In the late nineteenth century a Member of Parliament journeyed to Scotland to make a speech. Alighting from the train to Edinburgh, he took a carriage southward for his destination. But the carriage got mired in mud. To the rescue came a Scottish farmboy who with his team of horses pulled the carriage loose. Afterwards, the politician asked the boy how much they owed him.
”Nothing,” replied the lad.
”Nothing, are you sure?”
”Yes.”
”Is there anything I can do for you. What do you want to do with yourself when you grow up?”
”I want to be a doctor.”
”Well, let me help.” True to his word, the aristocratic Englishman helped make it possible for the Scots boy to go to the university.
A little more than a half-century later in another continent, a world statesman lay dangerously ill with pneumonia. Winston Churchill had been stricken while attending a wartime conference in Morocco. But a wonder drug was administered to him – a new drug called penicillin, which had been discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming.
Fleming was the young Scottish lad, and the man who had helped sponsor his education was Randolph Churchill, father of Winston, who recovered through Fleming’s miracle drug.
http://i.imgur.com/PWa3Uf0.gifv
Source:
Humes, James C. Speaker's Treasury of Anecdotes About the Famous. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. 110-11. Print.
Further Reading:
Parliament of the United Kingdom / UK Parliament / British Parliament
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD PC DL FRS RA
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