Childhood and schooling: 1874–1895

Blenheim Palace, Churchill's ancestral home and his birthplace

Churchill was born at the family's ancestral home, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, on 30
November 1874,[7] at which time the United Kingdom was the dominant world power.[8] A direct
descendant of the Dukes of Marlborough, his family were among the highest levels of the British
aristocracy,[9] and thus he was born into the country's governing elite.[10] His paternal
grandfather, John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, had been a Member of
Parliament (MP) for ten years, a member of the Conservative Party who served in the
government of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.[11] His own father, Lord Randolph Churchill, had
been elected Conservative MP for Woodstock in 1873.[12]His mother, Jennie Churchill (née
Jerome), was from an American family whose substantial wealth derived from finance.[13] The
couple had met in August 1873, and were engaged three days later, marrying at the British
Embassy in Paris in April 1874.[14] The couple lived beyond their income and were frequently in
debt;[15] according to the biographer Sebastian Haffner, the family were "rich by normal standards
but poor by those of the rich".[16]

Churchill, aged six, in 1881[17]

In 1876 John Spencer-Churchill was appointed Viceroy of Ireland, with Randolph as his private
secretary, resulting in the Churchill family's relocation to Dublin, when the entirety of Ireland was
part of the United Kingdom.[18] It was here that Jennie's second son, Jack, was born in
1880;[19] there has been speculation that Randolph was not his biological father.[20] Throughout
much of the 1880s Randolph and Jennie were effectively estranged, during which she had many
suitors.[21] Churchill had virtually no relationship with his father;[22]referring to his mother, Churchill
later stated that "I loved her dearly—but at a distance."[23] His relationship with Jack was
warm.[20] In Dublin, the brothers were cared for primarily by their nanny, Elizabeth
Everest.[24] Churchill nicknamed her "Woomany",[25] and later wrote that "She had been my
dearest and most intimate friend during the whole of the twenty years I had lived."[26]
Aged seven, he began boarding at St. George's School in Ascot, Berkshire; he hated it, did
poorly academically, and regularly misbehaved.[27] Visits home were to Connaught Place in
London, where his parents had settled,[28] while they also took him on his first foreign holiday,
to Gastein in Austria-Hungary.[29] As a result of poor health, in September 1884 he moved
to Brunswick School in Hove; there, his academic performance improved but he continued to
misbehave.[30] He narrowly passed the entrance exam which allowed him to begin studies at the
elite Harrow School in April 1888.[31] There, his academics remained high—he excelled
particularly in history—but teachers complained that he was unpunctual and careless.[32] He wrote
poetry and letters which were published in the school magazine, Harrovian,[33] and won
a fencing competition.[34] His father insisted that he be prepared for a career in the military, and so
Churchill's last three years at Harrow were spent in the army form.[35] He performed poorly in
most of his exams.[36]
On a holiday to Bournemouth in January 1893, Churchill fell and was knocked unconscious for
three days.[37] In March he took a job at a cram school in Lexham Gardens, South
Kensington,[37] before holidaying in Switzerland and Italy that summer.[38] After two unsuccessful
attempts to gain admittance to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, he succeeded on his third
attempt.[39] There, he was accepted as a cadet in the cavalry,[40] starting his education in
September 1893.[36] In August 1894 he and his brother holidayed in Belgium,[41] and he spent free
time in London, joining protests at the closing of the Empire Theatre, which he had
frequented.[42] His Sandhurst education lasted for 15 months; he graduated in December
1894.[36] Shortly after Churchill finished at Sandhurst, in January 1895, his father died; this led
Churchill to adopt the belief that members of his family inevitably died young.[43]

Cuba, India, and Sudan: 1895–1899

Churchill in the military dress uniform of the Fourth Queen's Own Hussars at Aldershot in 1895. [44]

