10:30
The fact of his having bought a return ticket showed that he had intended to return to Holt Stacey by train . But he had not gone back by train . The last train for Holt Stacey left Newbury at 9:11 , and at 9:30 he had been seen by a seedsman who kept a shop in the town , and who knew Churchill well , standing in the High Street talking to an unknown man he had never seen before . After that , nobody appeared to have seen Churchill until -- just before 10:30 , at which time the inn at Holt Stacey closed -- he had come into the inn and ordered a hot drink . Nobody was with him then . He appeared , so the innkeeper said , to already have drunk to excess , and this had surprised the innkeeper , who knew him to be a temperate man , adding that that was the first time he had ever seen him even partially intoxicated . Incidentally Churchill had mentioned that `` a gentleman had given him a lift from Newbury in his car . ''