Dominic Sandbrook

If I should die, think only this of me, that there is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.

He will lead his men over the plain of Troy under beating sunshine.

The mosquito bite becomes infected and he dies of blood poisoning on the 23rd of April.

So he hasn't even seen an Ottoman defender.

He hasn't set foot on the soil of Asia.

He hasn't even got to the Gallipoli Peninsula.

He's dead before he's set off.

And, you know, this report in the newspapers, the Asquith family knew him very well.

They were devastated by this.

Churchill knew him, was devastated, wrote a absolutely sort of tear-stained, syrupy obituary for him, I think, in the Times article.

And you might say this is quite a bad omen that this bloke who was going to lead the kind of attack on Troy.

Yeah.

There's a slight sign at this point.

I think that Churchill is beginning to wobble himself.

Lloyd George said he was looking worried and looking ill.

The former Tory Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, asked Churchill, how's it going to go, this business at Gallipoli?

You know, you must be absolutely, I bet you can't wait.

And Churchill then said, I think there's nothing for it but to go through with the business.

No one can count with certainty on the issue of a battle, which suggests that he is beginning to wobble.

And then he says, but we have the chances in our favour and we play for vital gains with non-vital stakes.