Millard talks about her book hero of the empire the boer war, a daring escape, and the making of Winston Churchill. s this is about 45 minutes. [applause] our next speaker and i accidentally sat next to each other at lunch and we discovered we had something in common. We are both very fast eaters. [laughter] we also found out that we share a common passion for history. I am very pleased to introduce Candice Millard to you today. I am a longtime fan of her work. I think what distinguishes her work from the work of other popular historians is her rare ability to engender suspense despite the readers for knowledge of the outcome. I speak from experience. When i read her first book, the river of doubt, i spent a lot of time worrying about if and how Teddy Roosevelt was ever going to get out of that brazilian jungle. Even though i knew that he would. The suspense was worse because i was listening to the book as i was driving the washington beltway. It was always a race to see who was going to get to the exit first, teddy or me. Destinyer second book hopingublic, i kept that James Garfield would somehow survive the ineptitude of his doctrine, even though i knew he would not. Book,ell into her latest which i have right here hero of the empire the boer war, a daring escape, and the making of Winston Churchill. I am already on the edge of my seat wondering if Winston Churchill is going to make it out of south africa live. If my remarks sound more like a fan letter than a formal introduction, complete with a listing of all of her awards and achievements, of which there are many, that is because it is. It is my very great pleasure to introduce to you Candice Millard. [applause] ms. Millard thank you very much. Do we have the powerpoint . I am so sorry. I scented in earlier. I sent it in earlier. Great. Ok, all right. Sorry about that. You mary for that introduction. I really enjoyed our conversation over lunch. I wanted to say a quick thank you to the International Churchill society, especially lee pollock, who has been a tremendous help to me in the source of encouragement and incredibly gracious and generous over the past five years while i have been working on this book. It is a tremendous honor to be here, very humbling to have a chance to meet some renown historians, some of my personal heroes including sir david cannadine. That he is a him very difficult act to follow, but i will try my best. As i sat in this room last night, having a beautiful dinner am a great conversation, i suddenly realized that i had been here before, but it was for a very different event. Fors here for a memorial two coworkers from National Geographic just across the street. They had been killed a few days earlier on 9 11. They had been on the plane that had been flown into the pentagon. Feeling at the time, as so many people dead, nation,t we needed as a as a world, with someone who can not only lead us, but can someone but someone who understood history and to understood the power of words, and could harness those words. What we needed was someone who could stir our hearts. What we needed, in essence, was a messenger to was a Winston Churchill. As we all know, there was and will always be only one Winston Churchill. Wasas you might imagine, it incredibly daunting to me to attempt to write about him. To understand even a small part of his life. But i have to say, the more i study him, especially his years in south africa, the more fascinated i became, and i was hooked. Like so many other writers and historians before and after me, i found him absolutely irresistible. That when most of us think of Winston Churchill, we think of the man during world war ii. He has become virtually a synonym for great leadership. A masters we all know, politician, a savior of his country during world war ii, when of the nobel prize for literature winner of the nobel prize for literature, and one of the most amazing human beings in history. But the trying but the problem with trying to understand a leader at the height of his career is that we often end up talking about the results of that persons character instead of the forces that created it. Understandrying to is where that man came from. What cave him the courage what gave him the courage, the insight, and the will to become such a towering figure . So, today, i am going to talk about a young man. 24 years old. He has just left the military, the only job he has ever had come the only job for which he has been trained. He has no money. He already try to run for office, but lost. He is like so many other children of privilege then and now, who amount to nothing. So, how to be connect this young man to the legend he later became . What made the Winston Churchill we all know . How did he become one of the most powerful and effective leaders mankind has ever produced . That an important part of the answer lies in an exceptional series of events that took place in 1899, when young Winston Churchill went to the boer war in south africa. Churchill did not plan this story and he could not have predicted it. But in every sense, he prepared for it. He understood the significance. He seized control of it. He risked everything to succeed in it. And he turned that opportunity into a lifechanging moment that was directly responsible for his path cap to power later to power. There is a saying that luck is opportunity meets a a combustible mixture of talent and resourcefulness that defined him from his earliest years. It transform this young man into a world famous hero, setting him firmly on a path