Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill (59 page)

“down we shot”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 284.

The seam was only about
: Interview with Bird.

“pitchy labyrinth”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 284.

It was, however, surprisingly spacious
: Interview with Bird.

Despite the roominess
: Ibid.

With so many ponies, teams of men
: Ibid.

They had come to a sort of chamber
: Lang,
Power Base
, 46.

The large bundles that McKenna
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 284–85.

“whatever happens”
: Ibid., 285.

CHAPTER 23: AN INVISIBLE ENEMY

“The camp was filled”
: Atkins,
Relief of Ladysmith
, 148–49.

“The column at my tent door”
: Ibid., 149.

“Chaffing and smoking”
: Ibid., 155.

Across the river, a few hours earlier
: Davitt,
Boer Fight for Freedom
, 258.

What Botha saw as the sun
: Barnard,
General Botha at the Battle of Colenso
, 6.

“Each man [was] the appointed distance”
: Atkins,
Relief of Ladysmith
, 155.

“sweeping on in majestic motion”
: Davitt,
Boer Fight for Freedom
, 260.

“invocation of Divine help”
: Ibid.

Unlike the British, whose twinkling lights
: Barnard,
General Botha at the Battle of Colenso
, 3.

“Practically no attempt”
: Amery,
Times History of the War in South Africa
, 2:159.

“Buller’s plan of attack”
: Barnard,
General Botha at the Battle of Colenso
, 5.

“The tidings of British reverses”
: Amery,
Times History of the War in South Africa
, 1:15.

“absorbed in interest”
: “Taking Sides in the Boer War,”
American Heritage
, April 1976.

Willem Johannes Leyds
: “Leyds’s Last Card,”
Diamond Field Advertiser
, Oct. 26, 1899.

“I cannot sit on the safety valve”
: Quoted in Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 303.

“Ridge upon ridge, top upon top”
: Atkins,
Relief of Ladysmith
, 150.

At 5
:30 a.m.: Amery,
Times History of the War in South Africa
, 2:165.

“The cry of the shell”
: Atkins,
Relief of Ladysmith
, 155–56.

“No guns opened in reply”
: Amery,
Times History of the War in South Africa
, 2:165.

He had used even more explosives
: Rayne Kruger,
Goodbye Dolly Gray
, 137.

“entirely on Colonel Long”
:
Reports from Commissioners, Inspectors, and Others
, 409.

“The only way to smash”
: Atkins,
Relief of Ladysmith
, 163.

“Men and officers”
: Ibid., 165.

“Abandon be damned!”
: Quoted in Rayne Kruger,
Goodbye Dolly Gray
, 139.

“General Buller sent the message”
: Gandhi,
Autobiography
, 215.

“Anywhere among the shell fire”
: Atkins,
Relief of Ladysmith
, 179.

“To march into a well-defended salient”
: Pakenham,
Boer War
, 276.

“Nothing could have saved them”
: Atkins,
Relief of Ladysmith
, 159.

“drowned like dogs”
: Ibid., 160.

As Atkins looked more closely
: Ibid., 170.

“You oughtn’t be here”
: Ibid., 171.

“He was in the full exhilaration”
: Ibid.

“The aasvogels gathered”
: Ibid., 176.

In the silence, with the full brunt
: Pakenham,
Boer War
, 289.

“only just taken his wind”
: Barnard,
General Botha at the Battle of Colenso
, 9.

“limply and wearily from his horse”
: Atkins,
Relief of Ladysmith
, 169.

“The God of our fathers”
: Davitt,
Boer Fight for Freedom
, 271–72.

CHAPTER 24: THE LIGHT OF HOPE

“in tremendous form”
: Amery,
My Political Life
, 118.

“I regret to report”
: “British Disaster; Battle at Colenso,”
Belfast News-Letter
, Dec. 16, 1899.

“I tried Colenso yesterday”
: Quoted in Pakenham,
Boer War
, 292.

“Overwhelmed by the successive tidings”
: Amery,
My Political Life
, 119.

“I have never seen a man”
: Winston Churchill,
Ian Hamilton’s March
, 281.

“Your gallant son died today”
: National Army Museum,
http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/dads-army/roberts-family/freddy-roberts
.

“It is impossible to describe”
:
Sheffield Daily Telegraph
, Dec. 18, 1899.

“Deep as was the gloom”
: Amery,
Times History of the War in South Africa
, 2:174.

“Only one order, forward!”
: Boer War badges, British Museum.

Parents bought their children books
: National Army Museum.

She not only knit
: National Army Museum.

“For this far-distant war”
: Doyle,
Great Boer War
, 102–3.

“I have no doubt”
: Borthwick to Lady Randolph, Dec. 14, 1899, quoted in Randolph S. Churchill,
Youth
, 497.

“Although Mr. Winston Churchill’s escape”
:
Manchester Courier
, Dec. 18, 1899.

“With reference to the escape”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 290.

“We are on the eve”
:
Gloucester Journal
, Dec. 23, 1899.

When he reached out a hand
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 286.

“Life seemed bathed in rosy light”
: Ibid., 285.

“I did not know what pitfalls”
: Ibid., 286.

“Didn’t you put it”
: Ibid.

“He said inquiries”
: Ibid.

In fact, three thousand copies
: Winston Churchill,
London to Ladysmith
, 71.

“absolutely safe”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 287.

He would tell them that the mine was haunted
: Ibid.

“like to take a turn”
: Ibid., 288.

“subterranean galleries”
: Ibid.

CHAPTER 25: THE PLAN

“The patter of little feet”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 287.

“for a long time afterwards”
: “Man Who Befriended Churchill,”
Johannesburg Star
, Dec. 11, 1923.

“I noticed that he was becoming nervy”
: Ibid.

“leap-frog [and] hide-and-seek”
: “Winston Churchill’s Escape,”
Johannesburg Star
, Dec. 22, 1923.

“a fine stroll”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 288.

“The greatest pleasure I had”
: Ibid., 12–13.

“Someone had told me that my father”
: Ibid., 111.

“Those thrilling pages”
: Ibid., 290.

One day, he heard what he thought
: “Man Who Befriended Churchill.”

One morning while talking
: “Winston Churchill’s Escape.”

The more Howard thought
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 289.

The only thing left to do
: In a 1921 interview for the
Johannesburg Star
, Burnham says that not only had he known about Churchill’s presence at the mine for some time, but smuggling him in the wool cars had been his idea, not Howard’s. I chose Howard’s version of events because, in
My Early Life
, Churchill backs him up.

Burnham too was of English origin
: “Churchill Rescuer Gives Watch to Museum,” newspaper clipping in the archives of the Killie Campbell Africana Library, Durban;
http://www.superbrands.com/za/pdfs/NATALMERCURY.pdf
.

“I was more worried about this”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 289.

“The idea of having to put myself”
: Ibid.

“I dreaded in every fibre”
: Ibid., 290.

“in open rebellion”
: Ibid., 292.

“The Field Cornet has been here”
: Ibid.

“It’s all fixed up”
: Ibid.

CHAPTER 26: THE RED AND THE BLUE

At 2
:00 on the morning of December 19: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 292–93.

“I made representation”
: “Winston Churchill’s Escape.”

“This was a moral support”
: Winston Churchill,
My Early Life
, 293.