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"Take
Your Place In Life's Fighting Line"
- the importance and supreme relevance of Winston Churchill to Young People
By
Robert Courts
My earliest contact with Churchill must have been 1980's World War Two documentaries, for I remember, dimly through the veil of time, hearing a gruff, defiant, vaguely angry man growling streams of words that flowed like water and struck more powerfully than anything I had ever, and have ever since, heard. In time I went to school, and wrote an essay admiring Churchill, after which my kindly teacher lent me his copy of William Manchester's "The Last Lion", which I devoured 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 don’t think, than because my teacher wanted us to read it: we certainly didn’t study it in any formal way. But it was probably reading that book, at the age of about fourteen, that set me off as a student of Churchill.
I have since read that book at least ten times, and am still astounded by its wit, charm, depth of thinking, and above all by how much Churchill managed to pack into his life, and the first few 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. He shows, better than anyone else, either historical or contemporary, that if you want something badly enough, you can get it. Churchill 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: he left no stone unturned until he did so. People will say, even today, that he was a pressurising medal-hunter, but it was his single-minded drive, determination and sheer perseverance that made him succeed. He packed so many things into his life: it is as if he did all the things he wanted to do and was never held back by anything: convention or accepted possibilities. 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?! These lessons can be applied to whatever path one takes in life: military, politics, writing, law, business, teaching: the lesson is that if you are focussed and determined, you will succeed. What better role model can there be? How admirably stands the example of Churchill against those of Beckham, Halliwell and all the other micro-celebrities that now tower in vacuous sovereignty over today's society? Churchill is the prime example of someone who, in Tennyson's words "(drunk) 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 our allotted span.
Churchill
is rightly famed for his "never give in" attitude, and I for one
come back time and again to this inspiring philosophy. His attitude to
life can be applied far outside the circumstances in which he spoke. When,
in 1941, he said 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", he was giving sound advice. I have always
felt that this was a particularly important speech for Churchill, perhaps
even an emotional one, for it is as if he was talking about himself: about
how with even the most inauspicious beginnings one can rise and be a
success. This was, as countless anecdotes relay, Churchill's whole
attitude to life: it was no mere act put on to raise the morale of the
British people. Young people, all over the world, would do well to follow
this advice: persevere, persevere, always keep trying.
Much sound advice can be found in Churchill's
writings and speeches. I remember, as a young boy, being particularly
moved by the sentence in "My Early Life" that went "Let me
counsel my younger readers to beware of dislocated shoulders". I was
astounded that this toweringly great man should actually care about what
happened to the likes of me. But youth, it's predicament and its fate, was
a subject very close to the heart of Winston Churchill. In the Harrow
speech quoted above, he also says, "Sometimes
imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without
imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see
many more dangers than perhaps exist…but then they must also pray to be
given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination".
What better exhortation, encouragement and reassurance can there be to
people who are facing the daunting decisions of life? Similarly, in
"My Early Life", there is much sound advice for those on the
beginning of the road: "Don't take No for an answer. Never submit to
failure…You will make all kinds of mistakes, but as long as you are
generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even
seriously distress her". It is advice that is both reassuring and
inspiring, and I have tried to follow it all my life.
I
have always admired Sir Winston's independence of thought and action. As a
schoolboy, he refused to turn to the East whilst in Church because he
deemed it a Popish practice. As a young MP, he followed his personal
convictions, even to the extent of changing parties. This example is a
shining one in an age where, in the UK and Canada, Parliament is strictly
controlled by the party whips, and where MPs wanting a career toe the line
without regard to personal convictions. The young MPs of the future would
do well to add a pinch of independence to the political scene. Again, in
the 1930s, Churchill championed the deeply unpopular cause of awakening to
the Hitler threat. It is difficult, with hindsight, to understand quite
how unpopular he was for these beliefs, which effectively kept him out of
office for the 1930s, but he retained his integrity, which ultimately
worked fully in his favour. Admittedly his independent and controversial
stand on many issues did him harm: over India and the abdication crisis to
name the most obvious, as well as the enmity felt towards him by
Conservatives for his move to the Liberals. That however is to miss the
point: the
issues on which one chooses to make a stand are down to the individual's
conscience. The principle
of independent thought and action is Churchill's example to follow.
Doubtless the trendy argument among many of my
peers would be that Churchill was an old reactionary, a conservative who
clung to ideas way past their time and resisted the future. Churchill was
in fact a fine example of a man who championed and wholeheartedly embraced
the future. He practically invented the tank, diverting naval funds to its
development because the Army felt that military future lay with the horse,
he personally sponsored naval aviation, even taking so great an interest
as to learn to fly himself. One can easily imagine his enthusiastic
support of the Internet: a suggestion that is not at all incongruous. He
set up Labour Exchanges, the forerunners of the Jobcentre for the
unemployed, and secured labour concessions that are still in force today.
This was the man who was possessed of an astonishing prescience, and
foretold the atom bomb, the German advance in 1914 almost to the day, and
the eventual collapse of communism. This was the man who foretold and
urged the creation of a United Europe, and whose thought was profound and
wide: "Sane and instructed people should find no difficulty in
reconciling national and international duties, just as a good citizen can
reconcile his duty to his family and to his town, to his country, and to
the state. All men are necessary to one another…The only limits to human
progress are those that are made by our own shortcomings". The
forwarding thinking here is astounding: one could quite easily put those
words into the mouth of a modern politician and not see them out of place.
They were spoken in the 1920s, and in the interconnected digital age of
today, we are still trying to put them into practice. From the same
speech: "Parliament…is the greatest instrument for associating an
ever widening class of citizens with the actual life and policy of the
state". So much for those who see him as an oligarchic throwback!
Then there is what young people today can take from the skills that Sir Winston possessed. He urged the importance of history ("Study history. Study history. In history lay all the lessons of statecraft"). He was a living example of the importance of learning to speak and write English properly. Not at all at a disadvantage by his ineptitude at classics, he went on to make his living by writing, and a wealthy one too, he won the Nobel prize for literature, became one of the greatest masters of his art, and ultimately saved the cause of civilisation by his powerful use of words. Could there be a greater example of the importance of learning the basics of the English language, and of history?
Churchill was a fine leader, and no one should be deluded into thinking that leadership is a skill required only in politics or on a battlefield. Whilst those are the most obvious examples, exactly the same principles - the need to earn respect, to inspire and to motivate your followers - are applicable in other walks of life. In business, one needs to provide leadership to those that work under and with you. When organising anything, one needs to provide direction and guidance. In teaching, one needs to gain the respect of your class and to inspire them to learn. The situation may be different, the skills may be called something else, but it all comes down to leadership, and in this Churchill was sublime.
Above all this, however, and perhaps the greatest lessons that young people can learn from Churchill, was his belief in the benevolent force of fate, that "all will come right in the end", and in the importance of being true to oneself. He knew that he could not remain in a party with whom he did not agree. In the 1930s, other politicians would have kept quiet and hoped to hold office. But not Churchill. He was unable to remain in "well paid inactivity" after the failure of the Dardanelles operation, and went to fight in the trenches in World War One. This was no easy choice, for he knew he may leave his wife alone, but he knew that, as in all these situations, he could not be in a situation where he did not belong. Churchill was a man who was determined and industrious, forward thinking and innovative, independent and brave. What better role model for youth?
© The Copyright of all photographs and text on this site is the author's, 2001/2, who claims the sole right to be identified as the author such work.
