Churchill looking for income

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Churchill received a military formation because — as he himself suggested — his famous father thought that he was too dumb to become a politician.

Later in life Churchill never looked like an athlete, but in officer school he had to  get on and off his horse in full gallop and ride without a saddle and with his hands clasped behind his back.

It was due to that fitness that he was able as a POW to escape prison in South Africa and survive on no food  jumping on and off freight trains to get back to friendly territory.

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But when he was about 24 years old, he saw that as a soldier he would not earn enough to maintain his horses and his uniforms without pocket money from home, and he decided to leave the army and become a writer:

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copied from “My Early Life”

The complete text is online, but I think it is still protected by copyright. Churchill died in 1965, and in the UK the author’s rights are protected for 75 years after his death.

— http://archive.org/stream/rovingcommissino001321mbp/rovingcommissino001321mbp_djvu.txt

At the time, politicians were not paid for their work, and it was by writing and by lecturing about his adventures in war that Churchill made the money that allowed him to become a member of Parliament.

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