A portrait of the young Winston in his British Army uniform

But this week a hitherto unknown photograph of the wartime prime minister who led this country to victory from the brink of defeat and occupation, has cropped up for sale. In this sepia shot it is a young Winston, in his mid-20s, who stares back, astride a horse. And this collector’s item, taken after his escape from prison during the Boer War, is a fascinating reminder that his early life was surely the most exciting – and dangerous – ever lived by a British PM. Churchill’s 20s were spent in a riot of polo, battles and bullets. He made sure he was in any conflict going. “There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result,” he once wrote. He certainly knew what he was talking about. He was never happier than when in a war zone with, as he put it, “the soft kiss” of bullets sucking in the air about his head.

His early years are a story of near misses, extraordinary escapades and of “plugging” hostile natives with his trusty Mauser automatic. He saw action first in the guerilla war in Cuba (where got his fondness for cigars and siestas), India’s North- west frontier, the Sudan and in South Africa. All of the campaigns he fought in he wrote up as a war correspondent. The worse the danger, the better the story. He was handsomely paid and the money went some way to defraying the expenses of being a cavalry officer. It was in India that Sir Bindon Blood led a punitive expedition against the fearsome Pashtuns in the Malakand Pass, in what is now Pakistan. Churchill heard of it and went along for the fun, commissioned by a newspaper.

He had many adventures and the upshot was his first book, The Story Of The Malakand Field Force (1898), a massive hit with the public and proof of his uncanny abil- ity to place the reader in the middle of the dust-spurting action. In many ways he was lucky. There was no shortage of imperial punch- ups. Britain was determined to avenge the death of General Gordon in Sudan and sent General Kitchener to retake its capital Khartoum from Dervish rule. It led to the Battle of Omdur- man in 1898 and Churchill took part in the British cavalry charge on top of a polo pony.

Despite having been the public schools fencing champion, as he rode into the enemy he sheathed his sword and drew his pistol. He shot the Dervish who was trying to bring down his pony, bagged another two or three, and rejoined his troop with a gratifyingly warm gun. “Did you enjoy your- self?” he beamingly asked a sergeant. The man replied negatively to gales of laughter from the troop. As Corporal Jones of Dad’s Army observed of the Sudan, when it came to cold steel the natives did not like it up ’em. Reading Churchill’s reports today, white racial superiority is unquestioned and his language is in places embarrassing. In the 1972 film Young Winston (starring Simon Ward) he is shown saving the life of a wounded sepoy but the film tactfully omits Churchill’s description of the poor man as looking like “a tragic golliwog”.

The era in which Churchill rode to glory seems about as distant as the battle of Agincourt. But his South African adventure was his finest hour in the field. The British government tried to gain control of the diamond and gold-rich Transvaal for commercial motives. The plan was to finish the war within a month. It took three years and the full strength of the Empire to defeatthe wiry peasant farm- ers who made up the Boer ranks. Churchill, back from Egypt, was desperate to get there before the war was over. He made it in time. Once in South Africa, in late 1899 he was invited aboard an armoured train heading for Ladysmith.

As he observed, such trains always got blown up or derailed. This one was no different. He saw it coming. Why was he so addicted to danger? Churchill claimed he was always after good copy (his contract for the Morning Post newspaper was worth a thumping £250 a month) but that is surely only part of it. It must also have had something to do with proving himself.IN THE eyes of his father Lord Randolph, he was a failure. He had been a flop at Harrow and failed twice to get into Sandhurst.