1965

The Funeral of Sir Winston Churchill (By Allen Packwood)

On 30th January 1965, Sir Winston Churchill entered St Paul's Cathedral for the final time: his coffin, draped in the Union Jack, borne on the shoulders of eight Grenadier Guardsmen. In dramatic images that were broadcast to millions around the globe, the Cathedral provided the focus for a day of mourning and tribute.

There could be no more fitting venue for Sir Winston's State Funeral. Like Churchill himself, St Paul's Cathedral had defied the Blitz and had stood as a beacon of hope in the darkest days of the Second World War. The comparison was not lost on contemporaries. For Lord Chandos, who had served in Churchill's wartime administration, the funeral in January 1965 evoked vivid recollections: "In my imagination I saw again - it was 1941 - from a roof-top. St Paul's standing out against the red, unearthly light of the clouds, and the flames around it. Would anything be left? Today we know the answer: the noble building has lived, and is one of the monuments, aere perennius, to the man who brought to life the native unity and the invincible courage of the island race"

It was St Paul's that provided the forum for the contemplation of the great wartime tragedies and triumphs. In the spring of 1945 Churchill found himself attending two major services at the Cathedral within the space of a month. At the first, on 17 April, the British Prime Minister wept at the Memorial Service for his friend and fellow Allied leader, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. At the second, on 12 May, he gave thanks for the end of the war in Europe. On such occasions Churchill would have drawn strength from the family, friends and colleagues gathered around him.

Many of those friends and colleagues are now commemorated on the walls of the Cathedral. By the end of his life Churchill would have found himself reflecting on many familiar names. Not just the great figures of history, about whom he wrote so passionately in his History of the English-Speaking Peoples, but also some of his own great contemporaries. Prominent among these would have been TE Lawrence, the celebrated 'Lawrence of Arabia', who advised Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, on Middle Eastern affairs in 1921 and became a friend. When Lawrence died in a motorcycle accident in 1935 Churchill was one of the donors and signatories to the appeal fund that raised the money for the memorial bust by Kennington in St Paul's.

In the post-war period he was thrice called upon to unveil memorials within the Cathedral to close personal friends and colleagues: for Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes in 1950, for the newspaper magnate Lord Camrose in 1956, and for General Sir Ian Hamilton in 1957.

Between them these three men illustrate the range of Churchill's contacts and interests, capturing the broad historical sweep of his career. Here was a man who began life as a soldier but became a journalist, an author, a painter, a politician and a statesman. He first met Ian Hamilton while serving as a young cavalry officer on the Indian northwest frontier in 1897. It was through such military adventures that the young lieutenant Churchill first made his name, recording his exploits in a series of newspaper articles and books that were well received by the public, if not always by his military superiors. In his address at the unveiling of Hamilton's memorial, it seems particularly appropriate that Churchill paid tribute to his friend's own military memoirs, He (Hamilton) described some of those days himself in the most lively and readable though characteristically modest words.

Of Roger Keyes, with whom Churchill had first worked on the reform of the Royal Navy before the First World War, Churchill said at the unveiling: "He was always in the van of naval progress, and stimulated the tactical development of the destroyer flotillas, of our submarines and, most of all, of the Fleet Air Arm. His exploits afloat and ashore will always excite the enthusiasm of the youth of Britain". The Fleet Air Arm, precursor of the Royal Air Force, was as much a brainchild of Churchill's, and one in which he actively participated, learning to fly in 1913 when it was still a most dangerous thing to do. It is easy to forget that Churchill's Ministerial career began in the Edwardian era. Between 1908 and 1915 he served in three of the senior offices of state as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, and First Lord of the Admiralty.

On unveiling the memorial to Lord Camrose, the former managing editor and Chairman of the Daily Telegraph, Churchill declared: "In dark and uncertain times, no man could be more steady and persevering. During the war his unfaltering confidence helped to sustain all those who knew him". It was Lord Camrose who provided Churchill with the press platform to oppose the appeasement of Nazi Germany in the late 1930's, at a time when his political career seemed over. Yet, vindicated by events, Churchill emerged from the wilderness to lead his country in time of crisis: his premiership now forever associated with his distinctive and inspirational oratory.

What strikes you on reading these memorial addresses is not just Churchill's generosity of spirit, but also that all three of his remarks about his three different friends might equally have been made by them about him. It is not surprising then that at his final visit to St Paul's he was accompanied by so many of his friends and colleagues. The pallbearers, who walked before his coffin, were comprised largely of the inner circle from his wartime administration. From the ranks of the politicians came Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan, all of whom served as Prime Minister. From the three armed services were Lord Ismay, Field Marshal Lord Slim, Lord Portal, Field Marshal Lord Alexander, and Admiral Earl Mountbatten.

Other old colleagues, General De Gaulle and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, stood in the congregation, along with Her Majesty the Queen, most of the Royal Family, and representatives of so many nations. While outside the icy streets were several deep with those who had come to pay their last respects.