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s the end of his school years approached, a poor academic record, domineering father and youthful enthusiasm for all things military combined to push Churchill into applying to join the army. However, this was not a straightforward process – he failed the entry exams for officer training twice and even contemplated

a career in the church. With the help of a tutor, he finally passed on the third attempt – but only with enough marks to go into the cavalry, not the more highly regarded infantry.

Joining the military was the natural course for a boy who played toy

soldiers throughout his life, both metaphorically and literally. Typical of

an approach that marked his whole life, he did everything he could to join

the action. Churchill fought in or documented (he constantly swapped and

commingled the roles of soldier and journalist) military engagements from

Cuba to India and across Africa. He fought the Pathans in what is now

Pakistan and charged with the 21st Lancers at the Battle of Omdurman

in the Sudan. When effectively forced out of office in 1915, he rejoined

the army on the Western Front, commanding a battalion of Royal Scots

Fusiliers – not from the sheltered sinecure that his fame might have secured

him, but, heedless of his own safety, from the front line.