Original press photograph of a very annoyed Winston Churchill on 18 November 1899 as a BOER PRISONER

About this Item

21 cm x 11 cm. Slight closed tear to right side and small tape stain at top that do not affect the image. Reverse has date stamps and sub-editor stamps as well as handwriting indicating newspaper use in 1965 and 1966. Churchill died in January 1965 and there was renewed use of this photo in the newspaper  archives.  Three days after the attack on the armored train in November 1899, Churchill arrived in the Boer Capital Pretoria on 18 November 1899, with the other British prisoners of war. This iconic photo sets the scene. Surrounded by curious Boers eager to see the new prisoners, he glared back at them with unconcealed hatred and resentment. Although he respected the enemy on the battlefield, the idea that average Boers would have any control over his fate enraged him. An event in Churchill s life that gained him worldwide fame occurred during the following month when he was just twenty-five years old. He escaped from a prisoner of war camp. Prior to this Churchill had made himself part of the action in that he was able to use his fame as a published writer and son of a prominent politician to get himself posted to South Africa as a very well paid war correspondent. In November, he went on patrol with the British Army aboard a train and they were ambushed. Churchill was able to help most of the men escape the Boer ambush but he was taken prisoner. He was being held in Pretoria at a prison called the State Model Schools and made a plan of escape with two other POWs. On the night of the 12/13 December, he left his fellow plotters behind, climbed through a toilet window, and jumped the fence as the guards had turned their backs. When Churchill reached British territory in Durban after numerous adventures in dangerous circumstances ( as set out in his best book, My Early Life ), he found himself a British hero. This was of no small help in his subsequent political career which had faltered until then!. He returned to Britain, got elected to parliament at a very young age, and by World War 1 was already a minister in the British government. Later in World War 2 he became arguably Britain's best prime minister. Seller Inventory # 80339