Churchill, Gandhi and Mr William Nightingale of Canterbury

Winston Churchill officially only met Mahatma Gandhi just once, in November 1906. (1) Churchill was the Undersecretary of State for the colonies at the time, when a besuited Gandhi called on him to discuss the future of India. Churchill was always implacably opposed to Indian independence and would never become a member of the Gandhi fan club, much later describing him as a “malignant subversive fanatic” and “a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal palace.”

Unofficially however, there is a chance the two men may have first met nearly seven years earlier, in January 1900, on top of a small, but strategically important hill, around 25 miles southwest of Ladysmith, South Africa. Describing it as a ‘meeting’ might be too strong a word – in the same place at the same time is probably more accurate – but also present at this moment in history was Mr William Nightingale of 3 Archer’s Terrace Canterbury, a tiny terraced house in the Wincheap area of the city. (2) The three men had been brought together by the Battle of Spion Kop, possibly the most famous military clash in the Boer War and one of the most notorious defeats of the entire British Empire. (3)

The lives of Churchill and Gandhi have been told in far too many places to need extensive rehearsing here; suffice to record that Churchill was initially in South Africa covering the war as a journalist for the Morning Post, but by the time of Spion Kop had enlisted in a cavalry regiment; Gandhi had lived in South Africa since 1893 and had formed a medical corps to support British soldiers wounded during the war. But how did William Nightingale end up alongside the two future titans of history, 8000 miles from his two-up-two-down in the west of Canterbury?

Gandhi’s Indian Ambulance Corps, 1899 or 1900. Gandhi is in the centre of the picture, with arms folded.

William was born on March 24th 1875 in New Cross, London, and at the age of only 14 enlisted in the army. At first this seems terribly young, but his service record reveals he was an army musician and it was quite common for these to be children – for example, 10% of the 300 drummers at Waterloo were under 16. Musicians and bands had been a common feature of the services for over two hundred years before William joined up; they were more than setting a beat to march to and were about parades, ceremony and establishment of camaraderie and morale. To this day, legends are also told of musicians playing in the middle of battles while mayhem ensues all around them. (4)

William's service record reveals he spend the vast majority of the 1890s serving in Britain, but at the end of the decade his regiment, the 2nd East Surreys, are sent to South Africa. Like the majority of colonial wars, the Boer War was essentially an attempt by the British to retain its position of authority in occupied areas against an insurgency, in this case from the Boers – Dutch descendent white farmers and landowners. William’s regiment takes part in numerous battles of the war, but although Spion Kop is not the largest by casualties, it has by the far the biggest impact back home.

Now almost forgotten in Britain, the Battle of Spion Kop is one of greatest military defeats in the nation's history and had a profound effect in the decades after. Around 20,000 soldiers were attempting to relieve a British force besieged in Ladysmith, but their way was blocked by around 8000 Boers on top of the Spion Kop hill. On January 23rd, the British took the hill on a night of heavy mist, only to discover in the morning they had made one of the great catastrophic military blunders and had only captured a smaller hill and the Boers remained in place at the higher peak.

Fierce battles ensued during the 24th and eventually the British took the full Kop, but it had come at significant cost in men and ammunition. Fearing he could not hold the line if the Boers counter-attacked and that a slaughter would follow, the British commander, General Charles Warren, ordered a highly controversial withdrawal and the Boers retook the hill. 243 British soldiers had in effect died for nothing.

British soldiers killed at the Battle of Spion Kop, January 24th-25th 1900

We can't say with complete certainty that William was present at Spion Kop – just because his regiment was there, doesn’t necessarily mean he was. However, assuming he was present leaves us with a rather tantalising prospect. As mentioned, Gandhi had formed a medical corps, but to be precise his Indian Ambulance Corps’ main role was to act as stretcher-bearers to remove the dead and wounded from battlefields. And what did soldier musicians like William Nightingale do in battles? They were too precious for army morale to be risked in open firefights, so they too were traditionally used to form stretcher parties.

This does raise the remarkable possibility of an occupier of a tiny terraced house in Canterbury holding up one end of a stretcher, taking injured soldiers off a battlefield, with Mahatma Gandhi at the other end.

William survived the Boer War and in fact is discharged within only a year of Spion Kop. He re-enlists at the outbreak of WWI (by which time he is still, at only 35, very much of fighting age), but sees no service in the European theatre, instead spending most of this time in communications. He remains in Canterbury for the rest of his life, dying in 1947.

Admittedly, the account of how William Nightingale met Gandhi and Churchill relies on a little ‘flexibility with historical certainty’. Even if William was on that small hill in South Africa, we can't say for sure that he was anywhere near the two famous men. However, the story has two valuable lessons. The first is to remind us that in such a place, our origins and destinies are suddenly meaningless – even those of future Prime Ministers or spiritual leaders. If society cannot create equality, doing our best to survive on the fields of war is an equalising endeavour that brings a comradeship and connection that lasts a lifetime. Secondly, it teaches us to never, ever, underestimate the history of tiny terraced houses. It can be easy to assume that only the residents of grand houses have stories worth hearing – the tale of William, Winston and Mahatma helps us to remember that even little houses can have big histories.

 (1)  Gandhi’s birth name was Mohandas; the far more commonly used Mahatma, meaning 'great-souled, venerable' in Sanskrit), was first applied to him in 1914.

(2)  To protect the anonymity of the current owners, an anonymised street name.

(3)  Probably because it was an embarrassing defeat. Such was its imprint on the British population’s cultural memory, that several football stands built in the years after the battle were named as ‘Kops’ because they resembled hills. By far the mast famous of these is the Anfield Kop of Liverpool Football Club.

(4)  The most well known modern example is of Bill Millin, who played the bagpipes on Sword Beach during the D-Day landings.