Historical Leaders

When the British settlers landed on the shores of North America, a palpable tension filled the world. At the time, it was unrecognized. Once again, Britain had founded a colony in a “new land.” For a while, things went well. People brought new ideas, new foods, and new exportable goods into the colonies and shipped them back to their homeland. Trade boomed. As more and more people were born in North America, though, a feeling of unrest developed. The people who claimed British heritage but had never seen the Isles and the people who remained in Britain grew further and further apart as time progressed; their methods of exchange altered, and the people themselves developed new ideals that did not quite match their relatives across the Atlantic Ocean. As time progressed, the two peoples became completely separate entities. Indeed, they referred to the war between their peoples by two different names: the British referred to it as the War for American Independence, while the people who transformed into Americans called the same period the Revolutionary War. Each of these names represents how the nations interacted with the war—one gained independence and one lost a large chunk of citizens.

This historical background sets up an interesting dynamic between the two nations. For a while, the two nations acted as children, peering at one another to make sure nothing would happen next to upset their precarious balance, although Britain remained one of the United States’ largest trading partners. Over time, they grew less wary and formed a rocky friendship, somewhat out of necessity. Of course, the leaders of both countries had to work with one another. They continued to find great economic benefits in trade and commerce. Technology was on the brink of exploding, and both countries were eager to host the newest trends. Therefore, they began working together in various ways.

Perhaps the most representative of the alliance between Great Britain and the United States of America is the dynamic duo that led their respective nations during World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (30 January 1882 – 12 April 1945) and Winston S. Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965). In fact, their political relationship is one of the most famous and well-celebrated alliances in history. Franklin D. Roosevelt, or FDR, served as president of the United States for three full terms and part of a fourth from March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945. Serving in much the same capacity, Winston S. Churchill was the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. As evidenced by their dates in office, both leaders were strapped in government right in the middle of the World War II crisis.

Through no small effort, Roosevelt and Churchill, leaders of the “Greatest Generation,” pulled their two countries together to defeat the powers rising against them. Along with Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, they formed the Big Three, or the Grand Alliance, of World War II. Often called the Strange Alliance, this group of three men united their nations, which consisted of the world’s greatest capitalist state, the world’s greatest colonial power, and the world’s greatest communist state. For all the sense it made, the group never should have formed. They believed in none of the same principles but were united toward one common cause: defeating the Axis Powers.

At this time, Germany, Italy, and Imperial Japan threatened not only Britain but also the entirety of Europe and much of Asia. Churchill spent much of his time trying to convince the United States to join the war. He sent numerous missives to Roosevelt, telling him that the time had come to take up arms and that waiting would surely bring only terrible outcomes. Wary, FDR began gathering supplies, but he did not commit to war. The United States had a commitment to neutrality, although they continued trading with the United Kingdom. Therefore, they remained out of the war until the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. At that point, there was no return. Churchill is cited as saying that he was thankful for the attack, as that blast was what finally pushed Roosevelt to join him in a united front against invading powers. Churchill said America was “up to the neck and in to the death.”

While working together, the Big Three faced many hardships within their relationships with one another. Obviously, Roosevelt and Stalin each opposed the other’s ideological beliefs. Their nations ran under extremely different rules and beliefs. Of course, the Soviets still remembered the United States’ participation in the Russian Civil War and held a hefty bit of bitterness. Additionally, the United States for a long while refused to acknowledge the Soviet Union as a legitimate state, which only fueled their distaste. Therefore, Churchill often played the middle man. He was the one who encouraged the United States to provide aid for the Soviet Union. Without him, there likely would have been no alliance between Roosevelt and Stalin.

In fact, Roosevelt and Churchill worked together so often that they formed a close friendship that led to excellent working relations between them. Of course, they had their normal skirmishes, but they were fast friends for the most part, which was crucial to their efforts to diminish the Axis Powers. After a meeting, Roosevelt told Churchill, “It is fun to be in the same decade as you.” This friendship was cemented on December 24, 1941 when Churchill visited the White House. Standing beside Churchill, Roosevelt said, “And so I am asking my associate, [and] my old and good friend, to say a word to the people of America, old and young tonight—Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain.”

From the words of Churchill, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States was a “special relationship” that was rather unique in light of the world’s international politics. Once enemies, the two nations were bound to work together to defeat a new common enemy. From two countries that functioned in very different manners, the two men did not have a great amount in common when it came to politics. Roosevelt was the president of a democracy that voted for each leader in political office, while Churchill was the prime minister for a country led by a constitutional monarchy. Roosevelt was the decision maker in the highest position. Churchill served the monarch, although he was in the highest voted position. Altogether, the two leaders spent around 113 days together during the war and exchanged almost two thousand messages.

