March 28, 2015

Finest Hour 127, Summer 2005

Page 43

By Daniel N. Myers

Winston Churchill: Being an Account of the Life of the Right Hon. Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, P.C., C.H., T.D., M.P., by “Ephesian” [C. Bechofer Roberts]. London: Mills & Boon, 1927; New York: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1928, 272 pp.. Extended editions, London: Newnes, 1936; Hutchinson, 1940. Zoller A11. Availability: fairly common.


It is often more fascinating and revealing to read a contemporaneous biography than the account of someone’s life from a distance. When the author is close in time, one sometimes finds a very different and usually biased take on the subject than that more discretionary appraisals written long after the events recorded. Details frequently presented in summary fashion by later biographers are often given in much greater, and interesting, detail by a contemporary.

2024 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 41st International Churchill Conference. London | October 2024
More

So it is with this rather well known book, one of the earliest biographies of Winston Churchill, written by a contemporary and dedicated to the wife of Churchill’s friend, Lord Birkenhead (F. E. Smith). While Ephesian’s bias in favor of Churchill is evident throughout, the writing is well done and highly readable, all the more because of the detail the author provides on Churchill’s early years in the army and in Parliament.

While Roy Jenkins’ masterful biography, Churchill, is by far the more detailed telling on Churchill’s parliamentary ups and downs, Ephesian— C. Bechofer Roberts—gives us a con- temporary view of the major battles in which Churchill figured, which formed his character and the attitudes of those who knew him.

The author effectively uses excerpts from Churchill’s novel, Savrola, as chapter headings. Not only apposite, they tell an autobiographical tale in themselves. If you haven’t read Savrola, this book will prompt you to do so— despite Churchill’s counsel against it.

The author begins the first chapter with this apt quotation: “Ambition was the motive force, and Savrola was powerless to resist it.” Even more descriptive is his selection for the heading of Chapter II:

“Would you rise in the world?” said Savrola. “You must work while others amuse themselves. Are you desirous of a reputation for courage? You must risk your life. Would you be strong morally or physically? You must resist temptations. All this is paying in advance; that is prospective finance. Observe the other side of the picture; the bad things are paid for afterwards.”

The author offers several interesting observations and predictions. For example, when describing Churchill’s service as Minister of Munitions in 1918, he writes:

After a while [Churchill] is entrusted by the United States Government with an immense and almost unlimited commission to equip its growing armies in France. This trust represents the high-water mark of Anglo-American cordiality, never reached before and unlikely perhaps soon to be reached again.

(I must read his later editions to find out whether he amended this prediction in 1936 or in 1940.)

For those who love books, Chapter X may be the best of all. Here the author reviews each of Churchill’s literary productions, from Savrola to The World Crisis. For Roberts/Ephesian, it would appear that Churchill’s literary accomplishments are his greatest claim to fame which, at the time, was probably so. Noting that “Churchill has achieved another of his ambitions: he wins immortality as a writer,” our author dangles the possibility that there could be more: “In what other characters will his name be written in history?”

One is tempted to jump to the final chapter of the book to see how the author predicts the future of this famous man who, while destined to live nearly another forty years, appeared to many to have reached the pinnacle of his career in 1928. Does Ephesian predict immortality?

Not quite: he comes close but doesn’t foresee a future Prime Minister. Noting that “for thirty years [WSC] has been marked out as a potential Prime Minister,” he backs away from the ever-beckoning prize, saying merely, “there are greater things than the mere attainment of exalted office.”

Does he possess the strength, the resilience of character, and the enthusiasm for this supreme task? I like to think that a revealing key to Churchill’s character may be found in the alternating expressions which dominate his features. Sometimes these are fixed in a severe frown of statesmanlike reserve; at other moments they light up with the mischievous air of a schoolboy. Would it, I wonder, be altogether wrong to define him as half a Pitt and half a Puck?

Pitt was the youngest person (24) ever to become Prime Minister. Ephesian concludes that “Puck will humanize Pitt; Pitt will moderate Puck.” And so it would seem. However, another of the author’s predictions misses the mark by a mile: “Age, if he ever grows old—which seems extremely doubtful —must mellow him….”

I commend this book to anyone interested in the formative years of a dynamic man. Roberts/Ephesian documents his rise and accomplishments with authority and ease, using Churchill’s own writing effectively in the process. Treat yourself to an enjoyable evening’s reading and get a copy.

First editions end with Churchill as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Later editions in 1936 and 1940 carry the story forward. Copies are readily available in many used bookshops, or through online resources such as Advanced Book Exchange (www.abe-books.com). I found my copy, a 1928 American first, in a used bookshop in Boston for under $25.

A tribute, join us

#thinkchurchill

Subscribe

WANT MORE?

Get the Churchill Bulletin delivered to your inbox once a month.