to greatness, and in doing so, it transformed the world we live in today. To me, one of the most striking aspects of churchills personality, one that sets him apart from the many other young men who believed it that they are destined for greatness with dreams of glory, is that he did not wait for things to happen to him. He made them happen. He took life by the rains, or the caller, or the neck, whatever it took, whatever he could grab. In fact, he was so openly ,mbitious, so incredibly driven that by the time he was 20 four years old, he had already written three books by the time he was 24 years old, he at a rewritten three books, run for parliament, and taken part in three different wars on three different continents. Churchill had been fascinated with war from a brick from a very early age. Man, itew into a young became more than the legacy of his ancestors, john churchill, the first duke of marlborough, one of the greatest generals in u. S. History, more than 1504 soldiers, or the wargames he played. War for churchill became the fastest and most reliable route to everything he dreamed of recognition and political power. It was, he said, a glittering gateway to distinction. And he was willing, not only to write, but to take any risk to be noticed. He had nearly been killed many whistling by his head, once killing a horse standing right next to him. Himself, oncemen coming so close to his victim that his pistol struck the man. And he had seen his friends, not just killed, but related. Sliced to ribbons by their enemies. But he did not believe that he himself would die. He wrote that he did not believe the gods that create so potent a , posed such anf ending. Churchill continued to seek out the most brutal battles the british battle the british had to offer. He was the first to sign up in the first to show off. Even to the astonishment and horror of the men around him, rode a white pony on the battlefield just to be noticed. He said, given an audience, there is no act to daring or two noble too daring or too noble. Churchill was impatient to succeed and excel, to make his mark on the world, but no matter what he did, he could not get a foothold. The military was too slow for him, so he quit. Inran for his first seat parliament, but was rejected by voters. So, frustrated and burning with ambition, he feverishly looked for his next opportunity, knowing that it was his destiny to lead. Just a few months later, war broke out in Southern Africa. To the british, this was just another colonial war. One that they expected to be over in a matter of months, certainly by christmas. Unfortunately, they had forgotten who they were fighting. Had been living in Southern Africa for centuries, and in that time, they had transformed from rogue groups of largely dutch and german immigrants into an entirely new ethnic group, neither european or african. A journalist from the london times wrote, and the matter of life, their habits and their character, they had undergone a profound change. Evenen involved it involved their own language. ,hey were highly religious unabashedly racist, and stubbornly independent. Most of all, they just wanted to be left alone. In attempts to get away from the 1835empire in 1935 just after the british abolished slavery, they moved hundreds of miles from the cape into the african interior in what became known as the great trek and establish three republics of their own. Independence lasted only as long as their poverty. Diamonds and00s, borewere discovered in the for public transforming the region from one of the poorest in the world to one of the wealthiest. Paul kruger, who would become president of the transwall, said the gold would cost the country to be soaked in blood and he was right. That thetain had and translaw that quickly led to the first of boer war in 1880. Years later, in the fall of 1899, little had changed. Thebritish still wanted boers land in the boers insisted on their independence. The British Empire started amassing troops, and the atmosphere gradually set of a, charged with electricity, laden with oppressive storm. Finally, the boers issued an ultimatum a. M. Standdown or prepare for war. The british, thrilled to have an excuse to go to war, allowed the deadline for the ultimatum to pass. Three days after the war began, west intertel, seeing his opportunity Winston Churchill was on a ship to south africa as a correspondent. On the same ship was a commanderinchief of her majestys army in south africa. So confident were the british that bullard would make quick work of the boers, that they nicknamed him the steamroller, but bullard was more cautious when it came to south africa. He knew the boers. He had one who is cross years had notin which he fought against the boers, but with them. Didnew that although they not have an empire, navy, or a standing army, the boers were masters of modern warfare. Of britains colonial enemies, they had sophisticated weapons, some of which were better than what bullard could give to his own men. They were extraordinary marksman having spent the last two centuries doing little else than hunting and fighting. They knew every cranny of the South African belt and they could disappear without a trace, making them an invisible and very dangerous enemy. Learned from one of their first and fiercest enemies, the bantu, a large, loose a net linguistic family with hundreds of different ethnic groups. Included the sulu and Nelson Mandelas tribe. They fought for more than a century and in that time, the had done their best, not only to take