June 1, 2015

Finest Hour 107, Summer 2000

Page 48

One of the largest and most impressive of the numerous cigarette cards featuring Churchill is this 2 3/4×5 1/4-inch, turn-of-the-century production by Turf Cigarettes, a branch of Carreras Ltd., London, in their “Famous Escapes” series of 10 cards, of which this is number 1.

Considerable artistic imagination was required, but it could have looked like this as young Winston hopped the eastbound train just outside of Pretoria, where he had jumped his prison wall and strolled away humming a tune and seemingly without a care in the world (more details in Finest Hour 105).

The back of the card states: “His first attempt to escape with his friend, Captain Haldane, failed, but on the next day Mr. Churchill managed to scale the wall alone and to get clear away. He boarded two trains, in the second of which he had to lie buried under some sacks of wool for two-and-one-half days. While hidden there, the train was searched, and eventually he reached Natal in safety.”