Two Transcribed Reuters Telegrams to Winston Churchill and a Covering Letter. From his mother while a POW during the Anglo-Boer War –

Two messages from Winston Churchill’s mother Jeannie sent via Reuters to her imprisoned son. Together with a letter from W. H. MacKay the South African Agent for Reuters based in the Transvaal Republic capital, Pretoria. The letter is addressed to “The Secretary, War Department Z.A.R (the Boer Transvaal Republic). Oddly Reuters, despite being based in the country it was at war with, was allowed to maintain its Pretoria office. The Second Anglo-Boer War had just broken out. Churchill had managed to secure a lucrative post as war correspondent for the Morning Post. He arrived in Cape Town on the Dunnotar Castle on 30 October 1899, and within two weeks was a prisoner of the Boers. He had rushed northwards to the conflict. The armoured train he was travelling in was ambushed and derailed by Boer forces. He was captured and moved to a prison in Pretoria where, precisely a month after his arrival in Cape Town, he spent his 25th birthday. On December the 4th the Reuters agent MacKay received Chruchill’s mother Jeannie’s cabled messages. They had come from Reuters, London by undersea cable via Lourenco Marques and then overland to Pretoria. Here they were transcribed by MacKay in his hand, on the Reuters Telegram Company Ltd., Pretoria Agency letterhead, signed by him and stamped “Reuters Agent for Pretoria”. These together with MacKay’s covering letter were sent to “The Secretary, War Department, Z.A.R.” MacKay had a few days earlier visited Churchill in prison in the company of Louis de Souza, the Boer Secretary of State for War. This visit being recorded by Churchill in his book ‘London to Ladysmith via Pretoria’ (1900). De Souza was sympathetic to English prisoners in particular to Churchill – to the extent of, on occasion, taking him baskets of fruit. Possibly encouraged by his English-speaking wife, Marie de Souza who in her diary written at the time shows distinct sympathy for the prisoners. A week later, Churchill made his famous escape. On the night of 12 December he scaled a perimeter wall to the streets of Pretoria. From there a ‘Boys Own..’ adventure ensued with his aim being to reach the adjoining territory of Portuguese East Africa. It was his good fortune to meet an English miner further along his escape route who helped to smuggle him onto a goods train destined for Delgoa Bay (Lourenco Marques). On 19 December he reached the freedom of the neutral Portuguese territory. Once in Lourenco Marques he was able to approach the British Consul and the same night was on a steamer to Durban rejoining the British troops and marching on Mafikeng. Churchill sailed for Britain (again on the Dunottar Castle) in July on 1900. In the interim his Morning Post despatches had been published as ‘London to Ladysmith via Pretoria.’ Churchill knew that the surest and quickest way route to recognition, success and perhaps, if he was lucky, fame was a military medal. It was ” the swift road to promotion and advancement in every arm” he wrote, “the glittering way to distinction.” He was not awarded the medal but returned as a hero. This would be the catalyst for the success of his public life. Three sheets 255 x 202mm. Each with watermark of a greyhound and letters WJ and Co. Each bearing the Reuter’s Telegram Company, Ltd. letterhead. Content is hand written in black ink. The Messages Read: 1.) Dec. 5 1899 London, Nov. 30 (per Reuter’s Agency via Lourenco Marques) Recd. Dec. 4. “From Reuters, London. Tell Churchill buck up. Mother Love. Morning Post doing best.” Signed W. H. MacKay 2.) Dec. 5 1899 London, Dec. 1 (per Reuter’s Agency via Lourenco Marques) Recd. Dec. 4 “For Churchill – Many happy returns day. Mother. Oliver.” Signed W. H. MacKay 3. Dec. 5 1899 To the Secretary War Department Z.A.R. Dear Sir, I have received from London two cables (copies enclosed) for Mr. Churchill (correspondent of the Morning Post) who is now a prisoner of war at Pretoria. If your Honourable Government can see its way to hand the cables to Mr. Churchill I shall feel obliged. I have the honour to be, your obedient servant W. H. MacKay. Provenance: The estate of Alistair Martin former President of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Churchill, Winston. London to Ladysmith via Pretoria, Longmans, Green & Co. (1900) Churchill, Winston. My Early Life, 1874 – 1904. Touchstone, (1930) de Sousa, C.W.L. No Charge for Delivery. Books of Africa (1969) Millard, Candice. Hero of the Empire. Doubleday, (2016) Entwisle, John. Messages from his Mother to Churchill behind bars – thanks to Reuters.https://www.thebaron.info/archives/messages-from-his-mother-to-churchill-behind-bars-thanks-to-reuters [accessed 14 February 2023]

Publisher: Rueters
Date Published: 1899
Publication Place: Pretoria
First Edition: Yes

Jacket Condition: Very good
Dimensions: sheet size: 20.5 x 22.5cm