The Churchill Series - Mar. 9, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Readers have asked for a post or two concerning Churchill and Australia, where I'm visiting now. I'll keep my eye out for something, but no promises.

Meanwhile, let's end the week smiling.

Churchill was very fond of his first regimental colonel, John Brabazon. He was a war hero and by all accounts a fine officer. Churchill described his as "very strict but fair." He also said what many of Brabazon's friends said about him: he was strong-willed, charming when he wished to be, and a bit of a dandy with a sense of entitlement.

In later years Churchill enjoyed telling stories about Brabazon. Here, from memory, are two of them.

Brabazon arrived late for a train. The stationmaster told him:” The train is gone, Sir."

"Gone? Then order another one."

In Queen Victoria's army the common practice was to appoint as regimental colonels officers who had served most of their careers in the regiments they were selected to head. Bringing in an "outsider" was considered a slap at the regiment, especially at its senior officers.

When Brabazon was appointed colonel of Churchill's regiment, the Fourth Hussars, he was an "outsider," having spent most of his career in the Tenth Hussars.

Usually "outsider" colonels did their best to win over the officers and men.

Brabazon did that in the cases of the enlisted men and the junior officers, but he gave the senior officers no quarter and, if anything, went out of his way to let them know that.

One evening in the midst of a formal regimental dinner shortly after he'd joined the Fourth Hussars, Brabazon turned to the officer who was president of the regimental mess and asked: "Tell me, which local chemist did you have make this champagne?"

Churchill and Brabazon remained friends until Brabazon's death in 1922.

I hope you have nice weekends and are all back on Monday which will be Tuesday here.