The Scottish farmer. What comes around
goes around.
His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while
trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming
from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired
to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling
to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a
slow and terrifying death. The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the
Scotsman's sparse surroundings.
An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out
and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my
son's life." "No, I can't accept payment for what I did,"
the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the
farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel. "Is that your
son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied
proudly. "I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of
education my son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll
no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of." And that he did.
Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, he
graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on
to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming,
the discoverer of Penicillin. Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who
was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life
this time? Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill.
His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill. Someone once said: What goes around
comes around. Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never
been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.
There is a nice meaning in this story but I
have learned that it is not entirely true. The director from the Churchill
Center writes:
Dear
Mr. Janssen:
Your
website reference to the "Churchill/Fleming" story was brought
to my attention. Please be advised that this story is not true,
has been rebutted numerous times over the years, indeed beginning with
Winston Churchill himself in the early 1950s. Following is our
standard reply; more information can be found on our website, www.winstonchurchill.org,
under "Churchill Facts: Myths and Debates".
The
story that Alexander Fleming (later versions say it was his father)
saved Winston Churchill from drowning first appeared in "Worship
Programs for Juniors" by Alice A. Bays and Elizabeth Jones Oakbery,
published in the late 1940s or early 1950s by a religious publisher, in
a chapter entitled "The Power of Kindness." Official
biographer Sir Martin Gilbert found no such evidence; moreover,
according to the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, Sir Winston
himself replied to a query that he'd never heard of the incident. The
dates and ages don't coincide, though Churchill nearly drowned in a
Swiss lake (see MY EARLY LIFE). One version of the story mentions a
phone call, unlikely given the probable date. Nor did Fleming's
penicillin save Churchill's life years later. It is true that
Churchill became ill after the Teheran conference in 1943; but Lord
Moran's diaries indicate he was treated with "M&B," a
bacteriostatic sulfonamide made by May & Baker, mentioning nothing
about penicillin.
Daniel
N. Myers
Executive
Director
The
Churchill Centre
1150
17th Street, NW, Suite 307
Washington,
D.C. 20036-4623
Toll
Free: (888) WSC-1874
Local Phone: (202) 223-5511
FAX:
(202) 223-4944
Email:
dmyers@winstonchurchill.org
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