Long before he became prime minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Winston Churchill was a conflict journalist.
His experiences as a front-line reporter in conflicts across four continents, which he often melded with his early military service, undoubtedly helped shape Churchill’s suspicion of what he perceived as Europe’s naïve efforts to appease Hitler in the run-up to World War II. His persistent exposure to war also inspired his sober impression of human nature and famous fighting spirit, which defined his wartime leadership.
In 1895, Churchill travelled to Cuba to write about the Cuban War of Independence for the Daily Graphic. He came under fire on his 21st birthday, the first of about 50 times during his life.
In 1897 he deployed to India’s northwest frontier as a military officer and wrote stories for the The Pioneer and The Daily Telegraph on the Siege of Malakand, which was a battle between British and Imperial Indian forces against Pashtun tribes in what is now modern Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border. He also worked as a war correspondent for the Morning Post in Sudan in 1898, participating in what is considered the last British cavalry charge at the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898.
In 1899, Churchill headed to South Africa as a newspaper correspondent, again for the Morning Post, to cover the Boer War between British and Dutch settlers. He was caught in an ambush of an armored train and captured by Boer soldiers. After escaping a prison in Pretoria, the 25-year-old Churchill embarked on a dangerous journey through enemy lines back to Durban, where he was received as a hero.
Churchill wrote more than a dozen books in his life, many of which comprised multiple volumes. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
“History will be kind to me,” Churchill said, “for I intend to write it.”
Churchill in the Boer War, 1899.