the bantus land and subjugate their people, but learned a new kind of warfare, one that most europeans did not yet understand. Not only did the boers know the South African belt inside and out, but whenever there was no place to hide, they made one. They built small shelters out of piles of stone. They dug deep and long trenches, some stretching 30 miles. They did not wear uniforms. And quietly. Ickly their enemies that only did not see them coming, but they often did not see them at all, even after the battle had begun. Contrast to the boers, the british had only recently and very reluctantly began dragging the military into the modern world. In fact, this is known as the khaki war because it was one of the first times the british armies did not wear their dashing redcoats. They hated the red uniforms and complained that they made them look like bus drivers, but they continued to fight in precise lines, spreading themselves across the flat, african plains. Even in the midst of a brutal attack, there are few they refused to find cover. They were expected to be brave and show complete disregard for their safety. A native South African intellectual journalist and statesmen, who had become the anc, secretary of the carefully observe the british army during the war, marveling at what he saw. These experienced soldiers never care how fast bullets may ways about them how fast the bullets may go pass them. Now a journalist himself, churchill had a lot on his mind as he made his way to south africa. His mother, the beautiful charismatic, and wicked smart, jenny had just told him that she was in love. And was likely going to marry a young man named drunk on wall west who was only a young man named George Cornwall west. Churchill had his own love life to consider. He had met a dazzling young woman named Pamela Plowden in india. The problem was that he was far from her only admirer. And she did not believe he was passionate enough in his devotion. Churchill was indignant, insisting he was no single gallant following the fancy of the hour. Even pamela could not compete for churchills attention as he neared cape town. By the time he landed, the war had already taken a startling turn. The british army had been humiliated by the boers, losing several battles, and leaving its commanders stand and scrambling to adjust to this new kind of warfare. As soon as church till arrived with his valet, of course, and a , he wentction of wine as fast and as far as he could to the front, which was now in ladysmith, set the pretoria. , however,e he arrived the boers had completely cut off ladysmith. No one could get in or out. It was too late i was too late, churchill road, the door was shut. 40he was forced to make camp miles south of ladysmith in a little town called escort. Nine days later, as a heavy rain fell on the morning of november 15, churchill climbed aboard the british armys armored train. His old friend from his days in the military had been ordered to take the train out for reconnaissance. Both men knew that it was a foolish, potentially disastrous decision. An easy was the train target on the best of days, but the boers had been spotted just outside of escort owned the day before. Holden had no choice but to go. Churchill, on the other hand, did. Frustrated, restless, and he would later admit, eager for trouble, he did not hesitate for a moment when holden invited him to go along. Thate the sun came up morning, churchill had climbed into the first train car and open truck where he would have the best advantage. Behind him was another armored car filled with men in their khaki uniforms and pink hats. The engine with its wide mouth, black funnel, and narrow tender and two more armored cars and finally, an ordinary car that held tools. , thee train cut across boers were silently and invisibly watching. A respected young general would become the first Prime Minister of south africa. He could trace his family back to the first days of european settlement. He had a quintessentially boer childhood, one of 13 children on an isolated farm 100 miles west of durban. He had received only a couple of years of formal education. But while he would never speak much english, he was flowing to an afrikaans, but in the sulu and soto. He had even fought with the sulu when he was just 22 years old leading a group of boers to defeat his rival for the throne. On the day that churchill boarded the armored train, botox and his men were watching bota and his men were watching. Not only did bolton know where the train was going, he knew that it would have to come back on the same tracks. As soon as the train passed, he ordered his men to move to the bottom of the hill and began piling rocks on the tracks. ,hen the train, on its way back appeared at the top of the hill, the boers opened fire, chasing it down a steep slope until it crashed into the stone. Catapulting the first two cars of the tracks killing several men, horribly wounding others, and trapping them all in a help hail nhl storm in a storm of bullets and stone. 