Yesterday’s 50th anniversary of the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill was observed in London. The launch Havengore that carried Churchill’s coffin down the Thames from Tower Pier to Festival Hall Pier recreated the journey, a memorial service was held in Westminster Hall, and a service was held at Westminster Abbey. Events of the day are reported on the BBC, Daily Telegraph, and the Atlantic.
Lincoln Perkins, one of the Grenadiers who carried Churchill’s coffin at the state funeral, tells his story in the Paxman program on the event. A report and clip from the Perkins interview is available at the BBC website.
Among the many commemorations of Churchill is a digital portrait (shown below) created by The Open University that highlights the many different aspects of the former prime minister.
The image is also available at The Open University website.
On the morning of January 30, 1965, the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill took place at St. Paul’s Cathedral followed a few hours later by his burial at Bladon churchyard. The lying-in-state at Westminster Hall had concluded earlier that morning at six a.m. During the three days that Churchill lay-in-state, 321,360 had filed past the catafalque.
In London thousands of people lined the route of the procession from Westminster to St. Paul’s, in places they stood ten deep, while a worldwide audience of 350,000,000 watched the day’s events on television. The BBC deployed 40 cameras to cover the funeral and the pooled efforts of the independent British television companies used 45 cameras. The High Streets in Britain were deserted that morning and most shops closed at 11 a.m. for the service. At precisely 9:45 that morning, as Big Ben chimed, the funeral procession began. In tribute to Churchill, Big Ben was then stilled. It would not sound again until midnight. The route of procession went up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square and then up the Strand, Fleet Street, and Ludgate Hill to St Paul’s. The great procession was one mile long and included the Royal Marines, Royal Air Force, Household cavalry, bands, and trumpeters. At the rear was the gun carriage bearing Churchill’s coffin. It was pulled by 142 ratings of the Royal Navy who were accompanied by muffled drums beating at 65 beats to the minute. The coffin was draped in a Union Jack with a cushion that bore his insignia of the Garter. Behind the gun carriage walked Randolph Churchill leading the male family members, while Lady Churchill and other members of the family followed in five carriages that were drawn by Cleveland bays. A gun was fired at one minute intervals as the procession marched to St. Paul’s. These guns fired 90 times before and after the service to mark the 90 years of Churchill’s life. At St. Paul’s Cathedral Prime Minister Harold Wilson and most of the 3,500 strong congregation were already in place. At a few minutes after ten o’clock the golden maces of the House of Commons and House of Lords were brought in, followed by the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Chancellor. The heads of state and other representatives, including the Lord Mayor and sheriffs, then entered the cathedral. In a tribute to Churchill, Queen Elizabeth arrived before the coffin and official mourners instead of being the last to arrive as was customary. Inside the cathedral the beat of the drums could be heard as the gun carriage arrived. Outside St. Paul’s, the coffin was lifted off the gun carriage by eight Grenadier Guards. The pallbearers, Sir Robert Menzies, Lord Normanbrook, Lord Ismay, Earl Attlee, Lord Mountbatten, Viscount Portal, Harold Macmillan, Field Marshal Templer, Lord Bridges, Viscount Slim, Earl of Avon, and Field Marshal Earl Alexander, then took their places. Following the pall bearers, the guardsmen carried the coffin up the stairs of the cathedral and down the aisle of St. Paul’s. There was a brief moment of concern on the steps as Lord Attlee, who insisted on attending against medical advice, stumbled and the guardsmen had to come to a stop. The coffin was followed by Lady Churchill, her son Randolph, and other family members.
In the cathedral were representatives of 111 countries. Of those invited only China refused the invitation outright. Mongolia, the only other absent invitee, expressed regrets that it was unable to provide a representative to attend. The 30-minute service included God Save the Queen, the Battle Hymn of the Republic, hymns, the playing of the Last Post by a trumpeter high in the dome, and the playing of Reveille by another trumpeter from the Royal Hussars. After the service, Churchill’s coffin was carried out of St. Paul’s to the gun carriage by the guardsmen. As they emerged from the cathedral, the bells of St. Paul’s began to peal. Queen Elizabeth and others watched from the steps of the cathedral as the procession bearing the coffin moved off for the roughly hour-long march to the pier at the Tower of London. As Churchill’s coffin was taken away, Dwight Eisenhower delivered a tribute that was broadcast on the radio and television. After reaching the Tower pier, pipers from the Highland and Irish regiments preceded the coffin as it was carried by the guardsmen from the gun carriage to the launch Havengore. As the coffin was slowly moved aboard the launch, the Royal Marine band played “My Home” and then “Rule Britannia” as the Havengore moved out onto the Thames. The Honourable Artillery Company fired a 19-gun salute as the Havengore proceeded along the river. As the launch passed, the steam cranes on the wharves dipped in tribute, while in the skies above RAF jet fighters made a fly-past. At Festival Hall pier the coffin was transferred to a hearse and driven to Waterloo Station where it was put aboard a special train for Bladon. The train was pulled by locomotive 34051, named the Winston Churchill.
