Fighting Jack Churchill
“I did it!!!……… They don’t call me ‘Fighting Jack Churchill for nothing’.
I used to watch the elver eelers bringing in their catch from the banks of the River Severn, and watching the tidal bore disrupt their work, I became fascinated…by the bore.
Like a number of small tidal waves, the ‘bore’ drives along the course of the Severn, a couple hundred times a year and for a couple days each year I figured that you should be able surf on it…..after all, the canal boatmen use it to navigate and help propel themselves up to Gloucester docks.
I had a young man in Devon help to make a board for me, and then came the surf lessons…..in Australia !
A very different lifestyle from my military career, surfing was relaxing….even therapeutic…..I love to surf now…..And I love Australia for giving me back my sanity.
Yesterday I completed my mission. The challenge I had given myself was to surf a stretch of this lovely river…….the bore came in, and off I went !
It was exhilarating! “
‘Fighting Jack Churchill’ I find to be a fascinating character. He was a man of his time, and those of you who know me, will understand that characters like this, help me to understand….and to explain about specific periods in history.
He was born in British Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) in 1906. Having a privelaged background he had a good schooling and eventually went to a military college on the Isle of Man, before attending Sandhurst whilst training as an officer ( think West Point).
He served a tour of duty in Burma before the Second World War, after having been a male model and securing a small acting role in a movie. At the same time he had taken to the sport of archery and learnt how to play the bagpipes. After the Burma campaign he acted in another movie before taking part in the World Archery Championships in Oslo.
Then came WW2.
He volunteered to fight at the outbreak of war and distinguished himself at Dunkirk by ambushing a German patrol…..he led his men with a wave of his broadsword !!…… AND it is thought that he killed an enemy officer with his longbow ( he refuted this but witnesses say otherwise) !!!
Obviously a brave man and good leader, he joined the new ‘commandos’, and in his first commando action in Norway, he charged German positions, again with his broadsword, earning a ‘Military Cross’.
Fighting on Sicily, in Italy, in Yugoslavia, Germany and Burma ( again), his story is a fascinating one. When fighting in Yugoslavia, he raised a force of 1500 partisans who fought vicious battles. In one he was captured, and because of his name, he was treated as though he was a member of Winston Churchills family ( he wasn’t)….however he was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp where some members of Winnie’s family were already imprisoned.
He escaped…… with three members of the attempted ‘Great Escape’…. Only to be recaptured near the Baltic.
After the war, he served in Palestine and again was responsible for great acts of heroism…..these you really need to go and read about !
Eventually he left the military and learnt how to surf… in Australia….. before surfing the bore in 1955….
And that’s how I began!
Now you have more reason to visit England !!! Check out the Severn Bore when back in the SW of England…it’s quite a sight to see!