Background
In 1899 Winston Churchill, though he had left his Regiment, the 4th Hussars, in the previous March, was eager as ever to be within the sound of the guns and wasted no time in getting himself accredited to The Morning Post as war correspondent. He sailed from Southampton aboard the Dumottar Castle on 14 October and reached Cape Town on the 31st.
Churchill was captured while a military reporter. Churchill escaped from the prison camp and traveled almost 300 miles (480 km) to Portuguese Lourenço Marques in Delagoa Bay, with the assistance of an English mine manager. His escape made him a minor national hero for a time in Britain, though instead of returning home, he rejoined General Redvers Buller's army on its march to relieve the British at the Siege of Ladysmith and take Pretoria. This time, although continuing as a war correspondent, Churchill gained a commission in the South African Light Horse Regiment. He was one of the first British troops into Ladysmith and Pretoria. In fact, he and the Duke of Marlborough, his cousin, were able to get ahead of the rest of the troops in Pretoria, where they demanded and received the surrender of fifty-two Boer guards of the prison camp there.
Churchill later re-told the events described in articles in The Strand Magazine in 1923-24, and his autobiography My Early Life. He produced a second volume of his experiences continuing where this one ceased, Ian Hamilton's March.
Read more about this topic: London To Ladysmith Via Pretoria
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