Churchill Kin Hurt at Boer Battle Site

Winston Churchill emerged unscathed from a Boer War battle in South Africa a century ago, but his granddaughter was slightly injured while commemorating the bloody clash 190 miles southeast of Johannesburg. Celia Sandys, whose grandfather was present at the Jan. 24-25, 1900, battle of Spioenkop, fired a miniature cannon to mark the start of a road race being held in his name. The cannon backfired, peppering Sandys’ face with grains of black powder, the South African Press Assn. reported. The gunpowder missed Sandys’ eyes. She was treated by ambulance personnel and then continued with commemoration ceremonies. Long before he became Britain’s prime minister, Churchill was a correspondent for a British newspaper, the Morning Post, as well as a cavalry lieutenant during the 1899-1902 Anglo-Boer War.