
Luke Batterham
Senior Valuer
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£2,000 - £3,000
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Senior Valuer
TWO OTHERWISE UNKNOWN IMAGES OF WINSTON CHURCHILL AT EIGHTEEN, together with his brother Jack (12), and another of his mother Jenny at Canford. Another Spencer-Churchill sister, Cornelia (1847–1927), became Lady Wimborne, and it was at her house at Canford (Dorset) that an incident took place (10 January 1893) that Churchill was to recall in My Early Life, one that these photographs must pre-date by a few weeks at most. In the winter of 1892 Churchill had taken, and failed the Sandhurst entrance examination, for the second time. The consequence was that he did not return to Harrow, but went instead to a crammer. Between times, while spending the Christmas holidays at Canford, Churchill found himself trapped on a bridge over a chine, with Jack at one end and another boy at the other. He determined to escape by leaping from the bridge onto a fir tree, hoping to thenslide down to the ground. The plan went wrong and resulted in a ruptured kidney.