February 5, 2015

Making Connections

Winston later called this period “among the most agreeable six months I have ever spent.” He had just come through a particularly trying situation in which he successfully sued and received an apology from a father of a fellow cadet who resented Churchill’s role in an unseemly attempt to exclude the cadet from the 4th Hussars as “unsuitable.”

Although on one occasion he was scolded by the Prince of Wales for arriving late at a social event, his encounters with society were generally quite favourable and augured well for a later political career. Among the famous and powerful he met “The former Home Secretary and future Prime Minister (Asquith); the Leader of the House, First Lord of the Treasury and another future Prime Minister (Balfour); the Colonial Secretary (Chamberlain); the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army (Wolseley); the President of the Local Government Board (Chaplin), the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (James); the President of the Probate Division and Judge Advocate General (Jeune); and the Lord President of the Council (Devonshire).” He also lobbied personally or through friends and family, Sir Herbert Kitchener regarding a Nile expedition, Sir Frederick Carrington regarding an expedition in Matabeleland and newspapers for special assignments

And this was the period which he later recalled as “the only idle spell I have ever spent!”