24 years old, Winston Churchill immediately took charge of the defense, shouting orders as he ran back and forth from the engine to the last truck and organizing the men in a desperate attempt to free the train. Andhe end, he succeeded every man who made it out alive credited Winston Churchills bravery and resourcefulness for saving their lives. Unfortunately, churchill was not there to accept their gratitude. He had been captured. He was taken as a prisoner of war. Churchill, captivity was unbearable, and he would never forget how it felt. Wrote, youlater, he feel a sense of constant humiliation in being confined to in byow space, tucked railings and dwyer, watched armed men. I certainly hated every minute of my captivity more than i have ever hated any other period and my whole life. For them from the moment he became a prisoner, churchill resolved to escape. Finally, with two other men, he had a plan. Iron tailing surrounded their prison, that was constantly patrolled by guards. When the electric lights came on at night, one corner in the yard remained dark. When of the cards one of the guards turned her back, they could make the right move. After careful planning, they chose their night. But when the time came, churchills coconspirators found themselves trapped inside in the glare of the lights and in the eyes of the guards. Churchill, who had already scaled the fence, suddenly realized, that he was alone, facing the prospect of crossing nearly 300 miles of Enemy Territory with no map, no weapons, nofood, no ability to speak a language, and in hot pursuit. Was churchill did have absolute faith in his destiny and a clear understanding that this was the opportunity he had been waiting for. Escapery of churchills is an epic adventure by any standard. For those of you who do not know exactly how he survived it, i wont tell you. Youll have to read the book. [laughter] but i will say that by the time it was over, churchill was not ,nly a free man, he rode back took over the prison, released the men who had been his fellow prisoners, captured the jailers, and watched as the boer flag was torn down and the british flag hoistedin its place and its place. Churchill asre was a leader and architect of the world we live in. After he returned home from south africa, he was who he always dreamed of being a hero of the empire. A famous man, churchill ref for parliament again, and this time, he won. His life in british politics would never be the same. If churchill had previously dreamed about the power of his well and his destiny, now he had proof. He was unstoppable. He had not only been part of a great adventure, he had done it alone. He would approach life and politics with an unshakable faith and in his own ability that would not only to find his leadership, but provide a foundation of courage and confidence that would inspire entire nations. Churchill would also carry with them the humbling lessons of this experience throughout his life. He understood better than almost any other major leader, the enormous cost in and tragedy of war. He was extremely compassionate about the flight of prisoners the plate of prisoners and was determined to recap the hand of friendship for those who had lately been his enemies. As high as Churchill Rose in the political stratosphere, he would never forget his capture, imprisonment, or escape from the boers. As he himself would write, this misfortune could i have perceived the future was to lay the foundation of my later life. Those foundations would help support and shape much of the world we know today. Of course, churchill did not know it at the time, but i dont think it would have come as a surprise. Thank you very much. [applause] ok. I have 15 minutes for questions. Yes. [indiscernible] ms. Millard the question is did the boers new who they had captured . The answer is absolutely. Churchills father had been in south africa a year before. Yet traveled much of the country and written letters back home, which were published. He was a correspondent and published in a local newspaper. Hadhose letters, he attacked the boers for the lack of education, for their lack of sophistication, and for their treatment of native africans, which is perfectly fair. The boers know about those letters in the hated him. When they found out that they had his son, who was also the son of the lord, someone who had been born into the highest ranks of the british aristocracy, and represented everything they hated about great britain, they were thrilled. Himthey made it clear to that they were going to keep a close eye on him. Unfortunately, the boers were also determined to prove to the british that they are very sophisticated. And they were very civilized. This is an officers prison, so they went to extreme length to let them have all kinds of privileges. Churchill had a regular barber coming in to cut his hair and give him a shave. They had access to newspapers. You can go to this building where he was kept today, a public library, and they allowed them to draw a map on the wall of south africa charting the course of the war. And so, churchill, of course, as all the men there, planned to try to take advantage of some of hade privileges that they to make it easier to escape. Yes. Thank you. I am interested in what you said. Particularly, his attitude toward the boers because after his famous victory, this was the first time he demonstrated that. And then it leads to a great allydship who becomes an of great britain. What you say about that in his when he gets back to britain for the boers . Ms. Millard he got in trouble for his insistence that he believed that all the british did, that the war would be over quickly, and it ends up taking three years. Escapes, and fights, he begins writing letter saying we need to begin thinking about when we and other victors, how we are going to help the boers rebuild . Andy really took a lot of flak for that. A well received it was not wellreceived. There was no real understanding of the importance of that, i think. When he got into parliament, he talked