August 2, 2024

Churchill and the Grenfell Tragedy

When twenty-three-year-old Winston Churchill reported for duty with the 21st Lancers prior to the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, he was told that the cavalry troop to which he had originally been assigned had already departed and that Lieutenant Robert Grenfell had gone in his place. “Fancy how lucky I am,” wrote Grenfell to his family, “Here I have got the troop that would have been Winston’s, and we are to be the first to start.” Churchill feared the war might be over before he arrived on the scene.

Churchill need not have worried. Both he and Grenfell participated in the great charge made by the 21st Lancers during the battle on 2 September. After the initial clash with the enemy, however, when the Lancers reformed, Churchill learned that Grenfell had been killed. In reaction Churchill wrote in The River War that “at this shocking news the exhilaration of the gallup, the excitement of the moment, the joy and triumph of successful combat, faded from the mind; and the realisation came home with awful force that war, disguise it as you may, is but a dirty, shoddy business, which only a fool would undertake.”

Sixteen years later, Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty when the First World War began. Grenfell had two younger brothers, twins named Francis and Riversdale (“Rivy” to his family). Both served in the 9th Lancers. One hundred ten years ago this month, Churchill received the following letter from Francis written on 15 August:

“My dear Winston, When you get this we will have gone forth, quietly and calmly to War. We have mobilized very comfortably and leave here with great enthusiasm. No regiment ever left England better prepared. We are splendidly mounted, have the best Colonel in the army, [and] a very good, and not too old lot of Reservists….

“I have thought so much of you during the crisis and know what you must be going through. Lord Kitchener’s appointment [as War Secretary] worked wonders for the army. It has filled us with confidence. With him and you in charge of the services, we leave ready to go anywhere, and do anything—as there will now be no half measures.

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“I am in Command of a squadron, and can hardly believe my good fortune of being in the prime of Life—a soldier at this time.

“Rivy comes with me in my squadron and sends you his love. Please give Mrs. Winston my love—Goodbye my dear Winston. We must teach these foreigners again—what a great nation we are—and what ‘England’ means. My kindest and best wishes. Yours ever, Francis.”

Riversdale Grenfell was killed in action one month later. Francis Grenfell was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at Messines on 31 October 1914 and killed in action at Ypres on 13 May 1915.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.