Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

1 2 5 - 1 0 0 - 7 5 - 5 0 Y E A R S A G O
125 Years Ago
Autumn 1885 • Age 11
“When the elections are over”
Winston continued to pine for his
parents’ affection and—unsuccessfully—for
their visit to his school.
On 29 September he wrote to his
mother, “when do you think Papa will
come & see me” On October 20th he
wrote with dismay to his father: “I
cannot think why you did not come to
see me while you were in Brighton. I
was very disappointed but I suppose
you were too busy to come.” A fortnight
later his mother received another
message: “There is a portrait of you in
The Graphic. I wonder when you are
coming down to see me.” A week later:
“I am not very happy. But quite well. I
want you to come and see me when the
elections are over.”
On 24 November Winston wrote
his father: “I hope most sincerely that
you will get in for Birmingham,
though when you receive this, the election
will be over.” Lord Randolph did
not get in for Birmingham, where he
was defeated by 773 votes. But he was
elected the next day by 1706 votes at
Paddington South, where an admirer
had instantly stood aside to let Lord
Randolph run in his place.
100 Years Ago
Autumn, 1910 • Age 36
“Take that, you dirty cur!”
Three episodes in Churchill’s life a
century ago are worthy of note.
One involves a lie still repeated today,
that he used army troops who fired
against striking miners at Tonypandy.
The second involves the suffragettes’
hostility to Churchill’s position on the
women’s vote. The third involves the
general election in December, the
second within the last twelve months.
During a coal miners’ strike in
South Wales during the first week in
November, the local constable, after a
few incidents of window breaking,
asked the army directly to send troops.
When Churchill found out the next
morning what had been done he
immediately decided to use police, not
the army, to deal with the problem. He
sent 200 police from London to South
Wales and the troops, already on their
way, were ordered to stop. When the
striking miners attacked a colliery and
were driven off by local police, they
moved on to the village of Tonypandy
and began looting local shops. When
the rioting continued, Churchill sent
an additional 500 police from London
and authorized one cavalry squadron to
move to a nearby rail junction to be
available should police be unable to
handle the problem. But the police
proved sufficient, and not a single
soldier came into contact with a
striking miner, let alone fired shots.
The Times criticized Churchill for not
sending in troops, while the left-wing
Manchester Guardian praised him for
his restraint. (See also page 9.)
On 18 November, suffragettes
held a demonstration in Parliament
Square to protest Asquith’s proposed
dissolution of Parliament without
acting on women’s suffrage. Contrary
to Churchill’s written instructions, the
police did not, as in the past, promptly
arrest those who engaged in a breach of
the peace, but instead began a six-hour
free-for-all fight with the demonstrators
where, as Randolph Churchill reported
in the official biography, “Stories of
women being punched, kicked,
pinched and grabbed by the breasts
seem well-authenticated.” On the 26th
Churchill was attacked with a whip on
a train by a man who had been arrested
at the Parliament Square demonstration.
“Take that, you dirty cur!” the
FINEST HOUR 148 / 47
by Michael McMenamin
man shouted, and later spent six weeks
in jail after a conviction for assault.
At Dundee on December 2nd,
Churchill explained that he was “in
favour of the principle of women being
enfranchised” but opposed extending it
only to women with property, because
it would “unfairly” alter the balance
between parties, i.e., to the advantage
of the Conservatives at the expense of
the Liberals.
During the bitter 1910 election
campaign, Churchill engaged in ad
hominem attacks, even on Tories he
otherwise liked and respected. In a
speech in London on November 28th
Churchill said of some of them:
Mr. Balfour is an amiable dilettante
philosopher who is content to brood
serenely, sedately, over the perversity of
a world which he longer attempts to
influence. Mr. Austen Chamberlain is a
very admirable and honourable young
gentleman, but, after all, with all his
faults, I would rather have old Joe
[laughter and cheers]. I would rather
always have the principal than the
understudy [cheers]....Then there is
Mr. F. E. Smith...a man of excessive
sensibility [laughter]. He would have
played a very effective part in this election
but for one fact. At the outset he
was terribly shocked by the wicked language
of Mr. Lloyd George...he has
been running about ever since endeavouring
to say things which he believes
will be as effective...but with this difference—that
whereas Mr. Lloyd
George is invariably witty, Mr. F. E.
Smith is invariably vulgar. So much for
their leaders. I do not think these will
work out at more than about six and a
half pence a pound. >>