August 18, 2021

Churchill travelled to India with his regiment to fight against Pathan and Afghan tribesmen on the North-West frontier, armed with a contract as a war correspondent for the Daily Telegraph. The campaign became the topic of Churchill’s first book, published in March 1898 – The Story of the Malakand Field Force. Then in 1895, Churchill managed to obtain a temporary commission as a Lieutenant with the 21st Lancers to the Sudan, while again also serving as a war correspondent, this time for the Morning Post. He later turned his news reports into a surprisingly sympathetic two-volume account in The River War (1899).

In 1899, after a brief return to England and having left the army, the Boer War broke out and Churchill headed off again, with another assignment from the Morning Post.