& Curiosities Books, Arts

Churchill Centre Book Club Books, Arts Managed for the Centre by Chartwell Booksellers (www.churchill-books.com), which offers member discounts up to 25%. To order contact Chartwell Book- sellers, 55 East 52nd Street, New York, &Curiosities New York 10055, email [email protected], telephone (212) 308-0643, facsimile (212) 838-7423. Two Good Reasons Why You Must Buy This Book l. Because Bourke Cockran Was Crucial... ran treated Winston as his own at a critical time in the young man’s life. By ANNE SEBBA She refrained from saying that she had moulding him, encouraging him and arranged it, that he had letters of intro- recognising his potential, he became Becoming Win- duction from the British War Office Winston’s life-long inspiration, mentor ston Churchill, and Foreign Office to the Spanish au- and father figure. by Michael Mc- thorities, which enabled him to go to Until now, Cockran, the man who Menamin and the front and watch the operations. helped shape Churchill’s political and Curt Zoller. But Jennie was pleased about the economic views on individualism and Greenwood, trip since it gave her the chance to in- free trade, is almost a forgotten figure. $49.95, 274pp., troduce her son sooner to a good friend Yet, as Michael McMenamin and Curt hardbound. (No of hers in New York, where the boys Zoller point out in this hugely readable discount from were stopping en route to Havana. study, some of Winston’s most oft- CBC; available Winston, deeply impressionable, was quoted remarks were first uttered by for as low as bowled over and forever indebted to Cockran, a man of unrivalled eloquence $34.75 on that friend, William Bourke Cockran, a and enormous charm. The earth, he Amazon.com.) charismatic and wealthy former con- would say, “is a generous mother. She gressman. He, in turn, went out of his will produce in plentiful abundance n 1895, a young lieutenant in a cav- way to help this unknown young Eng- food for all her children if they will but Ialry regiment of the British army per- lishman, meeting him at the wharf, of- cultivate her soil in justice and peace.” suaded his superiors to allow him to fering him hospitality at his Fifth Av- Winston once commented that he used travel with a friend to Havana. The enue apartment, and stimulating him to repeat that sentence so often on subaltern had been asked to collect mil- with his talk. Winston wrote to his British platforms that eventually he had itary information on Spain’s attempt to mother that Cockran was one of the to give it a holiday. put down a Cuban revolution, and had most charming hosts and interesting Never, he said later, “was the choice made an arrangement with the Daily men he had ever met. He told her between blessing and curse more vehe- Graphic to publish his war letters, about their deep and wide ranging dis- mently presented to the human race.” signed with his initials: WSC. cussions on every conceivable subject Born in County Sligo in 1854, to a This escapade gave Jennie, the from economics to yacht racing. large family of some means, Bourke newly widowed officer’s mother, who Winston recognised that Cockran Cockran was a devout Catholic. After paid his fare, some mild embarrass- was not only a clever man, but one an education from the Christian Broth- ment. What was a junior British officer from whom much was to be learned. It ers in Ireland and then France, he had doing with the staff of General Suaraz was an introduction of magic. Winston been destined for a life in the church. Valdes, the Spanish commander? When listened to Bourke reading favourite With his leonine head, large frame and interviewed by an American newspaper, speeches aloud, telling his protégé of even larger personality he was a man she insisted that her son was not taking the importance of timing, drama and who could not be ignored. As an orator part in the campaign and that he was sincerity; of giving people the simple he was outstanding with a musical merely on a nine-week leave of absence. truth with clarity and grandeur. They voice, clear diction, wide knowledge ate oysters and hominy together and af- and the trained mind of an experienced Ms. Sebba is the author of Jennie Churchill: terwards the older man sent Winston lawyer and politician. So impressive was Winston’s American Mother (John Murray) some speeches for his comments and he that, according to one contempo- September 2007, also published as American was “profoundly impressed” with his re- rary, “listening to him …was like being Jennie (W.W. Norton) November 2007. sponses. Without a son himself, Cock- transported to the Roman Senate in its FINEST HOUR 136 / 1 best days.” Others compared him to inspiration provided