Winston Churchill pictured during his time as a war correspondent for the Morning Post in South Africa
The little-known story of how a young Winston Churchill was ‘flayed alive’ by a doctor so a wounded army officer could receive a skin graft has come to light.
The future Prime Minister was a war correspondent interviewing Major Richard Molyneux in hospital when the overbearing doctor told him he needed a 10 pence-sized piece of skin.
The injured officer had suffered a severe sword wound to his right forearm which needed to be ‘skinned’ over as soon as possible.
A nurse turned pale and almost fainted at the prospect of donating some of her skin so the Irish doctor turned to Churchill and rolled up his sleeve before he could protest.
The medic removed skin and flesh about the size of a 10 pence piece from the 24-year-old’s arm without any anaesthetic and grafted it to the patient’s wound.
Maj Molyneaux survived and lived until the age of 80, always having a macabre piece of the great Prime Minister as part of him.
The bizarre story has emerged after Maj Molyneaux’s superb group of medals were put up for sale at auction for an estimated £26,000.
Richard Molyneux (pictured left with Winston Churchill and right) survived and lived until the age of 80, always having a macabre piece of the great Prime Minister (right) as part of him
Included in the sale is a grainy black and white photo showing the officer with his arm strapped up speaking to Churchill.
Maj Molyneaux served in the Royal Horse Guards and was wounded at the Battle of Omdurman – the last meaningful cavalry charge by the British army – during the Sudan campaign of 1898.
Surrounded by four Dervish enemy fighters, his life was saved by a Private Thoms Byrne who rode back for him and deterred the attackers.
Nimrod Dix, a director of London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb said: ‘Winston Churchill never lacked courage but the extraordinary occasion on which he was asked to provide a skin graft for Dick Molyneaux clearly tested even his fortitude.
‘The skin and attached piece of flesh was removed without an anaesthetic, which must have been agonisingly painful.
‘As for Molyneaux, who had so narrowly escaped with his life thanks to the heroism of Private Byrne, he could justifiably claim for the rest of his life to have a unique relationship with Churchill.’
It was while he was recuperating in Cairo that Maj Molyneux was visited by Churchill, who was a war correspondent for London’s Morning Post newspaper.
In his 1930 autobiography, Churchill wrote of the visit: ‘He had been seriously wounded by a sword cut above his right wrist. This had severed all the muscles’
The future statesman suffered agonising pain as the doctor cut into his flesh during the skin graft. He wrote: ‘My sensations as he sawed the razor slowly too and fro fully justified his description of the ordeal’. He is pictured circa 1900
Churchill is pictured left as a war correspondent during the Second Boer War, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 1900 and right at around the same period
In his 1930 autobiography, Churchill wrote of the visit: ‘He had been seriously wounded by a sword cut above his right wrist. This had severed all the muscles’
‘He was now proceeding to England in charge of a hospital nurse. I decided to keep him company. While we were talking the doctor came in to dress his wound.
‘It was a horrible gash and the doctor was anxious that it should be skinned over as soon as possible. He said something in a low tone to the nurse, who bared her arm.
The bizarre story has emerged after Maj Molyneaux’s superb group of medals were put up for sale at auction for an estimated £26,000
‘The poor nurse blanched and he turned upon me. He was a great raw-boned Irishman. “Oi’ll have to take it off you,” he said. There was no escape and as I rolled up my sleeve he added genially, “Ye’ve heear of a man being flayed alive? Well this is what it feels loike.”
‘My sensations as he sawed the razor slowly too and fro fully justified his description of the ordeal.’
Maj Molyneux went on to serve in South Africa in the Second Boer War and the First World War.
He retired from the army in 1919 and became a groom to King George V.
His medals are being sold on September 27.