about the fact that there were things he admired about the boers. He admired the boer fighters and their ability. He also got in trouble with that. A friend of louis bolton. Not only had ta been in command, but held them at gunpoint and taken him as a captive. Son, randolph, realized after doing quiet a bit realized that it could not have been bota personally and was responsible for the attack. And his dying day said, you are wrong, i am right, it was bota. Haveota himself may believed it. He talks about a conversation when he first meets and later introduces himself and said, you dont recognize me . It was me who captured you personally. Churchill continued to believe that, but it was a great friendship. It is that kind of reaching across the divide, especially after war, that is so important. I wish every nation could learn from that. Yes. Thank you. The roll the role that she played and a very unpopular war in america. Ms. Millard we were talking about Jennie Jerome last night. She was a piece of work. She was a very interesting woman and incredibly beautiful. Because of that, and because of the relationship she had after her husbands death, often the focus is on that instead of on the fact that she was incredibly smart, incredibly charismatic, and had incredible rgy and by that city incredible energy. His father meant a great deal to him. Churchill said he wished he had son born a shopkeepers because he would have gotten an opportunity to know his father. But he always loved his mother. As he became a young man and became interesting and ambitious and his own right, she took a great deal of interest in him and was critical in helping him and his ambition. Because she was so involved in that so many relationships with men in powerful positions, she was able to help him get military appointments whenever wherever he wanted to go. And he wanted to go everywhere. This was the height of the British Empire. There were costly putting down revolts from egypt to ireland. During the war, she was incredibly involved. Hospitald money for a ship that went to south africa to help injured british soldiers. Talking d i were if you have not been to the archives in cambridge, please find the time to go. Absolutely incredible. I found so many great photos while i was there. One was showing Jennie Jerome on her way to south africa and her onredibly beautiful suite that ship and her beautiful nurses costume and all that she achieved. She was absolutely critical in Winston Churchills life personally and in his political ambitions. Absolutely. Back there. Back there. I think this is beyond the scope of your book, but do you believe that was an influence on him when he was in the office with prison reform. Had he himself actually been a prisoner . Ms. Millard absolutely. When he became home secretary, and he says this himself, he absolutely said he would never forget what it was like to be a prisoner. Even though he was any privileged prison, he hated the idea of being a captive and being enclosed and his movements guarded and controlled by anybody but himself. Home secretary, he made sure that prisoners, no matter what they had done, no matter how guilty they were of whatever horrendous crime, believed they were still human beings and they deserve access to books, to exercise, to the outside. So this was absolutely important to him and very informational in that way as well. One of the same place you can judge a nation by having two other prisoners. I think that is a wonderful benchmark. Ms. Millard thank you. Yes. On the treatment of prisoners, he was rather brutal when world war ii broke out about enemy aliens, most of whom were deported under fairly poor conditions to australia. There is a book about that. Was that a lapse under crisis . Record unblemished as you presented it . Ms. Millard i think we can agree that churchill what a cash was a great man that churchill was a great man, but not a perfect man. Of the place in which he was born, the time in which he was born. Thinkpecific than that i i would be very arrogant and foolish to try to comment i spent five years working on this very small slice of Winston Churchills life. Maybe if i had 20 more years to look at the entirety of his life , i would be better able to answer that. Are many, many people who could address that better than i could. Yes, sir. That churchilld learned about gorilla warfare. When youre tough about the Mediterranean Campaign and churches resistance to dday, he became very enamored with gorilla warfare. He got a lot about treating prisoners properly. Did he perhaps learn the wrong lessons about military strategy . Still fighting the taurean war rather than modern war . Ms. Millard the entire british army learned a lot about were fair. It was completely different. In prepared them for world war i. There was a journalist at that time. A quick side story about Winston Churchill at that time. As the all know, he was an extraordinary writer. It is Crystal Clear at this point in his life. Even though he was 2425 years old, and i read a lot of contemporary accounts by many journalists, and i can say absolutely, he was head and shoulders above all of them. He was really an extraordinarily precise and insightful and beautiful writer. With the one exception of the man named George Stevens who died during the siege. He was in ladysmith. His prose is more like poetry. I couldve quoted from him all day long. But he wrote about the fact that even just watching it in realtime, you can see the confuseduffering and and in chaos trying to figure out