Boredom Leads to Great Things
Winston Churchill didn’t like his life as a prisoner of war.
One month after arriving to the prison in Pretoria, he
climbed over the walls. “I had 75l [£75] in my pocket and
four slabs of chocolate,” Churchill said, “but the compass
and the map which might have guided me, the opium
tablets and meat lozenges which should have sustained me,
were in my friend’s pockets in the State [Staats] Model
Schools.”^11
Because the compass and the map were still in the
prison, Churchill navigated through the city by using only
the stars. “The night was delicious,” he said. “A cool breeze
fanned on my face and a wild feeling of exhilaration took
hold of me.” No one suspected he was an escaped prisoner
of war as he wore a hat and a brown, civilian suit.^11
Churchill walked towards the railway, which he found.
He followed it until a train station appeared where he
waited until a train arrived. As the train began to move
again after a brief stop at the station, he jumped aboard
one of the wagons where he hid among soft sacks covered
in coal dust. Before daylight, Churchill jumped off the
train, and knocked on the door of the first house he saw
at a distance in the night. “Thank God you have come
here,” the owner of the house said. “It is the only house
for 20 miles [32 km] where you would not have been