Sentence:  All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never <WSD>before</WSD> had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion&mdash;or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation&mdash;such talk had been distressingly out of place. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  At an earlier time.