Britain marks 50th anniversary of Churchill’s funeral

LONDON: Britain marked 50 years on Friday since the state funeral of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, with the boat which carried his coffin under the dipping dockside cranes in 1965 retracing its journey along London’s River Thames.
The Havengore, the boat that carried Churchill’s coffin along the Thames in 1965, will carry the statesman’s family as it retraces its journey down the river Friday. Tower Bridge will be raised as the boat and a small flotilla travels to the Houses of Parliament.
A million mourners turned out on London’s streets to bid farewell to Churchill on Jan. 30, 1965, and the state funeral was broadcast live to millions others around the world.
Britain’s current leader, David Cameron, began the remembrance events at a ceremony in Parliament, laying a wreath at a statue of Churchill, a man he described as “a great Briton” who should never be forgotten.
“Churchill was confident that freedom and democracy would win out over barbarism and tyranny in the end ... and it did,” he said. “And with every affront to freedom in this century, we must remember that courage and resolve in the last century.”
Churchill was prime minister of Britain from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. His political career spanned 64 years, the longest in Britain in the 20th century. He died Jan. 24, 1965.
“A full fifty years since his funeral when the cranes along the Thames dipped low and the streets were lined with vast silent crowds, the sheer brilliance of Winston Churchill remains undimmed,” he said.
“He left a Britain more free, more secure, more brave and more proud, for that we will always be grateful to him.”
Churchill, whose inspirational leadership and dogged spirit are widely credited with having saved Britain from invasion by Nazi Germany, died on Jan. 24, 1965 aged 90.
Queen Elizabeth granted him the rare honor of a state funeral and more than 320,000 people filed past his coffin to pay their respects during three days of lying in state.
His funeral was the world’s largest at the time, attended by leaders from more than 100 countries, as well as the queen, another unusual tribute for a prime minister.
The procession began at parliament, with the chimes of Big Ben silenced for the rest of the day, and the coffin was taken to St Paul’s Cathedral for the funeral service. He was buried in Bladon, Oxfordshire, in central England.
On Friday, the Havengore, the boat which carried the coffin along the Thames after the service, will retrace that 1965 journey, with Tower Bridge being raised to honour the occasion.
The day’s events conclude with a ceremony at London’s Westminster Abbey.
Nicholas Soames, Churchill’s grandson and himself a lawmaker, said it was a “fitting tribute.”
“This event, 50 years after his death, is a strong reminder of all he did for his country and the continuing importance of his presence in our public life,” he said.