Although they were worlds apart politically, the two men were closer in rank in regard to other roles they played in their lives. They both arose from elite families and chose to study history during their academic careers, and both desired power to a fault. During their childhoods, both men were dismissed as lesser than other students. They both began gaining more feats as they grew into adulthood, climbing political ranks and meeting important people. Perhaps the saddest comparison is that both men tended to abandon their families to pursue their goals in politics. Both had wives and children but chose to spend much of their time in the company of others. Some historians claim Churchill and Roosevelt knew each other better than they knew their own families.

The two men went beyond a political partnership—they were friendly in the way one is with a close neighbor they have known for forty years. Roosevelt and Churchill sent each other gifts and holiday cards and told each other when major events happened with their families and personal lives. They got along relatively well as they laughed, smoked, talked, and drank together. While in the same space, they stayed up long nights, scheming and discussing plans for the future. Of Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt said, “I was solicitous for his comfort, but I was always glad when he departed, for I knew that my husband would need a rest, since he had carried his usual hours of work in addition to the unusual ones Mr. Churchill preferred.” Both men were filled with determination and a sheer power of will.

Although they were from very different places, Churchill and Roosevelt held some of the same key views on how to go about creating a peace in the world. They decided to agree on the following points: their personal relationship was crucial to winning World War II, the Soviet Union would play a role in the postwar world, a bombing campaign was essential, Germany and Japan would fall, their loyalties were to their own nations and their interests, and the long-term value of the United Nations was doubtful. On the other hand, they held some major points of disagreement, as well. The two men argued over the following points: the fate of Russia, whether Britain should commit to sending its fleet to the Western Hemisphere if Germany successfully invaded the British Isles, invading France to defeat Germany, colonialism, and what to do with Russia after the war.

The relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt and their ability to get along and understand each other was paramount to preserving the security of their own nations and that of the world. Although they had some scruples with one another’s methods of leadership and personal values, they developed a relationship of necessity and candor that budded from their growing mutual admiration.

The clash of their personalities must have been exceedingly entertaining. Churchill was a robust man, always willing to share his opinion aloud. Some of his closest friends and advisors said he was blunt and emotionally involved with everything around him. On the other hand, Roosevelt was more conservative with his feelings. He was charming and cordial even when people around him were harsh and critical. Regardless of their differing personalities, both men were natural leaders and could easily silence a room in seconds. Both men attracted followers, people who were willing to do almost anything they asked.

During the time that Churchill and Roosevelt spent together, so much was at stake. They developed their friendship in the middle of a war as two men who were fighting for a common cause. They came together as an act of diplomacy, as a way to keep the world from falling apart at the seams. While each maintained a focus of the good of the world as a whole, they were sure to remind each other that their own country’s interests were at stake, as well. For a while, Churchill was the leader of the fight against Germany, but Roosevelt rose to that position soon after the United States joined the war. They had to continuously shift the balance of power from one man’s hands to the next to keep things in check. In all, they were joined by the needs of their nation and their people, but over that necessary time together, they formed an impenetrable bond.

Unfortunately, Roosevelt did not live to see the culmination of their friendship—the end of World War II. He died from health issues not an entire month before the war officially ended. Upon Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death, Winston S. Churchill contacted his dear friend’s wife to say, “I have lost a dear and cherished friendship which was forged in the fire of war. I trust you may find consolation in the magnitude of his work and the glory of his name.” Churchill later wrote about Roosevelt: “I felt I was in contact with a very great man who was also a warm-hearted friend and the foremost champion of the high causes which we served,” and that meeting him had been “like uncorking your first bottle of champagne.” The two men had an unbreakable friendship, one that was held together by days upon days spent in small, locked rooms as they read important documents together, strategized, and hoped for a better future.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the thirty-second president of the United States on March 4, 1933 during the country’s worst economic depression in history. At this time, one out of four Americans were unemployed, and agricultural prices fell by sixty percent. That same day, thirty-two of forty-eight states closed their banks and discarded the key until further notice.ⁱ People entered a frenzied panic and began withdrawing their money in lump sums. Roosevelt started his inauguration address by blaming the crisis on financiers and bankers, capitalism, and greed. Roosevelt said:

“Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.”ⁱⁱ

With this speech, Franklin D. Roosevelt firmly separated himself from the origins of the Great Depression, claiming that he believed the United States would rise up. He firmly stated that basic economic rights should be seen as a Second Bill of Rights. He looked forward to a new time, a better time for which the people could hope and anticipate.

