A R C H I V E S
WHEN CHURCHILL WAS
AWARDED THE CROSS OF THE
ORDER OF MILITARY MERIT
WITH RED RIBBON
A few weeks ago, I finished reading
the splendid and latest great
biography of Sir Winston Churchill
—1470 pages!— whose author,
Andrew Roberts, offers us a very
detailed study of his life and of the military,
literary and political career of one of the
greatest public figures of the 20th century.
While reading this book, which I highly
recommend, many facts caught my attention.
Throughout this article, I would like to discuss
one of those events I was personally unaware
of until I read Roberts’ book: the first decoration
that Winston Churchill wore on his chest was
Spanish; it was none other than the Cross of
the Order of Military Merit with Red Ribbon.
I imagine this detail will have come as a
surprise to you —or at least to many of you—
as much as it amazed me. I was completely
ignorant of this fact, and this made me turn to
archives and libraries so that I would be able
Miguel Fernández-
Palacios M.
Ambassador Permanent
Representative of Spain
to the North Atlantic
Council
to share these paragraphs with you, which I
sincerely hope you will find of interest.
After his period at Sandhurst, Second
Lieutenant Churchill was posted to His
Majesty’s 4th Hussars Regiment on April 1,
1895. However, his military career in a unit of
enormous prestige, but not deployed at that time,
was far from fulfilling. This fact, together with his
fondness for adventure, literature, journalistic
chronicles, and —why not mention it— money,
encouraged him to look for an adventure in war
in order to gain experience and even earn some
money from his war reports. In the summer of
1895, Churchill wanted to make the most of his
long leave —ten weeks— to carry out his plans
and saw the Cuban War of Independence as a
unique opportunity.
ON CUBAN SOIL
He persuaded his regimental peer, Lieutenant
Reginald Barnes, to join him in his Caribbean
adventure and convinced His Majesty’s then
British Ambassador to Madrid, Sir Henry
Drummond-Wolf, who had been a good
friend of his father’s, to get him the necessary
military and diplomatic safe-conducts so that
he could be attached as an observer to a
Spanish unit deployed on the island.
Churchill succeeded in his objective
and left for Cuba, via New York, with the
aforementioned purpose —the Daily Graphic
had hired him as a war correspondent— and
two assignments from the British military
intelligence services: on the one hand, to write
a report on the striking power and penetration
of the new rifles —the 1893 Mauser that had
succeeded the 1871 Remington— and bullets
—smokeless gunpowder cartridges— used
by the Spanish Army in its campaigns on
the island; and, on the other hand, to study
the counterinsurgency tactics applied by the
Spanish Army in Cuba which, incidentally,
were used to a certain extent by the British
forces during the Boer War in South Africa.
48 Revista Española de Defensa August 2020