FH115 Final.qxd - Winston Churchill

TEACHING THE NEXT GENERATIONS
“TAKE YOUR PLACE IN LIFE’S FIGHTING LINE!”
What Churchill Should Mean to People My Age
ROBERT COURTS
Iam always asked why at my age I’ve become interested
in Winston Churchill. People look at me with
bemused indulgence when I talk about him, or whenever
my enthusiasm surfaces, which it does often. How
can such a young man be so interested in a historical figure—great,
certainly, but as far removed from me, and as
irrelevant, as King Henry V
I cannot give a precise time when my interest took
hold, or say precisely why it did. I can give a very good
explanation of why Churchill’s life and legacy are of
striking relevance and utility to young people today, if
they take the trouble to learn about him.
My earliest contact with Churchill must have been
1980s World War II documentaries. I remember,
through the veil of time, a gruff, defiant, vaguely angry
man growling streams of liquid words that struck me
more powerfully than anything I had ever heard. In
school I wrote an admiring essay about Churchill and a
kindly teacher lent me his copy of William Manchester’s
The Last Lion. I devoured this weighty tome in days. My
class was later presented with a copy of Churchill’s own
paean to youth, My Early Life—for no other reason, I
think, than because my teacher wanted us to read it. We
certainly didn’t study it in any formal way. But reading
that book at the age of fourteen set me off.
I have since read My Early Life at least ten times,
and am still astounded by its wit and charm, its breadth
of thinking, and above all by how much Churchill managed
to pack into his life—the early years in particular.
As he says: “Twenty to twenty-five, those are the years.
Don’t be content with things as they are.” There can be
no better example and inspiration to young people of
how to go out and get what you want.
Churchill shows better than anyone, historical or
contemporary, that if you want something badly enough,
you can get it. He wanted to join the Army: it took him
three tries and a near-fatal accident en route, but he
made it. He wanted to fight in active operations, and left
no stone unturned until he did. People will say, even
today, that he was a pressuring medal-hunter. But it was
his single-minded drive, determination, and perseverance
that made him succeed.
______________________________________________________
Mr. Courts, 23, training to work as a barrister, is a member of ICS
(UK) living in Balsall Common, near Coventry, Warwickshire.
He stepped up—
what about you
He packed
so many
things into
his life: he
did all the
things he
wanted to
do and was
never held
back by anything,
neither
by convention
nor accepted possibility.
He was a brave
soldier, an outstanding
politician, a writer of the first degree,
a respected historian, a painter of talent, and to top
it all, a loving family man. Who says it is not possible to
do all these things
His lesson—focus and succeed—can be applied to
whatever path one takes in life: military, politics, writing,
law, business, teaching. How admirably stands the example
of Churchill against those of all the micro-celebrities
who tower over today’s society.
Churchill is the prime example of someone who, in
Tennyson’s words “[drank] life to the lees,” and thoroughly
enjoyed it. As he says himself, “I cannot but return
my sincere thanks to the high gods for the gift of existence.
All the days were good and each day better than
the other.” There was a man who knew how to wring the
most from his allotted span.
Churchill is rightly famed for his “never give in” attitude,
and I always come back to this inspiring
philosophy. His attitude can be applied far outside
the circumstances in which he spoke, in 1941, to the
boys of Harrow School: “Never give in, never give in,
never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small,
large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour
and good sense.” It was sound advice. Young people
all over the world would do well to follow this advice:
persevere, persevere, always keep trying.
Much other advice can be found in Churchill’s
FINEST HOUR 115 / 20