Franklin soon went about initiating what many historians refer to as his relief, recovery, and reform plan. Under this plan, Franklin would supply relief to the millions of people unemployed in the United Sates, recovery to the economy that desperately needed normalizing, and reform to the tanking financial and banking systems.

Franklin engaged with public radio as a means to present his ideas to the American public, and these talks became known as fireside chats. Public opinion was very important to Roosevelt; therefore, he initiated a method to speak directly to his electorate through mass communication. At this point, Roosevelt’s opposition controlled many of the major newspapers. Historian Betty Houchin Winfieled said, “He and his advisors worried that newspapers’ biases would affect the news columns and rightly so.”ⁱⁱⁱ Historian Douglas B. Craig continued to say that Roosevelt’s use of the radio “offered voters a chance to receive information unadulterated by newspaper proprietors’ bias.”^ivOf course, Franklin utilized these chats for more than simply a conduit for information. Each time he spoke to listeners, crowds would send letters to legislation that asked to pass measures Roosevelt proposed over the radio.

The fireside chats created a sense of security for Roosevelt’s listeners because they could actually hear his own voice. Inspiring the term, Franklin’s press secretary, Stephen Early, said that Roosevelt wanted to consider the listeners as people who were sitting with him around his fireside. CBS broadcast executive Harry C. Butcher coined the term in a press release on May 7, 1933. “Fireside chats” trickled throughout the news, and Roosevelt began using it, as well. Eventually, the term grew to become part of American folklore.

Roosevelt’s presidential fireside chats began eight days after his inauguration, on March 12, 1933, and they were especially helpful when the general public panicked over the banks’ closings. He told them “what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be.”^v Historian William L. Silber said the fireside chats initiated a “remarkable turnaround in the public’s confidence … The contemporary press confirms that the public recognized the implicit guarantee and, as a result, believed that the reopened banks would be safe, as the president explained in his first Fireside Chat.”

Of course, the first one hundred days of every new presidency is closely critiqued, but Franklin was under particularly heavy pressure to succeed in a time of such distress. His efforts and legislation became known as the New Deal. In regard to the anxiety that arose due to the banking crisis, Franklin stated, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”^vi People were no longer spending money because they were afraid, which made the economic depression worse. The day after his inauguration, Roosevelt initiated a bank holiday and called for a special session of Congress on March 9. He sent Congress a record number of bills between March 9 and June 16, 1933, all of which were passed with no issue and no complaints. As one of the first problems addressed, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first step to recovery.^vii Then, Roosevelt signed the Glass-Steagall Act, which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a program that assured Americans that their money was safe inside banks. In other words, the FDIC underwrote savings deposits.

Franklin’s primary concern was to look at the relief part of his plan. To do so, he continued measures to ensure that Hoover’s major relief program for the unemployed continued under a new name: Federal Emergency Relief Administration. In an attempt to create new jobs, Roosevelt generated a multitude of new agencies, one of the most successful of which was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a program that employed 250,000 young men to work on local rural projects. Additionally, he moved to expand the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, one of Hoover’s projects, which provided a major source of financing for industry and railroads. One of Franklin’s main concerns was the agricultural industry; therefore, he set up the first Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), which forced higher prices for commodities through paying farmers to cut down on herds and crops.^viii He also pushed through the Federal Trade Commission, which provided regulatory powers and mortgage relief to millions of farmers and homeowners. With no doubt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a busy man.

The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 aimed to reform the economy through attempting to end intense competition by requiring that industries create codes to establish the rules of operation. Mandated requirements included minimum prices, non-competition agreements, and production restrictions. As a condition for approval, industry had to raise wages. Later, on May 27, 1935, the NIRA was found to be unconstitutional by a unanimous decision in the US Supreme Court. In reply, Franklin said, “The fundamental purposes and principles of the NIRA are sound. To abandon them is unthinkable. It would spell the return to industrial and labor chaos.”^ix

As a continued effort to reform the banking system, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was commissioned to regulate Wall Street. This organization is responsible for enforcing all federal securities laws and proposing securities rules, while regulating the nation’s stock and options exchanges, the securities industry, and other organizations, which include the electronic securities markets in the United States.^x Franklin was determined to push through a federal minimum wage as part of the NIRA. He argued, “No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.”^xi He eventually achieved this goal with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which provided the last major domestic reform measure of the New Deal.^xii

