Why Kitchener Blocked Winston Churchill's Victoria Cross

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]By the age of 25, Winston Churchill had charged the dervish army at Omdman, survived a boa ambush, and escaped from a prisoner of war camp. He'd also been recommended for the Victoria Cross. He never received it. What stood between Churchill and Britain's highest honor wasn't the quality of his courage, it was the quality of his enemies. To understand why, we need to look at two separate incidents and one very powerful man who wanted nothing more than to see Churchill fail.

[00:00:33]On the 15th of November 1899, during the Bore War in South Africa, Winston Churchill joined an armored train on reconnaissance towards the besieged town of Lady Smith when it was ambushed by the Boers. A locomotive and several trucks were derailed under heavy fire.

[00:00:51]Churchill sprang into action. Repeatedly exposing himself to bore rifle fire. He directed the British troops in clearing the wreckage from the track. For over an hour, he worked to get the engine free.

[00:01:03]And once this was achieved, he rapidly loaded the wounded onto the locomotive and ordered the driver to steam towards safety. The train driver afterwards said of Churchill, "There was not a braver gentleman in the army."

[00:01:18]Churchill then ran back up the track to assist the senior officer, Captain Haldane, who was still under Boer fire.

[00:01:24]As he came round the corner, he came face to face with a Boer rifleman on horseback. Reaching for his mouser pistol, he realized he'd left it on the locomotive and had no alternative but to surrender.

[00:01:37]Dressed in cocky uniform complete with empty holster, the Boers refused to listen to his pleas that he was just a journalist and he ended up in a P camp in Ptoria. It was from here that Churchill managed to escape on the 12th of December 1899 and having evaded capture he arrived back in British territory just before Christmas. The escape along with his actions at the train derailment made him a hero back in Britain.

[00:02:06]Churchill then took a commission in the South African Lighor. He was now officially in uniform and that detail, as we'll see, mattered enormously.

[00:02:18]On the 12th of June 1900, he was part of a British force of nearly 14,000 that took on 4,000 Boers under Louis Boa, defending an elevated ridge centered on Diamond Hill just to the east of Pritoria. The British advance the previous day had stalled under stiff bo resistance. Now on day two, they were fearing no better against the entrenched Boers on the high ground.

[00:02:43]Churchill, who was accompanying the 21st brigade under Lieutenant General Ian Hamilton, decided to take matters into his own hands. Yet again, exposing himself to enemy fire, he slowly made his way up the slide of the mountain until, as Hamilton later wrote, he ensconced himself in a niche, not more than a pistol shot below the Boer commandos holding the summit. From there, he signaled back to Hamilton the Boer's strength, their positions, and crucially, the dead ground route that he had used to reach his position.

[00:03:17]With that information, Ian Hamilton now sent his leading units forward. The summit was taken and the Boers withdrew to fight another day. Well, nearly 2 years worth of another days.

[00:03:30]Whilst Churchill's actions single-handedly did not win the day, Hamilton certainly believed that it was a considerable act of bravery in front of the enemy in broad daylight.

[00:03:42]calling it an act of conspicuous gallantry, he recommended Churchill for the Victoria Cross. He never received it.

[00:03:52]But was Diamond Hill really the stronger Victoria Cross case? Because rescuing wounded soldiers under fire and ensuring something like 80 men escaped a bur ambush sounds far more like VC action.

[00:04:05]And indeed, back at the train, Captain Heldane, the officer in command there, gave a wholesome report to the chief of staff. Mr. Winston Churchill, special correspondent of the morning post, who was with me in the truck, offered his services, and knowing how thoroughly I could rely on him, I gladly accepted them, and undertook to keep down the enemy's fire while he endeavored to clear the line. And therein lay the problem. Winston Churchill whilst he was wearing uniform on the train was not a soldier. He was present as a civilian war correspondent. Now whilst a handful of civilians were awarded the Victoria Cross in its early days, it hasn't been awarded to a civilian since 1879.

[00:04:52]And the new commander-in-chief in South Africa, Field Marshal Lord Roberts, wasn't going to break that precedence now, especially for this particular candidate.

[00:05:01]Interestingly, it was actually Roberts who had successfully recommended that last civilian VC back in 1879 during the second Anglo Afghan war. But as they say, that's another story. So, if the train incident can be ruled out because Churchill was a civilian, what about Hamilton's recommendation at Diamond Hill? And here things get more interesting and also more murky because if you recall Churchill had been commissioned in the South African lighor earlier that year following his escape from the boers. So if he was now an official army officer why was Hamilton's recommendation not approved?

[00:05:43]Principally because young Winston Churchill was someone whom many and not just those in authority disliked.

[00:05:52]Fundamentally, he was seen as a glory hunter. Indeed, Churchill had written to his brother Jack, "There is no ambition I cherish so keenly as to gain a reputation for personal courage."

[00:06:04]And why did he seek that reputation?

[00:06:07]For the political career that he'd already envisaged for himself, having been commissioned in the army in 1895.

[00:06:15]and he'd certainly sought out those opportunities to be courageous coming under fire from tribesmen on the northwest frontier in India and charging with the 21st Lancers at the battle of Oddman in 1898.

[00:06:27]You can hardly blame a soldier for wanting to fight. However, there was a considerable amount of showmanship with young Winston which was seen by many as not quite cricket. For instance, when the British entered the Bur Republic of Transval's capital, Ptoria in June 1900, he had raced to his old P camp, demanded the Borgard surrender to him and then freed all the prisoners.

[00:06:54]And then there was his side hustle as a war correspondent.

[00:06:59]Back in India, when he found out that there was no vacancies on the Malikand field force on the northwest frontier, he'd managed to grab a place as a war correspondent instead. He went on to publish a book about the campaign, including his views on the commanders and all while serving as an officer, a pattern that was starting to form.

