
Forces by at least ten to one.
During the course of the charge, Churchill realized that the
men that he was leading were heading in a direction that would
not bring them into the main of the battle, and he and another
junior officer succeeded in turning the forces they led into the
mass of enemy. Churchill was armed with a Mauser model of
1896 pistol, the absolute state of the art in military small arms
at the time. An injured shoulder prevented him from wielding
a sword, which would be an officer's ordinary weapon in such
circumstances. He managed to not only survive the charge, but
to kill at least four of the enemy in doing so. The British routed
the foe, but suffered very heavy casualties in men killed and
wounded, and nearly double that number in horses.
During the Boer War, again working as a newspaper
correspondent, Churchill was captured by the Boers. He made a
daring escape and earned considerable fame and popularity in his
homeland. He returned to England a national hero.
Roberts devotes considerable space to the discussion of
World War I, especially the ill-fated operation to force the
Dardanelles at Gallipoli. It was Churchill who originally
conceived the idea, and he is rightly criticized for its failure and
deserves a significant portion of the responsibility therefore. He
was not, however, alone in supporting the strategy, and there
were a number of high government officials who supported it,
as well as failures of the military leadership on the ground. The
tendency to place the overwhelming share of responsibility for
the failure on Churchill's shoulders is significantly misplaced.
Throughout the 1930s, observing the rise of Hitler and
renewed German militarism, Churchill was a voice in the
wilderness attempting to warn his countrymen, and others, of
the looming danger. The country was significantly denuded of
the most modern arms in the period after World War I, and
there was no appetite for a strengthening of defenses. Neville
Chamberlain returned from a meeting with Hitler in Munich,
during which he betrayed the Czechs, and proclaimed that he
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