For the most part, federal spending was Roosevelt’s idea of recovery in the United States. The Public Works Administration allowed $3.3 billion worth of spending to stimulate the economy. Out of this idea rose the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a new program which employed people to build dams and power stations, thereby providing flood-control and modern technology for agricultural areas in the Tennessee Valley, one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the United States. Additionally, Roosevelt moved to repeal prohibition—one of his campaign promises—which brought in new tax revenues. He signed the Cullen-Harrison Act, redefining 3.2% alcohol as the allowed maximum.

As a measure to boost the economy by countering inflation, Franklin pushed through Executive Order 6102, which required that all American citizens were to sell their privately held gold to the United States Treasury; this move raised the price of gold from twenty dollars per ounce to thirty-five dollars per ounce.^xiii

All of Franklin’s ideas did not rest as well with the American people, though. One of his most unpopular commissions was his idea to cut the federal budgets by reducing military spending, veterans’ benefits, federal employees’ salaries, and spending on research and education. The American veterans groups came close to a full revolt. They protested heavily, and most benefits were increased or restored by 1934. In fact, Roosevelt restored $50 million in pension payments, then Congress added an additional $46 million.^xiv When veteran groups campaigned to alter their benefits to payments due in 1945 to immediate cash—henceforth called the Bonus Act—in January 1936, the economy boosted.

Roosevelt was quickly learning that a change would be necessary for continued growth in the country, and he commenced working toward that goal. In 1935, Franklin began to pursue what was later known as the Second New Deal. He had the largest majorities in both houses after the 1934 Congressional elections, and he started with a fresh set of new legislation ideas. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was one of the first initiatives. The WPA employed two million family heads—usually unemployed male leaders of family units—to carry out public works projects, including the construction of many public roads and buildings. In 1938, the WPA helped bring unemployment down by twenty percent in comparison to 1933’s count.^xv

Not only was Roosevelt concerned for younger families, but he also labored toward legislation for those who could not work. Enacted in 1935, the Social Security Act established economic security for the poor, sick, elderly, and otherwise financially unstable citizens of the United States of America. Senator Robert Wagner pushed through the Wagner Act, or the National Labor Relations Act, which established and guaranteed the basic rights of employees to organize unions, engage collective bargaining for better conditions at work, and take collective action to ensure their needs are met. As a result, labor unions became strong proponents of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s re-elections.^xvi

Roosevelt was determined to use his power to help the citizens of his country in their pursuits. He did not leave them to struggle out of dark holes on their own; rather, he provided assistance when they fell until they could stand on their own again. As to his ideas on how to improve the country, Franklin said, “The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation … It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”^xvii In other words, Roosevelt took action.

In addition to his progress in the economy, Franklin maintained a heavy focus on environmental conservation. In 1931, he said, “Heretofore our conservation policy has been merely to preserve as much as possible of the existing forests. Our new policy goes a step further. It will not only preserve the existing forests, but create new ones.” While in office, Franklin established one hundred and forty national wildlife refuges, twenty-nine national forests, and twenty-nine national parks and monuments.^xviii The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built 13,000 miles of trails, upgraded 125,000 miles of dirt roads, and planted two billion trees. Although later critics knew that dam systems were not a component of conservation, Franklin thought they would help the environment and commissioned many dams, thinking they would provide a way to further help the earth’s longevity.^xix

During his first term of presidency, Roosevelt had to deal with the onslaught of foreign policy issues, along with all the problems happening within his own country. Roosevelt sided with isolationism, rejecting the League of Nations treaty in 1919. He determined that the best method was to be prepared for war but to avoid taking sides unless absolutely necessary. For the most part, Franklin wanted the United States to mind their own business and avoid dallying in foreign issues. He listed that one of his primary goals with foreign policy was to end European colonialism, as he was vastly opposed to imperialism.^xx He wanted each country to rule itself.

Continuing on the topic of foreign policy, one important aspect of Roosevelt’s first term as president was the Good Neighbor Policy. This policy terminated the United States Marines’ occupation of Nicaragua in 1933 and occupation of Haiti in 1934. In this, he was taking additional steps toward isolationism. Additionally, this political and military move led to the extinction of the Platt Amendment by the Treaty of Relations with Cuba in 1934 and, in 1938, the negotiation of compensation for Mexico’s nationalization of foreign-owned oil assets. Cuba and Panama were no longer United States protectorates, as well, and Roosevelt signed the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States in 1933, giving up the country’s rights to intervene in Latin American affairs.^xxi During this term, Roosevelt signed a mandatory arms embargo.^xxii The United States was slowly withdrawing its long-reaching arms.