[00:07:21]He repeated that combined role of army officer and journalist during the Sudan campaign when he had charged into the mast dervish ranks with the 21st lancers at the battle of Oddman. He was also posting reports to the morning post in London.

[00:07:38]Now call it coincidence but within three months of omdean the war office had ordered no one in the army could also be a war correspondent.

[00:07:49]It was in light of this restriction that Winston Churchill resigned his commission in early 1899.

[00:07:56]He used his newfound freedom to write an account of Kitchener's Sudin campaign entitled The River War in which he castigated Kitner for his treatment of the dervish wounded and for taking the Mardi skull as a souvenir. The book would have repercussions.

[00:08:13]It also gave him time to fight and lose a parliamentary bi-election in Olden.

[00:08:19]In October 1899, the second Angloore war broke out in South Africa. On the 14th of that month, Churchill set sail for Cape Town aboard the mail ship, the Denot Castle. Just as in Sudan, he was accredited to the Morning Post as their war correspondent at a fee of £1,000 for the first four months plus expenses, making him the highest paid war correspondent in England at the time. He was however this time not an officer.

[00:08:48]Incidentally also on board heading for South Africa was General Sir Red Buller who would command with disastrous results the early British campaigns against the Boers. And thus it was as a war correspondent that Churchill was aboard the armored train when it was derailed and he became a prisoner and hence no Victoria Cross. And then everything changed.

[00:09:13]Upon his escape from the Boers, Churchill was commissioned by General Bullah, no less, as a left tenant in the South African light horse. He was back officially in uniform. However, he also kept his job with the Morning Post. Now, how was he able to do that if the War Office categorically said that that shouldn't happen? Well, simple. Buller chose to ignore the regulation. He liked Churchill's bravery and actually lamented that he wished there were more officers like him in South Africa. The fact that because he was being handsomely played by the paper in London, Churchill refused to take any army pay may have helped persuade Bullah to bend the rules a little bit. And off Winston went to war, writing his way across the South African felt. By the time of Diamond Hill, he'd written yet another book, London to Lady Smith via Ptoria.

[00:10:06]Maybe it was that dual role against War Office rules that was used to bin Hamilton's recommendation.

[00:10:13]Or maybe it was because of whose desk that recommendation landed on because Field Marshall Roberts chief of staff was none other than General Lord Kiter, Victor of owner of the Marty's skull.

[00:10:30]Kitchener had a dislike for journalists whom he described as drunken swabs.

[00:10:35]Anyone come to mind? It certainly should. Even after Churchill's initial escapades with the Malikand field force, Kiter had formed an opinion of young Winston as a glory hunter. Push fool the younger, one journalist had called him in a sneering reference to his determination to emulate his father's political career.

[00:10:55]In Sudan, Kiter had pointblank refused to have Churchill in his army. However, the mother of Pushful the Younger went over Kitchener's head, appealing to the war office in London, where the aging Eivelyn Wood arranged a transfer for her son to the 21st Lancers. And thus, you now know how he ended up in that charge at Omdman.

[00:11:17]As mentioned a little earlier in his book, The River War, Churchill had castigated Kitchener. And now here was a recommendation from Ian Hamilton to award the young upstart with Britain's highest medal for valor.

[00:11:32]Whether Kitchener ever bothered to even show this letter to his superior, Lord Roberts, is lost in the midst of history, as indeed is the note. But by now Roberts was winding down and would leave South Africa in November 1900, leaving Kitchener in command. Even if he had seen the letter, he may well have had similar views about Pushville the Younger. As an India man, Robert certainly hadn't approved for Churchill's role as correspondent and bookw writer as well as officer with the Malachan field force.

[00:12:02]Under the circumstances, you can almost imagine Kitchener's shock at receiving Hamilton's letter and maybe a slight pantomime villain smile as he tossed it in the bin. Anyway, he could always defend his decision by claiming that whilst Churchill was a serving officer, he was still a journalist too against war office regulations. Maybe that's why Hamilton's recommendation went no further. Or of course, maybe his actions at Diamond Hill, whilst courageous, just didn't meet the threshold of most conspicuous bravery that most citations read. After all, many of the half million troops fighting for Britain in the war must have conducted courageous acts as well. And yet, just 78 were awarded Victoria Crosses.

[00:12:47]Maybe Churchill's critics were right all along. His actions, however brave, were all for one purpose, politics.

[00:12:57]On the 20th of July, just five weeks after Diamond Hill, Winston Churchill, having resigned his commission once more, was disembarking in Southampton to a hero's reception. In the October, he published yet another book based upon his war correspondent writings, Ian Hamilton's March. And that same month, October 1900, at the general election, he was elected to parliament as conservative MP for Oldm. He later wrote, "Nothing but personal popularity arising out of the late South Africa war carried me in. His political career had begun."

[00:13:36]So, did Winston Churchill deserve the Victoria Cross? And was Kiter right to block him? Well, I'll let you decide.

[00:13:43]But at the end of the day, you cannot deny that whatever Churchill's motives, here was a man who by the age of 25 had come under fire from Patan tribesmen, poor commandos, and a charge the dervish army at Omnaman. Not many modern politicians can boast that sort of service for their country.

[00:14:04]British history is full of stories like this, most of them forgotten or little told. And I'm on a mission to bring them back to life. So, if you enjoy learning about British history, not just the battles, but the wider stories, too, then you might enjoy my free weekly newsletter. Recently, I was writing about the medieval persecution of Jews in England. Nothing to do with this video, but that's rather the point because British history has so many rabbit holes. There's a link in the description if you're interested. Until next time, thanks for joining me today.