by the man who his first visit to the United States. Their Edmund Burke, or to Charles James had also fired his mother’s dampened meeting grew into a real friendship Fox, to whom he bore a strong resem- spirits. Winston maintained it was between the two men based on trust, blance. Cockran who taught him “to use every kindness, and mutual admiration. They Cockran came to America in 1871 note of the human voice like an organ.” would remain friends until Cockran’s aged seventeen, with £150 in his Even so, he always wished he had a death in 1923. pocket. While supporting himself as a voice like Cockran’s. McMenamin and Zoller, of teacher of French, Latin and Greek, he In 1906 Cockran married his third course, did not “discover” their subject, studied for the bar and soon became wife, Anne Ide, daughter of the Ameri- Cockran’s influence remained relatively prominent in politics as an important can lawyer and Chief Justice of Samoa, unknown throughout Churchill’s life- member of the Democratic Party and Henry Clay Ide. Through Anne, Cock- time—in spite of WSC’s best efforts. of the House of Representatives. When ran acquired an additional relationship Many of the more touching passages in he met Jennie in 1895, thanks to an in- to the Churchill’s as his wife’s sister, this book involves Churchill’s repeated troduction from Moreton Frewen, he, Marjorie, married Shane Leslie. efforts to credit Cockran as the primary like she, was recently widowed follow- It was through this connection, not influence on his oratory and thought. ing the death of his second wife. He the amatory one, that Cockran found But Cockran had faded into obscurity was also a successful lawyer with a himself at the bedside of Jennie by the time of the Second World War, flourishing practice and a man who had Churchill in her dying days twenty-six few took Churchill’s claims seriously. experienced life. When his first wife years after they had met. As Jennie sud- Cockran was first discussed seri- had died in childbirth one year after the denly haemorrhaged following a fall, ously in the official biography that marriage Bourke briefly became a heavy Marjorie produced a baby, Desmond, a began in 1966; later books began to drinker. But then he stopped, never nephew for Cockran’s and a cousin for explore the man and his influence, and drank again. and “in that minute mas- Winston. Martin Gilbert’s Churchill in America tered the impulses of his own passion- This book brings back into the (2006) did critical work on this impor- ate nature—a nature outraged by mis- foreground with power and imagina- tant man. Readers of Finest Hour have fortune, angry against the world.” tion—fictional passages are interspersed been seeing article-length studies of Though there is no proof, the au- with facts where information is thin—a Cockran for quite a few years now. thors believe (as does this writer) that spell-binding rabble-rouser, a man who McMenamin and Zoller, howev- Cockran and Jennie indulged in a tu- deserves to be remembered as one er, give us the first full scholarly study multuous but short lived physical affair whose principles, faith in democracy of Cockran’s life, discussing in detail in Paris in the spring of 1895. But they and oratorical skills were passed on to a his influence in shaping Churchill. parted friends, and the lasting result young man at a critical point in his life, They explore Cockran’s legal career and was Cockran’s influence on Winston, helping to create Winston Churchill, especially his role in the U.S. House of who returned to England not merely the leader who in turn inspired millions Representatives, demonstrating that with coffee, cigars and guava jelly but at a critical point in world history. time and time again (and like WSC) Cockran made difficult political choic- es that were morally just but that took a toll on his political career. 2. Because It’s Full of History and Wisdom In spite of the fact that Cockran was continually in and out of office for TED HUTCHINSON more unnecessary books about some most of his adult life (he was probably aspect of Churchill. Most simply retell too scrupulous to be a career politician) here is some rare stuff between familiar stories and recycle old quips. he was generally considered the best Tthe covers of Becoming Winston McMenamin and Zoller do something public speaker in the nation. At the Churchill: material so unusual, so different—almost startlingly strange in pinnacle of his career, in the 1880s and uncommon, that Churchillians should the flood of mediocrity: They tell us 1890s, he was likely one of the most treasure it like a rare gem, or a first something new.

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