These New Deal policies were bold and impressive, especially for a new president. The people of the United States obviously considered Franklin’s first term successful because he won the next election by a large majority as a New Deal Democrat, carrying every state except Maine and Vermont.

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Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, into the influential and aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the Spencer-Churchill family, in the closely knit inner circle of Victorian society. Winston S. Churchill’s father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a direct descendent of John Churchill, the man who became first Duke of Marlborough early in the eighteenth century after fighting for king and country against Louis XIV of France during the War of Spanish Succession. In light of John Churchill’s deeds, parliament granted him the money to build a family seat, henceforth known as Blenheim Palace, which was named after his greatest victory.ⁱ Winston S. Churchill’s mother, Jennie Jerome, was born to Leonard W. Jerome, a New York financier, avid horse-racing fan,ⁱⁱ and partial owner of the New York Times.ⁱⁱⁱ It was rather common in the late nineteenth century for British aristocrats to marry American heiresses, as the women often arrived with sizeable wealth.

Soon after Winston was born, the family moved. Churchill called Dublin, Ireland, his home from ages two to six while he lived with his grandfather who served as Viceroy of Ireland and employed Churchill’s father as his private secretary. It was here in Dublin that Winston Churchill’s little brother, Jack, was born and Churchill began the earliest stages of his education in which his governess instructed him in those noble pursuits of history, literature, writing, and mathematics.

The family traveled between homes often, moving from Ireland to the Isle of Wight off England’s southern coast to Blenheim Palace and to London. Reportedly, the relationship between Churchill’s parents took a downward turn, and his mother was absent for a large portion of his childhood. According to some reports, Jennie Churchill found solace in the company of other men, considering that her husband was syphilitic, a fact Churchill did not know until his father was near death. After he died, Jennie married twice, and both men proved unsuitable partners. In 1899, she married a man twenty years younger than herself, and after a divorce, she married again in 1917 to another man twenty years her junior. When she died in 1922, Churchill said, “All the sunshine and storm of life was over,” perfectly exemplifying the difficult and disruptive life they had lived together as mother and son.^iv

As he was often separated from his parents, Churchill developed a strong and close relationship with his nanny, Mrs. Elizabeth Everest,¹ to whom he fondly referred as “Old Woom” or “Woomany.” He later said, “Mrs. Everest it was who looked after me and tended all my wants.”^v Their relationship grew into a close friendship as Winston S. Churchill grew older, and he was the only member of his family to visit her when he learned that she was gravely ill of peritonitis in 1895. Leaving his military duties, he brought a doctor and a nurse to her deathbed. Upon her death, Churchill arranged her funeral, provided the tombstone for her grave, and paid for its continued upkeep. “She had been my dearest and most intimate friend during the whole twenty years I had lived,” he said.^vi “I shall never know such a friend again.”^vii Everest had served as his comrade, nurse, and motherly figure. In a letter to his mother, Churchill wrote, “I feel very low, and I find I never realized how much old Woom meant to me.”^viii He kept her memory alive, though. In his bedroom hung a picture of her until he died; as with many children of the Victorian aristocracy, Winston found a real mother figure in his nanny, rather than in his biological mother. Now, The Churchill Centre and the Churchill family keep attention to the grave of Mrs. Elizabeth Everest, making sure that Churchill’s efforts to care for his childhood nanny did not cease.^ix

Growing older, Winston passed the age of in-home learning and moved toward boarding school. During his childhood education, Churchill maintained a poor academic record. He attended three schools: St. George’s School in Berkshire; Brunswick School (since renamed Stoke Brunswick School) in Hove; and Harrow School.

