A love letter written by Winston Churchill while he was imprisoned by Boers during the Second Boer War in South Africa will be sold later this month.
Churchill wrote from his cell on November 18, 1899, addressing Pamela Plowden on the circumstances of his capture.
Churchill was reportedly smitten with Pamela Plowden on first sight, describing her as “the most beautiful girl I have ever seen” when they met in Hyderabad, India in November 1896.
Here, he restricts himself to the rather more buttoned up, “I think often of you,” but the letter is open and informal for its era, and captures an important episode in Churchill’s life.
“Not a very satisfactory address to write from,” the future Prime Minister begins as he writes of his hopes to be released on the basis of his status as a journalist.
His captors didn’t buy that claim, and when he escaped from the camp around a month later they put a dead-or-alive bounty on his head.
The Churchill letter with its envelope is a fascinating insight into a young man looking for a place in the world. Image courtesy of Forum Auctions.
The letter will be sold by Forum Auctions at their London sale on November 20. It carries an estimate of £15,000 to £20,000.
Another letter to Pamela, dated July 23, 1898, is also listed with an estimate of £10,000 to £15,000.
The image was a copy that Churchill kept and gave to his secretary, considering the inscription misplaced. The other copy is presumably in Russian archives.
Forum Auctions say: “Churchill letters from captivity in Pretoria are extremely rare on the market.”
A Churchill painting sold for £7 million in 2021.
