Just Finished Reading: Churchill’s First War – Young Winston and the Fight against the Taliban by Con Couchlin (FP: 2013)

In the late 1890’s the young Winston Churchill had only one idea, one ambition – to enter politics and to gain rank and stature in society just as his father had. With that aim in mind he determined to join the military and see action as soon as possible which would allow the displaying of all the virtues of the age. But with his poor educational achievements the best regiments where closed to him – much to the evident displeasure of his father. So Winston ‘settled’ for an elite cavalry unit – the 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars – in which he finally found his element. Quickly becoming known for his constant questioning, studious nature and excellent horsemanship he gladly took on more and more responsibility and generated favourable reports from his superiors. But this was not enough. Using his family connections he managed to get himself and a friend sent to Cuba to cover the little war going on their between the dying Spanish Empire and Cuban rebels. Reporting both for a newspaper column and for military intelligence Winston came under fire for the first time and decided he liked it.

Returning to his regiment he had little time to enjoy his new found fame, and a tidy sum paid for his newspaper reports, before being shipped off to India. There he found regimental life to be rather dull, uninspiring and, more importantly, useless for his future career. Again using his contacts at home and in the army he managed to get himself posted to the North West Frontier where Afghan rebels had risen up against the British. Ordered to ‘chastise them’ General Sir Bindon Blood (a family friend) agreed to take Winston on as a roaming officer and so he rushed north before the fighting ended. This was a wholly different experience from his time in Cuba. The Afghans, though outgunned and outnumbered, fought with ruthless bravery and more than once put the young Winston in real mortal peril. After several months in combat Winston was ordered back to his unit where he wrote his first book The Story of the Malakand Field Force in 1898 which made his reputation as an author and as a soldier. 120 years later it was a work studied by General Stanley McCrystal during his time in a rather different but sometimes very similar war fought in those same hills.

Told in a very readable style this was an excellent introduction to the life of a young Winston Churchill. I’d known he’d been a correspondent during the Boar War in South Africa but hadn’t realised he’d previously seen action in Afghanistan. From the quoted excerpts from his book of the experiences he was certainly in the thick of it and at least once came very close to being killed. How different the history of the world might have been if he’d died on the Frontier is anyone’s guess. But without his immensely important involvement in both WW1 and WW2 I’m guessing that things would not have gone as well for Britain in either war. That, I found myself, was the great imponderable of the book – what if. I found that I almost had my heart in my mouth as I ‘witnessed’ the often reckless Winston trying again and again to be noticed under fire so that he could use that experience in the House of Commons and with his constituents. The drive of the man and the singular focus really comes across in this interesting part biography part Imperial history. Recommended for anyone interested in the region and in Winston himself. More on the great man to come.