That afternoon Churchill was buried in a ten-minute service in the village churchyard at Bladon, near Blenhiem Palace where he had been born 90 years before. At Lady Churchill’s request there no photographs or filming of the burial at Bladon. After the service, the public was admitted to the churchyard. On Churchill’s flower covered grave there was a wreath from Lady Churchill and another from Queen Elizabeth with the handwritten inscription, “From the nation and the Commonwealth in grateful remembrance – Elizabeth R.”
On the night of January 29, 1965, the leaders of the House of Commons paid a final tribute to Winston Churchill, who was one of the greatest parliamentarians. At 10:30 p.m. Prime Minister Harold Wilson along with Conservative leader Sir Alec Douglas Home, Liberal leader Jo Grimond, and the Speaker of the Commons Sir Harry Hylton-Foster took positions at the catafalque in Westminster Hall, where Churchill was lying in state. They stood for seven minutes in a motionless vigil. The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, and Princess Anne along with European monarchs including the kings of Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and Greece were in the hall to observe the tribute to the former prime minister.
Through the day world statesman joined the members of the public at Westminster Hall. Dwight Eisenhower entered the hall and stood with head bowed a few feet from the procession of people passing the catafalque, while Charles De Gaulle, in military uniform, entered with a detachment of secret service men and remained near the wall where he was almost hidden in the shadows of the hall. Other statesman paying homage at Westminster Hall included Prime Minister Lester Pearson, the Sultan of Brunei, West German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, and Ian Smith of Rhodesia.
In the afternoon Lady Churchill with Mary and Christopher Soames had returned again to Westminster Hall. They remained for 30 minutes. Later Randolph Churchill arrived with a large party for his own half an hour visit.
Despite the sleet that fell during the afternoon, the queue to enter Westminster Hall did not slacken. The line of people stretched over Lambeth Bridge and along the South Bank. By 2 a.m. on January 30th, 300,706 people had filed through the hall. While people continued to queue outside Westminster Hall, crowds had already started gathering outside St. Paul’s where the state funeral the next morning. Preparations for the state funeral had continued during January 29th, with Royal Navy sailors, in the pre-dawn hours, rehearsing the pulling of the gun carriage that would bear Churchill’s coffin through the streets of London.
On the night of January 28, 1965, Queen Elizabeth paid homage to Winston Churchill at Westminster Hall where her former prime minister was lying in state. Shortly before eight o’clock the Queen accompanied by Princess Margaret, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Lord Snowden, entered the hall through the Star Court and the middle door opposite the catafalque. The royal party stood in the shadows of the hall for a few minutes before departing. Their presence went mostly unnoticed by the stream of people walking slowly past the catafalque. Earlier in the day other members of the royal family visited Westminster Hall as did two former prime ministers, Lord Attlee and Harold Macmillan. The Churchill family also went to Westminster Hall, with Sarah Churchill attending in the afternoon and Lady Churchill with Mary and Christopher Soames present in the evening. Clementine and her daughter and son-in-law observed the guards change and left at 6:20 p.m. At times the queue to enter Westminster Hall stretched a mile and a half with those joining the end having a several hours long wait. The second cold night did not deter people and by two o’clock in the morning on January 29th 175,400 had filed through the hall.
In Washington on January 28th a memorial service for Winston Churchill attended by 3,000 people was held at the National Cathedral. The eulogy was delivered by Adlai Stevenson. It was announced during the day that four kings and a queen, five other heads of state, and 16 prime ministers would be attending Churchill’s state funeral. Among those arriving in London for the funeral were Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson and Dwight Eisenhower, who arrived with the American delegation. Only two countries, China and Mongolia, would not be represented out of the 113 countries that were invited to attend the funeral.
It was also reported that Detective Sergeant Edmund Murray, Churchill’s personal bodyguard for the last 14 years, had resigned from the Metropolitan Police at the age of only 47. He was quoted as saying, “What job could I do after this? Anything else would be an anticlimax.”
