Winston Churchill as a War Correspondent
Mortimer Menpes
1901
Watercolor
Source: War Impressions, facing 150.
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Menpes on Churchill: “Among the correspondents there was Mr. Winston Churchill. What is there that has not been said about him? One has heard that he is this, that, and the other; that he was a tornado, a storm bird, a young man in a hurry; that he was a calm phlegmatic person, with an iron will and an audacious heart. I myself found him a very sympathetic individuality; not arrogant, not an egoist, but a good listener, and modest.” [continued below]
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“Yet one can hardly affirm that he always speaks modestly. He doesn't, perhaps. But his atmosphere is not conceited what boys call "cocky." He is interested in outside things; his praise of other people is unstinted; and he is quite ready to retire into the background and listen to any one's conversation if it is interesting. If it is not well, I think it might chance to be speedily interrupted. At first, Mr. Churchill strikes one as. being in a great hurry. His movements are quick; his manner is brisk and determined, and even a little brusque. At moments he falls into silence and apathy, until one touches upon a subject that interests him deeply, when he bursts out into a torrent of eloquent and enthusiastic conversation. He talks brilliantly, in a full clear voice, and with great assurance. He can be either epigrammatic or sarcastic, and is often both. I should say that he is more brilliant as an orator than as a conversationalist. At times, even in solitude a deux, he seems to be addressing a large audience, or a deputation meekly waiting upon him to learn his views. I have heard him talk upon almost every subject South Africa, the War, his escape from Pretoria all with the greatest ease and facility, but not carelessly. I noticed that his conversation is never careless. Any question put to him that he has not thought out leads him to ask a series of other questions, and his expression clearly shows that he is all curiosity on this point; he deliberately weighs all the pros and cons, and sounds the ground around his subject before attempting to answer, which testifies to his thoroughness. But the moment that he feels he is able to answer, his expression changes, and he speaks in an almost flippant manner, giving his views in an apparently careless way, but with the greatest assurance. You feel that he has decided that question once and for ever, and that all the King's horses and all the King's men could not move him. He is a curious combination of hyper-sensitiveness and rather ordinary placidity. His face is nervous, clean-shaven, with a firm mouth and chin; he is fair, rather inclined to the gold than the silver; and his head droops forward slightly, as though it was too heavy to hold upright. His countenance wears rather a grave expression; it is. purely intellectual, and has a slight resemblance to that of Lord Rosebery. The rest of him is rather short, broad-shouldered, almost stubby; perfectly still and tranquil. Altogether his face or is it his body? seems to belong to some one else. His frame makes you think that he is a little apathetic; but his face decides you that he is alert and wide-awake, and it is just the same with his manner. By his conversation you would think him perhaps a little too well pleased wkh himself; but by his actions you are quite sure that deep down he is modest. He is always dressed with care and precision; his clothing, whether khaki or broadcloth, is of the latest fashion, and remarkable only for its great sim- plicity; he wears nothing that would compel attention. His hands are of a very good shape, and, like few men, he knows exactly how to hold them. Mr. Churchill is very energetic when he talks of the Army Chap- lains at the front; for they have splendid chances of doing a really magnificent work, but, as a rule, they are without capacity. Mr. Churchill maintains that this is wrong. Just as good men should be sent out to represent the Church at the front as those who represent the medical profession. "We send our surgeons," he says, "the biggest of them, why should we not send our great preachers? No: I maintain it, and I will say it again and again: it is wrong to send out a lot of illiterate, dull people to represent the Church, and there is not an audience in Great Britain that would not be with me if I made that statement." When Mr. Churchill speaks of South Africa he does so with intense appreciation and enthusiasm. "South Africa," he says, "is superb. Surely the wonderful pictures which have been painted of a cultivated, luxuriantly-flowering country should testify to its beauty; and can they be dastardly enough to say that this place, which we are pouring out our blood for, is nothing but a barren land?" Mr. Churchill is a man who might be unpopular because of his great cleverness. He is too direct and frank to flatter, and would never consent to efface himself in order to give added and unmerited value to the quality of others. On the whole, he struck me as a man who, in certain circles, might be termed unpopular, and accused of an arro- gance which, to any but a jaundiced vision, would appear for what it undoubtedly is, frankness and perfect manliness.” [124-27]
Related Material
References
Menpes, Mortime. War Impressions Being A Record in Colour. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1901. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California Library. Web. 13 December 2014.
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Last modified 14 December 2014