This Day in African History – Winston Churchill Captured

On 15 Novmber 1899 Republican forces in southern Natal ambushed a British armored train departing from Estcourt. The train was partially wrecked and in the ensuing fight four British soldiers were killed and 34 wounded. Winston Churchill, a war correspondent for The Morning Post was amongst 69 taken prisoner - he was captured trying to help the injured reach Estcourt. Churchill, although supposedly due non-combatant status as a war reporter was treated as a prisoner-of-war. (Just under a month later, on 12 December, Churchill managed to escape captivity by climbing over the wall of the State Model School in Pretoria whilst his compatriots distracted the guards - he walked to the nearest railway line and hid on a train.)