On January 27, 1965, 4,000 people per hour filed past as Winston Churchill lay in state in Westminster Hall. His coffin draped in the Union Jack lay in the middle of the hall atop a seven foot high catafalque. Churchill’s insignia as a Knight of the Garter had been placed on a black silk cushion on the coffin. A guard of honour drawn from officers of the three services maintained a constant vigil. Four of the officers stood motionless with heads bowed at the four corners of the platform, while the fifth officer stood at the alcove in the wall nearby. The guards were silently changed in slow time at 20 minute intervals. At 9 a.m Prime Minister Wilson was the first to walk past the catafalque. He was followed, over the next two hours, by 3,000 politicians and diplomats. At 11 a.m. the public were admitted. From 9:20 to 9:40 that morning, the four current British Chiefs of Staff, Lord Mountbatten, Admiral Sir David Luce, General Sir Richard Hull, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Elworthy, formed the guard of honour at the catafalque. During the day the queue outside the St. Stephen’s entrance stretched, at times, over the Lambeth Bridge to St. Thomas’s Hospital on the south bank. That night, largely unnoticed by the crowd, Lady Churchill and her daughter Mary stood for a quarter of an hour in the hall. Shortly before 10 p.m., Harold Wilson returned with his wife, son, and members of his 10 Downing Street staff to join the crowd that was slowly filing past. At midnight officers of the Royal Air Force took over responsibility for the guard of honour from the Royal Marines. By 1 a.m. on January 28, 1965, 61,003 people had walked past. At two o’clock that morning the queue was still growing and stretched over Lambeth Bridge and back to Westminster bridge. Police were informing people joining the end of the line that they had a five hour wait ahead of them.
Elsewhere, on the morning of January 27, 1965 the United Nations General Assembly in New York devoted three hours to tributes to Churchill by representatives of 27 nations. It was also announced that President Lyndon Johnson, after his recent illness, would not be attending the funeral. That night the Grand Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk announced the names of the 12 pall bearers for the state funeral. They were Field Marshal Alexander, Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden, Lord Bridges, Lord Ismay, Lord Normanbrook, Harold Macmillan, Lord Mountbatten, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Portal, Field Marshal Slim, Field Marshal Templer, and Robert Menzies.
On the night of January 26, 1965 a black hearse took the coffin bearing the body of Winston Churchill from the Churchill home in Hyde Park Gate to Westminster. The hearse was followed by eight cars carrying Clementine Churchill, her son Randolph, and other family members. At 9:15 the cortege entered New Palace Yard and was received by the Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk and the Minister of Public Buildings and Works Charles Pannell. As the family and a silent crowd of 1,000 watched, eight Grenadier Guardsmen carried the coffin, which was draped in the Union Jack, into Westminster Hall where Churchill would lie in state for the next three days. The coffin was placed on the catafalque, which was draped in black and on a low platform in the center of the hall. After a short service of 15 minutes conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the vigil at the bier began with five Guards officers taking up their places. Late that night a small group had already formed at the St. Stephen’s entrance to Westminster Hall, where the public would be admitted.
Earlier in the day the House of Commons and House of Lords were both briefly in session during which they agreed to the motion that each house would attend the state funeral of the late Sir Winston Churchill. Prime Minister Robert Menzies of Australia arrived in London for the funeral while a host of world leaders, including President De Gaulle, confirmed they would be attending. Clementine Churchill and the family issued a statement expressing gratitude for all the messages of sympathy that had been received.
At 2:30 on the afternoon of Monday, January 25, 1965, the day following Winston Churchill’s death, the House of Commons met to pay tribute in a brief session that was called, “moving in its simplicity.” The chamber was crowded with only one space left empty. This was the seat on the front bench, below the gangway, where Churchill had sat for many years. In the gallery for the session were two of Churchill’s children, Sarah and Mary, along with two of his grandchildren, Celia Sandys and Winston Churchill. The occasion began with the Speaker, Sir Harry Hylton-Foster, reading in a voice shaking slightly with emotion a message from Queen Elizabeth in which she informed the House that she had directed that Churchill lie in state at Westminster Hall and thereafter would follow a state funeral at St. Paul’s. Prime Minister Harold Wilson then moved a motion, which was agreed to by the House, of concurrence with the directive. Four speeches paying tribute were then made by Wilson, Conservative leader Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Liberal leader Jo Grimond, and Conservative parliamentarian Robin Turton, who spoke as he was the longest serving backbencher. The commons adjourned at 18 minutes after three. In the House of Lords that afternoon tributes were also paid, including one by Earl Attlee who, speaking with emotion, said, “We have lost the greatest Englishmen of our time.” Legislatures and assemblies in other cities acknowledged the death of Churchill, including the United States House of Representatives and the Greek parliament which passed resolutions of condolence and the Malawi parliament and United Nations General Assembly which observed minutes of silence. On the day after Churchill’s death, newspapers around the world were dominated by the news and detailed accounts of his life. The Times of London, which usually carried classified advertisements on its first page and not news, broke with tradition and devoted the first page of its edition on January 25th to a photograph of Churchill and the start of the obituary. That edition also included a 16-page supplement on Churchill’s life. One of the few exceptions to the detailed press coverage was the People’s Daily, the newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, which reported the death with one brief paragraph near the bottom of the back page.