In February 1895, Churchill was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th Queen's Own
Hussars regiment of the British Army, based at Aldershot.[45] In July, he rushed to Crouch Hill,
North London to sit with Everest as she lay dying, subsequently organising her
funeral.[46] Churchill was eager to witness military action and used his mother's influence to try to
get himself posted to a war zone.[47] In the autumn of 1895, he and Reginald Barnes traveled to
Cuba to observe its war of independence; they joined Spanish troops attempting to suppress
independence fighters and were caught up in several skirmishes.[48] He also spent time in New
York City, staying with the wealthy politician Bourke Cockran, who profoundly influenced the
young Churchill.[49] Churchill admired the United States, writing to his brother that it was "a very
great country" and telling his mother "what an extraordinary people the Americans are!"[50]
With the Hussars, Churchill arrived in Bombay, British India, in October 1896.[51] They were soon
transferred to Bangalore, where he shared a bungalow with Barnes.[52] Describing India as a
"godless land of snobs and bores",[53] Churchill remained there for 19 months, during the course
of which he made three visits to Calcutta, expeditions to Hyderabad and the North West Frontier,
and two visits back to Britain.[54] Believing himself poorly educated, he began a project of self-
education,[55] reading the work of Plato, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, and Henry Hallam.[56] Most
influential for him were Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, Winwood Reade's The Martyrdom of Man, and the writings of Thomas Babington
Macaulay.[57]
Interested in British parliamentary affairs,[58] in one letter he declared himself "a Liberal in all but
name", but added that he could never endorse the Liberal Party's support for Irish home
rule.[59] Instead, he allied himself to the Tory democracy wing of the Conservative Party, and on a
visit home gave his first public speech for the Conservative's Primrose
League in Bath.[60] Reflecting a mix of reformist and conservative perspectives, he supported the
promotion of secular, non-denominational education while opposing women's suffrage, referring
to the Suffragettes as "a ridiculous movement".[61]

A depiction of the Battle of Omdurman; in the battle, Churchill took part in a cavalry charge

Churchill decided to join Bindon Blood's Malakand Field Force in its

campaign against Mohmand rebels in the Swat Valley of Northwest India.[62] Blood agreed on the
condition that Churchill be assigned as a journalist; to ensure this, he gained accreditation
from The Pioneerand The Daily Telegraph, for whom he wrote regular updates.[63] In letters to
family, he described how both sides in the conflict slaughtered each other's wounded, although
he omitted any reference to such actions by British troops in his published reports.[64] He
remained with the British troops for six weeks before returning to Bangalore in October
1897.[65] There, he wrote his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, which was
published by Longman to largely positive reviews.[66] He also wrote his only work of
fiction, Savrola, a roman à clef set in an imagined Balkan kingdom. It was serialised
in Macmillan's Magazine between May–December 1899 before appearing in book form.[67]
While in Bangalore in the first half of 1898, Churchill explored the possibility of joining Herbert
Kitchener's military campaign in the Sudan.[68]Kitchener was initially reluctant, claiming that
Churchill was simply seeking publicity and medals.[69] After spending time in Calcutta, Meerut,
and Peshawar, Churchill sailed back to England from Bombay in June.[70] There, he used his
contacts—including a visit to the Prime Minister Lord Salisbury at 10 Downing Street—to get
himself assigned to Kitchener's campaign.[71] He agreed that he would write a column describing
the events for The Morning Post.[72] Arriving in Egypt, he joined the 21st Lancers at Cairo before
they headed south along the River Nile to take part in the Battle of Omdurman against the army
of Sudanese leader Abdallahi ibn Muhammad.[73] Churchill was critical of Kitchener's actions
during the war, particularly the latter's unmerciful treatment of enemy wounded and his
desecration of Muhammad Ahmad's tomb in Omdurman.[74] Following the battle, Churchill gave
skin from his chest for a graft for an injured officer.[75]Back in England by October, Churchill wrote
an account of the campaign, published as The River War in November 1899.[76]