Winston Churchill’s early life was dominated by the Army and by journalism. At the age of 20, in February 1895, he was commissioned in the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars. The military year was divided into seven months’ summer training and five months’ winter leave, during which young officers were expected to gain experience by joining a suitable military campaign.

Since early summer, the Spanish authorities in Cuba had been hard-pressed by rebels, and 80,000 reinforcements had been sent to suppress the rebellion. Seeing an opportunity to witness some real military action, Churchill and a fellow subaltern, Reginald Barnes, went to Cuba in October and attached themselves to General Suarez Valdez. On November 30, his 21st birthday, Churchill witnessed his first action: “For the first time I heard shots fired in anger, and heard bullets strike flesh or whistle through the air.” All of this he reported for the Daily Graphic newspaper. For the rest of his life he was to maintain an involvement with writing, good cigars, and siestas in the afternoon.

The following year, 1896, Churchill’s military career took him to India, where he underwent an intensive programme of self-education and polo. He was on three months’ leave in England when he heard of the formation of a Field Force under Sir Binden Blood to tackle the revolt of the Pathan tribesmen on the Indian frontier. By August 1897, he was with the force at Malakand, on the Indian border (now part of Pakistan) with Afghanistan. Before departing he had lined up a commission as war correspondent for the Pioneer of Allahabad, and secured an arrangement with the Daily Telegraph for letters on the campaign which he wrote “From a Young Officer” at a rate of £5 a column. He duly published his account of the Frontier War as a book and during this time also published his novel Savrola.

Churchill and Kitchener

The Frontier War was scarcely over when word got about of a new campaign in the Sudan. Lord Salisbury had long harboured a desire to take back Khartoum, which had remained under Dervish control since the defeat of General Gordon’s garrison by the Mahdi’s forces in January 1885. Sir Herbert Kitchener, with a British and Egyptian force, had already engaged and destroyed the army of Mahmoud, the Khalifa’s lieutenant, 200 miles north of Khartoum, but the final phase of the campaign and the decisive battle with the Dervish forces still remained and Churchill was determined to be a part of the historical event.

By now, however, he seems to have made important enemies within the army establishment. His energetic pursuit of adventure had gained him the reputation of a medal-hunter and self-advertiser and his association with the newspapers was also a cause of suspicion. Kitchener, the Sirdar of the Egyptian Army, was particularly hostile to Churchill’s application to join the campaign.

Churchill and his mother exploited all their contacts, his mother even writing to Kitchener on his behalf. In the end it was the combination of an appeal directly to the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, and the intercession of Sir Evelyn Wood, the Adjutant-General, which finally over-ruled Kitchener’s opposition. Churchill received a message from the War Office that he had been attached as a supernumerary lieutenant to the 21st Lancers for the Sudan Campaign. But, he was informed, he must make his own way to the Regimental Headquarters in Cairo at his own expense and in the event of his being killed or wounded during the campaign no charge would fall on British Army funds.

Churchill arrived in Cairo in August 1898, having secured an arrangement with the Morning Post newspaper, through his friend Oliver Bortwick (son of the proprietor), for the supply of news from the campaign at the rate of £15 per column. Kitchener seems not to have shown much concern about being over-ruled by the War Office but, on the question of Churchill’s association with the press, remained as hostile as ever.

On September 2, Kitchener’s 20,000 men engaged the 60,000-strong army of the Khalifa at Omdurman. Although much larger, the ill-equipped and disorganised Dervish force was no match for a modern army. As Churchill explained in My Early Life:

The weapons, the methods and the fanaticism of the Middle Ages were brought by an extraordinary anachronism into dire collision with the organisation and inventions of the nineteenth century. The result was not surprising.

September 2, 1898, witnessed not only the defeat of the Khalifa’s forces, but also the last British Army cavalry charge of the 19th century. Churchill’s adopted regiment, the 21st Lancers lost five officers and 65 men killed or wounded, and 120 horses - about 25 per cent of its strength. Churchill himself came through unscathed, but The Times lost its two special correspondents: Frank Rhodes, elder brother of Cecil Rhodes, was severely wounded in the right shoulder early in the day, and Hubert Howard, who had actually taken part in, and survived, the cavalry charge, was killed later in Omdurman.

Without cover for the rest of the campaign, it became a matter of urgency for the newspaper to make alternative arrangements. The manager of The Times, Moberly Bell, telegraphed Churchill on September 5. The telegram was short and to the point: