• Continue down to the end of Church Hill.

As you look back back up Church Hill you will see the Old School and, on the right, the Speech Room building where young Winston Churchill won his famous prize for reciting the 1200 lines of Macauley’s ‘Lays of Ancient Rome’ from memory.

After several disastrous starts at various prep schools young Winston entered Harrow School in 1888. Within weeks of his arrival he had joined the Harrow Rifle Corps. (See photograph above...)

Churchill was rarely visited by his mother, the former Jenny Jerome, and wrote letters begging her either to come to the school or to allow him to come home. His relationship with his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was distant and they rarely spoke to one another. His father died in 1895, aged only 45, leaving Churchill convinced that he too would die young and so should be quick about making his mark on the world.

He went on to occupy many important government posts and eventually, as Prime Minister, led Great Britain to victory over the Axis powers in World War 2.