There has been extensive news coverage of the fiftieth anniversary of Winston Churchill’s death and state funeral in January 1965. These include the BBC’s report “The 10 greatest controversies of Winston Churchill’s career,” a Weekly Standardarticle “Reflections on Churchill’s Funeral” by Richard Langworth, and a piece on opposition to the state funeral by some palace courtiers in the Daily Mail. An interesting collection of programs called Remembering Winston Churchill: Tributes to a Legendary Statesman and a Wartime Hero is available on the BBC website. The BBC also has an article on a Chartwell exhibit that includes the last photograph taken of Winston Churchill.
On Sunday January 24, 1965, Winston Churchill died at the age of 90 at his London home at 28 Hyde Park Gate. He had been ill since suffering a stroke earlier in the month. At 5:30 that morning Churchill’s nurse told his daughter Mary, who had spent the night at Hyde Park Gate, that he was fading and it would not be long. Churchill’s wife Clementine, however, was allowed to sleep a little longer. About an hour later Mary telephoned other members of the family as well as Anthony Montague Brown, Churchill’s private secretary in the last decade of his life. At seven o’clock that morning Churchill’s son Randolph and grandson Winston arrived at the house followed at 7:18 by Lord Moran, his physician. His daughter Sarah and granddaughter Celia arrived shortly after, while a crowd silently gathered outside. The family members along with Moran and Montague Brown gathered in Churchill’s room, with Clementine sitting on his right side. Shortly after eight o’clock that morning Churchill died.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Harold Wilson were informed before the announcement was provided to the Press Association at 8:36 a.m. The bulletin that was signed by Moran read simply, “Shortly after 8 A.M. this morning, Sunday, 24th January, Sir Winston Churchill died at his London home.” The BBC interrupted its scheduled morning programming to make the somber announcement which was followed by the playing of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. After the announcement, as the London Times noted, “Britain became a nation in mourning.” Flags were lowered to half staff; special prayers were said in church services, and the state bell “Great Tom” was tolled at St. Paul’s. That morning the plans for Churchill to lie in state in Westminster Hall and for him to receive a state funeral were announced from 10 Downing Street. Also, during the day messages of sympathy were offered by Queen Elizabeth and other members of the royal family, while tributes were made by Prime Minister Wilson, and former British prime ministers Attlee, Eden, Macmillan, and Douglas-Home. Many world leaders issued statements as did many of Churchill’s wartime colleagues. That evening a crowd of about 500 Londoners gathered at Hyde Park Gate while elsewhere the lights at Piccadilly Circus were out as a tribute and a special dedication service was held at Harrow where Churchill had been a schoolboy.
On Saturday January 23, 1965, the condition of Winston Churchill continued to deteriorate as the 90 year-old lay ill at 28 Hyde Park Gate, his London home. Lord Moran, his long-time physician, arrived to see him late in the morning and after a half an hour visit issued a bulletin at 11:51 A.M. stating that the former prime minister had had a quiet night but there had been no change in his condition. This was the 16th bulletin issued on Churchill’s medical condition since the announcement on January 15th that he was unwell. He had suffered a cerebral thrombosis on January 10th. The British public had been warned to prepare for Churchill’s passing. On January 20th the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Michael Ramsay, had told a Church of England convocation that, “as we meet today, our hearts go out to a great man who is approaching death and to his family around him.” Prime Minister Harold Wilson had cancelled his trip to Berlin and Bonn scheduled for the end of the week, politicians declined radio and television appearances, and the House of Commons which remained in session was subdued. Even a strike by school headmasters was put off. While Churchill’s condition continued to ebb, his third great grandson, Randolph Leonard Spencer-Churchill, had been born on the night of January 22nd to Winston and Minnie Churchill. At about 8:40 on the evening of January 23rd, Lord Moran returned to Hyde Park Gate and after about an hour he issued a further bulletin. It read “Sir Winston has had a restful day, but there has been some deterioration in his condition.” The next bulletin, it noted, would be issued in the morning.