In 1882, as befitted his family’s wealth and social standing, Winston Churchill packed up his belongings and was shipped off to St. George’s boarding school a few weeks before his eighth birthday. Therefore, he moved from receiving education from a governess to learning from St. George’s. Regarding his early educational system, Churchill said, “It appeared that I was to go away from home for many weeks at a stretch in order to do lessons under new masters … Now it was to be all lessons.” After two years with St. George’s, Churchill transferred to The Misses Thomson’s Preparatory School. Here, he found more interest in subjects such as French, horseback riding, poetry, and swimming.^x

From an early age, Winston expressed a heavy interest in military history and affairs. His earliest surviving letter comprises a military scene filled with flags, castles, and toy soldiers, which Churchill particularly loved and collected. He amassed an army of around fifteen hundred Napoleonic-era toy soldiers, which he played with often during his self-simulated battles. Therefore, it was no surprise that Churchill began his military career soon after entering Harrow School^xi in April of 1888. A month after starting at Harrow, he joined the Harrow Rifle Corps, which formed in 1859 as an affiliate of the Middlesex Regiment.^xii An old Harrow song “Left, Right” proceeds as follows:

Young Brown he was a little boy

and barely four foot four

But his manly bosom yearned to join

the Harrow Rifle Corps.

So he went to see the Sergeant

and he made a grand salute.

And he said says he, I want to be

a volunteer recruit.

Winston Churchill began developing military skills—riding, gunmanship, and fencing—here at Harrow. Churchill especially loved the days when the Corps held “field days,” or mock battles when he was able to put his mind and mettle to the test. In 1892, Churchill won the Public Schools Championship for his excellence in these fields.^xiii

Although Churchill excelled in the military aspect of his education, he did not particularly exceed in other areas right away. Speaking of his Harrow Latin entrance exam, Churchill recalled, “I wrote my name at the top of the page. I wrote down the number of the question, ‘1.’ After much reflection I put a bracket around it, thus, ‘(1).’ But thereafter I could not think of anything connected with it that was either relevant or true. Incidentally, there arrived from nowhere in particular a blot and several smudges. I gazed for two whole hours at this sad spectacle; and then merciful ushers collected up my piece of foolscap and carried it up to the Headmaster’s table.”^xiv

He entered Harrow with low expectations, a stutter, and a lisp, yet he never let these obstacles overcome his fondness for the English language.^xv The master of the school, Robert Somervell, taught English in a way that appealed to Winston. Churchill wrote, “Thus, I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence—which is a noble thing. And when in after years my schoolfellows who had won prizes and distinctions for writing such beautiful Latin poetry had come down to common English, to earn their living or make their way, I did not feel myself at any disadvantage.”^xvi Despite his achievements and success in military matters, Churchill later revealed that he would have preferred to skip Harrow altogether. Churchill said, “In all the twelve years I was at school no one ever succeeded in making me write a Latin verse or learn any Greek except the alphabet.”^xvii It was likely determined beforehand, though, that the child of Lord Randolph Churchill would not be turned away from Harrow, regardless of his poor exam results.

While probably not the underlying reason for his failures in school, Churchill’s strained relationship with his parents certainly did not encourage his studies. In fact, Churchill’s mother rarely visited him even though he wrote her letters, asking her to come see him at Harrow or allow him to go home.^xviii In 1890, young Churchill’s mother wrote, “I had built up such hopes about you and felt so proud of you—and now all is gone … your work is an insult to your intelligence. If you would only trace out a plan of action for yourself and carry it out and be determined to do so—I am sure you could accomplish anything you wished.”^xix

It was at Harrow that Churchill’s abilities as an orator grew. Although Churchill had a lateral lisp that plagued his career, the matter remains that his skills as a speaker are well-established.^xx At Harrow, Churchill entered a competition in which he recited from memory 1200 lines of Lays of Ancient Rome, a long Macaulay poem.^xxi

Due to Churchill’s interest in the military, his father determined that his son would join the army, and Winston Churchill accepted this instruction and set about following through with this goal. The next year, Churchill enrolled in the army class at Harrow, and he placed all his efforts in gaining entry in the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.^xxii Thankfully, the army’s requirements fell at a lower rate than those for Home, Diplomatic, or Indian Civil services.^xxiii Regardless of his low expectations in school, Churchill geared toward the political realm, and his career in the military helped him reach his goals. While at Harrow, he told his friend Murland Evans, “I tell you I shall be in command of the defenses in London … In the high position I shall occupy, it will fall to me to save the Capital and save the Empire.”^xxiv Even at this early age, Churchill began plotting for his place as prime minister.

On his third attempt to pass the Sandhurst exam, Winston finally scored high enough to achieve entrance. After failing the second part twice, he left Harrow to study with Captain Walter James who professionally trained young men for the Sandhurst exam. Thankfully, his skills helped Churchill enter Sandhurst at age eighteen in 1893.^xxv

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References