The question of torture as a legitimate tool in the War on Terror has become an explosive issue, with the likes of Dick Cheney, the former US Vice-President, arguing for it and President Obama rejecting it, citing Winston Churchill as an example of someone of who would not have condoned its use.

Mr Cheney was a Vietnam draft-dodger while Churchill was a former soldier who understood what it was like to be a prisoner of war.

In 1898 Churchill narrowly escaped death on the sands of Omdurman, Sudan. He saw first-hand the terrible agony of enemy warriors left to die in the hot sun and was hugely critical of the British commander, General Horatio Kitchener. “I am not squeamish but I have seen acts of great barbarity perpetrated at Omdurman,” he wrote, “and have been thoroughly sickened of human blood.”

As a war correspondent during the Boer War he was captured and imprisoned in Pretoria. Although well treated, he was horrified by the loss of his liberty and made a daring escape.

Churchill was ruthless in prosecuting the Second World War with strategic bombing of German cities but there is nothing in his behaviour or character to suggest that he would have condoned water boarding or other means of torture.

Carlo D’Este is the author of the recently published Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1894-1945 (Allen Lane)

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